Western Rising and disafforestation riots

rdf:langString Western Rising and disafforestation riots

rdf:langString The Western Rising was a series of riots which took place during 1626–1632 in Gillingham Forest on the Wiltshire-Dorset border, Braydon Forest in Wiltshire, and the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire in response to disafforestation of royal forests, sale of royal lands and enclosure of property by the new owners. Disafforestation is a change in legal status that allows the land to be sold normally, rather than being preserved as a forest. Enclosure takes the land out of common use, denying access to non-owners who had previously used it. There were contemporaneous uprisings in Feckenham Forest and Leicester Forest. Riots also took place at Malvern Chase, where enclosure was largely successfully opposed. Riot and breaching enclosures were not the only form of opposition to disafforestation. In many cases, landowners and tenants felt the compensation they were offered was unfair, and they sought to challenge decisions through the legal system. In at least one case, a town council, the Corporation of Leicester, and borough residents took legal action because of the effect on the poorest forest dwellers, who were likely to become a burden on the town's poor relief. The 1626–1632 riots were followed by further riots at many of the same locations during the English Civil War and the following Interregnum as disafforestation proceeded and continued to be contested.