to the borders of Essex and Cambridgeshire. In the most serious rebellion in England since 1497, 10,000 men converged on the major trading town of Lavenham. An eyewitness reported that the militants only failed because loyal townsmen led by Sir John Spring had removed the clappers from the bells of Lavenham church, which were to have been rung to signal the start of the uprising. The rebellion was eventually crushed by the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, but the rebels had made their point. Wolsey was forced to abandon the Grant and reduce the payments for the 1523 subsidy. Discontent in London prompted Henry to halve demands to save some of the tax, before abandoning it altogether. At the end of May, the rising's ringleaders were brought before the Star Chamber and pardoned. Wolsey led an ostentatious ceremony of reconciliation, begging the king for pardon for his fellow Suffolk men, even supplying them with more than enough cash to cover their time in gold and a piece of silver. Long term Wolsey's climbdown was humiliating, and may have contributed to his fall in 1529 since this was the first occasion in which Wolsey had seriously failed to enact Henry's will. Popular opinion made a significant impact on foreign policy too, reducing considerably the fiscal potential of the Henrician government and forcing Henry to abandon his European schemes; peace with France was the only course, ending significant military endeavours for England until the Scottish campaign of 1542. References Further reading Bernard, George William. War, Taxation, and Rebellion in Early Tudor England: Henry VIII, Wolsey, and the Amicable Grant of 1525 (Palgrave Macmillan, 1986). Bernard, G. W., and Richard W. Hoyle. "The instructions for the levying of the Amicable Grant, March 1525." Historical Research 67.163 (1994): 190-202. History of taxation in the United Kingdom 1525 in England