PEASANT REVOLTS 151 



gone where they had fed — the yeoman dispossessed of 

 liis farm ; the farm servant out of employment, because 

 where ten ploughs had turned the soil, one shepherd 

 now watched the grazing of the flocks ; the artisan 

 smarting under famine prices which the change of 

 culture had brought with it ; — all these were united in 

 suffering ; while the gentlemen were doubling, trebling, 

 quadrupling their incomes with their sheep-farms, and 

 adorning their persons and their houses with splendour 

 hitherto unknown."^ 



The story of this rebellion has been often told. 

 Holinshed, of all the chroniclers, describes the revolt 

 in the most bitter terms of condemnation, and smirches 

 the character of the insurgents with an acerbity that is 

 almost grotesque. Following, mainly, his long and 

 full account, the events of the rebellion may be con- 

 densed as follows: — In July, 1549, the peasantry 

 assembled — sixteen thousand "ungratious unthrifts " 

 — and entered on their " wicked enterprise." Having 

 formed a camp at Moushold, near Norwich, and 

 fortified it, they scoured the country around, destroyed 

 inclosures, filled in ditches, levelled fences, etc. Kett 

 formed a representative council, v/hose duty was to 

 regulate the affairs of the camp, to keep strict order, 

 and to punish offenders. Reappointed special squads 

 of men with authority to range over the country and 

 bring in cattle, food, and other supplies which were to 

 be taken from the "gentlemen," their enemies, but 

 nothinor was to be touched which belongred to the 

 peasantry or other honest cultivators of the soil. 

 Reofular council meetings were held under an oak 

 tree, "called afterwards the Tree of Reformation." 

 Here matters concerning the government of the camp 



^ Froude's " History of England," Vol. V, p. 201. 



