The Cornish Rebellion - 1497

A big thank you at the top to Mr and Mrs Kilburn who put us up and treated us to a cracking meal at the Five Rivers Indian Restaurant. They live in Plumstead and Wayne met us at the Woolwich DLR station and we decamped to Greenwich with the intent of taking in the (rapidly changing)London skyline from Greenwich Park. Alighting as we did on Charlton Way at the southern edge of Greenwich on our way through into the park on the brick wall I found a small bi-lingual plaque marking the site of the Battle of Deptford Bridge in 1497. Not exactly a well-publicised affair this one, a century after the Peasant's Revolt of 1381 and Jack Cade's rebellion this forgotten conflict involved some 35,000 men, 10,000 or so Cornish rebels and 25,000 of the King's forces and resulted in a thorough drubbing of the Cornishmen who lacked both cavalry and artillery. The rebellion came about in protest against Henry VII's raising of war taxes which abrogated Cornwall's traditional exemption. It began in the Bodmin area and was led by Michael Joseph, a blacksmith and Thomas Flamank, a lawyer who was MP for Bodmin in 1492. These two gathered support and marched East into Devon gathering support as they went. The army declared its grievances at Wells in Somerset where the rebels were joined by James Touchet, the seventh Baron Audley and continued unopposed towards the capital through Salisbury and then Winchester. The first clash occurred outside Guildford as the king drew his forces back from an intended incursion into Scotland. The plaque marks the place where the rebels met their end. After a significant number of desertions the rebels met the kings army on 17 June 1497. The royal army was divided into three under Lords Oxford, Essex,Suffolk and Daubeney and these routed the rebel army. Estimates of the Cornish dead range from 200 to 2,000. The leaders were captured, Joseph in Greenwich and Flamank and Audley at the site of the battle. They received the king's mercy which means that Joseph and Flamank were hanged at Tyburn on 27 June 1497 rather than being hanged, drawn and quartered whereas Audley as a gentleman was beheaded at Tower Hill. The quincentennial of the battle in 1997 was marked by a Keskerdh Kernow - a march that reenacted the long march from the West and the installation of the plaque. As I was in company of the Wayne and my other half (aka Mrs Hobbldy) I thought better of detouring in search of further plaques, Greenwich with its royal connections being a bit of a centre for people of historic interest and instead we descended Greenwich Park, moving from the Eastern to the Western Hemisphere, sadly we didn't get to do the straddling the Greenwich Meridian photo op as Greenwich Observatory had nicely decided to fence off the Meridian Line and charge admittance. This disappointment was however mitigated by the free National Maritime Museum at the bottom of the hill in the magnificent Wren designed building which was previously The Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich, completed in 1705 as a counterpart to the Chelsea Hospital which provided for veterans of the British Army.Sadly there was filming at the old Greenwich Naval College, now part of the University of Greenwich which meant no stroll through its amazing riverside location - a little reminder that in times gone by the Thames was London'a main thoroughfare. Sadly our little jaunt went little further ending at the very nice, and rather overpriced surroundings of Greenwich market.