My British Empire

Norfolk County is located in the northeast of England and 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 is bounded by Suffolk to the south, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire to the west, and the North Sea to the east and north.

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

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

Both regions were rich agricultural regions, rich in products and fertile, and 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.

First, 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 taxes that originally belonged 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, and the farmers are getting poorer and poorer, while the farmers who enclose the land have accumulated a lot of wealth.

In other words, 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 have 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; and those who violated the order for the third time would be sentenced to death.

As a result, during the reign of Henry VIII, the number of landless peasants executed amounted to 72,000.

Third, and most importantly, it made it extremely difficult for the royal family to recruit civilians.

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

However, the enclosure destroyed the source of soldiers, and conscription became more and more difficult.

Generally speaking, militiamen are basically local farmers, and the enclosure has taken 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 Moosehold Moor, northeast of Norwich City.

And led by Robert Kate and his elder brother William Kate, a group of representatives from the hundred-household district also signed the joint letter-"Chen Love Letter", which was sent to London, and finally handed over 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 us for our rude behavior.

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

After reading this large petition letter with tens of thousands of words, Edward couldn't help sneering in his heart. Some of the sympathy he had for them had disappeared.

In this letter, Edward summed up, this Robert Kate actually 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 cannot be used for grazing.

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

Fourth, reduce the salaries of priests.

Fifth, to allow them to take part in the administration of government which only the country gentry can participate in.

…………

If Edward agreed to these conditions, the surrender of a group of peasants, not to mention the reputation of the central government and the royal family would be ruined.

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

Of course Edward is not that stupid, he would agree to the conditions of these farmers, so that if all the cats and dogs revolted, the government would have to bow their heads? 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 support of the unemployed residents of the city, they captured the second largest city in England-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!