Western Rising

The Western Rising was a series of riots which took place during 1626–1632 in Gillingham Forest on the Wiltshire-Dorset border, Braydon Forest in Wiltshire, and Dean Forest, Gloucestershire, in response to disafforestation of royal forests, sale of royal lands and enclosure of property by the new owners.

There were contemporaneous uprisings in Feckenham Forest and Leicester Forest. Riots also took place at Malvern Chase, where enclosure was largely successfully opposed.

Riot and breaching enclosures were not the only form of opposition to disafforestation. In many cases, landowners and tenants felt the compensation they were offered was unfair, and they sought to challenge decisions through the legal system. In at least one case, a town council, the Corporation of Leicester, and borough residents took legal action because of the effect on the poorest forest dwellers, who were likely to become a burden on the town's poor relief.

The 1626–32 riots were followed by further riots at many of the same locations during the English Civil War and the following Interregnum as disafforestation proceeded and continued to be contested.

As early as 1608-12, King James I of England's minister Robert Cecil investigated the reform of Royal forests, aiming to increase the income due to the Crown. Cecil's investigations led to more intensive working of the Forest of Dean, and higher revenues from wood sold for iron smelting. Lionel Cranfield accelerated the policy in the 1620s with commissions to determine the scale of the Royal estates within forests and negotiate compensation for their sale and enclosure.

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