In the period under the reign of the Tudors in England, there were many rebellions that posed threats to the monarchy and the issue of debate is why there were political and social unrest. These rebellions arguably occurred due to a number of factors, and many historians argue that the uprisings committed by the people of Tudor England were due to socio-economic factors, religious grievances, or dynastic instability. By breaking down key events, we can better understand why each event happened, as each of the rebellions had a key cause and effect. However, large factors affecting the numerous rebellions in England between 1485 and 1603 were rooted in religion and unrest because of differing philosophies of the reigning monarchs at the time. This division refers to the opposed ecclesiastical parties that followed from Henry VIII’s Church of England and the pope’s jurisdiction. There was drastic change in the leadership of England at the time. Some rebellions were monocausal, some were arguably multicausal, but most rebellions were due to a difference in fundamental ideologies in religion. The consequences of religious zeal were more powerful than the fight for money or familial power in these cases. The passion the people of Tudor England had for their beliefs of an afterlife was an extremely large motivation because religion made up their belief systems that their actions adhered to, especially in looking at socio-contextual factors at the time. There were 19 rebellions, under the reign of 5 different monarchs: Henry VII (1485-1509), Henry VIII (1509-47), Edward VI (1547-53), Mary I (1553-8), Elizabeth I (1558-1603). Some of the rebellions which had the most obvious religious reasons that this essay will cover are the Pilgrimage of Grace and The Prayer Book rebellion. Secondly, there were rebellions that arose because of seemingly socio-economic reasons prior to the religious reformation: Kett’s Rebellion and the Lady Jane Grey rebellion. The rebellions which had seemingly dynastic causes but had truly underlying religious causes were Wyatt’s rebellion and again, Lady Jane Grey rebellion. At times the influence seemed intertwined, such as in the Wyatt’s rebellion, the plot against Mary I’s marriage was conducted and organized by Protestant nobility, Thomas Wyatt, and the northern earls who rose against Elizabeth I were strong Catholics. This demonstrates dynastic and religious causes simultaneously. However this essay will argue that despite the economic, social, and dynastic friction that was present in Tudor times, the religious grievances in particular were the main underlying cause for the Tudor rebellions, the most overt factor in all the rebellions. The most popular revolts against Henry VIII criticized his choice of bishops and his drastic dissolution of monasteries.
The Pilgrimage of Grace was a rebellion which was the most complex because it took place in 5 separate locations across northern England. Despite its low-death toll, about 50,000 rebels rose and it was considered to have a very high degree of threat because it was seen as the most politically organized rebellion of the 16th century. There were two different major outbreaks, in 1536 and in 1537. This rebellion had no single leader or cause, and many noble leaders did not try and suppress it. The civilians under King Henry VIII’s rule in the country at the time were primarily motivated to rebel against him by religious grievances because of his dramatic modification of the religious authority and system of hegemony. Its reasons were both religious and economic, because of King Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries, which links to the economic issue that the commoners would lose this social safety net, which was a form of charitable shelter. This rattled Henry’s reign, the rebels aims were vociferously carried out and they had a passion to the cause they were fighting for. There is little doubt that economic reasons were important in their anger, as another reason for resentment was also the fact that Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell were implementing a program to increase the power of the center to control the regions of England, causing new taxes, and increasing rent. They carried these religious beliefs from childhood, and the monasteries served an important role in society, being caregivers for the commoners, and served educational and medical purposes for their communities. The King’s reformation affected over 100 small monasteries in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. These monasteries also provided safety for travelling refugees and the destitute. The Ten Articles (Henry VIII’s sanction of "Articles devised by the King's Highness' Majesty to establish Christian quietness and unity among us") banned the celebration of many holy Catholic holidays, and dissolving great religious houses as well as smaller monasteries. This caused violent revolt, the largest gathering of rebels being a 30,000 strong army assembled in Yorkshire, large enough to dominate London and Westminster at the time. Christopher Haigh, argues that this was a religious rebellion. He acknowledges economic factors however believes that religion was the main driving force. The 24 Pontefract articles were compiled to complain about the reasons for this rebellion from the north of England, mentioning many interests including economic, political, legal, and religious matters. Religious grievances were the majority in number, 9 articles devoted to religious issues, while 6 articles were listed for other reasons. Robert Aske, a Yorkshire lawyer, took the responsibility of ‘chief captain’ and declared the purpose of the revolt: “For this pilgrimage we have taken it for the preservation of the Church”. The rebels were clearly devout and wanted restoration of these monasteries, to free the religious orders, and to liberate powers of the Church. Christopher Haigh argues that these grievances dominated the other reasons, that economic and political and social issues were undermined in relation to religion. This can also be proven because of the fact that the commons defended the monasteries, and “four parishes of Yorkshire dales had taken an oath to protect them”, which shows the loyalty they had for their beliefs and background. The significance of this source in relation to its contextual factors is that it was written in 1993, a much later period, enabling him to look back at Tudor England as a whole. He is a prominent writer and historian who wrote many books about the English reformation, and is still relevant today, having been an Oxford lecturer in Modern history until his retirement in 2009. Haigh also believes that there was significant resistance to Protestantism, therefore it is not surprising that his view is that religion was the main cause of rebellion.
