My British Empire

Chapter 239 Uprising and "Chen Qing Letter"

Norfolk County is located in the northeast of England. It is a large agricultural county. Therefore, it has been favored by the royal family, and the county has a large number of royal territories.

It borders Suffolk to the south, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire to the west, and the North Sea to the east and north.

Located in lowland areas, most of the county is located in river basins with abundant water resources.

The agricultural area is divided into: Wensum River, Yell River, Beer River and their basins that flow into the North Sea; the northwest corner flows into the Ouse River basin in Wash Bay.

These two areas are rich agricultural areas with rich products and fertile land, and are deeply loved by nobles and gentlemen.

As a result, this area has become a key area of ??concern for the enclosure, and the local farmers are miserable.

Some people say that the enclosure movement is not the primitive accumulation of capital? This is the throes of social development and cannot be stopped.

Of course, everyone is currently thinking and answering from a historical perspective, which is thousands of miles away from the interests of the King of England at this time.

Originally after Edward became king, he also believed that the enclosure movement was reasonable and should even be encouraged, but he was puzzled by the obstruction and even prohibition of Henry VIII and the Tudor government.

This is why he agreed with Duke Edward, who opposed the enclosure, to lose power.

As a result, he didn't understand how much the enclosure movement hurt the government until he sat on the throne himself.

One, it seriously interferes with government tax collection.

A large amount of public land is designated as private, which is equivalent to the innocent disappearance of the tax revenue originally belonging to farmers, and is passed on to the farmers who enclose the land.

And they directly enclose the land as a farm, and almost all of them are abandoned, with a minimum of 30%. The land utilization rate is completely inferior to that of farmers, and the government receives less than half of the original tax.

As a result, the government's tax revenue is getting less and less, farmers are getting poorer and poorer, while those farmers who enclose land have accumulated a lot of wealth.

That is to say, the original tax of 1,000 pounds has become 500 pounds, and the other 500 pounds have become those farmers.

And second, it intensifies social conflicts.

Some people think, can't these peasants who lost their land go to factories? How can you be hungry?

Everyone thinks so beautifully. In the 16th century, how could there be so many factories that could accommodate so many workers? Moreover, most workers did not live as well as farmers, and it was common for them to have limbs and limbs broken. kill.

What about these people? You can only become refugees, beggars, beg everywhere, and when there is no food, all kinds of crimes are born.

To a certain extent, anti-enclosure riots and uprisings took place as a matter of course, which had a great impact on the rule of the English royal family.

In this regard, in 1530, the Tudor government promulgated a decree: stipulating that, except for the elderly and those who are incapable of working, all beggars who are wandering and begging will be arrested, tied to the back of the carriage, and whipped until they bleed. , and then forced to take a pledge of voluntary labor and sent back to his hometown.

In 1536, the previous order was reiterated, and it was stipulated that anyone who violated the order for the second time and was arrested would have his ears cut off in half in addition to whipping; those who violated the order for the third time would be sentenced to death.

As a result, during the period of Henry VIII, the number of landless peasants executed reached 72,000.

The third and most important point is that it makes it extremely difficult for the royal family to recruit civilians.

England has a tradition that the royal family can regularly recruit militias to serve the royal family every year.

However, the enclosure of land destroyed the source of soldiers, and it became more and more difficult to recruit troops.

Generally speaking, militiamen are basically local farmers, and the enclosure took away their land and made them refugees, with fewer and fewer soldiers.

This is why when Henry VIII fought in France, most of the soldiers in the army were mercenaries from Italy and Germany, and there were very few native English soldiers.

This kind of sign is very scary. Historically, starting from the Stuart dynasty, serving as a soldier has become a lowly profession, and most of the soldiers come from young men, even in the 19th century.

After seeing these three most important reasons, Edward was full of hatred for the enclosure movement.

Compared with his own rule, capitalism is nothing. He can't rule the country anymore. No matter how well England develops, it will not benefit him.

Just when he was about to complete the local reforms and all parts of the country worked together to stop the enclosure movement, he received a letter at this time.

This is a letter from Norfolk, and the specific address is Moose Hold Wilderness, northeast of Norwich City.

Led by Robert Kate and his elder brother William Kate, a group of representatives from the Hundred Houses District also signed the joint letter—"The Letter of Love", which was sent to London and finally delivered to the palace, Edward's desk.

I saw the words above: "Respected Majesty, we have no intention of offending your majesty, this is just a self-help behavior of our poor people, please forgive our rude behavior.

We have written this letter to tell you that your people are currently suffering endless torment. In this regard, we ask you to implement some measures...

After reading the tens of thousands of words in the letter, Edward couldn't help sneering in his heart, and some of the sympathy he had for them had disappeared.

In this letter, Edward concluded that this Robert Kate even directly threatened the king to implement what they thought.

First, enclosures are prohibited, and no one is allowed to rob their cattle and sheep.

Second, the enclosed land shall not be used for grazing.

Third, lower land rents and keep fines for land and house encroachment at the same level as in 1485.

Fourth, reduce the salaries of priests.

Fifth, allow them to participate in the government management that only squires can participate.

...

If Edward agrees to these conditions, the submission of a group of peasants, not to mention the reputation of the central government and the royal family will be ruined.

After these conditions are implemented, the Tudor royal family will offend all the local gentlemen, and the rule of England will be crumbling.

Of course Edward is not that stupid, he will agree to the conditions of these farmers. In this way, will the government have to bow its head if all the cats and dogs revolt? What has become of that country?

More importantly, the uprising led by Robert Kate has reached more than 20,000 people, which is a huge number in England.

Moreover, Edward just got the news that with the help of unemployed urban residents, they captured England's second largest city - Norwich, which made Edward very angry.

This is not just a demand riot, but a rebellion, a rebellion.

According to the original history, the uprising was suppressed for half a year for unknown reasons, and the scale was much larger. This may be the butterfly effect!

(end of this chapter)

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