Edward VI & The Prayer Book Rebellion
Not Just the Tudors
History Hit
4.8 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 24 October 2022
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The so-called “Prayer Book Rebellion” of 1549 saw the people of Devon and Cornwall rising up against the young King Edward VI, determined to halt the religious reforms of the Tudor period. The rebellion led to a siege of Exeter, savage battles with Crown forces, and the deaths of 4,000 local men and women.
In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Dr. Mark Stoyle, whose new book A Murderous Midsummer: The Western Rising of 1549 offers a definitive account of the year that thousands of men and women rose to defend their faith and their regional identity.
The Senior Producer was Elena Guthrie. It was edited and produced by Rob Weinberg.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In the summer of 1549, hundreds of people in Devon and Cornwall began |
| 0:08.5 | demonstrating against changes being imposed by King Edward VI and his protector, |
| 0:13.6 | Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset. In some places, people were so upset that they |
| 0:19.2 | turned to violence. As frustrations grew, more and more people joined the so-called |
| 0:23.9 | rebels who dug in just outside of Exeter and went on to face battle with forces |
| 0:29.1 | sent by the King. Traditional histories of this event called it the prayer book |
| 0:33.8 | rebellion. Suggesting that people were angry with the new book of common prayer |
| 0:37.8 | written by Thomas Krammer and introduced by Edward VI for Protestant worship, |
| 0:43.1 | but names can be misleading, for there was a great deal more to the rising than |
| 0:47.2 | the new prayer book. In fact, this podcast will challenge much of what we think we |
| 0:52.1 | know about the prayer book rebellion, calling it the Western Rising. Today's guest |
| 0:56.8 | will share fresh ideas about its causes, events and aftershocks, as well as |
| 1:02.2 | the stories of some of the individuals who were part of such a murderous mid-summer. |
| 1:06.4 | I'm delighted to welcome Mark Stoyle, Professor of History at Southampton |
| 1:11.6 | University. Mark's research interests span the English Civil War, witchcraft |
| 1:16.3 | and Tudor rebellions, and he's currently one of the co-investigators on a |
| 1:19.8 | major Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project, conflict, welfare |
| 1:24.6 | and memory, maimed soldiers and war widows of the English Civil Wars 1642 to |
| 1:30.5 | 1700. He served on the Council of the Royal Historical Society on the |
| 1:35.2 | Editorial Advisory Panel of BBC History magazine and has appeared on more than |
| 1:40.3 | 50 radio and TV programs. Today he'll be talking to us about his book |
| 1:44.9 | Emergerous Mid-Summer, the Western Rising of 1549, which was published this year. |
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