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Kett's Rebellion: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Kett's Rebellion
On the 8th of July 1549, a group of angry farmers in Wymondham tore down fences that had been erected by wealthy landowners, setting in motion the most serious revolt in England since the Pilgrimage of Grace. This was not a random act of violence but a calculated response to the enclosure of common lands, which had left peasants with nowhere to graze their animals and no way to survive. The rebellion began when a group of people, having just finished an illegal feast celebrating St Thomas Becket, marched to the villages of Morley St. Botolph and Hethersett to destroy hedges and fences. One of their first targets was Sir John Flowerdew, a lawyer and landowner who was deeply unpopular for his role in the demolition of Wymondham Abbey and for enclosing land. Flowerdew, seeking to protect his own enclosures, bribed the rioters to leave his lands alone and instead attack those of Robert Kett. Kett, a 57-year-old yeoman farmer and one of the wealthier farmers in Wymondham, did not resist the rebels. Instead, he agreed to their demands and offered to lead them. By the 9th of July, Kett was their leader, and they were being joined by people from nearby towns and villages. The rebels set up camp on Mousehold Heath, a vantage point overlooking Norwich, and established a base that would last for six and a half weeks. The camp became the largest of several rebel camps that had appeared in East Anglia that summer, and the rebels were known at the time as the "camp men" and the rebellion as the "camping tyme" or "commotion tyme". The camp was joined by workers and artisans from Norwich, and by people from the surrounding towns and villages, until it was larger than Norwich, at that time the second-largest city in England with a population of about 12,000. The city authorities, having sent messengers to London, remained in negotiation with the rebels and Mayor Thomas Codd, former Mayor Thomas Aldrich, and preacher Robert Watson accepted the rebels' invitation to take part in their council. Once the camp was established at Mousehold, the rebels drew up a list of 29 grievances, signed by Kett, Codd, Aldrich, and the representatives of the Hundreds, and sent it to Protector Somerset. The grievances have been described by one historian as a shopping-list of demands but which nevertheless have a strong logic underlying them, articulating "a desire to limit the power of the gentry, exclude them from the world of the village, constrain rapid economic change, prevent the overexploitation of communal resources, and remodel the values of the clergy". Although the rebels were all the while tearing down hedges and filling in ditches, only one of the 29 articles mentioned enclosure: 'We pray your grace that where it is enacted for enclosing, that it be not hurtful to such as have enclosed saffren grounds, for they be greatly chargeable to them, and that from henceforth no man shall enclose any more.' The exemption for 'saffren grounds' has puzzled historians; one has suggested that it may have been a scribal error for 'sovereign grounds', grounds that were the exclusive freehold property of their owners, while others have commented on the importance of saffron to local industry. The rebels also asked 'that all bondmen may be made free, for God made all free, with his precious blood shedding.' The rebels may have been articulating a grievance against the 1547 Act for the Punishment of Vagabonds, which made it legal to enslave a discharged servant who did not find a new master within three days, though they may also have been calling for the manumission of the thousands of Englishmen and women who were serfs. (In 1549, an Act Touching on the Punishment of Vagabonds and Other Idle Persons avoided the word "slave" but retained many of the harshest provisions of the 1547 Act.) The list of demands also included calls for a reduction in rents, the punishment of corrupt officials and the replacement of counsellors to the king (both clerical and lay) who enriched themselves at the expense of the state, a direct reference to Protector Somerset's regency council. The rebels used the new prayer book for their open air services, and urged that parish priests who failed to "set forth the word of God" to their parishioners should be replaced.
Robert Kett, a 57-year-old yeoman farmer and one of the wealthier farmers in Wymondham, led Kett's Rebellion in 1549. He agreed to the rebels' demands and offered to lead them by the 9th of July 1549.
When did Kett's Rebellion begin and end?
Kett's Rebellion began on the 8th of July 1549 when farmers in Wymondham tore down fences and ended with the final battle at Dussindale on the 27th of August 1549. The rebellion concluded with the execution of Robert Kett on the 7th of December 1549.
Where did the main camp of Kett's Rebellion form?
The rebels set up camp on Mousehold Heath, a vantage point overlooking Norwich, where they established a base that lasted for six and a half weeks. The final battle took place at Dussindale, with evidence suggesting the location was either Long Valley or an area near Great Plumstead.
Why did the rebels attack Sir John Flowerdew and Robert Kett?
The rebels attacked Sir John Flowerdew because he was deeply unpopular for his role in the demolition of Wymondham Abbey and for enclosing land. Flowerdew bribed the rioters to leave his lands alone and instead attack those of Robert Kett.
How many rebels died at the Battle of Dussindale?
About 3,000 rebels are thought to have been killed at the Battle of Dussindale on the 27th of August 1549. Warwick's army lost some 250 men during the engagement.
What happened to Robert Kett after the rebellion failed?
Robert Kett was captured at the village of Swannington the night after the battle and taken to the Tower of London to await trial for treason. He was hanged from the walls of Norwich Castle on the 7th of December 1549.
