Cornish rebellions, 1497-1648
Cornish rebellions, 1497-1648
May 1997 sees the 500th anniversary of the Cornish rising of 1497, a rebellion which not only came close to toppling Henry VII from his throne, but which also marked the beginning of a remarkable series of insurrections in the far south-west. Cornwall was a county which had never risen in arms before. Yet over the next 150 years no fewer than five major rebellions were to take place there, while 'rebel' Cornish armies were to march into England on four separate occasions.
Why should this have been so? Few historians have ever thought to ask. Rather than viewing these periodic eruptions as part of an ongoing tradition of popular protest, most scholars have preferred to see them as isolated, almost unrelated, events. Yet, as this article will show, the frequency with which Cornwall was convulsed by rebellion during the Tudor and Stuart periods can only be explained in terms of that county's unique position within the early modern British state.
Of all the counties of southern England, Cornwall is the most remote and inaccessible. Writing in 1647, Joshua Sprigg described it thus:
A country ... whose natural situation is very strong and apt for defence, being ... enwrapt with the sea on all sides, except towards Devonshire, and there bounded by the River Tamar, which in a right line runs almost from sea to sea.
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Stoyle, Mark
95be1cdc-0205-4d36-b505-b1ddb4cde508
May 1997
Stoyle, Mark
95be1cdc-0205-4d36-b505-b1ddb4cde508
Stoyle, Mark
(1997)
Cornish rebellions, 1497-1648.
History Today, 47 (5), .
Abstract
May 1997 sees the 500th anniversary of the Cornish rising of 1497, a rebellion which not only came close to toppling Henry VII from his throne, but which also marked the beginning of a remarkable series of insurrections in the far south-west. Cornwall was a county which had never risen in arms before. Yet over the next 150 years no fewer than five major rebellions were to take place there, while 'rebel' Cornish armies were to march into England on four separate occasions.
Why should this have been so? Few historians have ever thought to ask. Rather than viewing these periodic eruptions as part of an ongoing tradition of popular protest, most scholars have preferred to see them as isolated, almost unrelated, events. Yet, as this article will show, the frequency with which Cornwall was convulsed by rebellion during the Tudor and Stuart periods can only be explained in terms of that county's unique position within the early modern British state.
Of all the counties of southern England, Cornwall is the most remote and inaccessible. Writing in 1647, Joshua Sprigg described it thus:
A country ... whose natural situation is very strong and apt for defence, being ... enwrapt with the sea on all sides, except towards Devonshire, and there bounded by the River Tamar, which in a right line runs almost from sea to sea.
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Published date: May 1997
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History
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Local EPrints ID: 373031
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/373031
ISSN: 0018-2753
PURE UUID: d2999eb3-f648-4611-a2e8-67e53a9c8d06
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Date deposited: 06 Jan 2015 13:15
Last modified: 11 Dec 2021 05:46
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