Citation: C. Hayden (2008). 1549: The Rebels Shout Back, Cornish Studies Vol. 16, (P. Payton Ed.),University of Exeter Press, Exeter, pp. 206-228. This paper was written as piece of practice-led research reflecting on the writing of the novel ‘A Christmas Game’, Palores Publications, Redruth, 2012. 1549 – The Rebels Shout Back Cheryl Hayden Queensland University of Technology Item we will not receyve the newe seruyce because it is but lyke a Christmas gāme, but we wyll haue oure oldd seruyce of Mattens, masse, Euensong and procession in Latten as it was before. And so we Cornyshe men (wherof certen of vs vnderstād no Englysh) vtterly refuse thys newe Englysh. (from The Articles of vs the Commoners of Deuonshyre and Cornewall in diuers Campes by East and west of Excettor) 1 INTRODUCTION As an Australian of predominantly Cornish descent, I was astonished to discover during the course of my study for a Master of Arts degree in Cornish Studies (University of Exeter 2002) that my ancestral history was notable not only for mining prowess and a colorful tradition of smuggling and piracy, but for a period of rebellion that spanned 150 years and cost hundreds, possibly thousands, of lives. Not only was I bemused by my lack of awareness of events that suggested a significant reluctance on the part of the Cornish to be pulled into line with the rest of Tudor England, but I also felt somewhat cross that history appeared to have wiped any notion of ethically or culturally-driven tension between Cornwall and England from the record. In fact, despite being told as a child that my ancestry was Cornish, there was little, if anything that I was aware of in the far- removed Antipodes, to support the unarticulated yet quite clear notion of “not being English” that was implied by this so-called Cornish heritage.