 Many of the rebels had urban backgrounds , and the majority of those involved in the events of London were probably local townsfolk rather than peasants . In some cases , the townsfolk who joined the revolt were the urban poor , attempting to gain at the expense of the local elites . In London , for example , the urban rebels appear to have largely been the poor and unskilled . Other urban rebels were part of the elite , such as at York where the protesters were typically prosperous members of the local community , while in some instances , townsfolk allied themselves with the rural population , as at Bury St Edmunds . In other cases , such as Canterbury , the influx of population from the villages following the Black Death made any distinction between urban and rural less meaningful . 
