So I went to Mam Tor, in 2022 Summer. 

This is a fort that sits in the North of Derbyshire, a more mountainous part of this county than others, at the southern end of the Pennines. 

It sits on the Great Ridge, a almost 2 mile long ridge, that overlooks Castleton and it's vale of Castleton, a  with on the other side Edale. Castleton today has a large quarry, and is a small number of miles from the ridge. Just below Mam Tor are the tourist attractions, that are the caves of Derbyshire. 

These caves are Blue John Cavern (which is right below), Speedwell Cavern,  Peak Cavern which also has a very rude name, Devil's a******e, and Treak Cliff Cavern where lead, Blue John, fluorspar and other minerals were once mined. In a typical coincidence we had a actually been to 2 of these, the rude name one, and Speedwell, a 10 years ago, for a run, and I was impressed by the loveliness of Little Mam Tor pass a lovely pass, down to the caves from the road that leads to Mam Tor. Also I only heard about and listened to on youtube the great short story of Blue Johns cavern by Conan Doyle, "The Terror of Blue John Gap" where he is in 19th century or early 20th Century Derbyshire where there is a fear of a monster emanating from the cavern, as of some divergence in evolution between below and above surface creatures according to his fiction. A story with added spice as of course none of the protagonists fellow doctors and professionals could believe such a unscientific idea, but Conan here, felt there was still enough uncertainty to make such a story believable at that time, and surely so. I must say I saw some sheep were there and they looked OK, from a distance. So top 19th Century writers and poets visited here, plus Queen Victoria herself, and the mad bad and dangerous to know Lord Byron, plus we have been there. 

Anyway, so its like British Camp in how the roads lead up over the valley high, and so this road and car park, is positioned barely some few dozen metres below the fort, and in this case, the peak. So instead of the hundreds of metres trek you may be expecting for one of the 10 highest hillforts in Britain, it is just a trek of a few minutes  for a averagely fit fellow, up to the summit at 517 metres high. At the top we saw there were people from Cheshire, and Manchester, we could tell by their accents, and you could see Castleton from the top, and the rude name cave. Well if you drive all that way, you have a number of options, you could go back to the caves, but we had seen them already, so we walked to Lose Hill. We did not plan to, expecting to turn back, but at 1.9 miles we eventually did, and it was worth it, as there were great views of the hillfort from the ridge. I wonder if the view from Hollins Cross, which is half way along the ridge between Lose Hill and the Hill fort, is among the best land views of a hillfort. You see the hillfort perfectly in its crowning glory in the sunshine, with figures atop atop its summit. 

The fort itself looks over the vale, and surely was a magnificent site as well in its heyday with its hut platforms. Over 100 hut platforms have been found, plus a Bronze Age Burial mound, with some speculating the site was of Bronze Age occupation. I wonder if it is like Ingleborough then. Most see it as a late Bronze Age, and Early Iron Age site. 

Mam Tor is also called the shivering mountain as on the Castleton side landslides, have  caused part of the hill, to cause a road to be abandoned. Though there still are 2 roads here passing by the fort, which is enough. This causes on the Castleton a surprise steep drop, which is something to look out for and be careful about. Though the ramparts round the fort, are proper, and identifiable, which is why from the Great Ridge side, the fort is so obvious. From the other side, the car park side, it is less noticeable as a hillfort. 

The bronze age burial mound make some wonder if the site had ritual significance, and the view from Hollins Cross makes it easy to see why. Also though it would have been a strong point, imposing itself over the valley, so a impressive site indeed. 

Walking up from the Mam Nick Car park (Which annoyingly did not have a coin machine, for parking, but used smart phones) you see little badges in 2022 on the ground, honouring the roundhouses, the finds of pottery and beads, so jewellery. So a nice site indeed. We also lost a wheel rim right by it, but could not find it. I liked it. (Pictures at bottom of this page) 

​

A postcard of Mam Tor

​

Now the bit about those revolts I was mentioning in the title pages, along with the hillforts. 

