‘Fullye Bente to Fighte Oute the Matter’: Reconsidering Cornwall’s Role in the Western Rebellion of 1549

Abstract This article brings new evidence to bear on the Western Rebellion—the popular insurrection which convulsed Devon, Cornwall and areas of West Somerset during the summer of 1549 and which is today more commonly known as the ‘Prayer Book Rebellion’. The article argues that, while the rising is one of the most famous mass protests to have occurred during the Tudor period and has been very widely written about and discussed, the standard narrative of events—which was first laid down by Frances Rose-Troup a century ago—is in need of fundamental revision, particularly in so far as it pertains to Cornwall. More specifically, it argues that the orthodox view which holds that the insurrection began in Cornwall on 6 June, that the Cornish rebel forces quickly suppressed all resistance in their own county, and that they then marched into Devon just a few days later, is almost certainly wrong. Instead, it is suggested here that rebellion did not break out in Cornwall until some time subsequent to 26 June; that at least one loyalist garrison in the county remained stubbornly defiant thereafter; and that the Cornish rebel host did not advance across the Tamar until early to mid-July—a full month later than the standard interpretation suggests. The article concludes by casting fresh light on the government’s defeat of the insurrectionists in August, and by considering some of the wider implications of the revised chronology of events which has been put forward here.