Rebellion led by an unlikely hero

February 25, 2004

KETT'S HILL
(Bishop Bridge Road to Plumstead Road)

TRY to imagine the scene. It was the summer of 1549 and Norwich was at the mercy of a Wymondham landowner with his rag-tag army of 20,000 men camped on Mousehold.

Robert Kett musters men at the Oak of Reformation at Mousehold Heath. His army of peasants held Norwich at their mercy, but their rebellion did not succeed.

They held the rich city of Norwich at their mercy . . . and the wealthy were worried.
Robert Kett was the man in charge.

Kett had become the people’s king but how long would his reign last?

Not long.

There were few soldiers in this army, described as a motley throng. They were mostly peasants rising up against the harsh and unfair laws that had driven them from their land.

But Kett managed to establish some kind of discipline over his men.

Clergy from the city were forced to conduct services at the camp and pray for success.

They slaughtered cows and sheep and slept under gorse bushes and among the bracken as they waited to hear from King Edward VI. The king first sent a herald to offer Kett and his rebels a pardon, but Kett said they didn’t need a pardon — they had done nothing wrong.

First the Marquis of Northampton arrived with his 1,500 well-armed and disciplined troops. Kett and his men drove them from the city and he continued to administer rough justice under his Oak of Reformation on Mousehold.

But the end was in sight. Now the Earl of Warwick with his fierce German mercenaries and skilled horsemen were on their way to Norwich.

They took over the city and, in a tragic error of tactics, Kett’s men abandoned Mousehold.

Armed with flails and reaphooks they were no match for these professional fighters.

Warwick’s men cut them to pieces in the slaughter of Dussin’s Dale.

The rebellion had lasted seven weeks and Warwick and his men celebrated with barrels of beer from the Corporation.

Thousands of men were killed. Punishment for the survivors was swift and brutal. And very public.

The day after the victory, nine of the ringleaders were hanged, drawn and quartered at the Oak of Reformation.

Thirty others met the same fate on gallows outside the Magdalen Gates, more at the Market Cross. In all, about 300 were hanged in Norwich.

Robert Kett and his brother William were taken to the Tower of London and convicted of high treason. But justice had to be seen to be done back in Norfolk so the brothers were brought back. William was hung at Wymondham and Robert at Norwich Castle.

Their bodies were left there, gibbeted, until they fell to pieces. Even then there were those who thought the punishment was not harsh enough!

The people never forgot Robert Kett — an unlikely rebel.

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