Ket then put in these commissions the names of men who had joined the rising, and declared them magistrates with authority to check all disobedience to orders.
To feed the army at Mousehold, men were sent out with a warrant from Ket for obtaining cattle and corn from the country houses, and "to beware of robbing, spoiling, and other evil demeanours." No violence or injury was to be done to "any honest or poor man." Contributions came in from the smaller yeomen "with much private good-will," but the landowners generally were stricken with panic, and let the rebels do what they liked.

Those who could not escape by flight were, for the most part, brought captive to the Oak of Reformation, and thence sent to the prisons in Norwich and St.Leonard's Hill.
Relations between Ket and the Norwich authorities soon became strained to breaking point.

Mayor Cod was shocked at the imprisonment of county gentlemen, and refused permission for Ket's troops to pass through the city on their foraging expeditions.

Citizens and rebels were in conflict on July 21st, but "for lack of powder and want of skill in the gunners" few lives were lost, and Norwich was in the hands of Ket the following day.

No reprisals followed; but a week later came William Parr, Marquis of Northampton--Henry VIII.'s brother-in-law--with 1,500 Italian mercenaries and a body of country squires, to destroy the rebels.