Kett's Rebellion

Question 1

Why is it called the Kett’s Rebellion?

Answer 1

The leader was Robert Kett.

Question 2

Where did it happen?

Answer 2

East Anglia, specifically Norfolk

Question 3

What started the unrest?

Answer 3

There was an enclosure riot in the towns of Attleborough and Wymondham

Question 4

Who was John Flowerdew?

Answer 4

A local lawyer that the rioters were angry at

Question 5

Why were the rioters angry at Flowerdew?

Answer 5

He had bought a local abbey and had demolished part of it so as to enclose the land

Question 6

Who was Kett?

Answer 6

Robert Kett was also enclosing the land that Flowerdew had

Question 7

What occurred between Flowerdew and Kett?

Answer 7

Flowerdew turned the rebels onto Kett but Kette took control of the riots and turned it into a protest

Question 8

How many men did Kett assemble?

Answer 8

16000 men who marched towards Norwich and set up camp on the bottom of Mousehold Heath

Question 9

What was the initial reaction?

Answer 9

Local forces couldn’t disperse the rebels and offered a pardon, which failed

Question 10

What occurred after the first pardon?

Answer 10

Rebels seized Norwich, which was England’s second largest city

Question 11

What happened after the capture of Norwich?

Answer 11

The government sent a force of 14000 troops under the Marquis of Northerhampton but they were defeated

Question 12

After the first defeat, what happened?

Answer 12

The government sent the Earl of Warwick in, and there was a massacre at Dussindale, just outside Norwich

Question 13

How many accepted the second pardon before Warwick happened?

Answer 13

2

Question 14

What were the religious demands of the rebels like?

Answer 14

Very Protestant - priests who are deemed bad by their parishioners are to be removed and parishioners can choose who they have as their priest

Question 15

What were the economic demands of the rebels like?

Answer 15

Concern over rising rents because their landowners were trying to counter inflation and so put them higher

Question 16

What were the agricultural demands?

Answer 16

• Do not enclose saffron, a precious crop grown in the area around Saffron Waldon
• The abuse of the peasant’s land by the gentry, who would feed their animals there but were feeding them there for too long
• Common land should be for the peasants and not the gentry
• Open rivers and coastal fishing industry demands
• Cheaper land

Question 17

What were the social demands?

Answer 17

• The breakdown of a local government
• Anger at those in positions of power
• Conservative about doves and rabbits: the gentry could keep them but no one below them could
• The end of serfdom (chaining peasants to make them work)

Question 18

What did John Guy describe 1549 England as?

Answer 18

The closest it ever came to class warfare.

Question 19

What system did the rebels have?

Answer 19

Their own governmental system - commissions of food and drink, maintaining order and discipline, their own judicial system

Question 20

What was the justice system like?

Answer 20

Dangerous for the gentry as the rebels were hungry for blood and death

Question 21

Who did the rebels kill?

Answer 21

Lord Sheffield

Question 22

What was enclosure?

Answer 22

The taking and sectioning off of land that belongs, really, to the peasants