Battlefields›Kett's Rebellion: Norwich Street Fighting, August 1549
Tudor

Kett's Rebellion: Norwich Street Fighting, August 1549

1549
England
Era
Tudor
Battle Type
Pitched Battle
Location
England
Status
Unregistered
The Combatants

Who Fought

Defeated
East Anglian/Norfolk rebels under Robert Kett
VS
Victor
Kingdom of England (Earl of Warwick's royal army)
Forces involved

Rebels: around 16,000 encamped on Mousehold Heath (not all engaged in the street fighting itself). Royal forces under the Earl of Warwick: roughly 14,000 troops including Welsh, German and Spanish/Italian mercenaries, reinforced by around 1,400 German landsknechts who arrived on 26 August.

Outcome
After two days of fierce street fighting, Warwick's royal army retook Norwich from Kett's rebels, who withdrew to their camp at Mousehold Heath, which Warwick then encircled; this led directly to the rebels' final defeat at the Battle of Dussindale on 27 August 1549.
The Battle

History & Significance

Kett's Rebellion: Norwich Street Fighting, August 1549 was a Tudor pitched battle between opposing field armies, fought in England in 1549. Kingdom of England (Earl of Warwick's royal army) prevailed over East Anglian/Norfolk rebels under Robert Kett. After two days of fierce street fighting, Warwick's royal army retook Norwich from Kett's rebels, who withdrew to their camp at Mousehold Heath, which Warwick then encircled; this led directly to the rebels' final defeat at the Battle of Dussindale on 27 August 1549.

Confirmed battlefield location
The ground

The ground they fought on

The site of Kett's Rebellion: Norwich Street Fighting, August 1549 lies on White Chalk Subgroup, bedrock that formed in the Maastrichtian. The rock here is chalk.

Casualties & Losses
  • Not separately recorded for the Norwich street fighting phase specifically. Sources give overall campaign figures: royal forces lost around 250 men in total (mostly at the subsequent Battle of Dussindale on 27 August, where about 3,000 rebels were killed); Warwick is recorded as having executed 49 captured rebels after retaking the city.
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Everything a full report reveals about Kett's Rebellion: Norwich Street Fighting, August 1549

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Overview
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Monuments
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Battlefields
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Roman Britain
The Roman roads, forts and towns near here, and the Iron Age people who held the land before Rome arrived.
Domesday
The settlement's entry in the 1086 Domesday Book: who held it, what it was worth, and the people who worked the land.
Civil War
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Geology
The bedrock beneath the site, its age and rock type, reaching back hundreds of millions of years.
LiDAR
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Local Names
What the street and field names around here actually mean, and the history buried inside them.
Historical Maps
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Literature
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Protected heritage nearby

Scheduled Monuments near Kett's Rebellion: Norwich Street Fighting, August 1549

St Ethelbert Gate
St Ethelbert Gate
Scheduled monument · ~0 mi

St Ethelbert Gate is a fourteenth-century gatehouse forming part of the precinct wall of Norwich Cathedral. The structure, built of flint with stone dressings, stands as one of the most substantial surviving monumental gateways of its period in East Anglia. It served as the principal entrance to…

Gareth Williams / CC BY 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Erpingham Gate
Erpingham Gate
Scheduled monument · ~0.1 mi

Erpingham Gate is a medieval gatehouse located in Norwich, Norfolk, built in the early fifteenth century. Constructed of flint and stone, the structure stands as a fine example of Perpendicular Gothic architecture, featuring characteristic pointed arches and decorative detailing. The gate was ere…

Nigel Chadwick / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Old Charnel House, The Close
Old Charnel House, The Close
Scheduled monument · ~0.1 mi

Old Charnel House, The Close is a medieval ossuary building located in Norwich, Norfolk. The structure dates to the medieval period and functioned as a charnel house, a repository for human remains, typically associated with the adjacent cathedral or parish church. The building represents an impo…

Ben Keating / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Norwich Castle
Norwich Castle
Scheduled monument · ~0.2 mi

Norwich Castle is a Norman keep built in the late eleventh century, constructed shortly after the Norman Conquest of 1066 as both a royal fortress and a symbol of Norman authority in East Anglia. The castle's most distinctive feature is its massive stone keep, originally rising over one hundred f…

The original uploader was Bluemoose at English Wikipedia. / CC BY-SA 3.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Bishop's Palace gate
Bishop's Palace gate
Scheduled monument · ~0.2 mi

Bishop's Palace Gate is a scheduled ancient monument in Norfolk, England, constituting a substantial surviving gateway structure associated with the medieval episcopal residence at Norwich. The gate dates from the medieval period and represents an important element of the fortified precinct that…

Malc MacDonald / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Norman House, St Martin-at-Palace Plain
Norman House, St Martin-at-Palace Plain
Scheduled monument · ~0.3 mi

Norman House is a substantial stone dwelling located on St Martin-at-Palace Plain in Norwich, Norfolk. The building dates to the early Norman period, likely the twelfth century, and represents an important example of domestic architecture from the immediate post-Conquest era. Constructed of flint…

Gate of Bridewell, part of No 6 St Andrew's Hill
Scheduled monument · ~0.2 miles
The Dominican Friary (Blackfriars) Norwich: Becket’s Chapel, Chapter House, North Range, standing remains in the East Garth, and buried remains
Scheduled monument · ~0.2 miles
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In the same landscape

Battles near Kett's Rebellion: Norwich Street Fighting, August 1549

Siege of Norwich Castle (1075)
1075
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Amicable Grant Resistance in Norfolk, 1525
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Danish Raid on Norwich, 1069
1069
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Æthelberht of East Anglia Resists Mercia 792
792
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