Victory for Edwardian forces The Prayer Book Rebellion or Western Rising[1] was a popular revolt in Cornwall and Devon in 1549.

[2] Along with poor economic conditions, the enforcement of English language church services only in Cornish-speaking areas led to an explosion of anger in Cornwall and Devon, initiating an uprising.

In response, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, sent John Russell to suppress the revolt, with the rebels being defeated and its leaders executed two months after the beginning of hostilities.

One probable cause of the Prayer Book Rebellion was the religious changes recently implemented by the government of the new king, Edward VI.

In the late 1540s, Lord Protector Somerset, on behalf of the young king, introduced a range of legislative measures as an extension of the English Reformation in England and Wales, with the primary aim of changing theology and practices, particularly in areas of traditionally Catholic religious loyalty – for example, in Cornwall and Devon.

It has been argued that the Catholic Church had "proved itself extremely accommodating of Cornish language and culture" and that government attacks on the traditional religion had reawakened the spirit of defiance in Cornwall, and in particular the majority Cornish-speaking far west.

One execution of a "traitor of Cornwall" occurred on Plymouth Hoe – town accounts gave details of the cost of timber for both gallows and poles.

Following the enforced change on Whitsunday, on Whitmonday the parishioners of Sampford Courtenay in Devon compelled their priest to revert to the old service.

An altercation at the service led to a proponent of the change (William Hellyons) killed by being run through with a pitchfork on the steps of the church house.

[12] Following this confrontation, a group of parishioners from Sampford Courtenay decided to march to Exeter to protest at the introduction of the new prayer book.

[3] In Cornwall and Devon, the issue of the Book of Common Prayer proved to be the final indignity that the people could peaceably bear.

[13] Along with the rapid enclosure of common lands, the attack on the Church, which was felt to be central to the rural community, led to an explosion of anger.

In Cornwall, an army gathered at the town of Bodmin under the leadership of its mayor, Henry Bray, and two staunch Catholic landowners, Sir Humphrey Arundell of Helland and John Winslade of Tregarrick.

Certainly such contemporaries as Thomas Cranmer took this view, condemning the rebels for deliberately inciting a class conflict by their demands: "to diminish their strength and to take away their friends, that you might command gentlemen at your pleasures".

[14] Protector Somerset himself saw dislike of the gentry as a common factor in all of the 1549 rebellions: "indeed all hath conceived a wonderful hate against the gentlemen and taketh them all as their enemies.

The language-map of Cornwall at this time is quite complicated, but philological studies have suggested that the Cornish language had been in territorial retreat throughout the Middle Ages.

[18] Responding to this, however, Archbishop Cranmer asked why the Cornishmen should be offended by holding the service in English rather than Cornish when they had before held it in Latin and not understood that.

On instructions from the Lord Protector the Duke of Somerset, one of the Privy Councillors, Sir Gawen Carew, was ordered to pacify the rebels.

Russell pitched camp on Clyst Heath where he had up to 900 bound and gagged rebel prisoners killed, with their throats slit in 10 minutes, according to the chronicler John Hayward.

A group of Devon men went north, up the valley of the Exe, where they were overtaken by Sir Gawen Carew who left the corpses of their leaders hanging on gibbets from Dunster to Bath.

Lord Grey and Sir William Herbert led the attack, and the contemporary Exeter historian John Hooker wrote that "the Cornish would not give in until most of their number had been slain or captured".

Further orders were issued on behalf of the king by the Duke of Somerset and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer to government forces, instructing them to carry out pacification operations the West Country under the leadership of Sir Anthony Kingston.