Rebellions and Unrest

Question 1

What were the Economic problems people faced?

Answer 1

-A rise of inflation - Debasement of the Coinage 1551.
-Instability of the Antwerp cloth market, which led to widespread unemployment among textile workers in East Anglia and the West Country.
-Grain prices rose.

Question 2

What were the social problems people faced?

Answer 2

-Growing population meant the living standards of the masses continued to decline.
-Below - average harvests.
-Hard to find employment.

Question 3

What did Northumberland do to avoid disorder due to the social and economic problems?

Answer 3

• Unpopular 1547 Vagrancy Act and the Sheep tax of 1548 were repealed in 1550.
• Treason Act 1550 restored censorship and gave the authorities more power to enforce law and order.
• 1552 new poor law passed, which made it easier for the parish and town authorities to support the aged, infirm and crippled.
• The revaluation of the coinage halted inflation and reduced prices.
• Acts were passed to stop the charging of excessive interests on debts.

Question 4

Why was the 1547 Vagrancy Act so unpopular?

Answer 4

Any able-bodied person out of work for more than three days was to be branded with a V and sold into slavery for two years.

Further offences were to be punished with permanent slavery.

The children of vagrants could be taken from their parents to work as apprentices in useful occupations.

Question 5

What did the earlier Poor Law of 1536 do?

Answer 5

Recognised that the able-bodied were having difficulty finding work, and ordered parishes to support the helpless poor.

Question 6

What was the main causes of unrest and rebellions in Edward’s reign?

Answer 6

Economic and social discontent, with religion being directly linked in the Western rebellion.

Poor people could no longer go to the monasteries for money or supplies.

Question 7

How many rebellions were there in 1549?

Answer 7

23 minor uprisings.

Question 8

How dangerous were the 1549 rebellions?

Answer 8

• Did not intend to threaten the established order.
• Did not put forward an alternative candidate.
• Did not march on London.
• Did not call for equality between the classes.
• When violence came, it was usually targeted at objects of the rebel’s anger - enclosure fences -, and people in higher authority were rarely murdered.

Question 9

How did Somerset’s policies cause the Western rebellion?

Answer 9

Rebels opposed his Protestant changes and the rebellion was a result of the new Prayer Book. Rebels also opposed Somerset’s policy of debasement to fund the war against Scotland.

Question 10

How did enclosures cause the Western rebellion?

Answer 10

1548-9, Somerset established commissions to look into the problem of enclosure.
Commissions had limited success as landowners blocked any attempt to legislate on the issue.
Somerset forced to issue proclamations to force landowners to reverse their policy. When landowners didn’t, the commoners threw down illegal enclosures, taking the law into their own hands.

Question 11

How did rents cause the Western rebellion?

Answer 11

Poeple complained about taxes on sheep and cloth. Rents were also raised.

Question 12

How did a bad local government cause the Western rebellion?

Answer 12

Rebels were annoyed that the gentry benefitted from the Dissolution of the Monasteries, but it was also them who was implementing the unpopular religious changes.

Question 13

How did religion cause the Western rebellion?

Answer 13

Rebels wanted a reintroduction to catholicism and many were opposed to the new Prayer Book.

Question 14

How did personality clashes cause the Western Rebellion?

Answer 14

In Devon, government agent, William Body, intensified the antagonism felt towards the religious changes with his heavy - handed investigation into church policy.

Question 15

What were the demands of the rebels in the Western rebellion?

Answer 15

• To end the changes that they claimed were taking place in baptism and confirmation.
• To restore the Act of Six Articles.
• To restore the Latin mass and images.
• To restore old traditions like holy bread and water.
• To restore the concepts of transubstantiation and purgatory.
• The return on Cardinal Pole from exile and for him to have a seat on the King’s council.

Question 16

What was the trigger cause for the Cornish rebels in the Western rebellion?

Answer 16

William Body intensified rumours and fears about church goods being confiscated through his investigation into church property in 1547. People also opposed his destruction of church images in 1548.

Rebels opposed to the introduction of the 1548 Book of Common Prayer.

Question 17

What was the trigger cause for the Devon rebels in the Western rebellion?

Answer 17

People provoked by their priest’s use of the new Prayer Book.

