Pilgrimage of Grace (1536-7) [Northern Rebellion against King Henry VIII] Search PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE, a name assumed by religious insurgents in the north of England, who opposed the dissolution of the monasteries . The movement, which commenced in Lincolnshire in Sept. 1536, was suppressed in Oct., but soon after revived in Yorkshire; and an expedition bearing the foregoing name, having banners on which were depicted the five wounds of Christ, was headed by Robert Aske and other gentlemen [cf. Lord Darcy and Robert Constable ], and joined by priests and 40,000 men of York, Durham, Lancaster, and other counties. They took Hull and York, with smaller towns. The Duke of Norfolk marched against them, and by making terms dispersed them [see 24 Articles ]. Early in 1537 they again took arms, but were promptly suppressed, and the leaders, several abbots, and many others were executed. Text source: Haydn's Dictionary of Dates. 17th Ed. Benjamin Vincent, ed. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1883. 530. PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE By J.

Franck Bright With the death of Catherine some of the dangers which threatened insurrection in England disappeared. It was no longer impossible that Charles should be reconciled to his uncle [ Henry VIII ]. As the year therefore passed, the chances of an insurrection in England became less, and the real opportunity for successful action on the part of the reactionary party was gone. But, perhaps because they felt that time was thus passing away, or because accidental circumstances led the way to an outbreak, the discontented party, before the year was out, were in arms throughout the whole North of England. Nor did this party consist of one class alone. For one reason or another, nearly every nobleman of distinction, and nearly every Northern peasant, alike joined in the movement. The causes which touched the interests of so many different classes were of course various. There was indeed one tie which united them all. All, gentle and simple, were alike deeply attached to the Roman Church, and saw with detestation the beginning of the Reformation in the late Ten Articles , and the havoc which Cromwell and his agents were making among the monasteries. In fact, the coarseness with which the reforms were carried out were very revolting.

Stories were current of how the visitors' followers had ridden from abbey to abbey clad in the sacred vestments of the priesthood, how the church plate had been hammered into dagger hilts. The Church had been always more powerful in the North, and the dislike to the reforms was proportionately violent. But, apart from this general conservative feeling, each class had a special grievance of its own. The clergy, it is needless to mention—they were exasperated to the last degree. The nobles—always a wilder and more independent race than those of the South—saw with disgust the upstart Cromwell the chief adviser of the Crown. They had borne the tyranny of Wolsey , but in Wolsey they could at least reverence the Prince of the Church. They had even triumphed over Wolsey, and had probably believed that the older nobility would have regained some of their ancient influence. They had been disappointed. Cromwell, a man of absolutely unknown origin, and with something at least of the downright roughness of a self-made man, was carrying all before him.

The gentry, besides that they were largely connected with the superior clergy, and suffered with their suffering, were at the present smarting under a change in the law, which deprived them of the power of providing for their younger children. By the common law it was not allowed to leave landed property otherwise than to the eldest son or representative. To evade this it had been customary to employ what are called uses:—that is, property was left to the eldest son, saddled with the duty of paying a portion, or sometimes the whole, of the rent to the use of the younger son. A long continuance of this practice had produced inextricable confusion. There were frequently uses on uses, till at length it was often difficult to say to whom the property really belonged. This difficulty had been met by the "Statute of Uses" in the preceding year, by which the holder of the use was declared to be the owner of the property, and for his benefit a Parliamentary title was created. At the same time, to prevent a repetition of the difficulty, uses were forbidden.

Till, therefore, the law was altered a few years afterwards, the old common law held good, and, uses being impossible, gentry with much land and little money were deprived of all power of helping their younger children. The lower orders were suffering principally from a change in the condition of agriculture in England, for which the Government could not be held responsible. There was a strong tendency to convert arable land into pasture. Complaints on this head are constant. Mercantile men also had begun to find that possession of land gave them influence irrespective of birth. Bringing the mercantile spirit with them to the country, they had worked their properties to the best advantage, regardless of the feelings of their tenants and labourers. The consequence was, that where in the old days there had been thriving villages, there were now in many instances barren sheep-walks, supporting only two or three men. The rest of the old inhabitants, uprooted from their connection with the soil, thronged the towns, or of necessity became dependent upon charity. They were suffering very deeply, and as usual attributed their sufferings to their governors. The insurrection broke out in Lincolnshire, at Louth.

Thither Heneage, one of the clerical commissioners, and the Bishop of Lincoln's chancellor were going on their business on the 1st of October. It was rumoured that they intended to rob the treasury of the church. A crowd collected under the leading of a man who called himself Captain Cobler. The church was locked and guarded, the great cross fetched out by way of standard, and the whole township marched to raise the neighbouring towns and villages. The insurrection in Lincoln was essentially a popular one. It was on compulsion that the gentry joined it. There was a strong party for murdering them. They were in fact besieged by the populace in the Close at Lincoln, and quickly threw their weight upon the side of the Government. At Lincoln, during this quarrel between gentry and people, was a young lawyer, Robert Aske , who had been stopped by the insurgents, as he said, returning to his work in London. However this may be, he at once imbibed the spirit of the insurrection, and hurried off into Yorkshire, where he had interest, and where a rebellion of quite a different sort from that in Lincoln was quickly organized. The Lincolnshire rebels never came to open fighting.

They sent a petition to the King from Horncastle, begging that religious houses should be restored, the late subsidy remitted, the "Statute of Uses" be repealed, the villein blood[1] removed from the Privy Council, and the heretic bishops[2] deprived. The arrival of troops under Sir John Russell and the Duke of Suffolk was sufficient to cool the rebels' ardour, and though they watched his progress sulkily, they did not absolutely oppose him. The ringleaders were given up and the insurrection dissolved. Suffolk had brought with him the King's very firm answer to their petition: "How presumptuous," he says, "are ye, the rude commons of one shire, and that one of the most brute and beastly of the whole realm and of least experience, to take upon you, contrary to God's law and man's law, to rule your Prince, whom ye are bound to obey and serve." He refused every request. It was the duty of the great nobles in each county, under such circumstances, to call out the military force of the county to repress the insurrection.

Lord Hussey, in Lincolnshire, had timorously held aloof and left the country. Lord Shrewsbury had gallantly taken his position at Nottingham. In Yorkshire this duty would have devolved on Lord Darcy of Templehurst, an old and tried soldier of both the late and the present King. His sympathies were, however, wholly with the movement, and, though Henry wrote to him to urge him to instant action, he threw himself with only twelve followers into Pontefract Castle, and there awaited the arrival of the rebels. These had rendezvoused on Weighton Common, and having elected Aske general, and having despatched a force to Hull, moved towards York. On the way they were joined by the Percies, with the exception of the Earl of Northumberland himself. York surrendered to them. They then advanced to Pontefract, which was unable to hold out against them, and Lord Darcy and the Archbishop of York speedily took the oath which was exacted of all whom the rebels met in their march. Lord Darcy henceforward became the leader of the movement, second only to Aske. Of opposition in the North there was scarcely any.

