<P> In Norfolk, the revolt was led by Geoffrey Litster, a weaver, and Sir Roger Bacon, a local lord with ties to the Suffolk rebels . Litster began sending out messengers across the county in a call to arms on 14 June, and isolated outbreaks of violence occurred . The rebels assembled on 17 June outside Norwich and killed Sir Robert Salle, who was in charge of the city defences and had attempted to negotiate a settlement . The people of the town then opened the gates to let the rebels in . They began looting buildings and killed Reginald Eccles, a local official . William de Ufford, the Earl of Suffolk fled his estates and travelled in disguise to London . The other leading members of the local gentry were captured and forced to play out the roles of a royal household, working for Litster . Violence spread out across the county, as gaols were opened, Flemish immigrants killed, court records burned, and property looted and destroyed . </P> <P> Revolts also occurred across the rest of England, particularly in the cities of the north, traditionally centres of political unrest . In the town of Beverley, violence broke out between the richer mercantile elite and the poorer townspeople during May . By the end of the month the rebels had taken power and replaced the former town administration with their own . The rebels attempted to enlist the support of Alexander Neville, the Archbishop of York, and in June forced the former town government to agree to arbitration through Neville . Peace was restored in June 1382 but tensions continued to simmer for many years . </P> <P> Word of the troubles in the south - east spread north, slowed by the poor communication links of medieval England . In Leicester, where John of Gaunt had a substantial castle, warnings arrived of a force of rebels advancing on the city from Lincolnshire, who were intent on destroying the castle and its contents . The mayor and the town mobilised their defences, including a local militia, but the rebels never arrived . John of Gaunt was in Berwick when word reached him on 17 June of the revolt . Not knowing that Wat Tyler had by now been killed, John of Gaunt placed his castles in Yorkshire and Wales on alert . Fresh rumours, many of them incorrect, continued to arrive in Berwick, suggesting widespread rebellions across the west and east of England and the looting of the ducal household in Leicester; rebel units were even said to be hunting for the Duke himself . Gaunt began to march to Bamburgh Castle, but then changed course and diverted north into Scotland, only returning south once the fighting was over . </P> <P> News of the initial events in London also reached York around 17 June, and attacks at once broke out on the properties of the Dominican friars, the Franciscan friaries and other religious institutions . Violence continued over the coming weeks, and on 1 July a group of armed men, under the command of John de Gisbourne, forced their way into the city and attempted to seize control . The mayor, Simon de Quixlay, gradually began to reclaim authority, but order was not properly restored until 1382 . The news of the southern revolt reached Scarborough where riots broke out against the ruling elite on 23 June, with the rebels dressed in white hoods with a red tail at the back . Members of the local government were deposed from office, and one tax collector was nearly lynched . By 1382 the elite had re-established power . </P>

Who was known as the peasant's king