Overview Of Tudor Rebellions

Tudor Rebellions for OCR A-level - from https://tudorrebellions.wordpress.com/

OverviewYou are dealing with a total of 19 rebellions. (Yes, there are other things you could consider, like the Evil May Day of 1517, but frankly there s more than enough to worry about and write about with these 19.)

To begin with, you ll need to think some general thoughts about these rebellions. Which were serious and which were minor and why? Why did some last a long time while others were over in a matter of hours or days? What were the grievances of the rebels where do they differ and where can they be compared? How did the type of leadership that the rebellions had influence the way they panned out? In addition to knowing about each of the rebellions, you will need to master some of the basics of several underlying topics that explain how rebellion ties in to the broad history of the period. These can also form the basis for questions. There are three of them and they are:

Government and orderProtests and disorderReactions to protestThe first point that needs to be made is this: All rebellions had more than one cause, but for the purposes of this paper each maybe with the exception of the Pilgrimage of Grace can be ascribed a primary cause , and the rebellions that took place can be divided into broad groups by cause. You ll need to know these groups so you know where to draw examples from in essays that ask you to argue whether x was the main cause, or most serious threat arising from, rebellion in this period. The primary causes we are going to be dealing with are as follows:

Local economic issues taxation enclosure

Yorkshire tax rebellionCornish rebellionAmicable GrantKett s rebellionReligion

Pilgrimage of Grace (also about tax independence)Western RebellionWyatt s RebellionIndependence from the centre

Silken Thomas *Northern EarlsShane O Neill *Munster Rebellion *Geraldine Rebellion *Tyrone s rebellion *[* = Irish rebellion]

Dynastic influence at court

Lovell StaffordsSimnelWarbeckLady Jane GreyEssex s rebellionThis classification gives you a broad categorisation which can form the basis of a structured answer, but a sophisticated (high-scoring) answer will push a stage beyond this by looking at other factors. We ll come back to this point later. The second point to make is this: There are 3 broad interpretations of the impact that rebellion had in the Tudor period as a whole. You need to choose ONE of these, or create YOUR OWN COMBINATION of these, and make it the basis of the thesis (argument) of each essay that you write. The interpretations are:

The Tudor state was severely threatened by protest and rebellionThe Tudor state was never seriously threatened by protest and rebellionThe Tudor state only survived the threat of rebellion, but also grew stronger as a result of themPersonally I favour a combination of ii and iii, along the lines of

The Tudor state was rarely threatened by rebellion, and never decisively, but it always feared it. Because of that, it developed a stronger central government, more efficient intelligence service, better propaganda, more sensitive understanding of what the people would find affordable and fair, and greater stability all of which ensured it was far stronger in 1603 than it