The truce between the city and the camp was ended on the 21st of July by a messenger from the King's Council, York Herald Bartholomew Butler, who arrived at Norwich from London, went with city officials to Mousehold, proclaimed the gathering a rebellion, and offered pardon. Kett rejected the offer, saying he had no need of a pardon because he had committed no treason. York Herald lacked the forces to arrest the rebels and retreated into Norwich with the Mayor. Kett and his followers were now officially rebels; the authorities therefore shut the city gates and set about preparing the city defences. On the 22nd of July 1549, Kett proposed a truce but the offer was rejected by the city authorities and the rebels commenced an attack on Bishopsgate Bridge. They charged down from Mousehold and began swimming the Wensum between the Cow Tower and Bishopsgate. The city defenders fired volleys of arrows into the rebels as they crossed, but could not stop the attack and Norwich quickly fell to the rebels. The rebels captured guns and other military supplies and set up guards at strategic points. The York Herald offered a second pardon to the rebels. It was again rejected and the Herald left for London, leaving England's second largest city in the hands of a rebel army. There was no random violence. Civic leaders were taken to Mousehold and imprisoned in Surrey House. Mayor Codd was released and stayed in the rebel camp, while his deputy Augustine Steward remained in the city. The King sent the Marquess of Northampton with about 1,400 men, including Italian mercenaries, to quell the rebellion. As he drew near to the city he sent forward his herald to demand the surrender of the city. Deputy Mayor Augustine Steward consulted Mayor Codd, who was still on Mousehold and then opened the city gates to Northampton's army, the rebels having withdrawn back to the safety of the high ground overlooking the city. Kett had already seen how difficult it was to defend miles of walls and gates and thought it more prudent to allow Northampton's small army to defend the city while he again laid siege to it. On the night of the 31st of July, the Royal army made its defensive preparations and started patrolling the city's narrow streets. Around midnight alarms rang out, waking Northampton. It appeared hundreds of rebels were using the cover of darkness and their knowledge of the maze of small streets and alleys around Tombland to launch hit-and-run attacks on Royal troops. After three hours Northampton's men had driven off the rebels, who suffered heavy casualties. By 8 am the following morning, the 1st of August, the ramparts were strengthened between the Cow Tower and Bishopsgate, so Lord Sheffield retired to The Maid's Head inn for breakfast. A little after this, Northampton received information that the rebels wished to discuss surrender and were gathering around the Pockthorpe gate. Sheffield went with the Herald to discuss this apparent good turn of events with the rebels. On arrival, Sheffield found no rebels at all. It appears to have been either a false rumour or a diversion, as at that point thousands of rebels again began crossing the River Wensum around Bishopsgate. Northampton's main force was in the market place. As the attack developed, he fed men through the streets into a growing and vicious street battle across the whole eastern area of the city. Seeing things going the rebels' way, Sheffield took command of a body of cavalry and charged the rebels across the cathedral precinct, past St Martin at Place Church and into Bishopsgate Street. Outside the Great Hospital in Bishopsgate Street, Sheffield fell from his horse into a ditch. Expecting then to be captured and ransomed, as was the custom, he removed his helmet, only to be killed by a blow from a rebel, reputedly a butcher named Fulke. With the loss of a senior commander and his army being broken up in street fighting, Northampton ordered a retreat. The Earl of Warwick was then sent with a stronger army of around 14,000 men including mercenaries from Wales, Germany, and Spain. Warwick had previously fought in France, was a former member of the House of Commons and subsequently the Privy Council, making him a strong leader. Despite the increased threat, the rebels were loyal to Kett throughout and continued to fight Warwick's men. Northampton served as Warwick's second-in-command in the second attempt to deal with the rebel host, this time with a much larger force. Warwick managed to enter the city on the 24th of August by attacking the St Stephen's and Brazen gates. The rebels retreated through the city, setting fire to houses as they went in an attempt to slow the Royal army's advance. About 3 pm Warwick's baggage train entered the city. It managed to get lost and rather than halting in the market place it continued through Tombland and straight down Bishopsgate Street towards the rebel army. A group of rebels saw the train from Mousehold and ran down into the city to capture it. Captain Drury led his men in an attempt to recapture the train, which included all the artillery. He managed to salvage some of the guns in yet another fierce fight around Bishopsgate. On the 25th of August the rebels commenced an artillery attack on the walls around the northern area of the city near the Magdalen and Pockthorpe gates. With the north of the city again in rebel hands, Warwick launched an attack. Bitter street fighting eventually cleared the city once again.