However, a contrasting opinion on the causes of the rebellions come from Professor A.G. Dickens, who believed that they were monocausal, completely due to economic grievances. His knowledge of society in Tudor England at this time was comprehensive. He sides with Dr. Rachel Reid, who argued that the reasons were definitely economic, and not due to religion, which Haigh believed had more of a dominant impact. The changes in matters of the economy had existing significance, ie. rising of the general prices of rent caused struggle in maintenance of one’s daily life, which made the commoners more triggered to revolt against a system of authority. Many other historians would choose to interpret the causes as being interrelated, that they were not mutually exclusive to one another. For instance, M. E. James points out, “many of the gentry, themselves were tenants of the great lords, afflicted by increased rents and dues, and encouraged, or at least tolerated, the commons' rising.” This opinion is relevant as historians need to take into consideration the time period and context of the people of this time, the economy was stable but enclosure was an arising issue. The rising population and incidences of bad harvests increased the strain and intensity upon the people of the Pilgrimage of Grace. However, Professor Dickens and Dr. Reid mention a specific incidence of a bad harvest as an example, that occurred in the summer of 1535, but was no longer relevant to the economic situation of October 1536. The harvests and economy during this time had been increasingly better, wheat harvest was at at its peak in 1536-7. Conclusively, there is no clear correlation between economic grievances being a determined factor in the uprising of the Pilgrimage of Grace in October 1536 – February 1537. This evidence discredits the view that economic causes mattered and that religious reasons were key to the uprisings.
Another rebellion which was key to understanding the importance of religion at this time was the Prayer Book Rebellion, also known as the Western rebellion. Many historians have an unclear interpretation of the true motivations that those who took part in it had. It can be argued that religion was not the only cause of the grievances for change, but it is assumed to be so because of its basis on religious matters such as the introduction to Protestantism and the introduction of the Book of Common Prayer, also known as the English Reformations. This resulted in revolt from the firm believers in the Catholic faith. However, there were inarguably economic issues involved as well. Anthony Fletcher, a seventeenth century historian, believes that “to interpret the rebellion as solely religious would be a vast simplification”. The crisis arose in 1549 on the day after the introduction of new Book of Common Prayer in English, which replaced the old prayer book in Latin. This change involved the people of Devon and Cornwall and was scorned upon by them because many of them did not speak English at the time. The new prayer book was not officially adopted until 1549, in the Act of Uniformity, which stated that the worship of saint was to be discouraged, status, paintings and other similar artefacts were to be removed from the church, and it was made illegal to use the old one. These Protestant values were being shifted to, from Catholicism. This gradual change was cautiously carried out, because of the clear ramifications it could cause. The change in one’s fundamental traditions that were so deep rooted in culture and ancestry was an extremely difficult thing to challenge. The influence of the priests on the program was clearly predominant in the Western Rebellion, and general discontent had started to arise. In the second set of articles by the rebels, the main concerns were that the Cornish rebels demanded that their acts of worship should be presented in their own language and that the Treason Act of 1534 should be restored. Some articles of rebels were taken as displeasing by the Privy Council, such as article number 13, which stated that no man should have more than one servant. The articles of the Western rebels showed that they did not respect the King: “Items we will have….”, and statements to the government that started with the phrase “We pray your Grace….”, this therefore showed the rebels to be a threat who wanted to support Catholicism. These demands were written during the Western Rebellion, where the rebels displayed anger towards gentry for taking their land, which seems like a socio-economic grievance, however the rebellion holistically was viewed as Catholic and treasonous. It was written in 1549, two years after the start of the Western rebellion and understood as a religious rebellion by the 1547 Act of Uniformity. However these issues were conspicuously based on religious objections to the drastic changes in the theocratic system.
