Just Finished Reading: The English Rebel – One Thousand Years of Trouble-making from the Normans to the Nineties by David Horspool (FP: 2009)

We Brits are a belligerent bunch. Not only will we pick a fight with just about anyone but we never know when we’re beaten (or invaded) and never take a slight or insult lying down. We’ll fight each other and we’ll fight anyone who has the temerity to tell us what to do - at least that’s what it feels like reading through this fascinating history of rebellion. Starting with the 20+ year resistance to the Norman Invasion (they probably regretted invading us not long after they arrived), the all too regular power grabs from the friends and family of the rulers, the Baron’s rebellion that led to the signing of Magna Carta in 1215, The Peasant’s Revolt of 1381, the Wars of the Roses (incorporating the uprisings led by Jack Cade and Perkin Warbeck), the arrival of Mary Tudor and the death of the Earl of Essex who plotted with Mary Queen of Scots, Robert Catesby and the Gunpowder Plot, the Civil Wars, the Commonwealth and Oliver Cromwell, the Glorious Revolution of 1688, Mutiny’s and Strikes throughout the 18th Century, The Chartists, The Suffragettes, the General Strike of 1926, the Battle of Cable Street in 1936 and ending with the Poll Tax Riots in 1990. All in all quite a breathless ride!

I was impressed that I’d at least heard of most of the incidents discussed in these 400 pages although one or two events were new to me. I did enjoy learning more about (and the links between) popular protests from the 18th century on. Most of the earlier stuff – pre-modern – normally concerned grabs for power within the existing power elite. Although an important part of our history it actually interested me less than the more popular or class based revolts and rebellions of peasants and the working class. From the earliest days of the Industrial Revolution a more political revolution was never really far below the surface. People like the Luddites and the Chartists showed that the workers could never be taken for granted or ever completely subdued. Especially after the horrors of the French Revolution the upper class of Britain never slept in their beds in total ease. Taken more for granted these days there is still that vague fear that the ‘lower orders’ might turn on their ‘betters’ if pushed far enough. The periodic riots in some major cities are proof of that. The English Rebel is far from dead!

As an overview (it could be little more with 400 pages covering almost 1000 years) this is a solid introduction to political unrest in England – Scotland, Ireland and Wales need their own similar book to cover their individual rebellious history. I shall be examining some of the more modern rebellions in more detail later (indeed I’m reading about the 1926 General Strike presently) so there’s much more rebellion to come. This certainly helped to focus future reading and future investigation and helped me define any likely post-retirement PhD project a little more. Recommended for anyone interested in rebels or rebellions.