Popular Protest And Rebellion In Early Modern England

The frequency of popular protest and rebellion in Early Modern England offers an insight into the nature of the social relations people maintained. P. Clark refers to the repetition of rebellion and popular protest as being ‘a recurrent phenomenon’ which spread throughout Europe in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth century. This implies that people thought there was a necessary cause to act in such a way, believing that change was possible to address their grievances. Additionally, Andy Wood further emphasises the ideology of the repetitive nature of popular protest and rebellion through the existence of a ‘shared tradition of popular protest’. This implies that there was a continuation in the motivations of those who chose to rebel. Many of the

This suggests that they had negative relations with the government and authorities because their voices were not being listened to and they weren’t equally represented in the government’s policy decisions. Riot was a tactic employed to get their voices heard but there was a fine line between being listened to and retribution for their actions. For example, before the Oxfordshire rising in 1596, the people of Oxfordshire appealed to Lord Norris and other members of authority to help resolve the issue of dearth in the area. However, Lord Norris did little to help improve the situation and further appeals took place until the rebels resulted to riot in the hope of change. However, the rising against enclosure largely failed due to the lack of support, as only a handful of men turned up to support the rebels cause. Additionally, what gave rebellions the scale and force they had, such as the Pilgrimage of Grace, was the combination of supressed local grievances which had built up over time as they had not been effectively dealt with. For example, if someone heard a rumour about a potential uprising they may have become involved to express their personal grievances which may have been repressed in the past but had not achieved the outcome the rebels wanted. The Pilgrimage of Grace was caused by a combination of factors,

For example, two of the largest peasant rebellions in 1381 and 1549 occurred in Norfolk. Both these struggles were mainly concerned with the growing political power of the Lords in Norfolk and local grievances such as enclosure. He also states continuity from the Medieval and Early Modern period because society was structured in a similar way, which means that there is some cross-over in the causes of the rebellions. It is unclear as to how many of those involved in the Kett’s rebellion understood it’s connection to the Peasant’s Revolt, but a main similarity is that they show that peasants could revolt and form an uprising equal in size to those which had gentry involvement. Furthermore, Wood draws attention to the traditional nature of popular protest and rebellion between the Western Rebellion 1549 and the Pilgrimage of Grace 1536 due to the shared religious grievances. This would suggest that the subordinate groups in Early Modern England had similar grievances which could be found in various rebellions, supporting the belief that rebellion and popular protest was the only way for them to get their voices heard. It also suggests that members of authority did not pass legislation to help deal with grievances such as taxation, enclosure and religious instability which may imply that they did not perceive these issues as being particularly serious