| Lavenham Revolt | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the resistance to the Amicable Grant | |||
 Lavenham church where the bells were not rung | |||
| Date | 1525 | ||
| Location | |||
| Caused by | Opposition to the Amicable Grant (forced loan) | ||
| Methods | Taxpayer strike and armed protest | ||
| Resulted in | Rebellion suppressed; Amicable Grant abandoned | ||
| Parties | |||
| |||
| Lead figures | |||
Local taxpayers and artisans | |||
| Casualties and losses | |||
| |||
| About 10,000 rebels gathered at Lavenham before dispersing. | |||
The Lavenham Revolt was a serious disturbance centered on Lavenham in Suffolk in 1525 as a result of a forced loan to the government called the Amicable Grant.
Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk, was able to collect the payments of the grant from the wealthy clothiers of Suffolk. Though this led to the clothiers having to return home and inform their workers that they could no longer afford to keep paying them for their labor. [1] This in part helped to provoke an open rebellion in Suffolk and a taxpayer strike, which spread to the borders of Essex and Cambridgeshire.
In the most serious rebellion in England since 1497, 10,000 men converged on the major trading town of Lavenham. An eyewitness reported that the militants only failed because loyal townsmen led by Sir John Spring had removed the clappers from the bells of Lavenham church, which were to have been rung to signal the start of the uprising. [2]
The rebellion was eventually crushed by the Brandon and Thomas Howard the Duke of Norfolk together with local gentry families such as the Springs, [3] but the rebels had made their point. Discontent in London prompted Henry VIII to halve the demands to save some of the tax, before deciding to abandon it altogether. [4] The Tudor government was also forced to reduce the payments for the 1523 subsidy in order to quell the outrage. At the end of May, the rising's ringleaders were brought before the Star Chamber and pardoned. Cardinal Wolsey led an ostentatious ceremony of reconciliation, begging the king for pardon for his fellow Suffolk men, even supplying them with more than enough cash to cover their time in gold and a piece of silver. [5]
