The Tudors for Dummies (AvaxHome Download) (18 page)

Facing the Many-headed Monster:

Social Unrest

In the past, what ordinary people were most afraid of was change. The

speed of life was much slower in the 16th century, but the arrival of the

Reformation, the huge upheavals in the Church and economic changes on the

land built up to confuse and worry people. Somerset handled people's reac-

tions to the changes badly.

Reacting to enclosure

Enclosure meant enclosing land common with hedges or fences so that people

could raise sheep to provide the raw material for England's all-important medi-

eval wool trade (see the nearby sidebar `Making enclosure happen' for more).

The practice had been going on in parts of central and eastern England for years.

How did the system work?

Agreement of the tenants: Everybody in an area with deeds to their land

agreed via the Manor Court (see Chapter 1) to take out new leases on

the enclosed land. This was almost always for pasture purposes and led

to arguments among the tenants.

Unity of possession: Where no Manor Court existed, the landlord could

do what he liked.

The general trend was for the local lord to buy up the old arable (crop-grow-

ing) strips because he had the money to do it. Lords often overrode Manor

Court decisions and the wishes of their tenants � and all this was happening

at a time when the population was increasing and the demand for food was

greater than ever.

How did people react?

Poems and pamphlets appeared, talking about sheep `eating up men' � if

you mess about with a system that's been operating for 800 years, you

must expect some complaints; if it ain't broke, don't fix it. William Forrest

wrote, `The world is changed from what it has been, not for the better

but for the worse.' He must be about the only writer who thought that

inflation was a good theme for poetry!

Protestant preachers like Hugh Latimer backed the cause of the poor

and talked about a return to the good old days of social responsibility. In

March 1548 he even gave a sermon in Edward VI's private garden in the

Palace of Westminster.

Writers like Robert Crowley hammered the gentry for their enclosing ways. Chapter 7: Ruling from the Nursery: Edward VI and His Protectors 125 Most people, as always, did nothing. But Somerset overreacted to the situa- tion and made it worse.

Failing to defuse the situation The role of the king had always been to protect his people � it was part of the coronation vows. Somerset saw an opportunity to make people realise that the new religion of Protestantism was just as caring as the old. On 1 June 1548 the protector launched an inquiry into enclosures.

You know what usually happens with government inquiries? Precisely: nothing. Somerset decided that the law was fine; it just needed to be enforced properly � `The realm must be defended with force of men . . . not flocks of sheep.'

An old saying in ancient Rome was, Quis custodes ipsos custodebat? (Who guards the guards?), and it was a bit like that with Somerset's inquiry. The teams looking into enclosure were the justices of the peace, the very men who wanted enclosure and who were lining their own pockets. Result? Riots.

Minor trouble broke out in the summer of 1548 with poor men roaming the streets, having lost their land and being forced to beg. By April 1549 reports of discontent reached the Privy Council and in May Somerset's Government promised to enforce the law fairly and to punish those who carried out enclo- sure illegally.

Nothing happened, so the riots increased. Somerset issued a general pardon to the rioters in June, but still the riots continued. Somerset didn't know what to do. Were the riots for him or against him?

There were no public opinion polls in the 16th century and no newspapers to back or oppose government policy.

Eventually, Somerset brought in martial law. The earl of Arundel did well and talked down the rebels in Sussex, but in Oxfordshire and elsewhere, rioting got out of hand. The worst affected areas were Devon and East Anglia.

Kicking off with Kett Most of the trouble in Devon was tied up with Edward VI's new prayer book (flip to Chapter 8 for details), but the East Anglian rising, known as Kett's Rebellion, was all about enclosure. Figure 7-1 shows the main places involved in the Rebellion. 126 Part III: Remembering the Forgotten Tudors: Edward VI and Mary

THE

WASH

N

Castl e Ri s i n g

NORFOLK N o r wi c h

D ow nham Mar ket W y mo n d h a m M o u s e h o l d

Heath

A ttl ebor o u g h

Cam bri dge

B ur y St . E d mu n d s

I p s wi c h

SUFFOLK Maldon

ESSEX

Figure 7-1:

Places

involved London

in Kett's

Rebellion of

1549.

Tearing the fences down

On 20 June 1549 a group of men tore down the new fences and hedges at

Attleborough near Norwich and then hit nearby Wymondham. Their leader

was a small-time landowner and tanner, Robert Kett, who targeted the lands

of unpopular landlord Edward Flowerdew. Mobs developed all over East

Anglia, as far north as Castle Rising and as far south as Ipswich.

