Oxfordshire rising of 1596 facts for kids
The Oxfordshire Rising was a small protest that happened in November 1596. It was during the time of Queen Elizabeth I. People were struggling because harvests were bad, and many families were very poor.
A small group of men, who were also very poor, came up with a plan. They wanted to get weapons and march to London. They hoped that "200 or 300" other people from their area would join them. They met on Enslow Hill on November 21st. But almost no one showed up to support them. The men were quickly arrested. They were questioned harshly because the authorities thought there might be a bigger plan. About a year later, two of the men were put to death for going against the Queen.
Why Did It Happen?
The years from 1596 to 1598 were very hard for people in England. Farmers had bad harvests, which meant less food. Diseases were also spreading. On top of that, wages (the money people earned for work) went down. This made many families go hungry.
Because so many people were poor, those who owned land and property worried about protests. New printing machines made it easy to print stories about "crimes" by homeless people. This made the fears even worse. More than 20% of people in the countryside were considered "poor." Local leaders, like the gentry and Justices of the Peace (JPs), were supposed to enforce laws. But they didn't always do it the same way everywhere.
In the second half of the 1500s, the number of people in England grew. This meant there was more pressure on land for food and work. One big problem was the "enclosure" of common land. Common land was land that everyone in a village could use, for example, to let their animals graze. Sometimes, farmers agreed to divide this land among themselves. But often, rich landowners illegally fenced off common land for their own use. This made many poor people very upset. They felt it was the main reason for their troubles.
By the 1590s, making money for oneself became more important than helping the community. People complained that common lands were fenced off. Villagers were stopped from using pastures. And land used for growing crops was changed into land for sheep. These issues were behind the events in Oxfordshire in 1596.
The Protest Plan
The main leader of the protest was a carpenter named Bartholomew Steer from Hampton Poyle. He and two other men planned to protest against the enclosures. Before this, about 40 to 60 men had visited the county's main leader, Lord Norris. They asked him to help the poor.
However, Steer's protest quickly became more serious. First, they planned to tear down the fences around the enclosed lands. Then, they wanted to take weapons from Lord Norris's home. They even planned to harm several local landowners. Steer and two brothers, James and Richard Bradshaw, who were millers, tried to get more people to join them as they traveled around the area.
Steer arranged for the group to meet on Enslow Hill at 9 PM on November 21st. He thought many people would come to support them. He suggested that after attacking local targets, they should march to London. There, they hoped to join with young workers in London. Steer likely chose Enslow Hill because people remembered a previous protest there in 1549. That protest was stopped on the same hill. Steer told one man that in the past, common people had protested and then were "hanged like dogs" after being told to go home. He said he would not give up this time.
But some people were nervous about joining. When Steer asked his brother how much support he could expect in Witney, he got a discouraging answer. Steer said that if everyone thought that way, they would "live like slaves." He added that he could "die but once" and would not "always live like a slave."
On November 21st, only four men gathered at Enslow Hill. They were Steer, Thomas Horne (a servant from Hampton Gay), Robert Burton (a mason from Beckley), and Edward Bompass (a fuller) who had promised to bring support from Kirtlington. But no one else appeared. The small group broke up after two hours.
It's possible there was a misunderstanding. A larger group of armed men, whose names are unknown, had been seen on the hill the Sunday before. It also seems that the men's plan for violence and their low status in the community contributed to the lack of support. Steer and Bompass were both 28. Others involved were similar in age and status.
The plotters were quickly arrested. A servant named Roger Symonds, whom Steer had tried to recruit, told his landlord about the plan. Lord Norris tried to make the protest seem less important. But the Queen's special council, the Privy Council, saw this protest as a serious threat. This was especially true because Robert Burton was taken to London. He might have been trying to get support from workers there. Sir Edward Coke, a powerful lawyer, said the leaders could be charged with going against the Queen.
The five main leaders—Steer, James and Richard Bradshaw, Bompass, and Burton—were taken to London. They were tied to the backs of horses and guarded closely so they couldn't talk to each other. They were put in separate prisons and questioned. About twenty other men were also imprisoned or questioned. But they were not charged with going against the Queen like the leaders. The authorities wanted to know if any rich people were involved. The questioning was very harsh.
Despite the legal arguments being weak, the men were tried by a jury in Oxfordshire. Some jury members had even been threatened by the protest plan. Steer and James Bradshaw were not at their trial on February 24th. This suggests they might have died in prison. Two of the plotters, Burton and Richard Bradshaw, were found guilty. They were put to death on Enslow Hill, where they could see the enclosed lands they wanted to remove. What happened to Bompass is not clear, but he might have also died in prison.
Although the trials and executions were not widely recorded at the time, the convictions of Burton and Bradshaw were later used by Sir Edward Coke in another important trial. A good outcome of this protest was that Parliament later passed a law to stop more enclosures.