Hull was taken, and the army of insurgents, kept under rigid discipline, moved onwards till they reached the river Don. Their army consisted of 30,000 men, "as tall men, well-horsed and well-appointed, as any men could be;" and they had with them all the nobility and gentry of the North. At Doncaster they found themselves face to face with Shrewsbury and Norfolk , well chosen agents for the purpose the Government had in view; for the rebels, claiming to uphold the rights of the old nobility and the old Church, here found themselves opposed by two nobles of the oldest blood and the strongest Catholic convictions in England. The rebels determined to treat, principally on the recommendation of Aske, who seems to have been really patriotic, and to have wished to avoid civil war. It was agreed that a conference should be held upon the bridge of Doncaster, and there a petition was intrusted to Sir Robert Bowes and Sir Ralph Elleskar to carry to the King, Norfolk agreeing to accompany them. Meanwhile, the rebel forces were disbanded.

The King contrived to win over these emissaries to his party, but Aske continued his organizations; and when no satisfactory answer had been given by the close of November, he recalled his army to his standards, and again advanced to the Don. At Norfolk's earnest intercession the King at last agreed, against his own judgment, to grant a general pardon, and to call a Parliament, to be held almost immediately, at York. A conference between Norfolk and Aske was held at Doncaster, and Aske on his knees accepted the conditions, and threw aside the badge of the five wounds of Christ which had been assumed by the rebels. It seems certain that the rebels at the time believed that the whole of their petitions had been granted [see 24 Articles ]. It is possible that Norfolk, who had much sympathy with them, held out larger promises than Henry intended. The King's views at all events were not what the rebels supposed. He at once proceeded to organize the North, to establish fortified posts, and secure the ordnance stores. Norfolk was sent to Pontefract to make preparations for the coming Parliament. All this looked very unlike a favourable answer to the insurgents' petition.

Still more were they disappointed when they found that, instead of a general amnesty, each individual had to petition for his own pardon, and received it only in exchange for the oath of allegiance . There was much natural disappointment and smouldering discontent. A man of little influence, called Sir Francis Bigod, contrived a disorderly rising in opposition to the old chiefs. This afforded opportunity for Norfolk to establish martial law, and seventy-four persons were hanged. Perhaps some new treasonable correspondence was discovered, and perhaps the opportunity for vengeance had now arrived, but without any very clear renewal of their offences, the three leaders of the old insurrection— Aske , Darcy, and Constable —were arrested (March). Discontented words could no doubt be proved against them, and on this the charges against them were chiefly based. They were all condemned and executed, as were also many others of the prominent gentry of the North. Nineteen of the Lincolnshire rebels were executed (July 1537). Of the three leaders, by far the most interesting is Aske .

His popularity and influence were enormous, his power of organization seems to have been great, and there is visible in his whole career a genuine desire for the objects of the insurrection, apart from his own aggrandizement, which, coupled with his marked moderation and uprightness, renders him a very remarkable character. AJ Notes: [1. Low-born (i.e., Cromwell, et al.). Villein: 'one of the class of serfs in the feudal system' —OED.] [2. Cranmer and his fellow reformers.] Text source: Bright, J. Franck. English History for the Use of Public Schools. London: Rivingtons, 1876. 404-8. The Pilgrimage of Grace 1536/7 Pilgrimage of Grace (1536/7) Nov 1536 - The Pilgrimage of Grace was one of the worst uprisings of Henry VIII 's reign.

Recounted by Edward Hall "....the King was truly informed that there was a new insurrection made by the northern men, who had assembled themselves into a huge and great army of warlike men, well appointed with captains, horse, armour and artillery, to the number of 40,000 men, who had encamped themselves in Yorkshire. And these men had bound themselves to each other by their oath to be faithful and obedient to their captain. The also declared, by their proclamation solemnly made, that their insurrection should extend no further than to the maintenance and defence of the faith of Christ and the deliverance of holy church, sore decayed and oppressed, and to the furtherance also of private and public matters in the realm concerning the wealth of all the king's poor subjects. They called this, their seditious and traitorous voyage, a holy and blessed pilgrimage; they also had certain banners in the field whereon was painted Christ hanging on the cross on one side, and a chalice with a painted cake in it on the other side, with various other banners of similar hypocrisy and feigned sanctity.

The soldiers also had a certain cognizance or badge embroidered or set upon the sleeves of their coats which was a representation of the five wounds of Christ, and in the midst thereof was written the name of Our Lord, and thus the rebellious garrison of Satan set forth and decked themselves with his false and counterfeited signs of holiness, only to delude and deceive the simple and ignorant people. After the king's highness was informed of this newly arisen insurrection he, making no delay in so weighty a matter, caused with all speed the dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, the marquis of Exeter, the Earl of Shrewsbury and others, accompanied by his mighty and royal army which was of great power and strength, immediately to set upon the rebels. But when these noble captains and counsellors approached the rebels and saw their number and how they were determined on battle, they worked with great prudence to pacify all without shedding blood. But the northern men were so stiff-necked that they would in no way stoop, but stoutly stood and maintained their wicked enterprise. Therefore the abovesaid nobles, perceiving and seeing no other was to pacify these wretched rebels, agreed upon a battle; ...

but the night before the day appointed for the battle a little rain fell, nothing to speak of, but yet as if by a great miracle of God the water, which was a very small ford which the day before men might have gone over dry shod, suddenly rose to such a height depth and breadth that no man who lived there had ever seen before, so that on the day, even when the hour of battle should have some, it was impossible for one army to get at the other. After this appointment made between both the armies, disappointed, as it is to be thought, only by God who extended his great mercy and had compassion on the great number of innocent persons who in that deadly slaughter would have been likely to have been murdered, could not take place. Then... a consultation was held and a pardon obtained from the king's majesty for all the captains and chief movers of this insurrection, and they promised that such things as they found themselves aggrieved by, all would be gently heard and their reasonable petitions granted, and that their articles should be presented to the King, so that by his highness' authority and the wisdom of his council all things should be brought to good order and conclusion.

And with this order every man quietly departed, and those who before were bent as hot as fire on fighting, being presented by God, went now peaceably to their houses, and were as cold as water..." Why was there the revolt anyway? Well it was the result of a series of events which when added together generated enough heat and lack of thought as to the possible consequence that it just seemed to feed off one half truth and rumour till it swept onward ever onward until finally running out of purpose and real leadership that it fizzled out like a damp squib. The only trouble was that the sparks created a real conflagration. Particularly the executions which followed. The churches in the main Lincolnshire towns were extremely rich and possessed some very valuable treasures which were thought to be under threat of confiscation. As well as cutting down of feast days and other traditional holidays there were increasing taxes, foreign wars, unpopular ministers, the split from Rome and the divorce from Catalina de Aragon were all part of the general unrest which caused the march from Horncastle, Louth, Caistor and other Lincs towns to get things sorted out at Lincoln.

It also prominently raised the question of Princess Mary 's status; in the north Mary was still looked on as the king 's legitimate daughter, who, on her mother side, came of the gratest blood in the Christendom and whom the Roman Church had never proclamed to be baseborn. Three government commissions were at work in Lincolnshire at Michaelmas in 1536. That for dissolving the smaller monasteries had been in the county since Jun, a second commission was assessing and collecting the subsidy and a third was appointed to enquire into the fitness and education of the clergy. They worked in an atmosphere of rumour and alarm. It was asid that jewels and plate were to be confiscated from parish churches, that all gold was to be taken to the mint to be tested, and that taxes were to be levied on all horned cattle, and on christenings, marriages and burials. There were even wilder rumours: "that there shall be no church within five miles, and that all the rest shall be put down", that people would not be allowed to eat white bread, goose or capon without paying a tribute to the King .

