Representing Rebellion: Memory and Social Conflict in Sixteenth-Century England

Abstract

This paper takes key insights from social psychologists and interrogates them as methodological tools for historians, applying these theories to a large-scale uprising that occurred in southern England in 1549. In a social order based on notions of paternalism and deference, a diverse band of rebels were able to forge an alliance strong enough to pose a serious threat to local authorities in Norwich. Social psychological approaches to collective memory and evolving social representations are deployed to highlight contested memories of rebellion as central to Tudor state formation, and to understand how a rebel group with many competing interests was able to sustain their alliance. I argue that the imperative to understand individual behaviour in a collective context illuminates the way that this group could form a vision of the world which contradicted deferential social ideals without ranging themselves against central government. The article also suggests ways in which historical approaches can inform social psychological concepts.