The Battle of Dussindale
On the 26th of August, 1,400 foreign mercenaries arrived in the city. These were German "landsknechts", a mix of musketeers and zweihander-swordsmen. With these reinforcements, Warwick now had a formidable army with which to face the rebels. Kett and his people were aware of this, and that night they left their camp at Mousehold for lower ground in preparation for battle. During the morning of the 27th of August, the armies faced each other outside the city. The final battle took place at Dussindale, and was a disaster for the rebels. In the open, against well-armed and trained troops, they were routed and thousands were killed. The location of Dussindale has not been established with certainty, but battlefield debris (musket balls and other lead shot, iron artefacts such as arrowheads having not readily survived) have suggested Long Valley, Norwich, now a partly built-up area to the north-east of the city centre. An alternative location, further to the east, is suggested by Anne Carter of Norfolk Archaeology, who found in parish records references to "Dussings Dale" adjoining the common of the village of Great Plumstead. A map regression analysis published by the Council for British Archaeology supports Carter's proposition, but its conclusion placed the exact spot some 200 metres to the west. About 3,000 rebels are thought to have been killed at Dussindale, with Warwick's army losing some 250 men. The morning after the battle, the 28th of August, rebels were hanged at the Oak of Reformation and outside the Magdalen Gate. Estimates of the number vary from 30 to 300. Warwick had already executed 49 rebels when he had entered Norwich a few days before. There is only one attested incident in which the rebels had killed in cold blood: one of Northampton's Italian mercenaries had been hanged following his capture. Kett was captured at the village of Swannington the night after the battle and taken, together with his brother William, to the Tower of London to await trial for treason. Found guilty, the brothers were returned to Norwich at the beginning of December. Kett was hanged from the walls of Norwich Castle on the 7th of December 1549; on the same day William was hanged from the west tower of Wymondham Abbey. After the rebellion the lands of Kett and his brother William were forfeited, although some of them were later restored to one of his sons. In the longer term the Kett family do not seem to have suffered from their association with the rebellion, but to have prospered in various parts of Norfolk.
The Legacy of the Oak
In 1550, the Norwich authorities decreed that in future the 27th of August should be a holiday to commemorate "the deliverance of the city" from Kett's Rebellion, and paid for lectures in the cathedral and parish churches on the sins of rebellion. This tradition continued for over a century. The rising was discussed by Sir John Cheke in The hurt of sedicion howe greueous it is to a commune welth, (1549). The only known surviving eye-witness account of the rebellion, a manuscript by a Nicholas Sotherton, son of a Norwich mayor, is hostile towards the rebels. So too is Alexander Neville's 1575 Latin history of the rebellion, De furoribus Norfolciensium. Neville was secretary to Matthew Parker, who had preached to Kett's followers under the Oak of Reformation on Mousehold, unsuccessfully appealing to them to disperse. In 1615 Neville's work was translated into English by Norfolk clergyman Richard Woods under the title Norfolke Furies and was reprinted throughout the following century. Francis Blomefield's detailed account in his History of Norwich (published in parts during 1741 and 1742) was based on Neville but supplemented with material from other sources such as the works of Raphael Holinshed, Peter Heylin and Thomas Fuller, together with various local records. 'Blomefield allowed himself sufficient impartiality to be able to set out, without comment, the grievances of those taking part, but heaped abuse on them for going further than their original intentions'. It was only in the 19th century that more sympathetic portrayals of the rebellion appeared in print and started the process that saw Kett transformed from traitor to folk hero. An anonymous work of 1843 was critical of Neville's account of the rebellion, and in 1859 clergyman Frederic Russell, who had unearthed new material in archives for his account of the rebellion, concluded that "though Kett is commonly considered a rebel, yet the cause he advocated is so just, that one cannot but feel he deserved a better name and a better fate". In 1948, Alderman Fred Henderson, a former mayor of Norwich who had been imprisoned in the castle for his part in the food riots of 1885, proposed a memorial to Kett. Originally hoping for a statue, he settled for a plaque on the walls of Norwich Castle engraved with his words and unveiled in 1949, 400 years after the rebellion. In the 21st century the death of Kett is still remembered by the people of Norwich. On the 7th of December 2011, the anniversary of his death, a memorial march by members of Norwich Occupy and Norwich Green Party took place and a wreath was laid by the gates of Norwich Castle. The rebellion is remembered in the names of schools, streets, pubs and a walking route in the Norwich and Wymondham area, including the Robert Kett Junior School in Wymondham, Dussindale Primary School in Norwich, the Robert Kett pub in Wymondham, Kett House residence at the University of East Anglia, and Kett's Tavern in Norwich, and in a folk band, Lewis Garland and Kett's Rebellion, and a beer, Kett's Rebellion, by Woodforde's Brewery in Norwich. Kett's rebellion has featured in novels, including Frederick H. Moore's Mistress Haselwode: A tale of the Reformation Oak (1876), F. C. Tansley's For Kett and Countryside (1910), Jack Lindsay's The Great Oak (1949), Sylvia Haymon's children's story The Loyal Traitor (1965), Margaret Callow's A Rebellious Oak (2012), and C. J. Sansom's Tombland (2018); plays, including George Colman Green's Kett the Tanner (1909); and poetry, including Keith Chandler's collection Kett's Rebellion and Other Poems (1982). In 1988 British composer Malcolm Arnold produced the Robert Kett Overture (Opus 141), inspired by the rebellion.