Depth Study 2 - The Western Rebellion Flashcards
What is the 1549 Western Rebellion also known as?
- The ‘Prayer Book’ rebellion.
Under what Monarch did the Western Rebellion apply?
- Edwards VI
What religious demands did the rebels have?
- Wanted to restore traditional religious practices, such as holy bread and water. (Restoration of the six articles)
- Restoration of traditional doctrines, such as transubstantiation and purgatory.
- Release of imprisoned Catholic preachers, Richard Crispin and John Moreman.
- Restoration of the Latin Mass (which they didn’t understand) instead of the English mass (which they also didn’t understand) (Repeal the Act of Uniformity)
- Restoration of Catholic Chantries which protected the Cornish language and culture.
(However, there were no demands for the restoration of Papal authority.)
What socio-economic factors contributed to the Western Rebellion?
- Sheep & Cloth tax. (Very applicable to the West counties due to their proclivity for farming.)
- Concerns about enclosure
- Rebels attacked and robbed the gentry on St Michael’s mount.
- Murder of gentlemen, William Hellyons. He was the only gentleman to resist/
What city did the rebels attempt to besiege in the Western Rebellion?
- Exeter
How did the government in Exeter prevent its citizens from joining the rebels?
- Selling cheap food and firewood to the rebels, in an attempt to stop them from joining the rebels.
What political factors caused the Western Rebellion?
- Demanded the restoration of Cardinal Pole as a political leader to the King’s council.
- This created fears that the Yorkist movement was starting back up.
How were the rebels in the Western Rebellion violent?
- Murdered William Heyllonsm, the only gentleman to resist
- Shouted ‘Kill the Gentlemen’ at Bodmin
- Murdered William Body, the Church inspector.
- Unwilling to negotiate with the local gentry, despite some having sympathy with the rebels religious demands.
- Attempted to besiege Exeter, the regional capital.
- Willing to encounter government forces in clashes at Clyst St Mary, Heath and Sampford Courtenay.
How did a local power vacuum allow the Western Rebellion to develop?
- Courtenay family fell, which left a power vacuum in Devon.
- This caused Lord John Russell, his replacement, to have insufficient time to develop a power-base in the local area.
- Absence of a powerful local family allowed unrest to spread.
How did Peter Carew inflame the situation?
- He was sent by the King to negotiate with the rebels, he was a protestant sympathiser, so his actions only inflamed the situation.
- He was reprimanded back to London.
How did the actions of the government contribute to tension?
- Burning barns at Crediton by government forces.
- Comments by the Gentry, ‘scum of the whole country’. This turned more commoners against the ruling classes and drove them to violence.
What size was the rebel army?
- 5000 men.
How did the Rebel army display a sign of peace?
- Marched under the banner of the ‘Five wounds of Christ.’
How was the Western Rebellion a serious threat to the Government?
- Direct challenge to religious policies.
- Minority Rule - this angered many as they did not believe Somerset had the authority to change religion.
- The government also faced unrest in East Anglia (Ketts) and was trying to finance a war with Scotland and France.
- Rebels forced the government into battle.
- Prolonged. (June-August 1549)
- Lord Russell has just 300 men
- Government was slow to respond to rebellion. Somerset was not aware the JP’s had failed to maintain order.
- The scale and severity of the punishments dished out in Exeter after the rebellion suggests the government saw it as a threat.
Was the size of the rebellion a threat?
- While 5,000 men was a capable force, they failed to meet up with other rebel groups, which limited the size of the force.
- It was significantly smaller than the Pilgrimage of Grace.
- Government actions made the threat worse.
however, Lord Russel only had 300 men under his control