By 12 July Kett, camped on Mousehold Heath outside Norwich, had a follow-

ing of 16,000 and he demanded entry to the city. No one had any experience

of handling a rising of this size and the mayor and corporation (the leading

citizens of the town) didn't know what to do. Chapter 7: Ruling from the Nursery: Edward VI and His Protectors 127

Kett presented a list of 27 demands to Somerset's Council. They covered

complaints about:

The high and rising cost of rent

The sharp rise in inflation

The number of sheep being raised

The demands scarcely mentioned actual enclosure.

The Council ordered Kett's mob to break up. They offered a pardon for any

crimes committed up to this point but refused any other concessions. Kett

and Co. stayed put.

Somerset now got heavy and sent William Parr, the marquis of Northampton,

to sort Kett out. Parr had 1,800 men, mostly gentlemen and Italian mercenar-

ies, and they marched into Norwich unopposed. The next night, however,

Kett's men attacked and the totally inexperienced Parr was forced back to

London with his tail between his legs.

Kett was now stymied. If he tried to march on London, his men would desert;

he knew they'd never leave Norfolk in what they saw as a local fight.

Saving the day with Dudley

Somerset couldn't afford any more mistakes, so he abandoned his Scottish

plans and ordered John Dudley, earl of Warwick, south with 6,000 infantry

and 1,500 cavalry. Dudley was a talented and experienced soldier. He sur-

rounded Kett and cut off his supply lines to Norwich, sending a flag of truce

to open negotiations. Kett was all for doing a deal but his more fervent fol-

lowers overruled him and took Dudley on. The fight became a massacre, with

Kett's followers dead all over Mousehold Heath.

Dudley hanged nearly 50 people from the town walls, but there were no more

reprisals and he took his army to London, sensing he might need them again

in the near future.

In the army now The official British Army wasn't set up until needed troops � the last workings of the now 1660 when Charles II became king. (The word outdated medieval feudal system. Noblemen `Britain' � meaning England, Wales, Ireland, weren't allowed private armies any more, so a and Scotland � wasn't officially used until serious soldier shortage existed. Often Italian, 1603, but there are unofficial uses of the word German and Irish mercenaries had to be called in Elizabeth's reign.) The Tudors used an old in to make up the numbers. system called Summons of Array when they

Ousting Somerset: Dudley

Takes the Helm

By the autumn of 1549 the flare-ups of discontent across England were under

control, but a lot of people, including members of the Council, believed that

Somerset had acted too slowly and it was time for a regime change. And John

Dudley, earl of Warwick, decided he was just the man for the job.

We don't know what made Dudley turn on Somerset. He may have planned a

coup all along, to make himself the new protector to the young king. On the

other hand, he may genuinely have believed that Somerset had blown it and

that he had to go for the good of the country.

Tensions grew:

There were rumours of a plot to make Princess Mary the regent � Dudley

wasn't part of this (and neither was Princess Mary).

Dudley appeared to join forces with religious conservatives in the

Council, men like the earls of Arundel and Southampton.

Some noblemen began to stay away from Court and collect as many

armed men as they could.

Somerset versus Dudley

Somerset, sensing unrest, ordered all loyal subjects to come, armed, to

Hampton Court to protect the king from `a most dangerous conspiracy'.

This was a fatal mistake: Somerset seemed to be calling on people to turn on

their natural leaders.

Dudley and the London Lords (Dudley's supporters in the Council) conspired

together while Somerset whisked the king to Windsor, west of London. He

couldn't defend Hampton Court, which was a country house (see Chapter

19 for more on this palace), but Windsor was a medieval fortress with enor-

mously thick walls and towers. A stand-off ensued � the London Lords virtu-

ally had the country in their power; Somerset had young Edward.

On the face of it, it looked as though the deal struck by 9 October was the

work of Sir Philip Hoby, sent as a go-between to work things out between the

two sides. Actually, it was probably Lord Paget, working for Somerset, and

Thomas Cranmer, working for the Council who came to an understanding.

Edward was brought back to London, with a cold and a bad case of the jit-

ters. He'd lost all faith in Somerset. Chapter 7: Ruling from the Nursery: Edward VI and His Protectors 129 On 14 October the lord protector was sent, together with members of his family, to the Tower, where he faced 29 charges. As was usual, his support- ers fell with him. Best known of Somerset's supporters were his private secretary, William Cecil (although he would bounce back � see Chapters 12 to 18) and his brother-in-law, Michael Stanhope, chief gentleman of the Privy Chamber.

