Western Rebellion: 1549 Flashcards
Storyline of Western rebellion in 5 points?
- William Body came to Cornwall in 1548, which was poor and Catholic, to tear down catholic images in local churches. He was killed
- The introduction of the new Prayer Book in 1549 encouraged Sir Humphrey Arundell to draw a petition reinstating old lithurgical forms of worship
- Somerset took 7 weeks to respond by sending troops because he was preoccupied by Ketts rebellion, which Arundell and his troops took advantage of by setting up a camp in Bodmin Moor and sieging Exeter
- Siege on Exter failed after 6 weeks of waiting
- Lord Russel, sent by Somerset, and troop of 8,000 + German mercenaries defeated Arundell and the rebels, killing 4,000
Who was the leaders of the rebellion?
- Sir Humphrey Arundell (leads the rising of the Commons)
- Robert Welsh (a cornish vicar wrote the Articles of Protests)
What was the main cause of the rebellion?
- Largely religious element: concern at introduction of new more strictly Protestant prayer book by Edward VI, bans on festivals and pilgrimage
- Hatred of the government’s greedy and careerist main agent in the area, William Body – a protégé of Thomas Cromwell
What is the subsidiary cause of the rebellion?
- Long term economic problems – population, inflation, enclosure
- Government introduction of a poll tax on sheep
- 1548 was the first poor harvest for 16 years. (NB there are other examples of trouble happening the year after a poor harvest – 1489 was another such year.)
What was the location of the rebellion?
Cornwall, Devon and Exeter
What was the duration of the rebellion (and from what months)?
4 months – May till August 1549
What was the level of threat, and why?
Medium:
- There was widespread discontent, but no rebel advance into southern England as in 1497.
- Somerset was distracted by Kett or things would have been over sooner
What happened to the leaders at the end of the rebellion?
executed
What was the outcome of the rebellion?
Siege of Exeter by rebels failed, battle afterwards in which 4,000 rebels are killed by a government force of German mercenaries.
Government does not make concessions to the rebels
Why was the rebellion non threatening?
- No clear achievable aims – rebels’ articles demanded things the government could not grant, such as abandonment of the Reformation. This forced the government to fight
- Rebel leadership poor – moved slowly and allowed themselves to be bogged down in siege of Exeter
Why was the rebellion threatening?
- Strong leadership from Humphrey Arundell-gentlemen with tactical skills
- force of 6000
- rebels were ordered and controlled
- rebels given military roles such as colonel, majors, captains
- ardundell determined to march to London to get government to meet their demands
- governments preoccupation with war in Scotland meant that they were slow to react
- rebels forced government troops into 5 battles
- Rebel behaviour often violent
- high number of deaths suggest that it was threatening to the government
What are the political causes?
- The cornish had no great love for English governments and their rebellions
- Feeling of resentment after Cornish Rising
- They felt they ought to be treated differently from the rest of the country
- Demanded restoration of Cardinal Pole as a political leader
What are the economic/taxation causes?
- Opposed Subsidy Act of 1549
- Introduced to raise as much money as possible and encourage farmers to go back to crops not sheep
- Tax of 1d on sheep and 1/2d on woollen cloth
- Tax hit poorer peasants and tenants most of all as wealthy clothiers and sheep farmers raised their prices
- Devon affected more than other regions
- Tax assessed 2 weeks after introduction of English Prayer Book
What are the social causes?
- No complaints over enclosure or rack-renting - Concern over rising food and wool prices this made the enclosures more profitable
- issues of high rent and the debasement of coinage and inflation
- Resentment at gentry - wanted - to limit size of gentry households worth 100 marks to 1 servant
- Concern over how they were buying church lands
- rebels contained a radical element who professed a desire to ‘kill all the gentlemen’
- rebels attacked gentry at St Michael’s Mount and Trematon - issues of class war
- Role of Rumour - stories circulated that babies would only be baptised on Sundays - could put a dying child in peril
What are the religious causes?
- Rebel demands: return papal relics and images, restoration of chantries, 2 monasteries in each country, return of Act of Six Articles
- linked to local priests
- no direct request to restore the papacy but did challenge the legality of the process
