causes Flashcards
Simnel
1487
Dynastic –> attempt by Yorkist to place pretender on throne
Faction –> dissatisfaction of Yorkists with their treatment by H& at court and roles he’d assigned them
Yorkshire
1489
Economic –> taxation for war in France not seen as their business, 1488 bad harvest increased degree of poverty which made it harder to pay (Northumberland, Westmorland and Cumberland had been made exempt on grounds of poverty)
Gov centralisation –> Felt northerners had less of a say in how the country was being rules north of the River Trent
Stewardships of royal manors, custodianships of castles and the wardenship of the marches were gradually being taken out of their control and manors forcibly given to others by the crown
thought they should be treated differently
Felt ruled by ‘strangers’
Felt their wealth was been drained by Londoners
Faction –> Yorkist sympathies in area,
Unpopular Henry Percy would lead the tax commission
Cornish
1497
Economic –> protests against paying tax for ‘irrelevant’ Scottish war,
There were two taxes:
The traditional fifteenth (payed by each village/parish) and tenth (payed by each borough) at rates set in 1334
It was the additional tax to raise £60,000 on individuelas, the rates being decided by the royal commissioners which caused problems
Evil advisers –> attacked Reginal Bray and John Morton
Factions –> Lord Audley tried to reclaim his power and position
Gov intervention –> thought they should be treated differently, Felt ruled by ‘strangers’ - different race of people – Celts, related to the Welsh and Bretons. Even in the 1490s many commoners spoke Cornish as their first language. They felt different and had their own local courts and parliaments (stannaries) which administered strictly local interests, such as managing investments in Cornish tin mines, Henry had issued new regulations on tin mining and suspended the privileges of the Stannaries – the local Cornish court and parliament - hit both at the key contributor to the Cornish economy and at local independence from the centre
Felt their wealth was been drained by Londoners
Amicable Grant causes
Taxation –>
1522 Wolsey had taken £260,000 in forced loans - said he would repay in next parliamentary subsidy, not happened - caused resentment, 1523
Wolsey had tried to get parliament to vote a subsidy of £800,000 (to pay for war with France) but it offered only £151,000 payable over 4 years
Since 1513 Wolsey introduced tax assessment based on and, income and personal assets and collected whichever yielded the highest tax - rate too high for people to afford to pay
Amicable grant made excessive demands on laity and clergy Church expected to pay £120,000, - to pay 25% of their annual revenue or value of their movable goods worth less than £10, 33% for those above £10
Shortage of coinage, which is why government urgently needed to collect tax
There was rising unemployment following a fall in wool prices - added to economic destress
Protesters in Suffolk - ‘only a lack to work prevented them from paying’ - explained to Duke of Norfolk ‘since you ask who is our captain, for sooth his name is Poverty, for he and his cousin Necessity, have brought us to this doing’
inflation rising fast – 12% fall in peasant’s real income in this decade, prices up 60% since 1500
Evil Councillors –>
Protestors complained about the Cardinal Wolsey
Silken Thomas causes
Gov intervention –> Resistance from regions to attempts to increase power of centre
Factional –> Especially distribution of patronage – Kildare family felt it was losing ground to rivals
Religion –> Defence of Catholic Church in the face of Protestant reforms, Fear Reformation would be exported to Ireland – provided religious component that helped cement Kildares’ leadership. Rebellion labelled a “crusade” – but timing was more political than religious
POG causes
1536
Faction –> Cromwell, Cramner, Audley and Rich were the targets in ballads and manifestos written by the POG
Pilgrims swore oath to ‘expel all villein blood and evil councillors against the commonwealth from his Grace and his Privy Council’
Rebels at York argued ‘persons as be of low brith and small reputation’ had exploited their power and ‘procured the profits most especially for their own advantage’ - they were all self-made men
Lord Darcy convinced Crowell was ‘the very original and chief causer of all this rebellion and mischief’ whose aim had been to ‘bring us to our end and strike off our heads’
Elton said ‘it was the gentry leaders, not the commoners, who singled out the hated minister [Cromwell] of the Crown’
Faction
Nobles concerned at the rise of Cranmer and felt they were marginalised at court
