Oxfordshire Rising of 1596

The Oxfordshire Rising took place in November 1596 under the rule of Queen Elizabeth I of England during times of bad harvest and unprecedented poverty. A small group of impoverished men developed a plan to seize weapons and armour and march on London, hoping to attract "200 or 300... from various towns of that shire". They met on Enslow Hill on 21 November, but without any of the assumed support were quickly arrested, and tortured due to suspicions of a wider conspiracy. A year later two of the men were hung, drawn and quartered for their treason.

The years 1596-98 were the worst for many years for the English population, as bad harvests coincided with outbreaks of disease, as well as a fall in wages which forced many people into starvation. Given the state of the poorest classes, those with property felt threatened by revolt, a fact not helped by the boom in publishing of sensationalist literature detailing the many 'crimes' of vagrants thanks to new printing technology. Over 20% of the rural population were considered 'poor' (i.e. impoverished) and so these fears were easy to feed. Furthermore, as it was up to the local gentry and JPs (Justices of the Peace) to enforce these laws there was a great deal of inconsistency in their application.

As population levels started to rise in the second half of the sixteenth century, pressure on land for food and work increased, and the enclosure of common land, whether agreed amicably among farmers or enforced illegally by greedy landlords, was seen by distressed groups as the cause of their grief. For much of the period grain prices rose ahead of wool prices and enclosure attracted less political attention. By the 1590s, however, private profit was replacing communal co-operation. Allegations that common lands had been fenced off, villagers denied rights of pasturage and land converted from arable to pasture lay behind events in Oxfordshire in 1596.

The ringleader of the Rising was a carpenter from Hampton Poyle named Bartholomew Steer. Along with two other men, Steer formulated a plan to protest against enclosures after between forty and sixty men visited the county's Lord Lieutenant, Lord Norris, and asked him to help the poor. However the protest soon escalated into a more violent plot, first to throw down the enclosures themselves and then to seize weapons from the Lord Lieutenant's residence and kill several local landowners. Steer and two brothers, millers James and Richard Bradshaw, tried to recruit further support as they travelled round the local area.

Steer arranged for the plotters to meet on Enslow Hill at 9pm on 21 November, assuming they would attract wide support, and proposed they march to London after attacking local targets in order to link up with the London apprentices. Steer seems to have selected Enslow Hill due to folk memories of a previous rising (centred on resistance to religious reforms) that was suppressed there in 1549: he told one man that the commons had risen and then been "hanged like dogs" after being persuaded to return home, but that he intended to go through with his plan and "would never yield". However, there were some signs that people were nervous about committing themselves. When Steer asked his brother how much support he could expect in Witney and received a discouraging response, he commented that "if all men were of that mind they might live like slaves as he did. But for himself happ what would, for he could die but once and [...] he would not alwaies live like a slave".

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Wikipedia