​

England as the largest of the countries of the British Isles, has had plenty of history within it's borders. As I say in a few pages here, I consider myself someone who can claim Celtic heritage, which gives me a affinity with the Iron Age Celts. It has to be said though that despite the Anglo Saxon invasions, England has as much right to claim to be a Celtic nation as anywhere else in some senses. So here is a page on a exciting period of English history.

Though The Tudors are famed in England's story for solidifying much of the basis of the basis of the English stats, and for being a bridge between the medieval and modern world. ,I have always been intrigued by the revolts in England during that time, Of course one of the mythologies about the Tudors is that they were a Welsh dynasty, and to a extant it was a truth, though in truth you have to admit they were far more a English dynasty. Anyhow here it is .

​

Kett's Rebellion was a revolt in July 1549 instigated by Robert Kett of Wymondham. Kett himself had been a tanner who had used enclosure on the common landKett. When rebels came to rip down his fences he was convinced by their arguments & soon became the leader of the rebellion. It was aimed at bringing attention to the economic problems faced by agricultural workers in East Anglia. In the spirit of the Levellers of the next century, the leaders demanded the abolition of enclosures, the end of private ownership of land, & the dismissal of counsellors. To a lesser degree, the rebellion also had religious leanings, with the rebellion campaigning for further Protestant reforms & the right to choose their own priests. The rebels themselves did not believe that they were rebels as they didn't think that they had done any real harm & they thought that they had the support of the Duke of Somerset. He had made it seem to them that he was going to aid them in the enclosure crisis & establish enclosure commissions. But this was never to be;somerset was not going to risk upsetting nobles who had most likely been using enclosure just to help some peasants. The insurgents amounted to maybe 15,000 men, but after some initial excitement they were defeated in August by an army under the command of the Earl of Warwick--the rebellion was started in the area of Wymondham in Norfolk & came to an end in Dussindale one of the long dales that led from Mousehold Heath at the time. The actual site has never been proven. The most popular is that the Dale began in the vicinity of Plumstead Road East allotments that swept into the Valley Drive into the present remnant of Mousehold, into the Long Valley & out into what is now Gertrude Road & the allotments. In Victorian times this area was known as `Ketts Meadow`. The other Dussindale is the name given to a recent housing development in nearby Thorpe St Andrew, which appears to have more to do with the Civil War judging by the various road names.

​

​

Lady Jane Grey, Wyatt's Rebellion (1554) is a popular rising named for Thomas Wyatt the younger (son of Sir Thomas Wyatt). After Mary I, "Bloody Mary" ascended the English Throne, she intended to bring the Kingdom of England back into the Roman Catholic Church & restrict the rights of Protestants in the kingdom. Wyatt, among others, greatly opposed re-entry into the Catholic fold & rose up against the Queen. Jane's claim to the throne came through her mother, Lady Frances Brandon, the daughter of Mary Tudor (herself a daughter of King Henry VII of England) & of her second husband, Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. The will of Edward VI excluded Lady Frances (who lived until 1559), so the succession passed over her & directly to her daughter Jane. According to male primogeniture, the Suffolks - Brandons & later Greys - comprised the junior branch of the heirs of Henry VII. The 1543 Act of Succession restored both Mary & Elizabeth to the line of succession, even though the law continued to regard both of them as legal bastards. Furthermore, this Act authorised Henry VIII to alter the succession by his will. His last will re-enforced the succession of his three surviving children, then declared that, should none of his three children leave heirs, the throne would pass to heirs of his younger sister, Mary. Henry's will excluded the descendants of his elder sister Margaret Tudor, whose claims had primacy over those of the Suffolks, owing in part to Henry's desire to keep the English throne out of the hands of the Scots monarchs, & in part to a previous Act of Parliament of 1431 barring foreign-born persons, including royalty, from inheriting property in England. Several Protestant nobles had become wealthy when Henry VIII closed the Catholic monasteries & divided the Church's assets among his supporters. John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, figured prominently among the Protestant nobility, & in the last years of Edward's reign had acted as Edward's principal advisor & chief minister. Northumberland, when it became clear that Edward VI would not survive long, led the faction that feared accession by Mary Tudor. This fear stemmed from the knowledge that Mary would certainly revoke the religious changes made during Edward's reign, & that she might reclaim from the nobility all former church & monastic properties in order to restore them to the Roman Catholic Church. Many Englishmen also expressed concern that Mary favoured for herself a Spanish marriage which might bring in Spanish nobles to rule England in place of Northumberland & his colleagues. Northumberland arranged for his son Guildford Dudley to marry the Protestant (and anti-Catholic) Jane, hoping through him to gain control over his new daughter-in-law & the reins of England. When informed by her parents of her betrothal, Jane refused to obey: she regarded Guildford as ugly & stupid. Historians do not know what made this seemingly quiet & obedient girl turn against precedent to refuse her parents' marriage arrangements. Jane's refusal notwithstanding, her parents forced her into submission.

