updated draft
RELIGION SECTION REDRAFT
Religion was a heavily influential cause of Tudor rebellions as it saw a huge
intervention whereby Henry VIII
broke from the Roman Catholic church and introduced Protestantism. Arguably,
this break from Rome triggered the peak of religious grievance- induced
rebellions in Tudor England. Davies
argued that the Pilgrimage of Grace was ‘the most popular revolt’ in Tudor history and arguably,
the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 reflects how religion was so heavily
influential as a cause because
40,000 people participated in this rebellion; [1]Sowle (a participant in the
rebellion) is said to have declared how ‘40,000 of us will rise upon a day’. Davies’
argument can be credited by[2]
Healey’s (2016) review of
him which declares that Davies ‘wrote one of the best works of historical
synthesis available’; Davies was an expert on Tudor England so his claim to the
popularity of this religious revolt does reinforce the value of his argument
that it was a major factor of rebellion. On the other hand, [3]Callaghan (2009) argued that
Davies ‘played down’ other causing factors of the rebellion and saw ‘religious
motivations as central’ which would suggest that he was much more focussed on
religion as a cause and consequently failed to acknowledge the other
influential factors. Although Davies’ interpretation is valuable in that he
acknowledges the mass amounts of rebel participants in the Pilgrimage of Grace,
there are limitations to the value of his claim because he focussed too much on
the role of religion as a factor and ignored the other causes which impacted
the rebellion such as the economy or regional grievances. Regardless of his focus
on religion, Davies is
accurate because Religion is shown as a key influence of the Pilgrimage
of Grace by [4]the 5 wounds of Christ; this was a recognisable
emblem of the rebellion; it represented the people’s grievances with the break
from Rome, suggesting that this widespread discontent was mostly a product of
religious grievance. The banner was utilised by the Lincolnshire rebels and was
later adopted by the Pilgrims in 1536, and the Northern rebels in 1569 under Elizabeth, which clearly suggests
the vast influence that religion had on rebellions and not just under Henry VIII. It is clearly of significance as it
was used throughout different monarchies. The banner was first made by rebels
during the time of the reformation in England, consequently encouraging people
to participate in the rebellion as a result of this, which could be argued that
it was effectively propaganda and the leaders adopted religious discontent as
an excuse to rebel and adopted the 5 wounds of Christ to encourage people to
join their rebellion, when the arguably it was adopted merely as a driving
force to increase rebel involvement as it was the time of the reformation. Alternatively,
the fact that the 5 wounds of Christ was utilised across so many monarchies, from Henry VIII to Elizabeth, reflects
how significant and powerful the rebel’s feelings towards religion really were. The banner was utilised by
the Lincolnshire rebels and was later adopted by the pilgrims in 1536 and even
later by the northern rebels in 1569, so the source is valuable in
understanding that as a cause, religion was important across an extensive
period under Henry VIII as well as Edward VI and Elizabeth. The Prayer Book rebellion under Edward VI in 1549 would credit the
argument that religion was a key influence of rebellion throughout the Tudor
era. The heightened radicalisation of his religious beliefs in
comparison to his father was significant, (find
evidence& reference). , suggesting that the rebellion
under Edward were significantly due to an objection to religion. There was an [5]assemble of up to 3000 men to
join a group of Parishioners from St Keverne however the revolt was
ended quickly; they were dissatisfied with the monastery and chantries which
had sacrificed funding of nursing and education, (find evidence& reference). It could be argued that
the rebellion was merely a product of personal grievances as some of the
rebels’ grievances strived from the fact chantries were reducing funds for
education and nursing, so religion was just the cause on the surface. Hiding
the underlying grievances beneath. On the other hand, prior to Henry VIII’s
break from Rome, his father, Henry VII,
*[corrected up to
this point]* never
felt revolt towards his monarchy as a result of religion; most of the
rebellions under Henry VII were a product of succession or economy, but it
wasn’t until the break from Rome which triggered the uproar of religious
revolts. Because of this, one could argue that religion wasn’t as significant
as succession for example because succession remained an issue throughout the
periods entirety whereas religion merely became an issue after Henry VIII’s
break from the Roman Catholic church. Mary’s
involvement in the Lady
Jane Grey plot is significant to the argument that religion was the
driving cause of rebellion as despite its links to succession, the main issue
behind the controversial decision of who would be Edward VI’s heir was the religion of Mary; her strict
Catholicism hugely contrasted Edwards Protestantism and the people felt as
though Mary should be heir even if she was a Catholic. Despite the key role of religion in this
rebellion, it is arguably a subsidiary cause as people cared more about the
rightful heir to the throne and disregarded the religion as if it didn’t
matter. Regardless of the evidence to
suggest religion was the driving cause of rebellion in the Tudor era, one can
conclude that despite it being one of the significant factors it was not the
most impacting as it only became an issue after Henry VIII’s break from Rome
and didn’t consistently occur throughout the periods entirety. It did impact
certain rebellions such as the Pilgrimage of Grace and the Prayer Book
rebellion, but other rebellions are a product of opposing factors such as
succession.
