Prayer Book Rebellion

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The Prayer Book Rebellion or Western Rebellion was a popular rising occurred in the southwest of England in 1549.

In the 1540s the government of Edward VI introduced a range of legislative measures as an extension of the Protestant Reformation in England & Wales, the primary aim being to remove certain practices from the church which were perceived as being too Catholic. In 1549 the Book of Common Prayer in English replaced the four old liturgical books in Latin. The change was widely unpopular amongst religious conservatives — particularly in areas of traditionally Catholic religious loyalty, for example, in Devon and Cornwall.

Some commentators believe that the roots of the rebellion can be traced back to the Cornish Rebellion of 1497 and the subsequent destruction of monasteries from 1536 through to 1545 which brought an end to the formal scholarship that had sustained the Cornish and Devonian cultural identities. The smashing and looting of colleges like Glasney and Crantock played a significant part in fermenting opposition to future cultural reforms. Apart from being missed as centres of indigenous culture, many would have seen these institutions as being a bridge to the Celtic past, a link to a time before the perceived imperial overlords achieved ascendancy, back even to the Christianised paganism of their forefathers.

When traditional religious processions and pilgrimages were banned, commissioners were sent out to remove all symbols of Roman Catholicism. Within Cornwall, this task was given to William Body, whose perceived desecration of religious shrines angered many. The anger was great enough that on April 5, 1548 Body was murdered by William Kylter and Pascoe Trevian at Helston.

Immediate retribution followed with the execution of twenty eight Cornishmen at Castle Terrible. One execution of a perceived "traitor of Cornwall" occurred on Plymouth Hoe — town accounts give details of the cost of timber for both gallows and poles. Martin Geoffrey, the priest of St Keverne - near Helston, was taken to London. After execution his head was impaled on a staff erected upon London Bridge.

Cornwall at this time was not majority English speaking, provoking a reaction to the introduction of English to the service. Certainly in Cornwall this provided a major reason for the rebellion. The articles of the rebels states: "and we the cornyshe men (whereof certen of vs vnderstande no Englysh) vtterly refuse thys new english". However, the Duke of Somerset's reply asked why the Cornishmen should be offended for having the service in English rather than Cornish, when they had before had it in Latin and not understood that?

The new prayer book was not uniformly adopted, and in 1549 the Act of Uniformity made it illegal, from Whitsunday 1549, to use the old prayer book. A number of magistrates were given the task of enforcing the change.

Following the enforced change on Whitsunday 1549, on Whitmonday the parishioners of Sampford Courtenay in Devon convinced the priest to revert to the old ways, likening the English prayer book to "but a Christmas game". Justices arrived at the next service to enforce the change. An altercation at the service led to a proponent of the change (William Hellyons) being killed (by being run through with a pitchfork) on the church steps.

Following this confrontation a group of parishioners from Sampford Courtenay decided to march to Exeter to protest against the introduction of the new prayer book. As the group of rebels moved through Devon they gained large numbers of supporters and became a significant force.

Marching east to Crediton, the Devon rebels lay siege to Exeter, demanding the withdrawal of all English manuscripts. Although a number of the inhabitants in Exeter sent a message of support to the rebels, the city refused to open its gates. The gates were to stay closed because of the seige for over a month.

Both in Cornwall and Devon, the issue of the Book of Common Prayer seems to have been the straw that broke the Camel's back. To decades of oppression were recently added two years of rampant inflation, in which prices had doubled. Along with the rapid enclosure of common lands, the attacks on the Church, which was felt to be central to the rural community, lead to an explosion of anger.

In Cornwall, an army gathered at Bodmin under the leadership of the mayor, Henry Bray, and two staunch Catholic landowners, Sir Humprey Arundell of Helland and John Winslade of Tregarrick.

Many of the gentry with their families sought protection in the old castles. Some shut themselves in St Michael's Mount where the rebels besieged them, and a bewildering smoke-screen made of burning trusses of hay, combined with a shortage of food and the women's distress, forced them to surrender. Sir Richard Grenville found refuge in ruinous Trematon. Deserted by many of his followers, the unwieldy old man was enticed outside to parley. He was seized; the castle surprised, the ladies stripped of their finery, and the men, including Sir Richard, were bundled into Launceston gaol. The Cornish army then proceeded to march east across the Tamar border into Devon to join with the Devon rebels near Crediton.

The slogan "Kill all the gentleman and we will have the Six Articles up again and ceremonies as they were in King Henry VIII's time" highlights the religious aims of the rebellion. However it also implies a social cause (a view supported by historians such as Guy and Fletcher). That later demands included limiting the size of gentry households — theoretically beneficial in a time of population growth and unemployment — suggests a possible attack on the prestige of the gentry. Certainly such contemporaries as Thomas Cranmer took this view, condemning the rebels as deliberately inciting class conflict in this demand, "to diminish their strength and to take away their friends, that you might command gentlemen at your pleasures".

In London, King Edward VI (Henry VIII's son) and his Privy Council became alarmed by this news from the West Country. On instructions from the Lord Protector the Duke of Somerset, one of the Privy Councillors, Sir Gawain Carew, was ordered to pacify the rebels. At the same time Lord John Russell was ordered to take an army, composed mainly of German and Italian mercenaries, and impose a military solution.

The rebels were largely farmers armed with little more than pitchforks and in an initial skirmish the mercenary arquebusiers killed over a thousand at Crediton.

Confronations then also took place at Fenny Bridges (where the the result of the conflict was inconclusive, but 300 rebels were reported to have died), and subsequently at Clyst St Mary (where over a 1,000 rebels were reported to have been killed).

On 5 August, the final engagement came; the rebels were outmanoeuvred and surrounded. Lord Grey reported himself that he never in all the wars that he had been did he know the like. A group of Devon men went north up the valley of the Exe, where they were overtaken by Sir Gawen Carew, who left the corpses of their leaders hanging on gibbets from Dunster to Bath.

The Cornishmen under Arundell along with a number of the surviving Devon rebels re-formed and took position back at Sampford Courtenay, the village some fifteen miles north west of Exeter where the rebellion had started. Russell advanced with his troops, now reinforced with a strong contingent of Welshmen. After a desperate fight stormed the village on the evening of 17 August, the rebels were broken; many escaped including Arundell, who fled to Launceston. There he was to be captured and taken to London with Winslade, who was caught at Bodmin.

1,300 died at Sampford Courtenay and 300 at Fenny Bridges. Further orders were issued on behalf of the king by the Lord Protector, the Duke of Somerset, and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer for the continuance of the onslaught. Under Sir Anthony Kingston, English and mercenary forces then moved throughout Devon and into Cornwall and executed or killed many people before the bloodshed finally ceased. Proposals to translate the Prayer Book into Cornish were also suppressed. In total 4,000 people lost their lives in the rebellion.