Michael Joseph (died 27 June 1497), better known as Michael An Gof, was one of the leaders of the
Cornish rebellion of 1497, along with
Thomas Flamank
Thomas Flamank (died 27 June 1497) was a lawyer and former MP from Cornwall, who together with Michael An Gof led the Cornish rebellion of 1497, a protest against taxes imposed by Henry VII of England.
Ancestry
He was the eldest son of Richard ...
.
Background
The rebels marched on London to protest against King
Henry VII's levy of a tax to pay for an invasion of
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
in response to the Scots' support of the pretender
Perkin Warbeck
Perkin Warbeck ( 1474 – 23 November 1499) was a pretender to the English throne claiming to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, who was the second son of Edward IV and one of the so-called "Princes in the Tower". Richard, were he alive, ...
. The Cornish believed that this was a northern affair and had nothing to do with them; they also believed that the tax was the work of the King's corrupt counsellors and marched to London to bring this to the King's attention.
March on London
A blacksmith (An Gof) named Michael Joseph lived at
St Keverne
St Keverne ( kw, Pluw Aghevran (parish), Lannaghevran (village)) is a civil parish and village on The Lizard in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.
In addition to the parish, an electoral ward exists called ''St Keverne and Meneage''. This stre ...
on the
Lizard peninsula
The Lizard ( kw, An Lysardh) is a peninsula in southern Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The most southerly point of the British mainland is near Lizard Point at SW 701115; Lizard village, also known as The Lizard, is the most southerl ...
. He is described as "a notable prating fellow who by thrusting himself forward on every occasion, and being loudest in every complaint against the government, acquired an authority among these simple people, and was ready to lead them to any desperate enterprise".
Michael Joseph was chosen by the people of St. Keverne to challenge the tax. When he and his followers reached Bodmin, they were joined by
Thomas Flamank
Thomas Flamank (died 27 June 1497) was a lawyer and former MP from Cornwall, who together with Michael An Gof led the Cornish rebellion of 1497, a protest against taxes imposed by Henry VII of England.
Ancestry
He was the eldest son of Richard ...
, a local lawyer. Flamank argued that it was the business of the barons of the north to defend the Scottish border, and that the tax was illegal. He suggested that the Cornishmen should march on London and present a petition to the king setting forth their grievances against the advisers responsible for the king's action.
[Lyon, Rod. ''Cornwall's Historical Wars'', The Cornovia Press, 2012]
Under the leadership of Flamank and Joseph, about 6,000 Cornishmen assembled at Bodmin and set out.
[ The army attracted support in provisions and recruits along the way and by the time it reached Devon numbered some 15,000 strong.][Fletcher, Anthony and MacCulloch, Diarmaid. ''Tudor Rebellions'', 5th Ed., Routledge, 2014]
Up until then the march had been relatively peaceable, but when they reached Taunton
Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...
in Somerset, Provost Perrin, an officer and commissioner who was collecting the tax, was killed.[
They hoped to gain support from people in ]Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
– the focus of Jack Cade
Jack Cade's Rebellion was a popular revolt in 1450 against the government of England, which took place in the south-east of the country between the months of April and July. It stemmed from local grievances regarding the corruption, maladmini ...
's rebellion of 1450 – but despite heading to Cade's former rallying site at Blackheath Blackheath may refer to:
Places England
*Blackheath, London, England
** Blackheath railway station
**Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, an ancient hundred in the north west of the county of Kent, England
*Blackheath, Surrey, England
** Hundred of Blackh ...
they gained little backing.
The Cornish rebels were beaten by the King's forces at the Battle of Deptford Bridge on 17 June 1497 on a site adjacent to the River Ravensbourne
The River Ravensbourne is a tributary of the River Thames in south London, England. It flows into the tidal River Thames at Deptford, where its tidal reach is known as Deptford Creek.
Geography
The Ravensbourne is 11 miles (17 km) i ...
. Michael fled to Greenwich
Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...
after the battle, but was captured and sent to the Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
.
