England's Greatest Rebellions: When the People Said "Enough!"
Let's face it, if there's one thing the English have excelled at over the centuries, it's standing up to authority when pushed too far. From outraged peasants to ambitious nobles, England's history is punctuated by dramatic uprisings that remind us: people have limits.
Here's your guide to the rebellions that shook the realm, each with the same combustible mix of grievance, charisma, and (usually) terrible endings.
The Peasants' Revolt (1381)
What sparked it: A crushing poll tax (the third in four years) dropped on people already reeling from the Black Death and economic chaos. Think of it as the medieval equivalent of raising taxes during a recession, while the rich got richer.
The leader: Wat Tyler, a man from Kent with nothing to lose and everything to rage about. Alongside him was John Ball, a radical priest whose sermons about equality ("When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?") went viral in medieval England.
The followers: Peasants, artisans, and townspeople from across the Southeast. These weren't random rioters, they were organised, angry, and had legitimate grievances about exploitation.
Duration: About a month of chaos (June 1381)
How it ended: Badly. Young King Richard II met with the rebels at Smithfield, where Wat Tyler was struck down during negotiations (murdered, let's be honest). Without their leader, the revolt crumbled. Richard promptly reneged on all his promises, and ringleaders were hunted down and executed. The lesson? Never trust a 14-year-old king's word.
Location: Kent and Essex, culminating in London (they literally stormed the Tower and executed the Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Sudbury)
Jack Cade's Rebellion (1450)
What sparked it: Government corruption, military disasters in France, and a weak king (Henry VI) who couldn't control his rapacious nobles. Sound familiar?
The leader: Jack Cade, possibly from Kent or Ireland, his background is murky, which was probably intentional. He used the alias "John Mortimer" to suggest noble backing.
The followers: Men from Kent and Sussex fed up with corrupt tax collectors and losing the Hundred Years' War. They weren't revolutionaries, they wanted better government, not regime change.
Duration: About two months (May-July 1450)
How it ended: Cade's rebels actually took London and executed some royal ministers. But when they started looting, Londoners turned against them. Cade was promised a pardon if he disbanded his forces (spoiler: it was a trap). He fled, was captured, and died from his wounds while being transported to London. His body was quartered as a traitor, because nothing says "legitimate government" like mutilating corpses.
Location: Kent to London, then a fatal flight into Sussex
The Cornish Rebellion (1497)
What sparked it: Henry VII demanded taxes to fund a war against Scotland. The Cornish, about as far from Scotland as you can get in England, basically said: "Not our problem, mate."
The leader: Michael Joseph An Gof (a blacksmith) and Thomas Flamank (a lawyer). One knew how to forge weapons, the other knew the law, a dangerous combination.
The followers: Cornish commoners who saw no reason they should pay for a northern war. Along the march, they picked up a nobleman, Lord Audley, who added some military credibility.
Duration: About two months (May-June 1497)
How it ended: They marched all the way to London, an incredible 300+ miles, with numbers swelling to 15,000. But Henry VII's army crushed them at the Battle of Deptford Bridge. The leaders were executed. Lord Audley got the full traitor's death. The blacksmith and lawyer were hanged. Cornwall got the message: pay your taxes.
Location: Cornwall to Kent, ending at Deptford
The Pilgrimage of Grace (1536)
What sparked it: Henry VIII's religious revolution. He'd broken with Rome, dissolved the monasteries (seizing their wealth), and imposed Protestant reforms on a largely Catholic north. For northerners, monasteries weren't just religious centres: they were hospitals, schools, and economic engines.
The leader: Robert Aske, a lawyer from Yorkshire with the charisma to unite nobles and commoners under one banner. He called it a "pilgrimage," not a rebellion, brilliant PR that framed it as a religious quest.
The followers: Around 40,000 people from Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, the largest rebellion England had ever seen. Nobles, monks, peasants, all united by faith and fear of change.
Duration: October 1536 to early 1537
How it ended: Henry VIII, that master manipulator, promised negotiations and pardons. Once the rebels disbanded, he unleashed brutal reprisals. Aske was hanged in chains at York. Hundreds were executed. The monasteries stayed dissolved. Lesson: Henry VIII's promises had expiration dates.
