rebellion

• what was the worst year of the whole Tudor period?

  1549
• where were there major rebellions?

  in East Anglia and the SW
• what was there throughout the rest of the country?

  considerable levels of disorder
• historians view: John Guy


  'the closest thing Tudor England came to a class war'
• how did Somerset's gov. deal with the rebellions?

  found it difficult to cope
• why were the thin resources of the Tudor State overstretched?

  substantial numbers of troops were engaged in the garrisoning of the south of Scotland, while others were stationed in the SE of England to ward off potential French invasion
• what predominated in some parts of the country?

  religious reasons
• what was most important in the Midlands and East Anglia?

  agrarian and social grievances
• what did the Council receive?

  numerous reports of riots and uprooting of enclosures
• what appears to be a consistent factor?

  resentment of taxation
• why did most of the risings die out fairly quickly?

  insufficient support or through prompt action from the local nobility and gentry
• example of risings dying out

  the Earl of Arundel who managed to calm matters down in strategically sensitive Sussex.
• what did Arundel do?

  Arundel heard grievances and punished a few oppressive landlords and disorderly peasants even-handedly, restoring what he considered to be a 'quavering quiet'
• where did similar methods seem to work?

  Cambridgeshire, Yorkshire and the Midlands
• what did the SW lack?

  a resident aristocrat of Arundel's stature who could bring matters under control
• what did both the Western Rebellion and the Kett's Rebellion in East Anglia require?

  significant military action to suppress them and restore order