Tombland

Throughout the camp’s history, as even Sotherton and Neville admit, good order was kept and there was a lack of violence. Organization was clearly effective. Public debates, religious services, trials of the gentlemen and offenders against order in the camp all took place at the camp’s focal point, a gigantic, ancient oak tree which they named the Oak of Reformation (the name may have been intended to have a double meaning, reformation in religion and in society). They constructed a roofed wooden stage, the floor of which must have been raised at least six feet (otherwise, when Matthew Parker visited the camp and made an angry speech there, men would not have been able to stand underneath and prick his feet with spears). ² It is likely that supplies brought in by foraging parties were surrendered to the common store here, and perhaps also distributed. ³ Speeches were made, and the leadership, according to Neville, used the Oak to criticize the more radical elements in the camp. ⁴ In the early days at least, opponents of the rebellion were given a voice too.

The trials held at the Oak involved gentleman prisoners being tried for offences committed against the poor. In Tombland I have portrayed these as following the procedures of a court of law, so far as rules of evidence are concerned, which I think was likely given rebel ‘mirroring’ of state institutions. There was no jury of twelve, however, guilt or innocence being decided by acclamation. ⁵ Despite calls from the crowd to kill some of the gentlemen, none are known to have been executed, though certainly there was some severe roughing up, notably of one particularly unpopular lawyer, Robert Wharton. ⁶ There was probably an element of letting off steam in the trials, but also the opportunity to gather detailed evidence against offending landlords and lawyers.

The immediate issue, for thousands camped on a waterless heath, was food and drink. The communities from which the rebels came supplied this, to begin with at least – it is important to remember this was the hungry season of the year, just before harvest. In an oft-quoted example, the North Elmham churchwardens sent fish, butter, bread and other foodstuffs to their people at Mousehold and also paid two people to brew for the rebels, another to be their cook and a third to be their spit-turner. ⁷ This implies that the camp established its own breweries and other infrastructure early on.

Food from supporters outside was supplemented by requisitions from the gentlemen. There seems to have been an initial explosion of indulgence – according to Sotherton the rebels took 3,000 cattle and 20,000 sheep, and deer from parks as well as ‘swans, geese, and all other fowl’, setting the price of mutton at a penny a quarter. Neville states that only the best cuts were eaten; heads and entrails were thrown away. ⁸ Rabbits and doves would likely have been taken too.

Raids on gentlemen’s houses also brought in money and weapons. Horses, carts and fodder would also have been taken. Soon warrants to supply food were issued to the gentry, signed by Kett and the governors in the name of the King. ⁹ It is notable that weapons, including cannon, appear to have been sought from the beginning. Receipts were given, at least in some cases – yet another example of the Mousehold camp claiming loyalty to the King and following ostensibly legal procedures.

Another early example of remarkable organization – and a huge amount of work – was the building from scratch not merely of the scaffolding around the Oak of Reformation, but an enormous number of makeshift huts to accommodate the population. ¹⁰ (I have imagined what these might be like in Tombland .) The wood came from Thorpe Wood. The skills of countless labourers as well as many carpenters would have been involved.

To create all this from scratch was a huge achievement. Meanwhile, though the Kett brothers and most governors were probably literate, if they were to follow legal forms they needed to prepare documents, and would have required a secretariat and people with legal knowledge. Certainly there were scriveners in the camp, but given the hostility to lawyers in general, the skills of sympathetic ones would have been at a premium. One lawyer, Thomas Godsalve, was captured early on and made to assist, but soon escaped. I have given my fictional lawyer Matthew Shardlake the role of an (at first reluctant) legal adviser in Tombland . There is no evidence that he had any real equivalent.