Extract from A Child's History of England by Charles Dickens (1851-1853)

Text C is from A Child's History of England by Charles Dickens – from a chapter entitled
'England under Richard the Second'. This book, written for children, was first published between 1851 and 1853. It was described by a later editor as "history told by a fond parent having the magic gift of word-picturing, rather than a historical study carefully weighed and documented".

So, Wat and his men still continued armed, and rode about the city. Next morning, the King with a small train of some sixty gentlemen – among whom was Walworth the Mayor – rode into Smithfield, and saw Wat and his people at a little distance. Says Wat to his men, "There is the King. I will go speak with him, and tell him what we want."
Straightway Wat rode up to him, and began to talk. "King," says Wat, "dost thou see all my men there?"
"Ah," says the King. "Why?"
"Because," says Wat, "they are all at my command, and have sworn to do whatever I bid them."
Some declared afterwards that as Wat said this, he laid his hand on the King's bridle. Others declared that he was seen to play with his own dagger. I think, myself, that he just spoke to the king like a rough, angry man as he was, and did nothing more. At any rate he was expecting no attack, and preparing for no resistance, when Walworth the Mayor did the not very valiant deed of drawing a short sword and stabbing him in the throat. He dropped from his horse, and one of the King's people speedily finished him off. So fell Wat Tyler. Fawners and flatterers made a mighty triumph of it, and set up a cry which will occasionally find an echo to this day. But Wat was a hard-working man, who had suffered much, and had been foully outraged; and it is probable that he was a man of a much higher nature and a much braver spirit than any of the parasites who exulted then, or have exulted since, over his defeat.
The end of this rising was the then usual end. As soon as the King found himself safe, he unsaid all he had said, and undid all he had done; some fifteen hundred of the rioters were tried with great rigour, and executed with great cruelty.
The King's falsehood in this business makes such a pitiful figure, that I think Wat Tyler appears in history as beyond comparison the truer and more respectable man of the two.

Analysis

Text is very sympathetic to Wat Tyler and quite hostile towards the King and the higher class people. The narrator conveys a personal view; the text is both judgemental and emotive, the opposite of the detached objectivity that we expect of historical writing. There is a strong personal focus on Wat Tyler as an individual rather than on the issues involved in the Revolt with emotive lexis and comparatives employed to heighten comparison between Tyler and the King. The text contains a mixture of narrative, dramatisation, and subjective comment with many features chosen for the audience of children.