Aragonese faction - Lord Darcy absented himself from debates in parliament concerning the Act of succession to avoid arrest
Sir Robert Constable had fiercely opposed the divorce
Dynastic –> Rebels wanted Princess Mary legitimised and restored to line of succession
Concerns that Henry might determine succession by will, rather than parliament - if he passed to sister Margaret, who had married Scttish Kind James lV and produced children, English crown may be passed to Scottish monarchy
Government centralisation –> Sir James Layburne of Lancashire - ‘If we may enjoy our old ancient customs we have no cause to rise’
1530s, ecclesiastical liberties enjoyed by Ripon, Beverly and the Palatine of Durham surrendered to the crown
Religion –> Clergy encouraged true believers to rise up and overthrow the Protestants
Opposition to dissolution of monasteries -
July 1536 - Henry Vlll ran up Act of Ten Articles to clarify the country’s theological position
All rebels swore oath, ‘to be true to God, the king and the commons’
Social –> Monasteries provided charitable social safety nets - Rebels argued that range of social and economic services would be affected - education of poor children and spiritual teaching would decline
The pressure of population growth was causing unemployment – population rose 15% in this decade
Economic –> Fear of new taxes in a time of peace, prompted by passage of Cromwell’s Subsidy Act - authorising collection of £80,000
Poor harvest the previous year
rumours of additional tax - in reality the subsidy (1534 subsidy Act) was small and affected few people - Fewer than 10% of rebels were directly affected by the Subsidy - you had to be worth more than £20 to pay it, it was not a tax on peasants
Out of set of articles drawn up by peasants, only one concerned taxation
Item 14 of Pontefract Articles requested ‘to be discharged on the quindence [fiftheenth] and taxes now granted by act of parliament’
Enclosures –>
One of Pontefract articles produced by rebels identified concern over illegal enclosures - rioting since 1535
over 300 people in Giggleswick in Yorkshire pulled down hedges and dykes
Item 13 - ‘statute for enclosures and intakes to put in execution, and that all intakes [and] enclosures since 1489 to be pulled down except [in] mountains, forest and parks.’
Riots at Fressingdon in Cumberland
Cumberland and Yorkshire sent rebels to attack the lands of the Earl of Cumberland, a notorious landlord who had enclosed his tenats’ lands in the Eden Valley and denied them grazing rights
Husbandmen at Horncastle concerned at the encroachment of tenants’ rights
Rack-renting –>
Rents of Henry Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, had risen eight fold and tenants unable to pay were evicted
Taxation –>
One of articles demanded the 1534 Subsidy Act be abandoned - argued the tax was not being raised for defence of the realm
Western causes
Religious –>
Wanted restoration of Catholicism, not Reformation (However, no demand for return of papacy)
Largely a result of religious reforms introduces in June 1549
13/14 articles drawn up by rebels at Exeter show they wanted restoration, not reformation
Rejected no English Prayer Book - called ‘a Christian game’ - and English Bible which had ben revised in 1547
Wanted the return of relics, images, chantries and monasteries
Wanted the return of the 6 articles of 1539: inc. return of ceremony and ritual of Catholicism
Marched under banner of the 5 wounds of Christ
Demanded to keep language in latin or own Cornish
Demanded to keep wafers instead of bread in communion
Wanted their children to be confirmed younger
Complained against inadequate clergy who withheld baptisms and burials to get higher fees
Economic –>
Duke of Somerset’s Subsidy Act of 1549
Somerset had authorised a tax on sheep to encourage farmers to return fields to growing crops, but it badly effected poor peasants
Tax also to raise as much money as possible at a time of shortage
The new tax was due to hit 2 weeks after the new Prayer Book
Rumours that geese and pigs would be taxed
Long term grievances about inflation - shortage of land and high demand - population increase of 20% since 1520 - prices more than doubled
Nobility excessively raising rents - pointed out by leader of royal army
Debasing of currency
No/very few enclosures in Cornwall but Wilton, Wiltshire, peasants moved Lord Herbert’s hedges that he had put up on common land, Disturbances when open fields converted into deer parks
1548 was the first poor harvest for 16 years. (NB there are other examples of trouble happening the year after a poor harvest – 1489 was another such year.)
