Coventry Lammas Day Rebellion 1525 #1

On Lammas Day in 1525, a rebellion began in Coventry. Sir Henry Willoughby was one of the people sent by King Henry VIII to quell this rebellion. A number of documents relating to this, either in the form of letters in the Middleton Manuscripts or entries within the Middleton accounts, have survived. In a series of posts relating to this event, we will be highlighting these records, but first: What was the Coventry Lammas Day Rebellion of 1525?

This rebellion was one of many urban riots against the enclosure of the commons that occurred in the century before the more well-known riots over enclosures in the rural areas. The spark for these urban riots emerged from the substantial increase and the stability of the price of wool in challenging financial times in the 15th century and the conflict this caused with common grazing rights. However, this Coventry riot in particular was considered to have been much more serious than previous riots against enclosures and of a much more general nature against the ruling inhabitants of the town.

Coventry lacked arable land within the town walls but it did have pasture. After the grain harvest, the landowners of the fields around the town were, by custom, expected to open the gates to their fields and allow others to graze their sheep, cattle or horses on the fields as common land. These custom common grazing rights on meadowland normally lasted from Lammas Day (1st August) to Candlemas (2nd February). However, this meant that landowners were unable to graze their own animals on this land after the grain harvest.

A map of Coventry by John Speed, c.1611, PD, via Wikimedia Commons.

Coventry’s major industry was cloth and those of that industry, both townspeople as well as local magnates, desired more land to be available to sheep farming. Therefore, in order to increase town prosperity by not only helping its industry but also the town finances directly, town leaders were aware of the possibility and opportunity of maximising profits from the common land. They thus permitted, in ever-increasing volume, enclosure of common land in return for half-yearly rents from the landowners. By 1480, it was reported that over half of Coventry’s previous common land had already been enclosed to enable more sheep farming by landowners.

What followed, on what was described as the “Ill Lammas Day” of 1525 in the Coventry chronicle, was that the “commoners”, angered by the taking of a specific land that had previously been common, rose up and not only pulled down the gates and hedges that bound the common land but they also closed the town gates, prevented the chamberlains from entering the town and stormed St Mary’s Hall. They broke down the doors to the Hall and removed “the Box”, which contained the money that had been received for the use of the common land. When captured, the Box contained about £60 (about £26,476 today). However, it has been suggested that rather than its financial value, the Box had significantly more symbolic value as a representation of the civic leaders’ active participation in restricting the historic rights, freedoms and customs of the people of Coventry.

Further Reading: Christian D. Liddy, "Urban enclosure riots: Risings of the commons in English towns, 1480-1525", 2015. Past & Present: A Journal of Historical Studies, 226(1), 41-77. https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtu038

Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.

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