A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



reasons. Of course there is the alternative that Kett was dragged into it, 

 and after he had been elected leader had no choice but to go on, though this 

 does not appear to have been the case. Kett himself was of a wealthy family 

 known as Le Cath or Knight, settled some time at Wymondham. He and 

 his brother William were well-to-do men, and curiously enough he held a 

 manor at Wymondham of the very earl of Warwick who eventually defeated 

 and captured him. 



As soon as Kett took command he seems to have acted with great 

 decision and promptitude. Having done much damage at Wymondham and 

 Hethersett and in the neighbouring villages, he came on lo July' to 

 Bowthorpe and encamped there. Here the rebels threatened to burn down 

 Magdalen Chapel at Sprouston, recently granted to John Corbett, and turned 

 by him into a dovecote." The quickset hedge and ditches that enclosed the 

 common pasture of the city, called the Town Close, appear to have been 

 destroyed on the preceding day by sympathizers in Norwich, many of whom 

 slipped out secretly to join Kett.* A passage through the city to Mousehold 

 ' was now demanded, but Thomas Codd, the mayor of Norwich, boldly refused 

 to let the rebels pass through, ' upbraiding them with many sharp and bitter 

 words for their disorders ' ; * so they worked round by Hellesdon Bridge and 

 Drayton to Mousehold, making their head quarters at the late earl of Surrey's 

 newly-built house on the top of St. Leonard's Hill, called ' Mount Surrey," 

 and at the chapel of St. MichaeP (now in the garden of the manager of the 

 gas works), afterwards called 'Kett's Castle' — two spots of very great natural 

 strength, which would have been practically impregnable from the city, 

 overlooking and commanding the Bishop's Bridge. One of their first acts 

 was to make the minister of St. Martin's at Palace Plain their chaplain, 

 joined with Mr, Robert Watson, ' a new preacher,' * who seems to have been 

 in touch with the court, possibly as an intermediary, for a pursuivant 

 brought him 'a commission for reformation of various things' on 12 July.'" 

 They also, either by compulsion or otherwise, persuaded Codd, the mayor, 

 to join in their councils, and actually listened to and sometimes called for his 

 advice.* 



All this, and the fact that Kett, when he sent out orders to collect 

 provisions, had the orders signed by delegates, two for each hundred, 

 shows in how orderly a way the whole rising was managed.' Meanwhile, 

 the petition given above was prepared and sent to the king, who replied 

 expressing surprise that the petitioners should have risen against him, 

 considering that he had already issued proclamations touching most of the 

 things complained of, promising further legislation, expressing his willingness 

 to receive suggestions for further remedial acts, but pressing them to disperse 

 and go home, even sending them a conditional pardon in anticipation.'" 



This reached the camp on 21 July, and the offer of pardon was 

 apparently made viva voce by a herald very boldly and in no measured terms, 

 for on Kett fiercely refusing the offer by saying, ' Kings are wont to pardon 

 wicked persons, not innocent and just men,' and so on, the herald charged him 



' Nevylle, op. cit. 23. * Russell, op. cit. 31. 



' Nevylle, op. cit. 23, 24. ' Russell, op. cit. 33. 



' Ibid. 37. « Ibid. 38. ' Ibid. 39. 



• Ibid. 40. • Ibid. 47. '" Ibid. 58, 59. 



496 