Social –>
Rebels attacked the gentry (they were unable to control the rebels)
They objected to the size of gentry’s property
concerned gentry were exploiting dissolution of monasteries by purchasing cheap land
Destruction of chantries - as well as providing prayers for the death, they often provided education and nursing care - located in town so affected lots of people
Rumours circulated that babies would be baptised only on Sundays, which would put the soul of the dying child in peril
Political –>
Opposed gov interference in religion
Intense unpopularity of gov agent, William Body
Absent of powerful and major landowner - Lord John Russel had estates there but spent most of his time in London, Sir John Arundell favoured rebel’s side
Kett causes
Religious –>
slow progress of Protestantism in Eastern England, feeling ministers weren’t well educated enough to advance the reformation
The Bishop of Norwich - William Rugge - ill-suited to achieve the Protestant reform wanted - he was old and unsympathetic radical reforms
Resentment against priests who were indulged in the property market since they should be devoting their time to spiritual duties, not prosecuting parishioners for unpaid and unfair tithes
The daily services using the new prayer book on Household Heath, just outside of Norwich
7 articles in Kett’s manifesto contain more Protestant demands:
Priests should preach and teach more
Priest should live with aristocrats rather than their flocks
That priests are too grasping over their tithes (one tenth of annual produce or earnings, formerly taken as a tax for the support of the Church and clergy.)
Demanded parishioners should choose new prints if their existing priest was not good enough
Demanded competent teaching of the Catechism and prymer to the children
Norfolk had a tradition of Protestant radicalism, including Lollardy (Lollardism was a pre-Protestant religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century to the English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Roman Catholic theologian who was dismissed from the University of Oxford in 1381 for criticism of the Roman Catholic Church.)
Demand - Parishioners should have the right to choose their own priests
Economic –> sparked rebellion
enclosures -
Demand - No Lord should pasture animals on the commons (effects of enclosure)
Protector Somerset and his civil servant John Hales believed economic and agrarian problems of the time were caused by greedy land lords trying to enclose land
Tried to stop this, but commons blocked 3 bills in 1548 - set up commissions to look into enclosure abuses
Resentment vs. Land lords made worse by rack renting and overstocking (grazing more than their fair share of animals)
Articles 1 and 3 of July 1549:
‘We pray your grace that where it is enacted for enclosing that it be not hurtful o such as have enclosed saffron grounds [that is lands where sadiron was grown] for they be greatly chargeable to them, and that from henceforth no man shall enclose any more.
Similar hedge breaking broke out in Sussex, Kent, Cambridgeshire, the Midlands and south-west counties, but only broke out into open rebellion in Norfolk.
Norfolk densely populated country, good, flats and fertile land scarce
Many tenants’ had supported enclosures as it stopped their land lord gracing his cattle on their arable land. However, when he denied them the rights of using this land, opposition grew - explains why Kett was keen to maintain enclosures around Safrron, to stop cattle ruining such a valuable crop used as dye in the local cloth industry
Article 29 - ‘We pray that no lord, esquire nor gentleman do graze nor feed any bullocks or sheep if he may spend £40 a year by his lands only for the provision of his house’
Complaints of overstocking (too many animals on land) - Norfolk peasants from Hingham and Great Durham unsuccessfully prosecuted their landlords for them, but magistrates either knew or sympathised with land lords
Rack-renting - rents had increased by 30% since 1548 and number of landlords had revived castleward (paying rents instead of defending castle)
Landlords altering conditions of tenancy to gain advantages - denied the right to catch rabbits and fish - right to hunt with handguns and crossbows defended in Aske’s articles of complaint
1536 Statute of Uses prohibited gentry from splitting up land to give to younger children - by law all had to go to eldest son - then upon inheritance they had to pay fines such as wardship to the king - many gentry aggrieved
17/29 of his demands focussed on enclosures, rents and landlords
Norwich = second largest city in England with 13,000 people - principle source of employment was cloth industry which was in decline - unemployment rising
