‘Tudor rebellions before 1540 were primarily driven by economic factors.' Explain why you agree or disagree with this view

During Henry VII and Henry VIII’s reigns, it is evident that there were many causes of rebellions; dynastic problems were the main cause of rebellions during the former’s reign, and after the threat of him being overthrown was subdued, this turned into political factors. When his successor, Henry VIII took over in 1509, there was clear religious motivation for rebellions due to the English Reformation. Whilst the political environment in England played a role, and whilst religious rebellions attracted the highest number of rebels, the uprisings before 1540 were primarily driven by economic factors such as unfair taxation to fund political wars.Tudor rebellions prior to 1540 were primarily driven by economic factors like taxation and inflation. Unlike dynastic rebellions which were seen in Henry VII’s reign, and religious rebellions which were seen during Henry VIII’s reign, the economic ones were prominent throughout the whole Tudor period up to 1540. Indeed, early on in Henry VII’s reign, there was a rebellion in Yorkshire. Prior to this uprising, there was a poor harvest in 1488 in which many Yorkshiremen had lost a significant amount of money and many faced an increased degree of poverty. Coupled with how the people of Yorkshire had already defended the Anglo-Scottish borders in northern England, the introduction of the subsidy to protect Brittany from French invasion was received negatively. The uprising in Yorkshire was partly fuelled by how other northern counties including Northumberland and Cumberland were exempt from the taxation, yet Yorkshire, who had previously played a significant role in defending the north from Scotland had to pay the subsidy. Following the rebellion, Henry VII made no effort to collect more tax from the area reinforcing how economic factors such as taxation were initially a strong cause of discontent and therefore the King tried rectifying it. Similarly, the Cornish Rebellion, 1497 was fuelled by the forced loan which was intended to finance an English campaign against the Scottish. Henry VII had issued new regulation in-regards to the tin mining industry, which the Cornish economy relied heavily on – alongside the £120,000 demanded by Henry, the Cornish had no means of paying this and these two economic factors ultimately led to a rebellion encompassing 15,000 rebels. The economic discontent followed through to Henry VIII’s reign, and Thomas Wolsey’s attempts of garnering £800,000 via a forced loan to fund a campaign to reconquer France led to the Amicable Grant Uprising. With the Amicable Grant, money would be collected from five south, south-eastern counties, yet these were riddled with unemployment and inflation at a 60% increase over a 25-year period. The economic struggles that the people in those areas faced led to an uprising and this was heralded by the pre-existing hatred towards Henry VIII’s economic policy – this forced loan was not a one-off; no loan had ever been repaid and it was not authorised by Parliament. From this, the rebellion was clearly motivated by economic factors and following the outcome, Tudor policy changed in-which, the rich noblemen and gentry were taxed at a higher rate than the peasantry. The Pilgrimage of Grace, whilst primarily religiously motivated, also highlighted the economic discontent of those involved – Thomas Cromwell’s authorisation of a Subsidy Act ordering the collection of £80,000 came at a time of European peace, not war and this increased the rebels’ hatred towards him. In both the York and Pontefract Articles, the demands did, at times, refer to economic dissatisfaction – (“a tax on sheep and cattle”), adding to how there was a sense of economic motivation for the pilgrimage. Clearly, Tudor rebellions were primarily driven by economic problems facing the English because they were seen across the whole period from 1485 to 1540. The frequency is very important because unlike religious, dynastic and political factors, the majority of the rebellions stem from the economic failures of the two Tudor kings.