What Is John Gower'spontaneous Insanity

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In June 1381, thousands of Englishmen suddenly went mad. Spontaneous insanity is one explanation that the contemporary poet John Gower offered for rebels' participation in the English Rising of 1381, which he described in lurid detail in the Vox clamantis. In June 1381, a chain of local upheavals raged throughout England. These upheavals included a week-long siege of London, where thousands of commoners from the city and from outlying areas joined forces. Non-ruling groups, from peasants through middle-rank guild members, stormed prisons, persecuted lawyers, razed John of Gaunt's palace, and beheaded such notables as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Chancellor of England. The spring and summer of 1381 witnessed the most geographically widespread
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