In countryside wheat prices increased by 50% in 1548
Taxation –> Lower the tax levied on inheritance of land
Social –>
Lots of enclosures - people lost confidence in governing classes to protect their welfare
Many of 46 gentry and merchants who held 60% of the end in Norfolk were JPs or hand connections which mean their interests were well served
Request - ‘all bond men be made free’
Demands
No man worth over £401 a year to keep cattle or sheep except for their own subsistence (direct attack on gentleman farmers)
If priests and vicars earn about £10 a year they should teach the poorer children
Political –> bad local government
Rebellion began in Norfolk - Elton says it was “particularly ill-administered by its traditional magistrates”
Kett’s article 57 says his purpose was to ensure “good laws , statues, proclamations” made for the good people who were no longer disregarded by the JPs
Rebels at Mousehold were careful to govern the area around very fairly
Many of rural ruling class had been abusing their privileges - Fletcher said Norwich city there was a “breakdown of trust between the governing class and the people who normally sustained local government which has no parallel in the Tudor period”
Flowerdew, Norfolk’s feodary, was not popular in Wymondham and Attleborough, where rioting began
Decline of Howard family - no other gentry willing to take a stand against the rebels
Demand - Political roles of priests and vicars should be limited in the towns and villages
Northumberland causes
1553
Dynastic –>
Edward Vl’s devise of May 1553 - aimed to exclude Mary from succession - Northumberland wanted to keep hold of power
Factional –>
John Dudley, Earl of Northumberland, grown in power at end of Edward’s reign, reluctant to loose power under Catholic Queen
1553 - Duke of Northumberland had the support of aristocrats like Earls of Oxford, Huntingdon, Lord Grey and Clinton in his attempt to overthrow Mary - significantly more nobles defined Mary
Northumberland’s Army of 2,000 deserted when confrontation seemed likely
Religious –>
Northumberland’s strong espousal of Protestantism. He has grave concerns at the possible accession of the Catholic Mary
Wyatt causes
Faction –>
Plot led by prominent members of Edward’s regime who had done their best to keep Lady Jane Grey on the throne
Spanish factor at court following proposal of Phillip ll of Spain to Mary - no effective constitutional way of opposing this marriage - believed xenophobia would get support nationally to stop the marriage
Wyatt appealed to patriotism, saying he meant no harm to Mary, only to keep her from bad advisors and to keep the Spaniards out of England
Dynastic –>
Sought to influence succession to Elizabeth (only once realised Mary would not, not marry Phillip) - could not have realistically expected Mary Tudor to cancel her marriage to Phillip
Evil Advisers –>
Wyatt - ‘We seek no harm to the Queen but better counsel and councillors’
Religious –>
Mary had completed most of her counter reformation before hand
Kent was a stronghold of Protestantism and many of the leaders of the rebellion can be linked to the Protestant church - so much so that Maidstone supplied 78 rebels, and Cranbrook, Tonbridge, Leicestershire, Hertforshire and Devon
John Ponet (recently deprived Bishop of Winchester) was one of Wyatt’s advisers
Only real violence in London was against the property of the Catholic Bishop Gardiner - not a single rebel had Catholic sympathies
Thomas Wyatt = enthusiastic evangelical
Carew not a notorious promoter of Protestantism in the West
Croft entrusted to introduce Protestant liturgy in Ireland
Evidence of Protestant religious radicalisation in Kent, the seat of rebellion
Wyatt - ‘You may not so much as name religion for that will withdraw us from the hearts of many’
Shane O’Neill causes
faction –>
Shane O’Neill resents loosing his Earldom of Tyrone in Ulster to his brother - willing to kill his brother to get it, this stirred up resentment against him
Religion –>
O’Neill claimed to be the true defender of the faith in Ireland
Northern Earls causes
faction –>
Northern Earls schemed to overthrow William Cecil with southern privy councillors (Arundel, Pembroke, Lumley, Leicester, Throckmorton) - considered him too influential at court - held him responsible for uncertain succession and poor policy decisions
Mary Queen of Scots wrote lots of letters to plotters abroad and in England to help her against Elizabeth inc. papal agent Ridolfi and Spanish Ambassador, De Spes
Westmoreland and Northumberland pushed into rebellion by their tenants and Sussex (President of the council of the North) calling them to answer for their actions
Elizabeth had put her cousin Lord Hudson in charge of Berwick
