Historians’ verdicts.

" Somerset mishandled the revolts. He vacillated in the spring of 1549, not wishing to disrupt his Scottish campaign. He relied on pardons and proclamations and was criticized by [councillors] for ignoring the Council’s advice. In July he ordered military reprisals without scruple and cancelled his Scottish project, but the charge of procrastination levelled against him turned into an accusation of leniency, even sympathy with the rebels."

John Guy

"Somerset’s response to the Western Rising was at first based on hopelessly inadequate information…  But although Somerset did take the rising seriously, he still pressed Russell to dismiss some of his forces so that the gentry might be at home to defend the south-coast counties...  Somerset made the bad mistake of quarrelling with Warwick."

 Diarmaid MacCulloch and Anthony Fletcher

"Somerset seemed unable, or unwilling, to take decisive action to suppress well-supported popular uprisings in the West Country and East Anglia. His unwillingness to act has traditionally been interpreted as showing sympathy. However, it seems more likely that the initial delays were caused by the reluctance of the local elites to intervene without government support. Lack of money made it difficult to raise a new mercenary army, and Somerset was reluctant to withdraw troops from his garrisons in Scotland and France."

 Nigel Heard