About Robert Kett
At the time of Kett's Rebellion, 1549, the King of England, Edward VI, was only 11. However, Protector Somerset wielded the actual power. He was a determined man, but reputed to favour reform and with some compassion for the poor. While the country was torn by strife due to government reforms, taxes and wars, in Norfolk, the chief causes of hardship and discontent were economic and social. In the area there was increased rent, but the enclosure of public land by the local gentry, endangered the means of support of many of the peasantry, causing greater strife.
There was extensive rebelling in many counties during the Spring and Summer of 1549. This primarily comprised destroying the hedgerows and barriers recently erected by local landlords. Only in Norfolk did people find a leader of exceptional eminence. Now The name of Robert Kett is inseparable from the rebellion in Norfolk.
In 1549, Robert Kett was 57 years old, the fourth son of Tom and Margery Kett whose family had lived there since the Norman Conquest. A tanner by occupation, by 1549 he was one of the main property-owners in Wymondham, possessing three manors in the area. He was also closely linked with the Abbey Church at Wymondham. He was seen as a mainstay of the local community, yet he became the leader of a undertaking whose main actions threatened the property owing, comparatively affluent class which he characterized.
Ketts motives for becoming the champion of the poor common people are still uncertain. Perhaps he was stirred by their predicament, perhaps it was a dream of an improved Norfolk, or perhaps it was the enduring enmity with John Flowerdew which started again in 1549. Kett maintained he was not fighting against the government in London, but that he wanted to reform the local government in Norfolk. His appeal to Edward VI was courteously formulated and all the way through the rebellion he acted with control and temperance. He repudiated the designation of rebel and naively assumed that the government in London would understand his yearning to reform the local government in Norfolk.
However, Kett was instead viewed as a rebel and a traitor and met his end later that year.