Elizabeth had built up the clientele of Northumberland’s rival, Sire John Forster
Northumberland had many personal grievances against Elizabeth - ignored his claim over a copper mine
Meany of the rebels were retainers or tenants of the Earls
Dynastic –>
Earl of Northumberland - ‘the preservation of the person of the Queen of Scots, as next heir, failing issue of Her Majesty’
Plan involved Norfolk marrying Mary Queen of Scots - at the time was under house art in England - blocked by Elizabeth as she saw it as a threat - when block the Earl of Northumberland left court - many thought he had left to start a rebellion
Succession was in doubt - Elizabeth had no children and had named no-one
Northern Earls causes
Religious –>
Westmoreland born Catholic
Northumberland converted in 1567
North of England strongly Catholic, despite 5p fine for missing weekly Protestant service - wealthy often protected by their local Justices of the Peace (many themselves were Catholic)
Rebels actions suggest there was an element of religious motivations as they restored the mass at Durham cathedral
Local insecurities caused by new bishop at Durham, protestant James Pilkington, who was aggressive in his assault of images, church furniture and in regaining church lands
Northumberland pushed by his wife who was a fervent Catholic
All leaders influenced by counter-Reformation
‘Our first object in assembling was the reformation of religion and preservation of the person of the Queen of Scots’ - Earl of Northumberland in interrogation in 1572
Leaders were Catholic: Northumberland convened 1567 and Westmoreland born and bred Catholic
They declared the cause of the rebellion was ‘a new found religion and heresy, contrary to Go’d word’ which they intended on ‘amending and redressing’
Some rebels, including the Hortons from Ripon, the Inglebys of Ripley and the Cholmleys from Whitby, had ancestors which had taken part in the POG
Banner of St. Cuthbert taken out of Durham Cathedral and Francis Norton paraded with the Five Wounds of Christ - just as 30 years before
Earl of Sussex (president of the board of the North) believed that religion was a clock for political motives
Elton - ‘religion played little part in the disaffection, though it supplied a useful cloak’
faction –>
Northern Earls schemed to overthrow William Cecil with southern privy councillors (Arundel, Pembroke, Lumley, Leicester, Throckmorton) - considered him too influential at court - held him responsible for uncertain succession and poor policy decisions
Elizabeth had built up the clientele of Northumberland’s rival, Sire John Forster
Northumberland had many personal grievances against Elizabeth - ignored him claim over a copper mine
Elizabeth had put her cousin Lord Hudson in charge of Berwick
dynastic –>
Plan involved Norfolk marrying Mary Queen of Scots - at the time was under house arrest in England - blocked by Elizabeth as she saw it as a threat - when block the Earl of Northumberland left court - many thought he had left to start a rebellion
Mary Queen of Scots wrote lots of letters to plotters abroad and in England to help her against Elizabeth inc. papal agent Ridolfi and Spanish Ambassador, De Spes
Westmoreland and Northumberland pushed into rebellion by their tenants and Sussex (President of the council of the North) calling them to answer for their actions
Succession was in doubt - Elizabeth had no children and had named no-one
Government centralisation –>
‘the restoring of all ancient customs and liberties to God and this note realm’
Resentment of Northern Earls for increasing interference from the centre
Munster causes
Government centralisation –>
Resented attempts by Elizabeth l to colonise Ireland
Resented imposition of martial law after O’Neill’s rising 1558 - 1567 (military law that replaces civil law in times of crisis)
Increasing presence of English adventurers in new plantations and their brutal treatment of the native Irish
Faction –>
James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald aggrieved that his cousin, the Earl of Desmond had been put in the Tower of London following a feud with the Butler clan
Religion –>
James said Elizabeth wanted to introduce ‘another newly invented kind of religion’
Claimed to be acting as the defender of the Catholic faith
Geraldine causes
Religious –>
Fitzmaurice strong Catholic
Having retuned from Rome and aware of the Bull of Excommunication against ELizabeth, he saw an opportunity to rally the Catholic Irish against English rule
Before 1570, no serious attempt had been made by English governments to enforce the Protestant faith in Ireland
Pope gave his blessing to the rising
Government centralisation –>
Against English rule
Animosity against new English settlers and the Dublin administrators