It was said that every man would have to give an account of his property and income and a false return would lead to forfeiture of all his goods. There is evidence that these rumours had spread to many parts of the eastern and midland counties by the autumn of 1536. But they were strongest in Lincolnshire. The rising there, based on the three towns of Louth, Caistor and Horncastle, was an outburst by people who, as Wriothesley told Cromwell , "think they shall be undone for ever". The Lincolnshire Uprising On the cool evening of Saturday 30th Sep, in the little village of Louth in Lincolnshire, the spark which was to end in the tragic Pilgrimage of grace was kindled. Some local people, proud of the magnificent spire of their church completed only twenty years before, feeling threatened by the imminent arrival of the commissioners, collected the keys of the church and handed them to a shoemaker, Nicholas Melton to keep safe. He thus became "Captain Cobbler" the leader of a rebellion against the King .

The people gathered in the twilight on the village green and, with the great silver cross af the parish before them, marched through the streets in protest at the coming of John Heneage , one of Cromwell 's examiners, to "visit" the local Church. They established a guard over the property, and when Heneage appeared the next morning, the people swarmed into the streets, protesting the injustice of the visit with louth voices and weapons. When Heneage attempted to read Cromwell 's commission in the marketplace, a "hideous clamour" broke out. The people bore down the hapless man, tearing the book from his hand and threatening him with a sword at his breast; his companions were put into the stocks. In that part of England the Duke of Richmond , natural son of the Henry VIII , had the most influence, and a great number of contacts and relatives including his mother, Elizabeth Blount , the widow of Lord Talboys and now the wife of Edward, Lord Clinton . By Monday 2 Oct, men from Horncastle and East Rasen arrived in Louth. By then a large crowd, they marched to Caistor where the King 's Commissioners were at present taking inventories of church property.

Here they were joined by Sir Robert Dymoke and his sons and friends who "just happened to be staying with them at that time". From Goltho, home of Richmond 's step-grandmother, Lady Talboys' chaplain arrived with a large group of armed men. More than 500 armed retainers from South Kyme joined the rebels, under the leadership of Sir Thomas Percy, a relative of the Talboys family, (who "just happened to be there for the hunting") and a similar number headed by Edward Dymoke. The same Monday, 2nd Oct, Lord Clinton left home on horseback, with just one servant. He headed first for Sleaford, and Lord Hussey . Hussey had been Princess Mary 's Chamberlain, and his wife had been imprisoned for continuing to refer to her as "Princess Mary" not "Lady Mary". Hussey had been assured of the support of the Emperor ( Mary 's cousin) and seemed a natural leader of the rebellion against the King . But he was not their leader. Clinton galloped on to Nottingham, then on to Lord Huntington at Ashby.

By Friday, he reached the Earl of Shrewsbury at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire. He carried letters from Cromwell . Meanwhile the rebels were joined by other groups of armed men, alerted by beacons, and had spread across the Humber to Yorkshire. The Member of Parliament for Lincoln, Thomas Moigne met Robert Aske, who led the rebellion in Yorkshire. Sir John Russell and Sir William Parr both had been in the service of the Duke of Richmond , blocked the Great North Road at Stamford, with a large force of armed men, they were in the way of anyone coming up from London. The only substantial Lincolnshire landowner that the King could depend on was his friend and brother-in-law, the Duke of Suffolk . Suffolk arrived at Stamford with a large, equipped army. The rebellion lacked a positive leadership and cause, so dispersed. Henry VIII 's answer to the grievances that had been put to them was read out in the Chapter House of Lincoln Cathedral by Moigne. The King had never yet heard that a prince's counsellors and bishops should be appointed by ignorant common people, and least of all by the "rude commons of one of the most brute and beastly shires in the realm".

The rebellion was put down with punishing retribution and many executions. The rebellion failed because there was no one uniting leadership and cause. Had the Duke of Richmond still been alive, then he might have been there, at his palace of Collyweston, by Stamford, with an army at least as large as the 5,000 men the Duke of Suffolk brought with him. As the King 's son and the heir to the throne, he would have provided an alternative to his now very unpopular father. But Richmond had died on 23 Jul 1536. The King 's strange reaction to his son's death may be because he had information that he was to lead an uprising against him. There is no direct evidence, but any such would have been destroyed as soon as Richmond died. His death might just have been a timely coincidence, or arranged. If the King had been told there were plans for an uprising to replace him with his son, then that might account for his reaction to his son's death, it might even account for his timely death. Eventually when the King sent word at about the ten day mark they all left for home and the rising was over except for the recriminations.

The "insurrectionists" insisted all along that they were loyal to the King and went home after only ten days when the King commanded it. There is no real evidence of underlying plots which caused the Gentry to join in but it is evident that some were threatened by the mob and forced to join and some joined to try for a damage limitation reason. The government were well aware of what could be the result of all the religious reforms but ploughed on anyway. The King of course answered the demands in his usual subtle way. Find out the leaders and execute the lot! The bloodier the better. Except that this time each was examined under oath Thomas Moigneï¿½s attempted to clarify why some of the gentry were involved and the sort of pressures put on some of them such as Edward Dymocke. His reward for his efforts was to be Hanged, Drawn, Headed and Quartered! (Throttled by being strung up until about unconscious, lowered down and opened up with a knife, his entrails etc drawn from his body whilst alive and then his head cut off.

What then followed didnï¿½t concern him too much but he was cut into four quarters and the parts displayed on hooks and poles to the public as a lesson as to what happens if you cross the King or government of the day.) Pilgrimage of Grace The name given to the religious rising in the north of England, 1536. The cause of this great popular movement, which extended over five counties and found sympathizers all over England, was attributed to Robert Aske, the leader of the insurgents, to "spreading of heretics, suppression of houses of religion and other matters touching the commonwealth". And in his "Narrative to the King", he declared: In all parts of the realm men's hearts much grudged with the suppression of abbeys, and the first fruits, by reason the same would be the destruction of the whole religion in England. And their especial great grudge is against the lord Cromwell.

The insurrectionary spirit spread from the Humber to the Tweed; and all who joined in the enterprise bound themselves by oath to stand by each other, "for the love which they bore to Almighty God, his faith, the holy church, and the maintenance thereof; to the preservation of the king's person and his issue; to the purifying of the nobility; and to expulse all villein blood and evil counsellors from his grace and privy council; not for any private profit, nor to do displeasure to any private person, nor to slay or murder through envy, but for the restitution of the church, and the suppression of heretics and their opinions." At York the commons took no part in the earliest stages of the rebellion, yet their sympathies lay predominantly with the rebels. The mayor, William Harrington, would have resisted had he not mistrusted the commons of the city; amongst the other loyalists mentioned are Dr. Stephens, physician to the Earl of Northumberland , Roger Radcliffe, and the parson of St. Mary's, Castlegate. On 9 Oct Lord Darcy , still behaving correctly, ordered the mayor to resist, pointing out that the rebels lacked artillery.

