ABSTRACT
Three government commissions were at work in Lincolnshire atMichaelmas in 1536. That for dissolving the smaller monasteries hadbeen in the county since June, a second commission was assessing and collecting the subsidy and a third was appointed to enquire into the fitness and education of the clergy. They worked in an atmosphere of rumour and alarm. It was said that jewels and plate were to be confiscated from parish churches, that all gold was to be taken to the mint to be tested, and that taxes were to be levied on all horned cattle, and on christenings, marriages and burials. There were even wilder rumours: ‘that there shall be no church within five miles, and that all the rest shall be put down’, that people would not be allowed to eat white bread, goose or capon without paying a tribute to the king. It was said that every man would have to give an account of his property and income and a false return would lead to forfeiture of all his goods. There is evidence that these rumours had spread to many parts of the eastern and midland counties by the autumn of 1536. But they were strongest in Lincolnshire. The rising there, based on the three towns of Louth, Caistor and Horncastle, was an outburst by people who, as Wriothesley told Cromwell, ‘think they shall be undone for ever’ ( James, 1970).
