Resistance to the Amicable Grant

What was the Amicable Grant

• Imposition of taxes to pay for foreign wars in 1525

Where was opposition the strongest

• Opposition was widespread but the strongest resistance occurred in north Essex and South Suffolk

How people resisted

• Around 1000 people had gathered at the Essex-Suffolk border and were determined to resist payment

• Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk faced about 4000 taxation resisters

• Especially unemployed cloth workers who found it impossible to pay the levy

How was the resistance handled

• Sensitively

• The king backed down

• Wolsey publically begged the king to offer pardon to those whom he saw as his Suffolk countrymen

• Leaders of the resistance were treated leniently

What the resistance to the Amicable Grant showed

• Demonstrated that Henry could not operate in defiance of the taxpaying classes

• When he next invaded France he raised money by the sale of monastic lands instead of extraordinary revenue