Mark Stoyle - A Murderous Midsummer: The Western Rising of 1549

Mark Stoyle's book is the first new study of the Western Rising for many years, and he has found much new archival material to freshen a story that has been told many times. Stoyle argues that the Rising was essentially just a religious rebellion, designed to challenge the furthering of the evangelical cause. In this sense he says there was little or no "social" aspect to the rebellion.

Personally I think this only holds up if you crudely separate religious belief in the 16th century from wider social context, but despite my disagreements with Stoyle's central argument - this is an excellent history, detailed, interesting and very readable. Sadly lack of archival material means we don't know enough about what motivated the common people to rebel, but Stoyle does his best to tell us.

I've been asked to write a longer review of this book for another publication. I'll post a link to that here when it is published. In the meantime I wrote about the Western Rising in the book reviews below, and in my book Kill all the Gentlemen.

Related Reviews

Caraman - The Western Rising of 1549
Cornwall - Revolt of the Peasantry 1549
Wood - Riot, Rebellion & Popular Politics in Early Modern England
Mudd - Cornwall In Uproar
Duffy - Voices of Morebath