ECONOMY SECTION REDRAFT
Another pressing cause of rebellion in Tudor England was the
role of the economy; Kirwan (2015) [6]argued
that some rebellions were a ‘direct result of taxation’ which would
suggest that the economic grievances were significant enough to cause a public
revolt, for example the Yorkshire rebellion under Henry VII. This rebellion was a result of the struggling economy;
Henry VII was increasing tax in certain areas of the country in order to raise
money for Britain to ‘maintain independence’ [7].
This resulted in a heightened angst towards Henry VII especially following his overthrowing of Richard III as
most northern cities were supporters of Richard and the revolt lead to the
failure of the monarchies pursuit to raise £100,000- they only managed to raise £27,000. The fact that the economy was an issue which caused rebellion at the very
beginning of the Tudor period in 1489 under Henry VII suggests that it could be
a more impacting factor than religion as it was a present issue throughout the
period and was much more consistent than religion as a cause. The
continuation of the impact of economy is reflected through the rebellions under
Henry VIII; the Amicable Grant
rising of 1525 was a result of Lord Chancellor Thomas Wolsey imposing subsidy tax and forced loans in order to fund Britain’s invasion of France.
Consequently, the growing threat of armed revolt caused the grant to be dropped
and Henry VIII’s attempt to raise money failed and Fletcher and MacCulloch[8]
(2005) spoke of how people were willing to help, 'but no man in the country has money
to buy or lend'. Fletcher and MacCulloch claim suggests
that the rebellion was a direct result of the economic issues as opposed to
opposing factors and their claim can be credited by the clear depth in research
as the above quote is from the 5th edition of their book on ‘Tudor
Rebellions’ specifically; the fact their book is precisely about the rebellions
and not the period as a whole suggests intensive research into their claim on
the impact of the economy. Despite this, Moore (2006)[9]
argued that Fletcher ‘redefined his historical interests’ which would suggest
that his research into Tudor rebellions is limited as it wasn’t entirely his
field of interest. Although Fletchers work can be discredited, MacCulloch’s sub-disciplinary
academic work was ecclesiastical history[10]
so the fact he here emphasises the role of the economy reinforces its
influence. The impact of the economy continued into Edward VI’s reign such as
during the Kett’s rebellion of 1549 which was due to enclosures on land
put up by wealthy land owners, which were consequently ‘ripped down’ by rebels.
‘Inflation, unemployment, rising rents and declining
wages added to the hardships faced by the common people’ [11]
which is why the revolt grew so big. The discontent was clearly large as 3,000
rebels are thought to have been killed [12] ,
revealing that the role of the economy was significant enough to trigger a mass
rebellion. Mary and Elizabeth. Conclude
SUCCESSION
SECTION REDRAFT
[1] https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/ecc/emforum/projects/disstheses/dissertations/dcallaghan/david_callaghan_the_role_of_the_clergy_in_the_pilgrimage_of_grace.pdf
[3]
Callaghan- https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/ecc/emforum/projects/disstheses/dissertations/dcallaghan/david_callaghan_the_role_of_the_clergy_in_the_pilgrimage_of_grace.pdf
[4]
Grundy [book], 5 wounds of Christ?
[9] R.
I. Moore, Newcastle upon Tyne, October 2006. - http://rimoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Anthony-Fletcher.pdf
Comments
Post a Comment