The following day the Sheriff of Yorkshire urged Darcy to send a force immediately to York to overawe its rebel faction. The subsequent testimony of Lancelot Colyns, treasurer of the minster, illuminates the next stages. On 10 Oct Colyns heard of the rising under Aske in Howdenshire, and the very next day 'they were up in York itself', the insurrection being spread by the letters of a friar of Knaresborough, who said churches should be pulled down and men taxed for christening and marriage - the usual false rumours which contributed so powerfully to rouse the common people. The same day it became known that Edward Lee, Archbishop of York , Lord Darcy , and others of the king's council had fled to Pontefract: Colyns thought their flight encouraged the insurrection. Darcy himself reported to the King from Pontefract on 13 Oct that he had told the mayor to look to the safety of the city and the good order of the people there, 'who, I hear, are lightly disposed'. In detailing the extent of the rising he adds that 'the city of York favours them'.

To excite the enthusiasm of the pilgrims, and to induce people to join their ranks, a body of priests marched at their head, bearing a banner, on which was painted the image of the crucified Saviour, with the chalice and the host; and each soldier wore on his sleeve the emblem of his holy cause - a representation of the five wounds of Christ, with the name "Jesus" in the centre. The enterprise was quaintly called "The Pilgrimage of Grace," and wherever the pilgrims appeared, their first object was to re-instate the ejected monks in their monasteries. Wilfrid Holme, a writer of that age, residing at Huntington, near York, tells us that the pilgrims were wont to regale themselves by reciting the following lines from the so-called prophecies of Merlin: Foorth shall come a worme, an Aske with one eye, He shall be the chiefe of the mainye; He shall gather of chivalrie a full faire flock Halfe capon and halfe cooke: The chicken shall the capon slay, And after that shall be no May.

The movement broke out on 13 Oct 1536, immediately following the failure of the Lincolnshire Rising; and Robert Aske, a London barrister of good Yorkshire family, who had been to some extent concerned in the Lincolnshire rising, putting himself at the head of nine thousand insurgents, marched on York. The castles of Scarborough and Skipton held out against them, but within a week York had opened its gates to a host of 20,000, many of them mounted, led by Aske. There he arranged for the expelled monks and nuns to return to their houses; the king's tenants were driven out and religious observance resumed. As the news spread, there were other risings; the great lords of the north were organising . By Oct 23, thirty or forty thousand men, well mounted, well provided. Already the success of Yorkshire men was encouraging unrest in East Anglia and Norfolk, and there was always the danger of intervention of the Scots or from Continental power.

In Fact the Pope gave legatine powers to Reginald Pole , son of the countess of Salisbury and scion of the Plantagenet line, and sent him to Flanders to wait the opportune moment to cross to England and lead the rising. Hull, and Pontefract also opened their gates, probably because they were insufficiently garrisoned to offer any resistance. In a great conference at Pontefract, 200 representatives; peers, knights, gentry and commons met in order to prepare a reasoned statement of their demands. This has survived, and it shows the Pilgrimage unique among insurrections. On the Pilgrims Council which sat at Pontefract were: Lords: John Scrope, Lord Scrope of Bolton ; John Neville, Lord Latimer ; Christopher Conyers, Lord Conyers of Hornby; John Lumley, Lord Lumley; Thomas Darcy, Lord Darcy and Lord Neville .

Knights: James Strangways, Christopher Danby , Thomas Hilton, William Constable, John Constable, Robert Constable, Peter Vavasour, Ralph Ellerker, Christopher Hilliard, Robert Neville, Oswald Wolsthrope, Edward Gower, George Darcy , William Fairfax , Nicholas Fairfax, William Mallory, Ralph Bulmer, William Bulmer, Stephen Hamerton, John Dawnye, Richard Tempest, Thomas Johnson, and Henry Gascoigne. Gentlemen: Robert Bowes, Marmaduke Neville, Robert Chaloner, William Babthorpe, John Norton, Richard Norton, Roger Lasells, Richard Lasells, Richard Bowes, Ralph Bulmer, Metham Saltmarsh, Messrs De la River, Barton of Whenby, Place, Fulthorpe, Redman, Hamerton, Palmes, Aclom, Rudston, Plumpton, Middleton, Mallory of Wothersome and Allerton. Commons: Robert Pullen, Nicholas Musgrave, 6 from Penrith, William Collins, Harry Bateman and Brown from Kendal, Mr Duckett, Edward Manser, Mr. Walter Strickland , Anthony Langthorn and John Ayrey.

Thomas Percy and Thomas Tempest (both knights) were unable to attend although they were involved. The demands were wholly in accordance with the stance of Catholicism: a recognition of the Pope, and a request for the stifling of heresy and plunder. In the castle of Pontefract, a herald from the Duke of Norfolk , Lord President of the North and leader of the royal army, was admitted to the presence of Aske, who sat in state between the Archbishop of York and Lord Darcy , but on hearing the contents of the proclamation he refused to allow it to be published to the army. The insurgents then, to the number of 30,000, marched to take possession of Doncaster. But here they were met by Norfolk , who, with a battery of cannon, guarded the bridge over the Don, and the ford was, at the same time, rendered impassable by the swollen state of the river. This was fortunate for the Duke , as his small force of 5,000 men was quite inadequate to cope with the large army of insurgents. Negotiations for a compromise were entered into by the Duke , and purposely prolonged until the arrival of the King with fresh reinforcements.

The Duke of Norfolk and Earl of Shrewsbury, opened negotiations with the insurgents at Doncaster, where Aske had assembled between thirty and forty thousand men. An armistice was then agreed upon, and the insurgents laid their demands before the King.

They were as follows: (1) That a general pardon should be granted, without any exceptions; (2) That a parliament should be held at York or Nottingham, or some other convenient place; (3) That no man residing north of the Trent should be compelled, by subpï¿½na, to attend any court except York, unless in matters of allegiance; (4) That some Acts of the late Parliament, which were too grievous to the people, should be repealed; (6) That the Princess Mary should be declared legitimate; (6) That the suppressed monasteries should be restored to their former state; (7) That the Papal Authority should be re-established; (8) That heretical books should be suppressed, and heretics punished according to law; (9) That Lord Cromwell , the vicar-general, Lord Audley , the chancellor, and Rich , the attorney-general, should be removed from the Council; and (10) That Leigh and Layton, visitors of the northern monasteries, should be prosecuted for their briberies and extortions.

The Duke of Norfolk was appointed by the King to confer with the insurgents, and was empowered to offer a pardon to all except ten persons, six named and four unnamed, but these terms were refused. The conference was broken up, and the pilgrims decided to commit their cause to the arbitrament of arms. The Duke was alarmed, as his force was disproportionately small, and besought the King to comply with, at least, some of their demands. A delegation was received by Henry VIII at Windsor. Simultaneously agreeing to summon a new Parliament and threatening to have them all burned alive by his soldiers, he persuaded the insurgents to return to their homes. The royal mercy was then extended to all the rebels, and a promise given that their grievances should be patiently discussed in a parliament which should be held at York. Aske then dismissed his followers, trusting in the king 's promises. "On these terms the pilgrimage was dissolved (Dec 9th, 1536), but the King, on the dispersion of the insurgents, read them a lecture, in a royal manifesto, of a nature which would, in these days, rather have raised than suppressed a rebellion.