Some of the rebellions had obvious economically driven elements such as Kett’s rebellion and Lady Jane Grey Rebellion. Many historians will challenge that this was typical of the period, that Kett’s rebellion, which occurred June to November 1549, was due to the protest of enclosure of land. It was led by Robert Kett, a Yeoman farmer, who believed in his rights to land. The outbreaks had a high degree of threat of around 15,000 rebels gathering and pitching battles against government forces, on the streets of Norwich, leading to national crisis. (reference) The chronology of this rebellion is more complicated than this, however. The rebellion spontaneously erupted in violence firstly because of the issues of enclosure, but it was complicated by religious overtones. This means that religion was not the most obvious cause of rebellion, although it played a large role, intertwined with the more obvious reasons for the crisis which were more economically motivated. This revolt was considered to be an act of treason, because at this time rebellion against religious authority was in direct opposition to the crown, therefore the punishment was death. This alliance of religion and law existed during this time period and it was therefore the driving force of dissent. Socio-economic challenges may seem to have been the primary reasons for the rise of this rebellion. Although most historians will challenge that it was due to this factor alone, the causes rooted in these outbreaks was due to the fact that there was a dramatic religious change that caused social unrest as mentioned previously, which was the dawn of the Reformation. This implies that religious factors were prevalent in rebellions that were even seemingly caused by a socio-economic factor, were truly religiously inclined. Kett drew up a list of twenty-nine demands to present to Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, then Lord Protector of England. On his list, in the 15th number he pleads: “We pray that a priest shall be a chaplain nor no other officer to any man of honor or worship but only to be resident upon there benefices whereby there parishioners may be instructed with the lawes of god.” This implies the importance of religious concerns, and 6 other articles in his manifesto contained demands in relation to Protestantism. The movement was nonetheless suppressed and Robert Kett was hung for treason on 7 December 1549. This primary source is extremely valuable because of its direct relation to the rebellion, it was written by Robert Kett himself and displays the reasons for their antagonism of the government. However unsuccessful their efforts were, analysing primary sources directly informs what the true causes are, which gears towards the notion that the rebellions were caused by opposition to religious authority.
There were changes in the dynastic ruling of Tudor England. This reason to rebel may seem like a subsidiary cause, however the monarchy was an extremely influential part of Tudor society, the era itself was named after the dynasty, the culture was affected by them throughout their reign. This rebellion in comparison to others, was more successful in its own intentions, and it took place in 1553. This rebellion was based on matters of religion as well in reality, although the dynastic reasons and complications to matters of who should take the throne were also extremely significant. In 1553 as Edward VI was dying, he issued a ‘devise’ which aimed to exclude Mary I from the line of heirs in order to avoid passing the throne to a Catholic. This was largely responsible for the rebellion itself. However the root factors that caused it, which were the differences in religion of each monarch, Edward was a devout Protestant and Mary I was strongly Catholic. The Duke of Northumberland, John Dudley supervised this devise and the fight for power began here. The factor of religion remaining the most overt factor is due to the tensions between Protestantism and Catholicism. The same reasons go for the Wyatt rebellion of 1554, which occurred due to Protestant fear of consequences of there being a Catholic monarch. England being recatholicised as well as the fear of Mary marrying Philip II of Spain were overlying factors of discontent, however these exacerbated the real religious matters. This rebellion may have been an anomaly in the sense that it had underlying dynastic influences, because of Henry VII’s influence as a monarch who was focused on economic stability of the country.
To conclude, the question being what the primary cause of rebellions was, it still remains to support the argument that religion was the main driving force. Economic, social, and dynastic reasons were surely underlying causes for many of them, as there were periods of economic instability during this time period, dramatic changes in the monarchy, and shifts in the social regime of this time eg. Rise of population. These however did not dominate the main factor in uprising that the rebellions were driven by religious and spiritual belief systems that were the foundations of society at the time. The sweeping changes of the monarchy affected every aspect of the nation, it was the change of the old Christian order that modified the Church and as well as causing major uproot in the working classes of Britain. This in and of itself is indicative of the most important factors of change that were occurring at this time, it was not economic or social changes that were as substantial as religious factors were. Regarding the rebellions, the dissolution of the monasteries provoked the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion because of religious grievances. Many of the conflicts were due to Catholic vs. Protestant themes, such as when Henry VIII was appointed as head of the Church, dissolving the Pope’s power. It can be viewed from the perspective that people did not complain and rise up against authority when the religious change took place, but it was economic and dynastic changes that triggered their response. Therefore religious was the most consistent cause of rebellion. It was religious change that attracted the most supporters to its opposition, the important factor being the turning point of this reformation. Medieval daily religious practices and beliefs were based on the ideas of the afterlife, purgatory, heaven and hell. These religious doctrines are still relevant today, therefore back then they were extremely important concepts that drove people to the actions that would hold them to believe they had a place in heaven. The magnitude of the amount of religious change that took place was incomparable to modern day, even if one were to compare modern times it would be devastating for society to deal with a significant change in religious authoritative power structures that occurred at this time, when Tudor England was so intensely driven by religion. It was the most understood by the population, and a topic which resonated with all people regardless of social class, gender, or other differences, and all rebellions link back to religion and it is transferable to any situation.