‘The Barns of Crediton!’ - The War Cry of 16th Century Rebels

After the Church of England was formed in the 16th Century and Protestantism became  the official religion of the country, many people refused to convert and maintained their Catholic faith. This was particularly true in Devon and Cornwall, where people were frequently described as ‘popish’ because of their allegiance to the Pope. Here Dylan Bilyard describes how in 1549 Crediton became the focus of a Catholic rebellion with some terrible consequences.

One of most significant changes of the Protestant Reformation was the enforced use of the English language in church services, instead of Latin. The introduction of the English Book of Common Prayer in 1549, triggered the Prayer Book Rebellion in the Westcountry, where there was already growing social and economic unrest.  “We will not have the new service, nor the Bible, in English,” became the rallying cry of the rebels.

So strong were feelings, that a local man who attempted to dissuade the Catholic rebels in Sampford Courtenay was hacked to death on the parish church steps. He was condemned as a heretic. John Hooker, a contemporary historian, wrote that the uprising was “as a cloud carried with a violent wind and as a thunder clap sounding at one instant through the whole country”. And yet it started here, in our home county of Devon. 

Cornish rebel forces travelled East  joining fellow rebels in Devon to capture Crediton. When troops loyal to the King came to retake the town, many rebels hid in barns to avoid capture. But this led to the loyalist troops burning the barns with the rebels inside. Throughout England, for years afterwards,  “the barns of Crediton!” became a popular war cry for Tudor rebels, commemorating their martyred allies and condemning the brutality of the state loyalists. 

The people of Exeter suffered the ensuing siege admirably, despite the lack of resources, yet could not hold out forever. The local magnates could not hope to quell such a popular uprising. Lord Somerset, Edward VI’s reputed “puppeteer”, called in a European mercenary force. This was the first time in history an English ruler had used foreign troops against his own people. Six battles were fought to end the rebellion. In Clyst St Mary the worst losses were sustained -  1,000 rebels died, and 900 more were taken to be massacred on Clyst Heath. Exeter was retaken by the crown, the rebels fleeing ahead of such crippling defeats. A “mass priest” was hung in St Thomas’  Church during the following persecutions. 

A final battle at Sampford Courtenay, the starting point of the uprising, marked the end of the rebellion. The rebellion took place a long way from London and the young monarch, yet the effects were profound. Just a few thousand Westcountry folk had taken a city and could only be defeated with foreign aid. They represented the oppressed Catholic majority and the power they held; now every peasant who believed they had been treated unfairly had a new war cry: “the barns of Crediton!”