[3] The authorities put up very little resistance to the revolt: the major nobles failed to organise defences, key fortifications fell easily to the rebels and the local militias were not mobilised.
[4] As in London and the south-east, this was in part due to the absence of key military leaders and the nature of English law, but any locally recruited men may also have proved unreliable in the face of a popular uprising.
[5] On 12 June, Wrawe attacked Sir Richard Lyons' property at Overhall, advancing on to the towns of Cavendish and Bury St Edmunds in west Suffolk the next day, gathering further support as they went.
[8] A small band of rebels marched north to Thetford to extort protection money from the town, and another group tracked down Sir John Cavendish, the Chief Justice of the King's Bench and Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.
[11] The University of Cambridge, staffed by priests and enjoying special royal privileges, was widely hated by the other inhabitants of the town.