The question of the succession had arisen as a result of the religious unrest that had occurred during the reign (1509 - 1547) of Henry VIII. When Henry's Protestant son & successor Edward VI lay dying (1553) at the age of 15, his Roman Catholic half-sister Mary held the position of Heir Presumptive to the throne. However, Edward VI named the (Protestant) heirs of his father's sister Mary Tudor (not his own half-sister Mary) as his successors in a will composed on his deathbed, perhaps under the persuasion of Northumberland. He knew that this effectively left the throne to his cousin Jane Grey, who (like him) staunchly supported Protestantism & had a very high level of education. At the time of Edward's death, without Edward's will (which had dubious legal standing, since it ran contrary to the Act of Succession of 1543), the crown would have passed, under the terms of both the Act of Succession of 1543 & of Henry VIII's will, to Mary & her male (not female) heirs. Should Mary die without male issue, the crown would pass to Elizabeth & her male heirs. & should Elizabeth die without male issue, the crown would pass not to Frances Brandon but rather to any male children she might have produced by that time. In the absence of male children born to Frances, the crown would pass to any male children Jane might have. Jane thus did not feature in the line of succession prior to the last draft of Edward's will of June 1553. Only in the last draft did Edward finally include Jane Grey as his heir presumptive, knowing the line of succession included no Protestant-born male children. This may have contravened customary testatory law because Edward, then just 15 years old, had not legally reached legal testatory age of 21. But more importantly, many contemporary legal theorists believed the monarch could not contravene an Act of Parliament, even in matters of the succession; Jane's claim to the throne therefore remained obviously weak.

Painting sometimes claimed to depict Lady Jane Grey; by an unknown 16th century artistEdward VI died on July 6, 1553. Northumberland had Lady Jane Grey proclaimed Queen of England on July 10, 1553, just four days later — once she had taken up a secure residence in the Tower of London (English monarchs customarily resided in the Tower from the time of accession until their coronation). According to some fictional accounts, Northumberland tricked Jane into putting on the crown; however, she refused to name her husband as king by letters patent & deferred to Parliament. She offered to make him a duke instead.

Northumberland faced a number of key tasks in order to consolidate his power. Most importantly, he had to isolate & , ideally, capture Mary in order to prevent her from gathering support around her. Mary, however, advised of his intentions, took flight, sequestering herself in Framlingham Castle in Suffolk.
Mary I proved to have more popular support than Jane, largely because the English people regarded her as the rightful heiress, but perhaps partly because of the continuing sympathy for the memory of her mother, Catherine of Aragon (Henry VIII had had his own marriage with Catherine annulled). At Framlingham Castle Mary amassed a force of 20,000 men, which marched to London & deposed Jane. There then initially seemed some likelihood that Mary, who had now taken the throne, would spare Jane's life. Queen Mary sent John de Feckenham to Lady Jane in an attempt to convert her to Catholicism.

