The Essex Rebellion

1. The Country.

Writing in Charles I’s reign, Bishop Goodman commented that ‘the people were very generally weary of an old woman’s government.’  There was quite a feeling of looking forward to a new reign, whenever that would be.

The 1590s were a period of economic difficulties.  A rising population faced a series of bad harvests; a set of Poor Laws was issued, but had little effect.  There were various rumblings throughout the late 1580s and 1590s.  These were not serious, but the government was paranoid about vagrancy and insurrection, and had thus a tendency to over-react.

• 1586:  food riots in Glos, Wilts and Somerset.

• 1595:  food riots in London, South-East and South-West.

• 1596-7:  food riots in East Anglia, West Country, Kent/ Sussex.  (Kett’s name was mentioned by the rioters.)

• 1596 ‘Oxfordshire Rising’:  more in the minds of the authorities than the rebels!  In the end, only 4 rebels actually assembled, and they were quickly rounded up.  They were also of husbandman/ labourer class, so had no influence.  (The issue at stake was enclosure.)

Despite the Elizabethan Religious Settlement of 1559, religion was not very settled.  Many establishment figures – bishops and other leading clergy, and councillors such as Burghley and Leicester – wanted to push for full-on Protestantism.  Others, including the Earl of Northumberland (vid. Northern Rising), wanted a return to Catholicism.  The issue of religion became more crucial from the late 1580s, when Spain declared war with England.

Ireland was being a problem.  The policy of colonization started by Mary was unpopular with the Irish, and gave them fresh impetus to rise up against the English.  At their head was the Earl of Tyrone.

The House of Commons continued to take itself seriously.  It kept demanding things, such as the settlement of the succession, and was beginning to get exercised over monopolies.  Relations with the Queen were not always harmonious.

2. The Court.

Generally, Elizabeth's courtiers/ councillors agreed with each other – usually disagreeing with her! The chief chaps were the Earl of Leicester (d.1588), Sir Francis Walsingham (d.1590) and William Cecil, Lord Burghley (d.1598). Note - they were all Protestant.

In the 1590s, the consensus of the councillors was interrupted by Elizabeth's new favourite, the Earl of Essex. He started out on good terms with the Cecils - after all, he had been Leicester's protogé. But tensions gradually developed between Essex and, in particular, Robert Cecil, Burghley's son.

A reason for this was the succession to Burghley's position as chief minister. It passed to Robert Cecil, despite Essex's efforts. Essex was highly ambitious and wanted supremacy himself.

Another reason was war. On the one hand, there was the 'peace party', led by Burghley. (Elizabeth was tending towards them.) On the other, there was the 'offensive-war party', viz. the Earl of Essex (the Hero).

Signs that relations between Essex and the Cecils were deteriorating occur in the amazingly complicated and interesting Lopez plot of the early 1590s , which you can read about here.

Basically, the Cecils had no quarrel with Essex - it was his overwheening ambition (I would suggest) which caused the problems.

3. The Earl of Essex.

Born in 1566 to Walter, 1st Earl of Essex, and Lettice Knollys. Walter died in 1576; in 1580, Lettice married Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Leicester introduced Essex to Court in 1584, and then took him on campaign to the Netherlands in 1585. Essex showed military aptitude, and played key role in the campaigns of the late 1580s in Netherlands and Spain, and of the 1590s in Ireland. In 1599, Elizabeth appointed him Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

Essex was bright, witty, charming and dashing, but also hot-headed, arrogant and a little spoilt - in Elizabeth's words, 'a rash and temerarious youth'. He was not particularly adept at tackling the real world - he much preferred his world of chivalric fantasy (witness his mass-knightings in Ireland!), starring himself as The Hero. He had a tendency to be over-familiar with Elizabeth - even to the extent of disobeying her on occasion. One such occasion was the rebellion of the Earl of Tyrone.

In 1598, the Irish had defeated the English at Yellow Ford. So Elizabeth sent Essex to rectify the situation. Unfortunately, Essex made a right hash of it. He pithered around with irrelevant garrisoning, wasting money and time, rather than bashing Tyrone. He then went against Elizabeth's orders and signed a truce with Tyrone - not a favourable one, either. Elizabeth, unsuprisingly, was livid. She called him to appear before her. In the summer of 1600, Elizabeth stripped him of his offices and put him under house arrest. She also took away his monopoly on sweet wines!

Well, not only discontent but testosterone coursed through Essex's veins. He had become the focus for disaffected gentry (including several Catholics later involved in the Gunpowder plot), all wanting to bring on the next reign. He now (winter 1600-1) decided that it was time for Action. Things came to a head when the Council, having heard that something was afoot, summoned him. In February 1601 he gathered his gentry friends together, and burst into London to whip up support to march on the Court. London was unimpressed: no-one joined him. His followers were arrested or sent home, and he himself was arrested. Essex was tried for treason, and executed at the Tower on 25^th February.