Religious grievances rather than political and social discontent explain why rebellions broke out in England in both 1549 and 1554.

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        In 1549, two rebellions broke out in England, the Ket’s and the Western (Prayer Book) rebellion. There was no single cause of these rebellions. Religious, political and social factors all intertwined to create distress resulting in the rebellions. Religious policies initiated by Somerset continued to make their impact of the country. The prayer book rebellion was a catholic rebellion so religion was obviously important. The Ket’s rebellion was against rising rents, entry fines and over grazing of the common lands. This shows how social discontent may be the reason they broke out. In 1554, Wyatt’s rebellion broke out which publicly was against the Spanish marriage. However there were underlying religious factors as well.

Source A only touches on religious reasons because the main causes of the rebellion were rising rents, entry fines and over grazing of the common lands. The debasing of the coinage led to the rising prices and social distress. It says “We pray that all freeholders and copyholders may take the profits of all common lands and the Lords not to use the commons or take profits from the same.” Lords using the commons led to overgrazing. This shows social discontent did help cause the rebellions. The Ket’s rebels were against the enclosure of common lands but in East Anglia there had not been that much enclosure so it was just an excuse to rebel.

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Source A says that if priests and vicars were unable to preach the words of God then their parishioners should be able to choose another priest. This indicates they wanted to raise standards of the clergy so religious grievances was a factor in causing the Ket’s rebellion. However religion was not a main cause of the Ket’s rebellion. Ket’s rebels accepted the prayer book but would have liked it to be more radical so religious grievance wasn’t important unlike in the Western.

The Western rebellion resented the Prayer Book and was against the Edwardian reformation. They didn’t like the ...

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