Every freeman from henceforth, without danger shall make in his own wood, or on his land, or on his water, which he has within our forest, mills, springs, pools, marlpits, dykes, or earable ground, without enclosing that earable ground, so that it be not to the annoyance of any of his neighbours.[1]
In 1217, King Henry III re-issued Magna Carta along with the Charter of the Forest, which established the rights of free men to access royal forests. The Charter of the Forest became a symbol of common law which was referred to in disputes over rights to common land. However, in 1549 many landlords started fencing off land for their own use, going against the rulings of the charter and causing an agricultural crisis. These fields were no longer a part of a communal system which obliged every man to farm according to a general plan and to open his land to common grazing at certain times of the year.[2] Landlords not only enclosed their own lands, but started to fence it off from the commons. As a result, there was less land available for common grazing which meant poorer men could not farm and had less provisions.
In retaliation, a group of peasants joined together to protest against the perceived theft of the common land. On Saturday 6th July, a group of people secretly met in Wymondham, Norfolk, to plan further acts against enclosure. They attacked the enclosures of John Flowerdrew, Gentleman of Hetherset who had been unpopular in Wymondham since he removed lead and freestone from the abbey church at the time of the Dissolution.[3] While he was angry about the destruction of his enclosures, he bribed the rebels to demolish those of his neighbour, Robert Kett. The rebels expressed their objections to Kett’s enclosures, which encouraged him to take down his hedges and fill in his ditches. Kett then joined the rebels and offered to be their leader.
The rebels travelled to Norwich, which led to many crowds of poor and unemployed people gathering together in the town. Despite attempts by Sir Edmund Wyndham, the former sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk, and Thomas Codd, the mayor of Norwich, to encourage the rebels to return home, Kett and his men refused. At this point, Kett’s rebels had risen to 15,000 men. After being refused passage through Norwich to Mount Surrey, the rebels took an alternative route. During their travels they vandalised property and imprisoned men enroute, including Sir Roger Woodhouse. Once Kett occupied Mount Surrey, he created a prison for Woodhouse and other captives, as well as a camp on Mousehold Heath. Thomas Codd and Thomas Aldrich, a wealthy alderman and former mayor of Norwich, entered the camp to keep an eye on Kett until Somerset’s government arrived.
The rebels drew up a list of 29 demands, with only the first mentioning enclosure:
We pray your grace that where it is enacted for Inclosyng that it be not hurtfull to suche as haue enclosed saffren groundes for they be gretly chargeablye to them and that ffrome hensforth noman shall enclose eny more.[4]
The concerns of the rebels extended beyond enclosure, highlighting many other areas of tension under Somerset’s protectorship. These included five complaints about the clergy, recognising the underlying tensions that had been in place since the Reformation. Also, there were many complaints against the gentry. Evidently, the rebels’ actions were driven by a variety of social and economic grievances, and the enclosure of common lands was merely a catalyst for their outrage.
One of the most important symbols of Kett’s rebellion was the Tree of Reformation. Beneath the great oak, Kett dispensed justice, where complaints were heard and sentences were meted out.[5] For example, this 18th century illustration of Kett and his follows places them under the Tree of Reformation. The original tree no longer remains, but Kett’s Oak can be found in between Wymondham and Hethersett as a memorial for the rebellion.
On the 21st July 1549, the York Herald, a messenger from the King’s Council, entered Norwich and approached Mousehold. There he proclaimed that the gathering was a rebellion and offered pardons to those who would step down. Kett rejected the pardon. That evening, the rebels set up their artillery and started firing towards Norwich, but stopped the next day. Kett proposed a truce to secure supplies, but the mayor refused. In retaliation, the rebels charged down from Mousehold and attempted to break into the city. Despite attempts to hold off the rebels, the city could not stop the attack. A messenger from the king’s council tried to offer pardons to rebels who would disarm and disperse, but these efforts were futile. The city had been taken over by the rebel army.
The king sent the Marquess of Northampton with 1,500 men to suppress the rebellion. However, they were defeated and this led to the death of Lord Sheffield. In a second attempt, the Earl of Warwick took an army to Norwich. He successfully forced Kett’s men out of Norwich, supposedly killing 3,000 rebels. Kett was then captured, taken to the Tower of London and tried for treason. He was found guilty and hanged from the walls of Norwich Castle.
By Elena Rossi. Elena is a Masters student and Citizens Project intern at Royal Holloway, University of London.
[1] http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/magna-carta/charter-forest-1225-westminster/
[2] Stephen K. Land, Kett’s Rebellion: The Norfolk Rising of 1549 (Ipswich: Boydell Press, 1977), p. 7.
[3] Barrett L. Beer, Rebellion and Riot: Popular Disorder in England during the Reign of Edward VI (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2005), p. 83
[4] https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2016/11/ketts-demands-being-in-rebellion-1549.html.
[5] Beer, pp. 94-95.