Wyatt expected that others would join him in revolt — plans were made for a country wide rebellion. However, his co-conspirators were unable to rebel & unable to tell Wyatt, so his forces rose anyway. The rebellion seized much of Kent, & Wyatt led his forces in a march on London. Significantly Mary was able to rally London to her cause by appearing at the City gates & announcing herself as the legitimate queen. Wyatt's rebellion was defeated a matter of weeks later. What it demonstrated though was that legitimacy in England during the 16th century trumped religious affiliation: many Protestants had supported Mary during Wyatt's rebellion & the earlier period of uncertainty surrounding her accession, plenty of Catholics ended up supporting her sister & had supported her father & brother. The failure of Wyatt & other confessional rebellions has often been seen by historians as one of the reasons why Tudor monarchs were able to seesaw so effectively between the religious faiths during the 16th century. Personally the rebellion was a disaster for Wyatt; he was executed & Queen Mary took away Wyatt's title & lands including the family home, Allington Castle.

Ridolfi Plot The Ridolfi plot was a Roman Catholic plot of 1570 to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I of England & replace her with Mary I of Scotland. The conspirators were led by Roberto di Ridolfi, who, posing as an international banker, was able to travel between Brussels, Rome & Madrid without attracting too much suspicion. Ridolfi had discussed his plans with the Duke of Alba in the Netherlands. Charles Baillie, a Scot favourable to Mary's party, was arrested at Dover carrying compromising letters, & revealed the existence of the plot under torture. The Duke of Norfolk was discovered to have been funding Mary's party in Scotland & was arrested on September 7, 1571. Norfolk was put on trial for treason early in 1572 & executed in June.

The Rising of the North or Northern Rebellion was an unsuccessful uprising against Elizabeth I of England in 1569 by Catholics of Northern England. Its objective was the deposition of Elizabeth & coronation of Mary I of Scotland as Queen of England. The rebellion was led by two members of the great Northern nobility: Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland & Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland. They were instigated in part by Leonard Dacre, who was playing a double game. As heir-male of George Dacre, 5th Baron Dacre of Gillesland, he hoped to betray the conspirators & obtain, as a reward, the lands held by his nieces, the coheirs of Lord Dacre. The rebel Earls occupied Durham & had Mass sung in the cathedral there by the old rites. They marched south to Bramham Moor, while Elizabeth struggled to raise forces sufficient to confront them. However, hearing of a large force being raised by the Earl of Essex, the rebels abandoned plans to besiege York, & captured Barnard Castle instead. They proceeded to Clifford Moor, but found little popular support. Essex marched out from York on December 13, 1569 with 7,000 men to their 4,600, soon followed by 12,000 under Lord Clinton. The rebel Earls retreated northward before him & finally dispersed their forces, fleeing into Scotland. The treachery of Dacre was discoved, & he gave battle with 3,000 Cumbrians against a detachment of the royal army under Lord Hunsdon. Dacre was vanquished, but escaped to die in exile in Flanders. As a result, Raby Castle was lost by the Neville family. The Earl of Westmorland was attainted, but escaped to Flanders & died impoverished in Spain. The Earl of Northumberland fled into Scotland, was imprisoned by the Regent Moray, & turned over to Elizabeth in 1572, being summarily beheaded in York. Various lesser personages & Catholic priests also fled into exile or were executed.

Pope Pius V aided the Catholic Rebellion by excommunicating Elizabeth & declaring her deposed in a Papal Bull. The Bull of Deposition, Regnans in Excelsis, was only issued in 1570, arriving after the Rebellion had been put down. After the Bull of Deposition was issued, however, Elizabeth chose not to continue her policy of religious toleration. She instead began the persecution of her religious enemies, leading to various conspiracies to remove her from the Throne.

Neville's wife Jane Howard had more to do with raising the troops than he did. She hoped to arrange the marriage of her brother, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, to Mary Queen of Scots & put them both on England's throne. Despite being the first to urge the rebels to rise up, she expected Elizabeth to pardon her when they failed — instead, Neville fled to the continent, she lived the rest of her life under house arrest & Thomas was imprisoned but then forgiven, only to fall in the Ridolfi Plot.
The Prayer Book Rebellion or Western Rebellion was a popular rising occurred in the southwest of England in 1549.

In the 1540s the government of Edward VI introduced a range of legislative measures as an extension of the Protestant Reformation in England & Wales, the primary aim being to remove certain practices from the church which were perceived as being too Catholic. In 1549 the Book of Common Prayer in English replaced the four old liturgical books in Latin. The change was widely unpopular amongst religious conservatives — particularly in areas of traditionally Catholic religious loyalty, for example, in Devon & Cornwall.