Changing the Chamber As often happens after a palace coup, it was all change at the top:

The Privy Council appointed six noblemen and four principal gentlemen

(knights or squires) to be the Privy Chamber, and four of the ten had to

be with the king at all times.

The title of protector was quietly dropped. Because she was the king's

older sister � and potentially heir to the throne if Edward should

die � Mary may have been approached. If she was, she refused to get

involved.

It might have looked as though the conservative earl of Southampton

was in charge, but in fact it was Dudley who was pulling the strings.

Indeed, you can judge his power by the fact that at the end of November

the Council met in his private rooms because he had a cold.

New men were brought in to the Council � Nicholas Wotton, Richard

Southwell, and Edmund Peckham; and Henry Grey, the marquis of

Dorset and Thomas Goodrich, the Protestant bishop of Ely, who were

personal buddies of Dudley.

Some people, like the holy Roman emperor's ambassador in London, expected the old faith (Catholicism) to return and couldn't understand why the pro-Protestant Cranmer was still on the Council. But it was becoming clear that Dudley wasn't really with the religious conservatives.

Falling out, round one By the end of November, it was obvious that everything wasn't rosy in the Council. Two groups had developed:

Dudley, backed by Lord Paget.

Arundel and Southampton, the religious conservatives.

The group's differences were most obvious in what to do with Somerset. Dudley wanted to let him go after a while, probably with a whacking fine. Arundel and Southampton wanted Somerset's head, and maybe Dudley's too. As Arundel put it, `Ever we should find them traitors both and both is worthy to die.' 130 Part III: Remembering the Forgotten Tudors: Edward VI and Mary

Some kind of plot was going on against Dudley by early December, but we

don't know what because the evidence for it was `remembered' afterwards. A

lot of history is like this because history gets written by the winners. In this

case, after Dudley was dead, people who were still alive could make up what

they liked. Rumour and innuendo became fact and evidence.

It was the plotters' mistake, however, to make their feelings known to

William Paulet, Lord St John (pronounced Sinjun), because he promptly

went to Dudley and blabbed. Dudley set a trap to bring the plotters out into

the open. He called a Council meeting at his Holborn (London) home and

put Somerset's fate on the agenda. Southampton said the man should die

for treason.

Falling out, round two

On 31 December Somerset signed 31 articles of submission, a sort of confes-

sion, and now events moved quickly.

Dudley stamped out opposition in the Council:

He kicked Richard Southwell out after dodgy rumours of `bills of sedition

written by his hand' (in other words, he had unwisely written down criti-

cisms of Dudley). No charges were ever brought.

Lord Paget stayed, but he and Dudley and Paget seem to have fallen out

because Paget never got the lord chamberlain position he'd been hoping

for.

He removed Arundel and Southampton and had them placed under

house arrest.

He promoted the loyal St John and John Russell to earldoms.

John Dudley, earl of Warwick, now ran the country in the king's name.

Dictating with Dudley

On 20 February 1550 Dudley became lord president of the Council and

lord great master of the Household. For the rest of Edward's short life

(see Chapters 8 and 9) Dudley called the shots.

Dudley sorted out trouble in the countryside by extending the laws of trea-

son and giving more powers to local landlords and magistrates. From now

on, as far as the ordinary people were concerned, it was `them verus us'. Kett

and his fellow anti-enclosure leaders were hanged. Chapter 7: Ruling from the Nursery: Edward VI and His Protectors 131 The new ruler gave the key job of lord treasurer to the earl of Wiltshire (St John), who was one of his cronies but also an experienced figures man. He set up the reliable Protestant Thomas, Lord Wentworth, as chamberlain. As a result of this game of musical chairs, Dudley was now surrounded by men he could trust � Paulet, Wentworth, Anthony Wingfield (who became controller of the household) and Thomas Darcy (who was vice-chamberlain).

Somerset got off lightly. He was released in January 1550 and paid a �10,000 fine. He was to go nowhere near the king or Court, but he was allowed back into the Council and his daughter Anne married Dudley's eldest son. The Somerset�Dudley relationship wasn't as peachy as it seemed, however � flick to Chapter 9 to find out what happened next.

When Somerset was released, so were his people. This brought back into gov- ernment circles William Cecil, who would go on to become the greatest states- man under Edward VI's sister, Elizabeth (see Chapters 12�18). 132 Part III: Remembering the Forgotten Tudors: Edward VI and Mary