Stafford/Lovell

Question 1

When did the rebellion take place?

Answer 1

Between April and May 1486

Question 2

Where was the rebellion located?

Answer 2

York and Worcestershire

Question 3

What was the main cause?

Answer 3

Dynastic: wanted the restoration of the House of York following the War of the Roses

Question 4

Who led the rebellion?

Answer 4

Viscount Lovell - had little access to wealth and little military experience

Sir Thomas Stafford - landowner

Sir Humphrey Stafford

Question 5

What was the main aim?

Answer 5

To overthrow Henry VII

Question 6

What did the rebellion lack?

Answer 6

Support - rebel numbers were derisory

Question 7

What were the consequences?

Answer 7

Lovell fled to Flanders, the Stafford’s were captured, and Humphrey was executed

Question 8

What did Henry’s concerns have more to do with?

Answer 8

The general instability of his reign rather than any significant threat from the rebels

Question 9

Give reasons for why the rebellion failed:

Answer 9

There was a lack of an alternative - very few of the commons were willing to rise in support of the noble leaders

Lovell and the Staffords were only minor nobles and had no great wealth or large group of followers on which to base a rising

Henry successfully tracked the rebels when they fled, had a good network of spies, and didn’t give them time to become a threat

They had no backing from overseas and rebels numbered dozens

Question 10

What did Henry do in February 1486?

Answer 10

Led a large retinue of nobles and gentry towards the North of England to show the power and authority of the new King but also aimed to deal with rebellious subjects

Question 11

What happened a month before the rebellion?

Answer 11

News reached Henry of a conspiracy amongst Yorkists in Nottingham

Question 12

Who was Lovell?

Answer 12

A close confidante of Richard III and had been attainted in Henry VII’s first parliament

Question 13

Where had the leaders been?

Answer 13

In sanctuary at Colchester since Bosworth

Question 14

What happened in April 1486?

Answer 14

Lovell left sanctuary with the aim of raising support and troops in Yorkshire

The Staffords began to raise forces in Worcestershire.

Henry VII would be threatened by two regions at once

Question 15

What happened on 23rd April 1486?

Answer 15

Lovell had planned to rally the north, seize York, and capture Henry VII, but this failed

Question 16

Why did the rebellion gain little traction?

Answer 16

There was no Yorkist pretender to rally around

Question 17

What were the leaders motivated by and what might this explain?

Answer 17

A combination of loyalty to Richard and fear that Henry wouldn’t give them any local power: self-interested

Why the leading northern families failed to support the rising

Question 18

What was Henry VII’s response?

Answer 18

He began marching towards York

He was joined by the Earl of Northumberland and knights from Yorkshire

Question 19

Who did Henry VII send and what was the consequence?

Answer 19

He sent his uncle Jasper Tudor with a pardon for every rebel but Lovell himself, which drained all support

Question 20

Why did support collapse?

Answer 20

Word reached the rebels that Henry VII was on his way with an army

Question 21

What did the Stafford’s do but what happened?

Answer 21

Fled to sanctuary

Henry VII sent a small force to drag them out

Question 22

What had the uprising shown?

Answer 22

The possibility of coordinating regional unrest