Battle of Deptford Bridge

Who Fought

History & Significance

The Cornish rebellion of 1497 (Cornish: Rebellyans Kernow), also known as the First Cornish rebellion, was a popular uprising in the Kingdom of England, which began in Cornwall and culminated with the Battle of Deptford Bridge near London on 17 June 1497.

The insurgent army mainly comprised Cornishmen, although it also gathered support from Devon, Somerset, and other English counties. The rebellion was a response to hardship caused by the raising of war taxes by King Henry VII to finance a campaign against Scotland. Cornwall suffered particularly because the king had recently stopped the legal operation of Cornish tin mining.

The rebellion's immediate outcome was military defeat, the execution of its main leaders, and death or other punishment for many of its participants. It may have led Perkin Warbeck, a pretender to the English throne, to choose Cornwall as his base later in the year for another attempt to overthrow Henry VII: an episode known as the Second Cornish uprising of 1497. Eleven years later, however, the king addressed the principal Cornish grievance by allowing tin production to resume legally, with a measure of autonomy.

A series of actions by King Henry VII in late 1496 and early 1497 increased the immediate hardships of many of his subjects, especially in Cornwall.

In 1496, after disagreements regarding new regulations for the tin-mining industry, the king, working partly through the Duchy of Cornwall, suspended the operation and privileges of the Cornish stannaries, a major part of the economy of the county. The privileges, which included exemption from certain royal and local taxes, had been granted by Edward I in 1305.

Being threatened in 1496 with invasion by James IV of Scotland and the pretender Perkin Warbeck, Henry VII levied an extraordinary series of financial demands on his subjects: a forced loan in late 1496, and in early 1497 a double portion of fifteenths and tenths taxation and a special subsidy levy. The burden fell more heavily on Cornwall than most areas, particularly in the collection of the forced loan.

The first stirrings of protest arose in the parish of St Keverne on the Lizard peninsula, where there already was resentment against the actions of Sir John Oby, provost of Glasney College in Penryn, the tax collector for that area. In reaction to King Henry's tax levy, Michael Joseph (An Gof), a blacksmith from St. Keverne and Thomas Flamank, a lawyer of Bodmin, incited many of the people of Cornwall into armed revolt. Flamank formulated the aim of the rebellion as being to remove the two servants of the king seen as responsible for his taxation policies: Cardinal John Morton (the Lord Chancellor) and Sir Reginald Bray (the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster). This emphasis created some room to argue that the uprising was not treasonous, but petitionary in nature. The rebels included at least two former MPs, Flamank (MP for Bodmin in 1492) and William Antron (MP for Helston in 1491–1492).

The ground they fought on

The site of Battle of Deptford Bridge lies on Lambeth Group, bedrock that formed in the Paleocene. The rock here is clay, silt, sand and gravel.

Frequently Asked Questions

Scheduled Monuments near Battle of Deptford Bridge

Site of the launch ways of the SS Great Eastern

Scheduled monument · ~0.5 mi

The site of the launch ways of the SS Great Eastern is a scheduled ancient monument in Middlesex recording the infrastructure associated with the construction and launching of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's revolutionary iron steamship. The Great Eastern was built on the Thames at Millwall between 185…

Paul the Archivist / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons

Greenwich Palace

Scheduled monument · ~0.6 mi

Greenwich Palace is a royal residence of medieval and Tudor origin situated on the south bank of the Thames in Greenwich, London. The palace was developed from the fifteenth century onwards, with significant construction undertaken by Henry VII and Henry VIII, who expanded the complex substantial…

Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Greenwich Hospital (RN College)

Scheduled monument · ~0.6 mi

Greenwich Hospital (RN College) is a major architectural complex located in Greenwich, London, which served as a naval institution from the eighteenth century onwards. The hospital was established in the late seventeenth century under royal patronage and developed throughout the eighteenth and ni…

The wub / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons

Queen's House

Scheduled monument · ~0.7 mi

Queen's House is a Grade I listed building located in Greenwich, London, rather than Kent. Designed by Inigo Jones and constructed between 1616 and 1635, it represents a seminal work of English Palladian architecture and marks a significant departure from preceding Jacobean styles. The building s…

Vladimír Procházka / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons

West Grove, Conduit House, Blackheath

Scheduled monument · ~0.8 mi

West Grove, Conduit House, Blackheath is a Grade II listed building located on Blackheath in Kent. The structure dates from the eighteenth century and functioned as a conduit house, serving to supply and distribute water across the heath. The building reflects the practical infrastructure develop…

Doyle of London / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons

Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Greenwich Park

Scheduled monument · ~0.8 mi

Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Greenwich Park is a designated ancient monument comprising a burial ground dating to the early medieval period. The site represents an important archaeological record of Anglo-Saxon settlement and funerary practices in the Greenwich area during the fifth to seventh centuri…

Ethan Doyle White / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons

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• Battle of Deptford Bridge · Wikipedia