Strategy and tactics

Question 1

What did Londoners tend to do and what was the impact?

Answer 1

Stand by legitimate rulers

The odds in favour of a successful coup were not good

Question 2

What did dynastic rebellions need to have and give examples:

Answer 2

An alternative and bonafide claimant ready to rule

Yorkists had pretenders and genuine claimants

Northumberland championed LBJ

Wyatt favoured Princess Elizabeth

The Northern Earls wanted Mary Stuart

Question 3

What tactics did dynastic rebels entail?

Answer 3

Raising noble and gentry support

Enlisting foreign aid

Putting pressure on the ruler

Question 4

What did Simnel and Warbeck do?

Answer 4

Landed in Lancashire and Cornwall respectively, with the expectation of raising troops from disaffected counties before marching on London

Raised only 5000 troops and failed to advance beyond Nottinghamshire and Somerset

Question 5

What did Wyatt and Essex do?

Answer 5

Started in or near London

Wyatt was a good strategist but a poor tactician, delaying his entry to London

Essex had an uncertain strategy and no clear tactics, quickly disintegrating into chaos

Question 6

What were protests against government policies?

Answer 6

Usually peaceful but there was a threat of social violence

Question 7

What was the strategy of protests against government policies?

Answer 7

Raise popular support

Acquire the backing of gentry, clergy, and nobles,

Pressurise the authorities to respond to their requests

Present grievances as articles to representatives of the Crown

Question 8

What happened in 1536 regarding fear and intimidation?

Answer 8

Abbot of Jervaulx said that he was threatened with beheading if he did not surrender his abbey

Sir Roger Cholmely was told his house would be looted

In Horncastle the sherrif of Lincoln was told that he must ‘be sworn to do as we do, or else it shall cost you your life’

Question 9

What was the impact of fear and intimidation regarding those joining the POG?

Answer 9

Aske claimed that he was persuaded

Lord Darcy yielded Pontefract Castle when 3000 rebels approached

Question 10

What did Thomas Moigne say and how is this given credence?

Answer 10

The main reason why he agreed to become a captain was to enable him ‘to do the most food amongst his own neighbours in the staying of the commons’

Towns such as Lincoln, Hull, and York fell to save their citizens

Question 11

What did Western rebels do?

Answer 11

Kidnapped local gentry, detained merchants, and put the sheriff of Devon under house arrest

Question 12

What happened in Suffolk?

Answer 12

Four magistrates were imprisoned at Melton

Question 13

What did Kett’s captains do?

Answer 13

Humiliated any gentry who would not cooperate, chaining Thomas Gawdy MP and placing him on the battle-fields at Dussindale

Question 14

What did the Oxfordshire rebels in 1596 speak about?

Answer 14

Murdering seven local landlords

Question 15

When violence did occur, what was the case?

Answer 15

The victim was usually the source of local anger

William Hellyons in 1549 had tried to buy off the rebel host with a cartload of provisions

In 1497, the target was the Provost of penryn, the collector of a war tax in Cornwall

Question 16

What suggests that the rebels intentions were epaceful?

Answer 16

Cornish men in 1497 wished to ‘do no creature hurt’

The Lincolnshire rebels claimed they were ‘true and faithful subjects’

The Western protestors declared ‘God save king Edward’

Question 17

What were considered valid tactics?

Answer 17

Disrupting local communications

Question 18

What was standard and why?

Answer 18

Sieging county towns

Rebels looked to win over the mayor and sheriff, giving the protest respectability and increasing the rebels’ bargaining power when dealing with the government

Question 19

What towns repelled rebel sieges, which refused to submit, which opened their gates, and which supported the protestors?

Answer 19

Exeter in 1497 and 1549

Carlisle in 1537 and 1570

Taunton in 1497, York, Lancaster, and Durham in 1536, and Norwich in 1549

Wells in 1497, Lincoln in 1536, and Bodmin in 1549

Question 20

What did Thomas Codd, Mayor of Norwich, do?

Answer 20

Fraternised with Kett’s rebels on Mousehold Heath

Question 21

What did Robert Kett hold?

Answer 21

Daily council meetings

Question 22

What did Robert Aske issue and what was this a traditional cry of?

Answer 22

Badges to the pilgrims who adopted the Five Wounds of Christ

Religious conformity in the face of heresy, chosen by rebels in 1549 and 1569

Question 23

What did the pilgrims do?

Answer 23

Swore an oath of allegiance ‘to be true to God, the king and the commons’

Question 24

What were important parts of rebel propaganda?

Answer 24

Oaths, ballads, rhymes, and the utilisation of the printing press

Question 25

Who were the prime targets of attack in Irish rebellions?

Answer 25

English landowners and Anglo-Irish government officials

Question 26

What was hard and why?

Answer 26

Combatting rebels

The inhospitable terrain in Ulster and lands to the west and south of the Pale

Question 27

What did the Irish do?

Answer 27

Avoid military confrontations unless an English army was outnumbered, as occurred at Yellow Ford

Question 28

What did rebel leaders do if they faced defeat or capture and give an example:

Answer 28

Disappeared into remote regions

James Fitzgerald evaded capture in 1573 and resurfaced in 1579 to renew the rebellion

Question 29

What were Irish revolts?

Answer 29

More violent, brutal, and protacted