Edward VI - Rebellions

Question 1

Kett Rebellion - Causation

Answer 1

• A collapse in the textile industry leads to cloth workers having to find work outside of Norwich (the second biggest city in England at the time, with a population of 16,000)
• Wooded areas are closed off to gentry
• 6-8 Jul - A community in Wymondham gather for a feast. Drunken anger causes them to start destroying enclosure fences, including those of a lawyer, John Flowerdew

Question 2

Kett Rebellion - John Flowerdew

Answer 2

• A local lawyer in Wymondham
• He was unpopular as he was planning to pull down a local abbey he had bought
• The townspeople had paid for the abbey for the parish and were therefore incensed by Flowerdew’s actions

Question 3

Kett Rebellion - Kett’s leadership

Answer 3

• Flowerdew encouraged the crowds to attack tyhe hedges of a tanner, Robert Kett. However, Kett welcomed their actions and assumed leadership
• 10 Jul - The rebels reached Norwich and encamped on Mousehold Heath. By now they numbered 16,000
• The Sheriff of Norwich was almost arrested in an attempt to disperse the rebels and the gentry were powerless

Question 4

Kett Rebellion - Demands

Answer 4

• Landowners to charge peasants the same rent as other gentry
• End enclosures on common land
• Ineffectual priests and vicars to be replaced
• Bushels of corn to be all kept at one size (8 gallons)

Question 5

Kett Rebellion - Attempted negotiations

Answer 5

• 21 Jul - The York Herald offers a full pardon to all rebels that would disperse, as well as end to enclosures and the price of wool to be cut by a third
• Many rebels want this, but Kett refuses
• The herald orders his sword bearer to arrest Kett, but things get ugly and they are forced to leave

Question 6

Kett Rebellion - Capture of Norwich

Answer 6

• 22 Jul - Norwich captured using cannons from the coastal defences
• 30 Jul - William Parr, Marquis of Northumberland retakes the city. Pardons are once again offered, but only 20 of the rebels disperse
• The rebels managed to get Norwich back, turning it from a demonstration to full-scale rebellion

Question 7

Kett Rebellion - Defeat

Answer 7

• Militia are raised in all counties around Norfolk
• 23 Aug - Northumberland arrives outside Norwich with 12,000 men
• Over three days, Northumberland’s army grinds down the resistance
• 27 Aug - Kett attempts to have the rebels abandon Mousehold Heath and move to the vale of Dussindale
• At the same time, Northumberland’s army is bolstered by 1,000 foreign mercenaries

Question 8

Kett Rebellion - Ending

Answer 8

• 3,000 rebels are killed in the attempt to move to Dussindale and Kett is arrested
• Kett is hanged, alongside 49 other rebels
• Northumberland ignored the desires of the Norfolk gentry and mostly adhered to the law when holding the rebels accountable for their trials

Question 9

Western Rebellion - Causation

Answer 9

• 1547-9
• Concerned with the issue of the New Prayer Book and its practices, eg. removal of transubstantiation
• Demanded vernacular prayer books in Cornish and an improvement on how clergy taught mass
• Somerset’s wool tax irritated nobles who would have to pay higher tax and also disrupted the wool trade

Question 10

Western Rebellion - Uprisings

Answer 10

• Attempts were made to stop Commissioners entering churches
• Protesters assembled in Bodmin, under Humphrey Arundell. A list of grievances was compiled before they marched into Devon
• In Sampford Courtenay, rebels persuaded a priest to deliver a traditional Catholic mass
• 20 Jun - The Samford Courtenay rebels meet with those of Cornwall at Crediton

Question 11

Western Rebellion - Nobles

Answer 11

• One noble, Hellier, is killed attempting to calm the rebels
• Other gentry lose control of their lands
• A meeting between rebels and a noble named Peter Carew almost erupted into violence when one rebel set fire to a barn. Carew was also a strict Protestant