Some commentators believe that the roots of the rebellion can be traced back to the Cornish Rebellion of 1497 & the subsequent destruction of monasteries from 1536 through to 1545 which brought an end to the formal scholarship that had sustained the Cornish & Devonian cultural identities. The smashing & looting of colleges like Glasney & Crantock played a significant part in fermenting opposition to future cultural reforms. Apart from being missed as centres of indigenous culture, many would have seen these institutions as being a bridge to the Celtic past, a link to a time before the perceived imperial overlords achieved ascendancy, back even to the Christianised paganism of their forefathers. Relying on his general warrant to return to England, given under the great seal, Essex sailed from Ireland on 24 September 1599, & reached London four days later. The queen had expressly forbidden his return & was surprised when he presented himself in her bedchamber one morning at Nonsuch Palace, before she was properly wigged or gowned. On that day, the privy council met three times, & it seemed his disobedience might go unpunished, although the queen did confine him to his rooms with the comment that "an unruly beast must be stopped of his provender".

Essex appeared before the full council on 29 September, when he was compelled to stand bareheaded before the table during a five hour interrogation; the council—his uncle Knollys included—took a quarter of an hour to compile a report, in which it was found that his truce with Tyrone was indefensible & his flight from Ireland tantamount to a desertion of duty. He was committed to custody in his own York House on 1 October, & he chose to blame Cecil & Raleigh for the queen's hostility. Raleigh advised Cecil to see to it that he did not recover power, & Essex appeared to heed advice to retire from public life, although the population was thought to be with him.

During his confinement at York House, Essex probably communicated with King James VI of Scotland through Lord Mountjoy, although any plans he may have had at that time to ease the Scots king on to the English throne came to nothing. In October, Mountjoy was appointed to replace him in Ireland, but matters seemed to look up for the earl. In November, the queen was reported to have said that the truce with Tyrone was "so seasonably made . . . as great good . . . has grown by it". Others in the council were willing to justify Essex's return to Ireland, on the grounds of the urgent necessity of a briefing by the commander-in-chief.

Essex was found guilty & , on 25 February 1601, was beheaded on Tower Green. At Raleigh's own treason trial in 1603, it was alleged that Raleigh had said to a co-conspirator, "Do not, as my Lord Essex did, take heed of a preacher. By his persuasion he confessed, & made himself guilty." In the same trial, Raleigh also denied that he had stood at a window during the execution of Essex's sentence, disdainfully puffing out tobacco smoke in sight of the condemned man.

Some days before execution of sentence, Captain Thomas Lee was apprehended as he kept watch on the door to the queen's chambers. His plan had been to confine her until she signed a warrant for the release of Essex. Lee, who had served in Ireland with the earl & acted as go-between with the Ulster rebels, was tried & put to death the next day.

Perkin Warbeck In 1497, he landed in Cornwall, hoping to capitalise on the Cornish people's resentment in the aftermath of their uprising only three months earlier. As the freedom fighters had been defeated, however, Perkin found little support for a renewed rising against King Henry. Leaving Cornwall for London, he mounted a feeble military challenge to Henry but fled Henry's army a few days before battle would have been joined. He was captured & imprisoned in the Tower of London alongside the genuine claimant Edward, Earl of Warwick, with whom he tried to escape in 1499. Captured once again, he was hanged as a traitor at Tyburn.

Perkin reportedly resembled Edward IV in appearance, which has led to speculation that he might have been Edward's illegitimate son.

​

Of the course the most amazing revolt in English history was the Peasant's revolt of 1381, the Chartists of the 19th Century, The vast range of revolts associated to the English Civil war, most notably the Levellers, and the Monmouth Rebellion where hundreds were executed by the king's judges, after the revolt, in the sixteen eighties. Plus a number of riots in the 18th Century, and more so the 19th Century most significantly around the time of the 1831 reform act, including most turbulantly in Bristol.