A closer look
Long before Twitter or TikTok, peasants in medieval England found their own rapid-fire network: messengers. When revolt boiled over, rebels hijacked the church’s riders, those trained to carry word across the kingdom with incredible speed. In days, calls to rise up could sweep from village to shire, startling rulers who believed control lay firmly in their hands. It was information warfare without newspapers or printing presses—proof that even centuries ago, power wasn’t just about swords and fortresses, but about controlling who carried the story first, and how far it could spread.