As one of the leaders, Michael An Gof was executed with Flamank on 27 June 1497. A 16th-century source[''Hall's Chronicle'' edited by Richard Grafton, London, 1809, p. 480]
/ref> relates that they suffered the highest penalty for traitors: to be hanged, drawn and quartered
To be hanged, drawn and quartered became a statutory penalty for men convicted of high treason in the Kingdom of England from 1352 under Edward III of England, King Edward III (1327–1377), although similar rituals are recorded during the rei ...
. But an even earlier authority[''Chronicles of London'' edited by C.L.Kingsford, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1905, pp. 215–216]
/ref> states that they were hanged until dead before being beheaded and quartered. Their heads were displayed on London Bridge
Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...
and their quarters at other locations. While being pulled on a hurdle toward his execution, An Gof is reported to have said that he would have "a name perpetual and a fame permanent and immortal".[''Hall's Chronicle'' edited by Richard Grafton, London, 1809, p. 479]
/ref>
In 1997, the 500th anniversary of the rebellion, a commemorative march (" Keskerdh Kernow 500") was held, retracing the route of the original march from St. Keverne (An Gof's home town in Cornwall) to London. A statue depicting An Gof and Flamank was unveiled in St Keverne and a commemorative plaque was unveiled on the wall of Greenwich Park
Greenwich Park is a former hunting park in Greenwich and one of the largest single green spaces in south-east London. One of the Royal Parks of London, and the first to be enclosed (in 1433), it covers , and is part of the Greenwich World Herita ...
facing Blackheath common. Russell Pascoe composed 'The Martyrdom of An Gof' for the end of the march, which was performed at The Barbican in June 1997.
Other uses
The name "An Gof" is from the Cornish for "the blacksmith". It is the origin of the British surname Angove. Cognates include "Gow" and "Gowan" and the Irish/Scottish McGowan
McGowan is an Irish and Scottish surname. It is an Anglicization of the Irish Mac Gabhann and Scottish surname ''Mac Gobhann''. Belonging to the Uí Echach Cobo, located in modern-day County Down in the east of Ulster, they produced several ...
.
The Holyer An Gof trophy is an annual award for the best publication on Cornwall,''Holyer An Gof Award''
and part of the Cornish Gorsedd (Gorsedh Kernow
Gorsedh Kernow (Cornish Gorsedd) is a non-political Cornish organisation, based in Cornwall, United Kingdom, which exists to maintain the national Celtic spirit of Cornwall. It is based on the Welsh-based Gorsedd, which was founded by Iolo Mo ...
).
An Gof's name was later used by a Cornish nationalist extremist organisation.
An Gof was the name of a rock group who performed a song on the album Keltia Rok in 1987.
See also
* List of topics related to Cornwall
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Cornwall:
Cornwall – ceremonial county and unitary authority area of England within the United Kingdom. Cornwall is a peninsula bordered to the north and wes ...
*Second Cornish Uprising of 1497
The Second Cornish uprising occurred in September 1497 when the pretender to the throne Perkin Warbeck landed at Whitesand Bay, near Land's End, on 7 September with just 120 men in two ships.
Warbeck had seen the potential of the Cornish unrest ...
*Prayer Book Rebellion
The Prayer Book Rebellion or Western Rising was a popular revolt in Cornwall and Devon in 1549. In that year, the ''Book of Common Prayer'', presenting the theology of the English Reformation, was introduced. The change was widely unpopular, ...
* The Wikipedia Cornwall Portal
References
External links
The Cornish Rebellion
{{DEFAULTSORT:An Gof, Michael
1497 deaths
Military history of Cornwall
Medieval Cornish people
15th-century English people
People from St Keverne
People executed by Tudor England by hanging, drawing and quartering
Cornish nationalism
Cornish nationalists
People executed under the Tudors for treason against England
Year of birth unknown
Executed Cornish people
People executed under Henry VII of England
People executed at Tyburn
Prisoners in the Tower of London