Location: Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, with York as the symbolic heart
Kett's Rebellion (1549)
What sparked it: Enclosure; wealthy landowners fencing off common land that peasants depended on for grazing and survival. It was agrarian capitalism steamrolling traditional rights, and people were furious.
The leader: Robert Kett, a prosperous tanner from Norfolk who started by tearing down enclosure fences (including his own). A rich man siding with the poor? That got attention.
The followers: Norfolk farmers and commoners, around 16,000 strong. They weren't mindless rebels, they drew up a list of 29 demands addressing economic grievances and government reform, although only one of the grievances related to enclosures.
Duration: July to August 1549
How it ended: Kett's forces set up camp outside Norwich and briefly controlled the city. But the Crown sent an army led by the Earl of Warwick (later Duke of Northumberland), which crushed the rebellion with professional soldiers and (foreign) mercenaries. Kett was hanged from Norwich Castle. Hundreds of rebels were executed. The enclosures continued.
Location: Norfolk, centered on Norwich
Want to experience this rebellion up close? My 4th novella Absolution (publication planned for late 2025) brings John Dee into Norwich during the aftermath of the rebellion.
Wyatt's Rebellion (1554)
What sparked it: Queen Mary I's planned marriage to Philip of Spain. The thought of a foreign king (from Catholic Spain, no less) terrified many English Protestants and nationalists. This was Brexit-level anxiety about sovereignty and national identity.
The leader: Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger, a Kentish gentleman and soldier. He had the military experience and family name to rally support.
The followers: Kentish gentlemen and common folk united by anti-Spanish sentiment and Protestant sympathies. The planned uprising was supposed to be multi-regional, but only Kent actually rose.
Duration: About a month (January-February 1554)
How it ended: Wyatt marched on London with about 3,000 men, got within striking distance of Queen Mary, but failed to take the city. His forces melted away. He surrendered and was executed at Tower Hill. Lady Jane Grey, the "Nine Days' Queen," was also executed in the aftermath, as collateral damage. Mary married Philip anyway.
Location: Kent to the gates of London (Ludgate).
Want the full story? My novel Insurrection plunges you into the conspiracy, paranoia, and last-ditch courage of Wyatt's doomed uprising.
The Northern Rebellion (1569)
What sparked it: Elizabeth I's Protestant settlement and the imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scots. Northern Catholic nobles wanted the old religion back and Mary on the throne.
The leaders: The Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland, ancient northern families with deep Catholic roots and fading power.
The followers: Mostly northern Catholics, both nobles and commoners, clinging to the old faith. But this was also about northern grievance against southern, Protestant control.
Duration: About six weeks (November-December 1569)
How it ended: Badly for everyone involved. Elizabeth's forces crushed the rebellion. The earls fled to Scotland. Around 600 rebels were executed, Elizabeth made an example of them. Mary stayed imprisoned (for another 18 years before her date with the axe. Think about that for a moment... 18 years imprisoned after asking a fellow-Queen for help. No wonder she tried to engineer escape attempts!). The old northern Catholic power was broken forever.
Location: Durham and Yorkshire
Essex's Rebellion (1601)
What sparked it: Wounded pride, debt, and political desperation. Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, was Queen Elizabeth's former favorite who'd fallen from grace after military failures in Ireland.
The leader: Essex himself; charismatic, reckless, and convinced he could force his way back into power.
The followers: About 300 supporters, mostly gentlemen and followers bound to Essex personally. This was more palace coup than popular uprising.
Duration: One day (February 8, 1601), possibly England's shortest rebellion
How it ended: Spectacularly badly. Essex tried to raise London, but Londoners locked their doors. He was trapped, surrendered, and executed within three weeks. Elizabeth, now in her late 60s, was in no mood for mercy. Essex's rebellion showed how dangerous it was to confuse personal loyalty with political support.
