Food shortages in England, linked to periodic bad harvests, had for generations led to noisy popular protests, with mobs crying out for emergency relief supplies. In 1607, a full-scale revolt erupted in the Midlands, spreading quickly from Northamptonshire to Leicestershire and Warwickshire. The angry crowds, thousands strong, denounced the hated practice of grain hoarding in the hope of a higher price and demanded that local landlords stop the illegal enclosure of common lands.
