William Fitz Osbert, or William with the long beard, is a citizen of London who in the spring of 1196 takes up the role of the advocate of the poor in a popular uprising.
The events are significant in that they illustrate how rare popular revolt by the poor and peasants in England has been in the twelfth century, and how quickly and easily it is suppressed.
Such revolts will become more common in later centuries; in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries English kings are in constant trouble from revolts by the aristocracy, but rarely have trouble from the lower classes.
The fullest known source comes from the contemporary English historian William of Newburgh in his Historia rerum anglicarum from a chapter entitled "Of a conspiracy made in London by one William, and how he paid the penalty of his audacity".
Fitz Osbert, a striking figure who holds demagogue-like charismatic power over his followers, has a long beard and is given the nickname "the Bearded".
He has a University education, had been on Crusade and holds a civic office in London.
Having become a champion of the poor of London, Fitz Osbert holds gatherings with stirring speeches, travels surrounded by mobs of the poor for protection, and has gathered over fifty-two thousand supporters.
Stocks of weapons are cached throughout the city for the purpose of breaking into the houses of the rich citizens of London.
He does not, however, overtly oppose the king, Richard I, and had gone to the king in Normandy to make clear his loyalty.
Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, decides nevertheless, that Fitz Osbert has to be stopped.
He sends two accomplices to capture Fitz Osbert when he is alone and not surrounded by his mob.
In the melee that follows, one of the accomplices is killed and Osbert escapes with a few followers to take refuge in the nearby church of St. Mary le Bow, intending not to seek sanctuary but to defend it as a fortress.
Most of his supporters, however, fear to defend the church by force, and Hubert surrounds it with armed men and has it burned down.
As Fitz Osbert emerges from the smoke and flames he is stabbed and wounded in the belly by the son of the man whom he had earlier killed, upon which Osbert is taken into custody.
Within days, he is convicted and "first drawn asunder by horses, and then hanged on a gibbet with nine of his accomplices who refused to desert him".
His followers call him a martyr and the spot where he is hanged becomes a daily place of gathering; objects associated with his execution are venerated, and even the dirt at the spot where he died is collected, resulting in the creation of a pit.
Armed guards are put in place eventually to keep people away.