Location: London, mostly around Essex House on the Strand
The Monmouth Rebellion (1685)
What sparked it: The accession of Catholic James II. James Scott, Duke of Monmouth (illegitimate son of Charles II), claimed the throne, positioning himself as the Protestant alternative.
The leader: Monmouth himself; handsome, Protestant, and popular, but completely out of his depth as a military commander.
The followers: Mostly Protestant farmers and artisans from the West Country. These were sincere people who believed they were fighting for their faith and against tyranny.
Duration: About five weeks (June-July 1685)
How it ended: Monmouth's untrained peasant army was slaughtered at the Battle of Sedgemoor by James II's professional troops. Monmouth was captured hiding in a ditch, begged pathetically for his life, and was executed. Then came the Bloody Assizes, Judge Jeffreys' reign of terror that executed around 150 rebels and transported hundreds more. It was brutal, even by 17th-century standards.
Location: Somerset and Dorset
The Jacobite Rebellions (1715, 1745)
What sparked them: Catholic exiles and Scottish clans trying to restore the Stuart dynasty after Protestant William of Orange (1688) and then the Hanoverians (1714) took the throne.
The leaders:
- 1715: John Erskine, Earl of Mar; nicknamed "Bobbing John" for his political flip-flopping
- 1745: Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie"); the romantic but delusional grandson of James II
The followers: Highland clans, some Lowland Scots, English Catholics, and romantics who believed in the Stuart cause (or just hated the Hanoverians).
Duration:
- 1715: About six months
- 1745: About ten months (1745-1746)
How they ended:
- 1715: Fizzled out after indecisive battles. Mar proved to be a terrible military leader. Many leaders fled to France.
- 1745: Started brilliantly. Bonnie Prince Charlie marched all the way to Derby (just 125 miles from London). But his advisors convinced him to retreat to Scotland. The Hanoverian army, led by the Duke of Cumberland, caught them at Culloden (April 1746) and slaughtered the Highland army. "Butcher Cumberland" then devastated Highland culture; banning tartans, destroying clans, and ending the Scottish clan system forever.
Location: Scotland, with the '45 pushing deep into England before retreating
What They All Tell Us
Looking at these rebellions across four centuries, some patterns emerge that feel uncomfortably familiar:
Economic pressure breaks people. Whether it's poll taxes, enclosures, or war levies, when people can't feed their families, rebellion stops being scary and starts looking necessary.
Identity matters. Religion, nationality, regional pride; these aren't abstract concepts. People will fight when they feel their way of life is under attack. The Cornish marching against Scottish wars, Catholics rising against Protestant reforms, and English paranoia about Spanish Philip all prove this.
Trust is everything (and easily broken). Nearly every rebellion here involved broken promises from the Crown. Pardon offers that turned into death warrants taught people a cynical lesson: power doesn't negotiate in good faith.
Timing is everything. Weak kings (Henry VI), distracted monarchs (Edward VI's regency), or moments of transition (Mary I's accession) create windows of opportunity. Strong rulers like Henry VIII or Elizabeth I crushed rebellions because they acted decisively.
Nobility matters, but isn't enough. Some rebellions had nobles (Pilgrimage of Grace, Northern Rebellion), some didn't (Peasants' Revolt, Kett's Rebellion). Noble backing helped with legitimacy and military expertise, but it didn't guarantee success.
The state always wins. That's the grim truth. Every single one of these rebellions failed. The Crown had professional armies, resources, and the ruthlessness to make examples of leaders. Rebels might gain temporary victories, but the long-term outcome was always the same: hangings, executions, and stern reminders of who held power.
But the state also listens (sometimes). Many rebellions, even failed ones, forced changes. The Peasants' Revolt scared elites into easing up on labour laws. The Pilgrimage of Grace made Henry VIII more careful about religious changes. Failed rebellions often succeeded in their broader goals, just not in the way rebels hoped.
The story of English rebellions is the story of ordinary people deciding they'd had enough and discovering that "enough" comes with a terrible price. Whether they were right to rebel is a question each generation has to answer for itself. But their courage, desperation, and doomed hope remind us that change has never been free.
And that sometimes, just sometimes, the people who lose the battle end up winning the war of memory.