In answer to that part of their petition which related to the removal of his ministers, who were charged with a design to subvert the religion of the state and to enslave the people, the King says: 'And we, with our whole council, think it right strange that ye, who be but brutes and inexpert folk, do take upon you to appoint us who be meet or not for our council; we will, therefore, bear no such meddling at your hands, it being inconsistent with the duty of good subjects to interfere in such matters.' (from Baines' History of Lancashire.) Bigod's insurrection of Jan 1537 The rebel army dispersed; but the cause of their discontent remained unremoved, nor did the King show any disposition to redeem his promises. Early the following year the pilgrims were again in arms in several places in the north. Sir Francis Bigod of Settrington , Yorkshire, led an uprising at Beverley. The new rising took place in Cumberland and Westmoreland, and was spreading to Yorkshire.

They attempted the capture of Hull and Carlisle, but were repulsed in both cases, and in their retreat from the latter town they were intercepted by the Duke of Norfolk , with a largely augmented army, and seventy-four officers were hanged on the walls of the city. The Pilgrimage found sympathisers and promoters in the diocese of Carlisle. Robert Jerby, abbot of Holm Cultram; Towneley, chancellor of Carlisle; the Prior of Lanercost, and a nameless Vicar of Penrith, made themselves especially obnoxious to the King by their activity. Carlisle was held for the King by Sir Thomas Clifford and Sir Christopher Dacre ; certain unfounded suspicions about Dacre's fidelity were evidently in circulation, but he in the end thoroughly vindicated it. Penrith appears to have been the local focus of insurrection, and thither repaired Abbot Jerby, and there he aided and abetted in the sending [of] men to the insurgents at York.

He warned his tenants of the manor of Holm Cultram, on pain of hanging, to attend illegal gatherings at Wayttyrighow (?) and on Broadfield, and, when on 12 Feb 1536/7, some eight thousand rabble from Kendal, Richmond, Kirkby Stephen, Appleby, and Hexham, under Nichol Musgrave, laid siege to Carlisle, he rode with them and acted as their commissioner to demand the surrender of the town. Clifford and Dacre repulsed and pursued the disorderly assailants, who rallied and made a stand, but melted away in panic on hearing of the approach of the royal forces under the Duke of Norfolk . Henry considered this second rising as a breach of the amnesty he had granted; and though many of the former leaders were not concerned in this second rebellion, they were apprehended, tried, and executed. Hundreds were summarily executed, many of them sentenced to by juries coerced into rendering guilty veredicts. The rebel leaders, including Darcy and Hussey, were beheaded, and Robert Aske was carried to York to be hanged in chains till he died.

Many country people were hanged in their own gardens as examples to their fellow villagers, and monks of Swaley Abbey, a suppressed monastery which the Pilgrims had re-established, were hanged from the steeple of their church. The loss of the leaders enabled Norfolk to crush the rising. The King avenged himself on Cumberland and Westmoreland by a series of massacres under the form of martial law. Though Aske had tried to prevent the rising he was put to death. In all, 216 were put to death, lords and knights, half a dozen abbots, 38 monks, and 16 parish priests: Lord Darcy , Sir Henry Percy, Sir Thomas Percy, Sir Robert Constable, Sir John and Lady Bulmer (the latter being burnt at Smithfield; his first wife was an aunt of Sir Francis Bigod , the second Margaret Stafford, widow of William Cheney and possibly a dau. of the Duke of Buckingham ), Sir Stephen Hamilton, Nicholas Tempest, William Lumley and several other gentlemen, together with the four Abbots of Fountains, Jervaulx, Barlings, Sawley, and Rivaulx, and the prior of Bridlington.

After the uprising was quashed by virtue of Henry 's betrayal of his promise of a general pardon, he wrote to the Duke of Norfolk , his agent: Our pleasure is that . . . you shall cause such dreadful execution to be done upon a good number of the inhabitants of every town, village, and hamlet that have offended, as they may be a fearful spectacle to all others hereafter that would practice any like matter. The letter also orders the Duke to get and send the Vicar of Penrith and Chancellor Towneley to the King , and to visit Salleye (Sawley), Hexam, Newminster, Leonerdecaste, Saincte Agatha, and all such other places as have made any maner of resistence, or in any wise conspired or kept their houses with any force sithens th' appointement at Doncastre, you shall, without pitie or circumstance, nowe that our baner is displayed, cause all the monkes and chanons, that be in anywise faultie, to be tyed uppe, without further delay or ceremoney, to the terrible example of others.

The Abbot of Sawley and the Prior of Hexham were certainly hanged; the fate of the other three is not known, nor what became of Chancellor Towneley and the Vicar of Penrith. Seventy-four persons were executed in the towns of Cumberland and Westmorland; by some oversight they were not hanged in chains, as were the insurgents who endured that fate in Yorkshire, and the Bishopric of Durham: "the bodies were cut down and buried by certain women", to the anger of the Duke . Nothing is said as to the fate of the Abbot of Holm Cultram, but as Sir Thomas Wharton writes, in Aug 1537, of "the dethe of the laytt Abbot of Holm" he was probably hanged, unless he cheated the wood by dying. Sir Thomas Wharton , in his letter, also says he had attended the assizes in Cumberland:- ...when dyvers henyus riottes and oyer unlawfull demenors er laytly doune. Ther is on grett ryott foundon to be doune by the commandment of the byschoppe of Kerlesle...

Two or three years later another outbreak took place in Yorkshire, in which Sir John Neville and ten other persons were taken in arms and executed at York. Motivating Factors Historians have long debated the nature of the motivating factors behind the Pilgrimage of Grace. The traditional view of the revolt was that of a spontaneous mass backlash, by the conservative north, against the religious reforms of the Henrician government. Over the years, however, this interpretation has been challenged by others, which have suggested grievances of a more secular nature, i.e. political, social and economic, as the underlying causes of the revolt. For Dr Michael Bush, the Durham Pilgrims were motivated by a combination of all of these factors. As he points out, although no manifesto of their specific demands has survived, grievances pertinent to affairs in Durham can be identified in the Articles, drawn up by the Pilgrimsï¿½ Council, at Pontefract, in Dec 1536. In addition, there is evidence drawn from the statement of several rebels, which also provides some insight into the grievances that persuaded the men of the Bishopric into revolt.

A variety of common grievances, it is suggested, served to unite the Durham Pilgrims with those across the north, as a whole. However, intertwined with these general concerns were other, more locally specific, areas of discontent. Opposition to the ï¿½heresiesï¿½ of the new religious reforms loomed large in Durham as elsewhere. Indeed, the implementation of the policy to dissolve the lesser monasteries combined with the increasing attacks, by government, upon the privilege of sanctuary and upon the veneration of the saints must, inevitably, have created considerable unease within the patrimony of St. Cuthbert. As Bush points out, from the outset of the revolt, the men of Durham rallied, in accordance with tradition, behind the legendary Banner of St. Cuthbert. The presence of the Banner, at the head of the formidable Durham and North Riding pilgrim host, thus served to highlight the rebelsï¿½ attachment to and their willingness to fight in defence of the ï¿½old religionï¿½. In political and socio-economic terms also, general grievances became enmeshed with local concerns.

