THE XVTH AND XVlTH CENTURIES 85 



but to fight the question out in their own way. Some 

 assembled in bands, armed themselves and drove off 

 the enclosers, whilst others took part in the local 

 risings that occurred from time to time between 1530 

 and 1560. Of these, the most remarkable was that 

 which took place in Norfolk in 1549, when Robert 

 Ket, lord of the manor of Wymondham, and his 

 brother William gathered 16,000 men into a camp out- 

 side Norwich. He captured, and for a little while 

 dominated the city, whilst his men caught and hanged 

 on the ' Reformers' Tree ' near Wymondham landlords 

 whom they deemed guilty of unjust enclosure. Apart 

 from this extremely arbitrary action, the rising seems 

 to have been orderly and directed towards obtaining 

 definite reforms, not dissimilar from those demanded by 

 Tyler in the XlVth century. Ket asked first for fixed 

 rents, and a small fine only on transfer of land : these 

 two reforms together would have given fixity of tenure 

 to the peasant families the dream of the tenants 

 of England in all generations. Further, the peasants' 

 common rights were not to be prejudiced by the lord 

 stocking the commons with his beasts and sheep ; 

 whilst rabbits, at that time considered a nuisance, 

 were to be preserved only on land properly fenced in. 

 Further than this Ket like Tyler protested against the 

 holding of land by the Church and, also like Tyler, 

 claimed freedom for all men. Moreover, the peasants 

 asked that commissioners should be appointed to ad- 

 minister the law on enclosures a course, as has been 

 seen, subsequently adopted. The government, after some 

 hesitation and negotiation with Ket, decided to crush 

 the movement, and sent the Earl of Warwick to Norwich 

 with a force which was strengthened by 1,400 German 

 mercenaries. The peasants were easily beaten by the 