Question 18

Events of the Western Rebellion

Answer 18

• Cornish rebels assembled in Bodmin, where Humphrey Arundell compiled their demands. The crowd then marched to Devon.
• In Sampford Courtenay, the rebels persuaded the priest to deliver a traditional Catholic Mass and then met with the forces from Cornwall at Crediton.
• When gentlemen, Hellier, attempted to calm the rebels, he was hacked to pieces.
• Sir Peter Carew aggravated the situation when one of his servants inadvertently set fire to a barn.
• Somerset provided Lord Russell with a small army - Somerset struggling to maintain forces on the Scottish border, watch for French aggression and put down enclosure riots in the Midlands - and wanted a peaceful settlement.
• Citizens of Exeter defended their city against the rebels for 6 weeks.
• 16 August, Russell advanced on and defeated the rebels at Sampford Courtenay.

Question 19

What was the aftermath of the Western rebellion?

Answer 19

• 3000 people killed.
• Robert Welsh, Church Vicar and leader of the rebellion was hanged on the gallows of his church tower in his vestments.
• Government forces acted illegally, executing without trials and confiscating and redistributing property.

Question 20

How did Somerset’s policies cause Kett’s rebellion?

Answer 20

• He attacked landlord’s greed.
• Passed Act protecting the rights of copyhold tenants on his own estates.
• Created special tax on sheep with a higher rate for flocks on enclosed land.
• Sympathetic to the poor - supported the ‘commonwealth men’ - Christian reformers who were against the exploitation of the poor.

His sympathetic nature gave the rebels an extra incentive to express their grievances as they had his support.

Question 21

How did enclosures cause Kett’s rebellion?

Answer 21

June 1548, Commission of Inquiry established under John Hales to investigate enclosures and same month proclamation issued against people being evicted for enclosures.
More rebellions broke out due to Hales’ work as landowners refused to remove fences so the poor rebelled.

Question 22

How did rents cause Kett’s rebellion?

Answer 22

Rebels complained about increasingly high rates during period of high inflation.
Rack-renting allowed landlords to pass on increased costs to the peasantry.

Question 23

How did bad local government cause Kett’s rebellion?

Answer 23

The rebels wanted to appeal over the heads of the local gentry directly to the central government.

The rebels ran Mousehold Heath Camp effectively and fairly, setting up their own court and sending out for food with commissions in the king’s name. No gentry was involved and led by those outside governing classes.

Question 24

How did religion and clergy cause Kett’s rebellion?

Answer 24

Rebels called for more competent and involved clergy.
One article requests they do more to educate the poor and another states that the priests should be for the whole community, not just chaplains.
Demanded for the use of the new Prayer Book and also able to choose their own clergy.

Question 25

How did personality clashes cause Kett’s rebellion?

Answer 25

In Norfolk, the first fences and hedged to be uprooted were John Flowerdew’s, who had outraged the village of Wymondham with his aggression.

Question 26

What were the rebel’s demands during Kett’s rebellion?

Answer 26

29 Articles:
- Landowners to stop enclosing common land.
- Rents be reduced to the levels they were under VII.
- Incompetent priests removed from their churches.

Question 27

Events of Kett’s rebellion

Answer 27

• Rebels threw down John Flowerdew’s enclosure fences.
• Kett - local tanner and landowner - assumed leadership.
• 12 July 16,000 rebels reached Mousehold Heath Camp and compiled demands.
• The Sheriff of Norwich was nearly arrested when he attempted to disperse the rebels - powerless.
• 21 July York Herald arrived offering a pardon to all those who dispersed and promised; to prohibit landowners from acting as farmers, to reduce the price of wool by a third and to appoint commissioners to reform abuses. Kett rejected it, saying they had committed no crime.
• Somerset an army of 1,800 under the command of William of Parr - Marquis of Northampton -, who offered a full pardon to anyone who dispersed. Only 20 responded and Kett was forced to attack. Kett’s army succeeded and recaptured Norwich.
• 23 August Northumberland arrived with 12,000 men.
• Northumberland’s offer of a pardon was refused and over the next three days, his army faced resistance.
• 26 August Kett made the fatal decision to abandon their fortified position and as a resuly 3,000 rebels were slaughtered.

Question 28

What was the aftermath of Kett’s rebellion?

Answer 28

Kett was tried for treason and hanged on the 26th November. The rebels were dealt with in accordance to the law, and only 49 were executed - shows they wanted to suppress religious, not economic rebellions.