Events

Battlefields Trust Online Lecture: The Western Rebellion, 1549

Wednesday 18th May 2022

In the summer of 1549 a series of outbreaks of riot, insurrection, and protest broke out across the whole country, but found its strongest expression in the western counties of Devon and Cornwall where thousands of commoners rose in armed rebellion against the introduction of the new English-language Book of Common Prayer and the imposition of a new type of tax on sheep which hit the farmers of region. Today the rebellion is largely forgotten, but at the time it became an event which defined people’s lives.

The five battles, two sieges, and numerous skirmishes which occurred during the revolt saw the first use by the English government of foreign mercenaries against their own people, and the battles of the rebellion rivalled some of the better-known English battles such as Sedgemoor in size. Moreover, the battles of 1549 represent a watershed in military experience, a bridge between the medieval and modern forms of warfare.

In this talk historian E.T. Fox will look at the course of the rebellion and its significance to our understanding of English military history, as well as looking at the state of the battlefields today.

Dr Ed Fox is an historian best known for his work on pirates of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but with a broader interest in crime and revolt as well as a specific interest in sixteenth century warfare. He obtained post-graduate degrees in history from the University of Exeter and has published numerous books, including the most recent military assessment of the 1549 Western Rebellion, The Commotion Time, Tudor Rebellion in the West, 1549, published by Helion Books. He is a regular contributor to TV documentaries, a keen ‘warbow’ archer, and a tea addict. In his spare time he teaches history and philosophy at an independent school near his home in North Devon, which he shares with his partner and their two ridiculous dogs.

 
 

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