Cornish rebellion of 1497

Cornish rebellion of 1497
Statue of Michael Joseph the Smith and Thomas Flamank in St Keverne Cornwall.
Date 1497. Main battle on 17 June Location Cornwall and other counties en route to London. Main battle at Deptford, London. Result Royal victory
Belligerents
Rebels from Cornwall and South-West England	Kingdom of England
Commanders and leaders
James, Baron Audley   Thomas Flamank   Michael An Gof	Henry VII Giles, Lord Daubeny
Strength
At least 15,000	At least 25,000
Casualties and losses
Estimated 1,000 dead [citation needed]	Unknown

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.^[1] The rebellion was a response to hardship caused by the raising of war taxes by King Henry VII to finance a campaign against Scotland.^[2][3] 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.