The encroachments of the government in the political and administrative affairs of the north aroused widespread concern and this manifested itself in a general hatred of the King ï¿½s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell and his associates. Such animosity, Bush argues, was probably as rife in Durham as elsewhere in the north. Indeed, the legislation of 1536, which abolished franchises and liberties, had severely curtailed the Bishop of Durhamï¿½s regalian authority in respect of his palatine franchise. Legislation such as the Statute of Uses, which exploited the Crownï¿½s feudal prerogatives and restricted the ability of landholders to devise their properties by will, and the fiscal policies of Cromwell (which, perhaps, raised fears that the Palatinate would lose its tradition immunity from direct taxation) probably all contributed further to the growing sense of unease and discontent within the Bishopric. Michael Bush considers all of these main areas of debate, both from a general perspective and also from that of individual rebel participants. Much of the surviving evidence relates, unsurprisingly, to members of the upper orders of Durham society.

The participation of members of the leading families - such as the Nevilles, Lumleys, Bowes, Hiltons and Tempests ï¿½ is thus discussed in the light of their own personal animosities towards the Henrician regime. Inevitably, this leads into the debate surrounding the role of the upper orders in the revolt. Here, the view is taken that the Pilgrimage was, in the first instance, a commonsï¿½ inspired revolt and that the Durham gentry participants were, as they claimed, coerced into joining. As the revolt gathered momentum, however, attitudes changed and the gentry came increasingly to control the progress of the revolt. Bush charts this progression showing how, as the fragile unity of purpose between the commons and gentry began to erode in the days following the Dec agreement, the impetus for revolt gradually petered out. Despite sporadic outbursts of unrest in the city of Durham, Barnard Castle, Darlington and Bishop Auckland, the men of the Bishopric failed to rise again in support of the second phase of the rebellion, led by Sir Francis Bigod . Though these risings had for their object the preservation of the monastic institutions, they only hastened the downfall of the remainder.

The monks were charged with encouraging their tenants to join in the Pilgrimage of Grace, and a commission was appointed to investigate their conduct. But this was only a plausible excuse for the dissolution of the larger monasteries, in which it had been said, by an Act of Parliament , that "in divers of them religion was right well kept and observed". The visitation occupied four years, during which time the visitors went from house to house, trying, by offers of pensions and church preferments, to obtain the voluntary surrender of the monastery; and, where these failed, threats and menaces were used. The pensions given to the superiors varied ï¿½266 to ï¿½6 per annum, and those to the other monks from ï¿½6 to ï¿½2, with a small sum to each, as a departure fee, to provide for his immediate wants. The number of houses thus suppressed, in England and Wales, amounted to 645, exclusive of 96 colleges, 2,374 chantries and free chapels, and 119 hospitals.

The value of the property seized by the King has been variously estimated, but, according to the Liber Regis, it yielded annually ï¿½142,914 12s. 91/4d., which, taken at twenty years' purchase, would produce ï¿½2,858,290, worth, according to the present value of money, ï¿½28,582,900. "A revenue so immense", says Baines, "as that yielded by the monasteries might, under judicious application, have extinguished all public burdens, both for the support of the state and the relief of the poor, and expectations of this kind were held out to the people; but they were soon undeceived; pauperism became more widespread than ever, and within one year from the period of the last appropriation, a subsidy of two-tenths, and another of two-fifteenths, were demanded by the King, and granted by parliament, to defray the expenses of reforming the religion of the state".

A small portion of the monastic revenues was appropriated to the advancement of religion; six new bishoprics were erected, but very inadequately endowed; fourteen abbeys and priories were converted into cathedrals and collegiate churches; two colleges and a few hospitals and grammar schools were established. This, with the exception of a small sum expended on the improvement of Dover harbour, and the erection of five fortresses, was all the benefit that the nation received from the suppression of monasteries, and the poor, who before had been wholly supported by the religious orders and the church, have ever since been a burden on the people. The total number of monastic institutions suppressed in Yorkshire amounted to 106. Of these 14 were abbeys, 44 priories and nunneries, 7 alien priories, 23 friaries, and 13 cells. After the dissolution of all the religious houses had been accomplished, Henry, accompanied by his Queen, visited the north, 'where the suppression had met with the greatest opposition', to receive the submission of the inhabitants.

"On his entrance into Yorkshire," says Holinshead, he was met by two hundred gentlemen of the same shire, in coats of velvet, and four thousand tall yeomen and serving men, well horsed, who, on their knees, made submission to him by the mouth of Sir Robert Bowes, and gave to the King ï¿½900. On Barnsdale, the Archbishop of York , with more than three hundred priests, met the King , and, making a like submission, gave to him ï¿½600. The like submission was made by the mayors of York, Newcastle, and Hull, and each of them gave the King ï¿½100. One of the complaints of the Pilgrims of Grace had been the injustice of requiring the inhabitants of the northern counties to lodge their cases for trial in the metropolis. To remove this hardship, Henry , during his visit to York, which extended to twelve days, established "His Majesty's Council in the Northern Parts". This court, which was in some sense viceregal, consisted of a council, with a president at its head, assisted by twenty-two noblemen, gentlemen, and officers of the law.

Four sessions, of one month's duration each, were to be held in a year - one at York, another at Hull, the third at Newcastle, and the fourth at Durham; and that suitors might not be oppressed with heavy bills of costs, it was directed "that no attorney should take, in one sitting or session, above twelve pence, nor any councillor more than twenty pence, for that matter". Henry VIII survived the suppression of monasteries little more than half a dozen years, and was succeeded by his son, Edward , a boy of nine years, who died at the early age of sixteen. Henry had been on the whole as favourably inclined to the "old learning" as to the new, and sent indiscriminately both Catholics and Protestants to the stake, but in the short reign of his son the Reformation made rapid progress. The Protector Somerset was a zealous reformer, and in the name of the young monarch, he closed by proclamation every place of worship, and no one was allowed to preach except he was duly licensed by the Protector or the Archbishop of York .

A new order of divine worship, called a liturgy, or Book of Common Prayer , was drawn up with the "assistance of the Holy Ghost", as it was declared, and severe pains and penalties were enacted to enforce its adoption. These proceedings met with considerable opposition, and insurrections took place in several counties. At Seamer, near Scarborough, a rising was fomented by Thomas Dale, the parish clerk, John Stevenson, of Seamer, and William Ambler, of East Heslerton, yeoman. They demanded, among other things, the restoration of the old form of worship, and the repeal of the recent obnoxious acts. The signal for gathering was the firing of the beacon on Staxton, when the insurgents assembled to the number of 3,000. and proceeding to the house of one Mr. White, a gentleman, they seized him, Mr. Clapton, his wife's brother, Mr. Richard Savage, Sheriff of York, and Berry, a servant, and carried them off to the Wolds, where they were stripped and murdered.

