Short answers, pulled from the story.
Kett's Rebellion was a popular uprising in the English county of Norfolk during the reign of Edward VI. It began on the 8th of July 1549 at Wymondham and ended on the 27th of August 1549 when the rebels were defeated at the Battle of Dussindale. At its height, some 16,000 rebels camped on Mousehold Heath above Norwich and briefly held the city.
Kett's Rebellion was driven primarily by anger over enclosure, the fencing of common land by wealthy landlords for private use. Landlords were also converting arable fields into sheep pasture as wool became more profitable, leaving farming families without land or income. Inflation, rising rents, declining wages, and corrupt local government deepened the hardship across Norfolk in the 1540s.
Robert Kett was a yeoman farmer of about 57 years old from Wymondham, Norfolk, and one of the wealthier landowners in the area. He joined the uprising on the 8th of July 1549 after listening to the grievances of protesters who arrived at his property. A local lawyer named Sir John Flowerdew had bribed the rioters to attack Kett's fences rather than his own, and Kett responded by agreeing to lead the rebels' cause.
The Battle of Dussindale on the 27th of August 1549 was the final defeat of Kett's Rebellion. Rebels who had abandoned the high ground of Mousehold Heath faced the Earl of Warwick's professional army in open ground and were routed. About 3,000 rebels were killed; Warwick's force lost roughly 250 men.
Robert Kett was captured at the village of Swannington the night after the Battle of Dussindale and brought to the Tower of London. Found guilty of treason, he was hanged from the walls of Norwich Castle on the 7th of December 1549. His brother William was hanged from the west tower of Wymondham Abbey on the same day.
Kett's Rebellion is commemorated through memorials, place names, and cultural works across Norfolk. A plaque unveiled in 1949 on the walls of Norwich Castle marks the site of Kett's execution on the 400th anniversary of the rebellion. Malcolm Arnold composed the Robert Kett Overture, Opus 141, in 1988, and C. J. Sansom's 2018 novel Tombland revisits the events.