The Yorkshire Rebellion of 1489

This rebellion is remembered primarily for the murder of Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, on 28 April 1489. It took place during a period when there were no Yorkist leaders or figureheads. Simnel was exposed as a pretender, the earl of Lincoln was dead and the earl of Warwick a minor. This rebellion was not a Yorkist uprising but a protest against the heavy taxation imposed by Henry VII.

Parliament had voted a tax of two tenths and fifteenths which would be payable within two years.  The second instalment of the fifteenth became overdue and the king was determined to have his money. On 20 April 1489 a conventicle was held at Ayton and the members, led by Robert Chambre, resolved to march towards Thirsk in protest against the tax. On the 24th the earl heard of their intentions and he arranged to meet his retainers there three days later, who were advised to be prepared to use force.  On 28 April Northumberland met with the rebels, who numbered about 700, at his home at Cocklodge in South Kilvington where he became the only fatal casualty of the rebellion. Ironically Northumberland had sought to be a ‘good lord’ to the Yorkshire men and had interceded with the king to reduce the tax burden but this would not be considered by the king and the earl had to prosecute the king’s demands. Conversely the commons only saw in the earl the king’s man and exacted their revenge.

On 5 May new recruits to the cause were summoned to Allerton Moor and Gatherley Moor in Gilling and by mid-May a new leader emerged in the person of Sir John Egremont. The rebel forces combined and marched towards Doncaster but then turned northwards towards York. Their numbers had now swelled to 5,000 and on 15 May they stormed the city. Their success was short-lived and two days later the rebels fled, presumably on hearing of the imminent arrival of the earl of Surrey. Meanwhile the king decided to take command of matters himself although the danger had now passed. With thirteen peers he travelled to York where the trials took place of the ringleaders. Only four were executed. In total there were just sixty-six indictments. 

Professor Michael Hicks has commented ‘in 1489 Henry achieved his objective, making no allowances and apparently securing payment in full from Yorkshire ... however unattractive, however difficult to apply, an uncompromising rigour was apparently a genuine alternative to conciliation when employed with his consistency’.

An article written by ME James suggests that the king may have been complicit in the death of Northumberland, or was at least relieved at the removal of the powerful earl. Whether readers support this conspiracy theory or not one outcome was that the previously powerful Percy family were effectively side-lined from governing the region for the next forty years.

Further Reading:

‘The Yorkshire Rebellion of 1489 Reconsidered’ by MA Hicks. Northern History, vol 22 1986. Studies the causes and course of the rebellion.

‘The Murder at Cocklodge 28 April  1489’ by ME James. Durham University Journal, vol 57 1964-5. Was this a tax revolt with Yorkist overtones or a plot encouraged by Henry VII to rid himself of an overmighty subject?

Kings in the North by Alexander Rose, London 2002. A history of the Percy family up to and including the death of the 4th Earl of Northumberland at Cocklodge in 1489.