Causes of Rebellions

Causes of Rebellions

1. Social Causes

   • Famine and Disease: Interestingly there were no rebellions that were directly linked to bad harvest.
   • (Pilgrimage of Grace)
     • Along with the religious issues concerning the rebels, Aske was also backing up the people that had had their rent raised to an impossible level.
     • The nobility had a social issue themselves, concerning who their land was going to be passed on to.
     • Cromwell was detirmined to get every penny he could given to the crown.
   • Kett's Rebellion
     • The rebels wanted a return to the 'good old days' when their were not any unemployment problems.
       • In Norwich the main source of employment, the cloth industry, was in decline.
     • The main issue was enclosure and Kett wanted to safeguard the future for Norfolk.
   • Western Rebellion
     • Here, the rebels were more concerned with the tax on sheep and wool.
     • They wanted to limit the number of gentry households to worth 100 marks. They wanted to narrow the gap between rich and poor.

2. Political Causes

   • Probably the most important cause as there were many different issues surrounding it.
   • Henry VII
     • As Henry had come from the Lancaster's he had been left with many enemies.
     • Lovell though that he had a better claim to the throne than Henry.
     • Lambert Simnel pretended to be a claiment so that he might have the chance to kill the King.
     • Perkin Warbeck pretended to be the youngest of the princes in the tower so that he could overthrow the King
   • Henry VIII: Faced no purely dynastic rebellions.
     • He was a more powerful King?
     • Had a better claim?
     • People were more concerned with his religious policies?
   • Edward and Mary
     • The Marian Rising was caused by the fact that Edward prevented his sisters coming to the throne.
     • Wyatt's Rebellion was concerning the fact that Mary was married to Philip - this could be linked to Religious causes.
   • Elizabeth
     • The refusal to accept Mary Queen of Scots as a an heir led to the Northern Earls Rebellion.
     • Essex wanted to have more power.
   • Irish Suzeranity
     • Kildare: There is some evidence to suggest that rebellion was religious, but they mainly wanted to expel the English forces.
     • Shane O'Neill: He wanted to be the ruler of Ulster and murdered he brother to get it. He claimed to be true defender of the faith.
     • Fitzgerald I: He resented the notion to colonise Ireland, the English presence and their brutal treatment of the Irish.
     • Fitzgerald II: He wanted to rally the Irish Catholic against England.
     • Tyrone: To expel the new English settlers and achieve independence.

3. Religious Causes

   • Religious rebellions would either be people defending a faith or rebelling against it.
   • Pilgrimage of Grace
     • There were to main reasons that the rebels were angry in Lincolnshire - dissolution and investigation in the parish churches.
     • In Yorkshire over 100 monasteries were scheduled to be closed which motivated many people to rise up.
     • In Lancashire four monasteries had already been closed and the monks encouraged people to rise up against this.
     • People were also angry at the government's recent assault on holy days and saints. English people were detirmined preserve their saints.
     • The First Fruits and Tenths tax was also highly unpopular as people felt that it should go to the Church and not the government.
     • There were a number of reasons why people rebelled: (<--)
     • In general all the reasons why people rebelled in the Pilgrimage of Grace was against the Henrician Reformation.
   • Western Rebellion
     • They were rejecting everything that was new: an English Prayer Book, 'Christmas game' and English Bible.
     • Aims: return of papal images, chantries and the Six Articles. However there was no request to restore the papacy - just the right of church councils.
   • Kett's Rebellion
     • This was a rebellion against the slow progress of Protestantism.
     • The rebels said that they wanted to have a better-educated Church as the people that they had at the moment weren't providing them with good services.
     • They wanted to improve commitment to religion.
   • (Wyatt's Rebellion)
     • There were no religious rebellions during Mary's reign even though she planned on changing the religion of the county.
     • Wyatt was mainly concerned with the attachment of Catholicism that Mary's marriage to Philip brought.
   • Rising of the Northern Earls
     • The main aim of the Northern Earls was defending the Catholic faith, which they believed was against God's word.
     • The fine that Elizabeth brought in for not attending Church was 5p a week. Many people paid it, or were protected by JPs, who were Catholic.
       • Nothing was brought in to stop them from perusing a Catholic faith.
     • They gathered troops of people who wanted to see the protestant reforms put to an end.

4. Economic Causes

   • Taxation
     • Yorkshire Rebellion
       • Henry had to meet the goal of 100,000 pounds to go to war with France, and the people in Yorkshire thought that this was not needed.
       • Traditionally the southern counties would take care of France war taxation and the northern countries dealt with Scotland.
       • Henry Percy was to collect the tax and he was hugely unpopular which didn't help.
     • The Cornish Rebellion
       • 60,000 was needed for a war against the Scots and when this reached the Cornish, they were angry.
       • They may have remembered the Cornish not having to pay their tax and thought that they could do the same thing.
       • They wanted the northern counties to pay the tax, and not them. In the end the war didn't happen and neither did the tax.
     • Amicable Grant
       • It was a non-parliamentary tax.
       • Wolsey had not repaid loans that were taken in 1522
       • The Grant made excessive demands.
       • There was a shortage of coinage and unemployment was rising at the time.