Page "Bodmin" Paragraph 9

Bodmin was the centre of three Cornish uprisings.

The first was the Cornish Rebellion of 1497 when a Cornish army, led by Michael An Gof, a blacksmith from St. Keverne.

and Thomas Flamank, a lawyer from Bodmin, marched to Blackheath in London where they were eventually defeated by 10, 000 men of the King's army under Baron Daubeny.

Then, in the Autumn of 1497, Perkin Warbeck tried to usurp the throne from Henry VII.

Warbeck was proclaimed King Richard IV in Bodmin but Henry had little difficulty crushing the uprising.

Finally, in 1549, Cornishmen rose once again in rebellion when the staunchly Protestant Edward VI tried to impose a new Prayer Book.

Cornish people were still strongly attached to the Catholic religion and again a Cornish army was formed in Bodmin which marched across the border to lay siege to Exeter in Devon.

This became known as the Prayer Book Rebellion.

Proposals to translate the Prayer Book into Cornish were suppressed and in total 4, 000 people were killed in the rebellion.