King Edward III made it illegal to not be poor in 1300s England. At least, illegal if you were already poor. Negotiating for higher wages? Straight to jail. Wearing clothes that made you look wealthy? Straight to jail. Trying to get a better job? Jail. All because the upper classes were annoyed with having to negotiate wages with workers after the Black Death created a labor shortage and the working class gained the upper hand.

Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this, listener voicemails, movie watch-alongs, and weekly bonus episodes. 

Get 25% off your subscription or try the app FREE for seven days at Fitbod.me/SOFTCORE

Rob Fox
https://www.instagram.com/robfoxthree/
https://twitter.com/RobFoxThree
https://www.tiktok.com/@robfoxthree

Dan Regester
https://www.instagram.com/danregester/
https://twitter.com/dan_regester