"When the aldermen assembled according to usage in full hustings for the purpose of assessing the taxes, the rulers endeavoured to spare their own purses and to levy the whole from the poor" (Hoveden).
The poorer citizens were voteless, and the plan of the aldermen was to levy the tallages per head, and not in proportion to the property of the inhabitants.

This meant, practically, that the whole, except a very small fraction of the sum to be raised, must be paid by the working people.
Thereupon FitzOsbert protested, and the people rose in arms against the demand.
FitzOsbert was an old crusader, and he was something of a lawyer and a powerful speaker.

Not a rich man by any means, FitzOsbert was yet a member of the city council when, "burning with zeal for justice and fair play, he made himself the champion of the poor." To his enemies he was a demagogue and disreputable--so Ralph de Diceto, Dean of St.Paul's at that time, described him.

To others of more popular sympathies he was heroic and died a martyr's death.

Across the centuries he is seen as "an agitator"-- the first English agitator, the first man to stand up boldly against the oppression of the common people.