A detachment from York was sent against them, and when a pardon was offered, all the rebels accepted the King 's mercy, and dispersed, except the nine ringleaders, who were taken prisoners soon after, and executed at York. The reign of Mary , blood-stained, like those of her father and brother, we pass by, as possessing no features having a special reference to Yorkshire. She was succeeded by her half-sister, Elizabeth , who favoured the reformers, and Protestantism again became the religion of the state. During her sister's reign she had outwardly conformed to the old religion, but her preference for the new doctrines was well known. Now that she was at the head of the realm, she adopted the creed that was in harmony with her own convictions. But in effecting the change she proceeded with caution and prudence. One by one Catholic practices were prohibited in the chapel royal, and then commissioners were appointed to visit each diocese, to prepare both clergy and laity for the coming change. The statutes passed in the late reign for the support of the ancient religion were repealed, and the Acts of Edward VI partially revived.

The Book of Common Prayer , with certain additions and emendations, was ordered to be used under the penalties of forfeiture, deprivation, and death, and all were bound to subscribe to the royal supremacy. The Pilgrimage of Grace A Song for the Pilgrims of Grace These words were probably written by a monk of St. Mary's Abbey, Sawley, Yorkshire, in gratitude to the Pilgrims who had reinstated the monks in their house. Christ crucified! The Pilgrimage of Grace History > Tudor > Pilgrimage of Grace The Pilgrimage of Grace BY DAVID ROSS , EDITOR Henry VIII's attacks on the Catholic church and the power of Rome (more details here ) had much popular support. But not everyone was happy with Henry's vigorous dismantling of Catholic power in England. The first wave of discontent surfaced in October, 1536, when a large force of rebels occupied the city of Lincoln. The king did little more than express his displeasure, and the rebels dispersed. The Yorkshire Revolt A much more serious outbreak arose almost immediately in Yorkshire, led by lawyer Robert Aske, whose men occupied York and then Doncaster.

Aske was supported by no less a personage than Henry Lee, Archbishop of York. In addition to their complaints against religious policy Aske's rebels added objections to the high rents and taxes faced by the poor. The rebels, which contemporary accounts number as high as 40,000 men, carefully avoided any personal attacks against Henry himself (a wise move), but made a villain of Henry's chief advisor, Thomas Cromwell. This was a common approach by rebels throughout the medieval and Tudor period - rather than risk even the perception of an attack upon the monarch, they proclaimed themselves loyal subjects who were simply trying to rescue their king from evil advisors. Rebel demands The rebels proclaimed that the revolt would "extend no further than to the maintenance and defense of the faith of Christ and the deliverance of holy church, sore decayed and oppressed, and to the furtherance also of private and public matters in the realm concerning the wealth of all the king's poor subjects. " To emphasize the religious nature of their motives, the rebels decked themselves out with badges and banners depicting religious symbols. In other words, they portrayed themselves as defenders of the church and the poor, not as overt rebels against the king.

Henry VIII was not moved by such fine distinctions, and he moved quickly to put down the rebellion. He sent an army led by Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, north to confront the "pilgrims". Howard played for time, receiving the rebel demands and negotiating while he brought more troops into position. Confrontation The rebels at first defied the royal troops, and a battle seemed inevitable. Before the conflict could take place, a sudden downpour caused a stream separating the armies to deepen so much that no troops could cross. Perhaps the rain dampened the rebels spirit, for they accepted the duke's offer of pardon for the leaders, in exchange for vague promises that the king would hear their petitions and hold a parliament at York within a year. Once that agreement had been reached, Aske naively persuaded his men to disperse, assuming that his demands would be favourably received. The rebels melted away to their northern homes, and the revolt was over as suddenly as it had begun. Treatment of the Leaders Aske was received by the king in London and treated well. But the story does not end there. A few months later another Yorkshire landowner, Sir Francis Bigod, led a fresh uprising at Beverley.

Although Aske and other leaders of the original Pilgrimage of Grace tried to defuse Bigod's revolt, they were held responsible. Aske and his friends were arrested, tried for treason, and executed at London in June, 1537. The entire north of the country was placed under martial law and roughly 250 people were hanged, many on the merest suspicion of sedition. Results The vigorous repression of the Pilgrimage of Grace and its aftermath effectively ended any popular resistance to Henry's religious policies, and the Dissolution of the Monasteries proceeded without further serious difficulty. Related: The Pilgrimage of Grace - History Learning Site Home » Tudor England » The Pilgrimage of Grace The Pilgrimage of Grace Citation: C N Trueman "The Pilgrimage of Grace" historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 16 Mar 2015. 16 Aug 2016. The Pilgrimage of Grace is the title given to a widespread revolt against the rule of Henry VIII. The Pilgrimage of Grace started in late 1536 and finished in early 1537.

Much is known about this revolt as it was well documented at the time. Between late 1536 and 1537 a number of revolts against the king took place in Northern England. These were collectively known as the ‘Pilgrimage of Grace’. However, strictly, the Pilgrimage of Grace only refers to the revolt that occurred in Yorkshire between October and December 1536. The first of the uprisings occurred in Lincolnshire in October 1536 and lasted about two weeks – from the 2nd to the 18th. While it did not last long, the revolt did represent a major threat to the government. This was because those in the rebellion were not just the ‘common’ people. Nobles were also involved in the Lincolnshire Uprising – a group of people whom the government had usually been able to rely on to support it. There is some evidence that some nobles may even have orchestrated the uprising – but others were forced to join it on pain of death. The king could not use local militia to quell the uprising because it was feared that they would join the rebels. Therefore, troops had to be brought in from other areas of the kingdom.

By about October 5th, it is thought that 40,000 men were involved in the uprising. They marched to Lincoln. Contemporary documents show that they were well disciplined and orderly and certainly not a rabble. They received a decent welcome from the people of Lincoln. But once it the city, things started to go wrong. Those nobles in the uprising realised – rather late – that they had much to lose. The Duke of Suffolk was heading towards Lincoln with an army and the chances of defeating it were slim at best. They took the first opportunity they were given to withdraw themselves from the rebels. Suffolk, as was almost a tradition, gave all the rebels the opportunity to return home without bloodshed and gave a promise that Henry would look into some of the policies that had angered them. The nobles seized their chance, as did many of the commoners. Those who wanted to take on Suffolk remained in Lincoln but the numbers of the rebels had been severely reduced. Henry had previously ordered that no mercy was to be shown to those who had dared to show disloyalty to the king. There seems to be little doubt that those who remained in Lincoln would have paid with their lives.

But almost immediately Henry was faced with a far more serious rebellion in Yorkshire, which postponed any immediate punishment of the Lincolnshire rebels. The Yorkshire Uprising – the Pilgrimage of Grace – was very similar to the one in Lincolnshire. ‘Commoners’ made up the bulk of the numbers while nobles were also in its ranks. However, one major difference was that the Yorkshire rebels were well led. Robert Aske, an able lawyer from an important Yorkshire family, became the accepted leader of the Yorkshire rebels. A skilled orator, Aske was also a very competent organiser. He wanted the rebellion to maintain the highest of standards so that no one could call the men he led a rabble. He did not want to frighten away more nobles from joining the rebellion. It was Aske who coined the phrase ‘Pilgrimage of Grace’ to describe their actions. This term, it is thought, was deliberately chosen. Pilgrims came from the word pilgrimage and this was the holy slant that Aske wanted to put on the rebellion. He wanted Henry to stop his attacks on the Church and the monasteries and return the country to following the Pope.

