Rebellion and Unrest Flashcards
What rebellions took place under Edward?
- 1549 The Western Rebellion also known as the Prayer Book Rebellion
- Kett Rebellion in 1549
What rebellion took place under Mary?
- Wyatt Rebellion in 1554
What was the causes of the Western Rebellion?
- Direct reaction to Protestant reforms such as the 1549 Book of common Prayer and the abolition of traditional Catholic Practices
- The rebels were deeply conservative and wanted to restore traditional Catholic worship
- Economic hardship such as rising prices, inflation and food shortages made life difficult for ordinary people
- Enclosure of common lands
- Sheep tax 1548 which negatively effected farmers
- Lack of trust in government
What were the causes of the Kett Rebellion?
- Enclosure of Common land, Wealthy landowner were enclosing common lands which peasants would usually use, this hit poorer farmers hard, especially in Norfolk which had a strong tradition of peasant farming
- Economic Hardship, inflation and rising food prices made life increasingly difficult for the lower classes, furthermore unemployment was growing due to changes in farming practices, for example the shift from crop farming to sheep grazing which required fewer workers
- Weak Government response, Edward Seymour has been slow to respond to the grievances
- Corruption, as local gentry were often seen as corrupt and exploitative
Wat was Enclosure?
- Was the process of common land, which is land everyone in the village had access to being converted into privately owned land, usually by putting up fences
- Wealthy land owner would often use it for more profitable sheep farming
- and it left many peasants without land to farm which led to poverty
What were the causes of the Wyatt rebellion?
- Opposition to Mary’s marriage to Phillip of Spain , as many feared that England would fall under Spanish control if Mary married Phillip and there was strong anti-spanish feeling and concern over foreign influence in English Politics
- Religious tension, Mary was a devout Catholic, and her reign marked the reversal of the Edwardian reforms , and Protestant nobles and gentry feared being persecuted
- Loss of influence by some nobles, some nobles saw Mary’s rule and her marriage plans as a threat to their own power and positions
Events and outcomes of Wyatt Rebellion
- Mary announced her marriage to Phillip in 1553
- A rebellion was planned and led by Thomas Wyatt to depose Mary and and prevent the Marriage and to possibly put Elizabeth or LJG on the throne
- Wyatts force gathered in Kent in 1554, was around 3,000 men a
- They marched towards London and when they reached London they were defeated
- The outcomes were that Wyatt was executed and over 100 were too as a warning, LJG was also executed because Mary saw her as a threat
- Elizabeth was arrested and taken to the tower of London
Events and outcome of Kett rebellion
-In Norfolk, people were protesting against landowners fencing off common land
- A landowner , unexpectedly joins the rebels instead of fighting them called Robert Kett
- He becomes the leader of the rebels and organises around 16,000 rebels and sets up camp on Mousehold Heath, by Norwich
- He issues a list of 29 demands
- The rebels and him then storm into Norwich and capture it and this was significant because it was England’s second largest city at the time
- The first army sent by the government fails to defeat the rebels and eventually John Dudley, leads an army of 12,000 troops and defeats them and around 3,000 rebels are killed
- Outcomes are, Kett is captured and imprisoned in Tower of London and hanged later and Norwich Castle
Events and outcome of Western Rebellion
- in June 1549
- The rebellion started in Cornwall and quickly spread to Devon
- They gathered at Sampford Courtenay and marched on Exeter
- They issued a list of demands including the restoration of the Latin Mass, the use of Holy bread and water and the repeal of protestant reforms
- The government, which was led by Somerset at the time sent a force under Lord John Russel to suppress the rebellion
- There were numerous battles between the army and the rebels at Clyst St Mary and Clyst Heath
- Eventually they were crushed and killed
- The outcomes were over 4,000 rebels were killed, and it weakened Somersets political position because there were multiple uprisings and this made it look like he had no control of the kingdom and also he delayed action because he was trying to negotiate instead of using force
What were the economic problems ?
- Inflation, which was caused by the debasement of the coinage (reducing silver in coins to make more money), and this also meant prices of food and good rose rapidly, but the wages did not keep up, and this was worse due to poor harvests
- Unemployment, the traditional cloth trade slowed down which lead to a loss in jobs , and the population grew from 1523 to 1551 from 2.3 million to 3 million, this meant that food shortages hit the poor the hardest because agricultural productivity was unable to keep up with it
- Enclosure of Common Land, wealthy landowners would enclose land for sheep farming and this would push peasants off the land they relied on and this displaced many rural workers and led to poverty
What were the social problems?
- Population growth, England’s population rose which put pressure on housing, jobs and food
- Vagrancy and begging, the government feared growing numbers of the homeless and unemployed, so they issued harsh laws such as the Vagrancy act of 1547 which punished the poor instead of helping them
