 Concerns were raised about these changes in society . William Langland wrote the poem Piers Plowman in the years before 1380 , praising peasants who respected the law and worked hard for their lords , but complaining about greedy , travelling labourers demanding higher wages . The poet John Gower feared England might see an uprising similar to the French Jacquerie revolt of 1358 , in which the peasants had risen up against their masters . There was a moral panic about the threat posed by newly arrived workers in the towns and the possibility that servants might turn against their masters . New legislation was introduced in 1359 to deal with migrants , existing conspiracy laws were more widely applied and the treason laws were extended to include servants or wives who betrayed their masters and husbands . By the 1370s , there were fears that if the French invaded England , the rural classes might side with the invaders . 
