The Cornish Rebellion of 1497 was an uprising in 1497 of the tin miners in Cornwall, England. The main cause of the rebellion was the raising of war taxes by King Henry VII for a campaign against Scotland. The tin miners lived in poverty, earning very small amounts of money, much of which was taxed, and they felt they had no involvement in wars with Scotland as they lived so far from it. Therefore, when the people of Cornwall were charged extra war taxes in 1497 - possibly as a result of the brief skirmish by Scotland into England inspired by Perkin Warbeck's pretence to the English throne - the Cornish had had enough. To cap their resentment of the tax, it intruded into a previous jurisdiction that Cornwall was exempt from all taxes of 10ths or 15ths of income by demanding one of these amounts.

In reaction to the tax, Michael Joseph - a local blacksmith - and Thomas Flamank - a lawyer from Bodmin - worked the townspeople of St. Keverne, the hometown of Joseph, up into an armed revolt against the King and his tax. The force raised by the two men set off to London, gathering supporters as it went.

On reaching Somerset, a local Lord by the name of Lord Audley took command of the rebel army, and it grew to consist of several thousand men by the time it reached had Blackheath, outside London. The leaders of the rebellion had moved to Deptford hoping to capitalise on the sympathetic feelings between the people of Cornwall and Kent. However, after the revolt of 1450, and its subsequent defeat, the Kentish people refused to join the rebels, and so the Cornish rebels remained in Blackheath. There, they were surrounded by 10,000 men of the King's army under Baron Daubeny where the two armies formed for a brief battle - the Battle of Deptford Bridge. The skirmish cost the lives of 200 Cornish rebels, and Lord Audley and Flamank were captured on the field of battle.

Joseph was caught later, fleeing for Greenwich, where he joined the other rebel leaders in the Tower of London. On June 27, Flamank and Joseph were hung, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, and they were followed the next day by the beheading of Lord Audley on Tower Hill. The remaining rebels were sent home, ending the rebellion.