Aske believed that Henry himself was not at fault as he was thought to be a decent and well-meaning king. Aske lay the blame on ‘evil’ advisors, especially Thomas Cromwell, whom he believed were polluting the king’s mind. Aske believed that once Henry saw the rebellion for what it was – a spiritual pilgrimage – he would revert to old policies and remove from power those who had mislead the king. However, to reinforce that the rebels had the means to gain what they wanted, the ‘pilgrims’ had a well-organised armed force at their disposal. All those who took part in the rebellion had to take an oath regarding their behaviour and overall demeanour. For those who took this oath, it was binding and any failure to maintain it would lead to eternal damnation. The support for Aske was widespread in Yorkshire. Men also joined from Durham, Northumberland and some from Lancashire. With a few exceptions, most of the rebels behaved very well. They gathered at York and then at Pontefract. There was a royal castle at Pontefract, which garrisoned 300 royal troops. It fell without firing a shot.

In fact, the castle was in a poor state of repair and it is very likely that it could not have held out for a day let alone anymore time. Henry suspected the castle’s leader, Lord Thomas Danby, of being sympathetic to the rebels and that the 300 men in the garrison, likewise, were far from loyal. But the fact that it was a royal castle gave the rebels in Yorkshire a major boost in terms of confidence. Pontefract Castle surrendered on October 21st. At this stage, the so-called Pilgrims numbered 35,000 men. They were well armed and well equipped. Henry ordered the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Shrewsbury north to confront the rebels. However, both men could only raise about 8,000 men so they would have been heavily outnumbered in battle. The one advantage they had was the fact that Aske did not want conflict. He still wanted a negotiated settlement and as a result Norfolk met Aske at Doncaster Bridge on October 27th. Norfolk came across as a sympathiser of the rebel demands and he persuaded them to disband while a deputation of them would be escorted to London by Norfolk himself.

What they may not have known was that Norfolk was a political rival of Thomas Cromwell and used whatever opportunity he had to undermine Cromwell’s position – and the rebels gave Norfolk a perfect opportunity to continue his campaign against Cromwell. The deputation of rebel envoys did not include any major leader. Aske remained in Yorkshire to ensure that the rebels organisation maintained itself if the king failed to deliver. However, Henry was a clever politician. He received the rebel demands – but failed to give a reply to them for several weeks. In this time he hoped that the rebel organisation would start to show weaknesses. It would be a tall order for Aske to keep all 35,000 men organised. Henry bought more time by asking the pilgrim envoys to clarify certain points that he failed to fully understand. He suggested that the leaders should meet up to construct a clearly written and detailed set of demands. At the same time Norfolk was ordered to end the rebellion in whatever way he thought necessary. The rebel leaders duly met in Pontefract in early December to construct what became known as the ’24 Articles’.

The nobles among the pilgrims produced these and they did not represent the majority in the rebellion – the poor commoners who were not invited to attend the meeting. Nine of the demands were specifically religious while six were specifically political. The rest were a combination of social, political, economic and religious issues. The ’24 Articles’ were presented to Norfolk at Doncaster on December 6th. It was agreed that if the rebels disbanded: 1) The king would received the demands. 2) A freely elected Parliament would discuss them. 3) All pilgrims would be pardoned for their part in the rebellion. Aske and the 300 other rebel leaders at Doncaster believed that they had won a great victory. He travelled to London at the king’s request to meet Henry who had asked to be briefed about the feelings of the people so that any future problems could be avoided. Aske saw this as a sign that the king was a decent person and that it was advisors who were failing the country. In fact, Henry was simply buying time. He had already determined that the north had to be taught a military lesson. However, he wanted from Aske as many names as was possible so that individuals could be brought to account.

In late January 1537, Aske returned to Yorkshire where he became a vocal supporter of Henry. Others were suspicious that the promised pardon had yet to arrive. At the same time it had become apparent to Norfolk that Henry would judge him by the way he put down the rebellion. Norfolk had feared that Henry had believed that he was sympathetic to the rebel demands and that now he needed to show above all else his loyalty to the king. Norfolk used a rebellion in Cumberland (February 1537) as the reason for his campaign even though the pilgrims had condemned what had happened in Cumberland. By now the pilgrims were in disarray while the army of Norfolk was poised to strike when it chose to do so. With no chance of successfully fighting Norfolk’s army, the leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace agreed to Henry’s order that they should come to London to answer questions. By early May, fifteen of the main leaders were under arrest despite the promise of a pardon. Two juries were established in Yorkshire to decide whether the men should stand trial in London. The juries were made up of the friends of those arrested. This process was known as indictment.

It was a heartless procedure as those who best knew the likes of Aske and Danby were now asked to essentially sign their death warrants as no trial in London would spare them. All the accused unsurprisingly were found guilty of treason. Most were executed in London but Aske was taken back to Yorkshire where he was executed. This was meant to be a gesture of how much in control of the events Henry was. How much of a threat was the Pilgrimage of Grace to Henry? The king tried to play it off as a minor rebellion in one of the more outlying areas of his kingdom. Few, if anyone, in the royal court would have dared to contradict the king, especially as Henry had crushed the rebellion. However, many historians now consider the rebellion to have been the greatest internal threat that Henry had to face in his reign. They base their judgement on the basis that it would have been very difficult for Henry to have gathered together an army that was big enough to fight against the 35,000 men in the rebellion. There is also no evidence that Henry had anyone capable of handling such a large military force even if he had been able to raise so many men.

It is also accepted that anger was not just a preserve of the north. If the rebels had marched south it is almost certain that others would have joined them. Therefore, as the rebels marched south, their numbers may well have grown greatly. There was also the real fear that a foreign nation would use the disruption that the rebels would have caused to attack England in the south. With Henry’s army engaged against the rebels, there would have been little to stop a landing on the Kent/Sussex coast. If the Pope denounced Henry and urged all Catholics to assist the rebels, Henry’s position would have been even weaker. None of the above did happen as the rebels accepted the peace plan put forward by the king. Credit also needs to be given to Henry for the way he handled the representatives of the rebels while they were in London. His delaying tactic worked. Ironically, from a position of great potential weakness, Henry emerged from the Pilgrimage of Grace in a stronger position. The rebels were defeated and anyone else thinking about getting involved in something similar would have known about the consequences.

The defeat of the rebels simply showed the populace who held real power and it is no coincidence that the major impact of the Reformation against the monasteries occurred after the Pilgrimage of Grace – in 1538. It was almost as if victory against Aske and his followers spurred Henry to push ahead with his changes; which is what he did. While the rebel army was in existence, they presented Henry with a major problem. The defeat of that same army gave Henry the freedom to move ahead with what he wanted to achieve. Historians have written about ‘what might have happened’ with regards to the Pilgrimage of Grace. It wanted Henry to change his religious policies for a start. Ironically, his victory over the rebels gave him the freedom to implement these changes regardless. Pilgrimage of Grace - definition of Pilgrimage of Grace by The Free Dictionary Pilgrimage of Grace - definition of Pilgrimage of Grace by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Encyclopedia , Wikipedia .

Pilgrimage of Grace n (Historical Terms) a rebellion in 1536 in N England against the Reformation and Henry VIII's government Pilgrimage of Grace 1536 A northern English rebellion against the dissolution of the monasteries. It was savagely suppressed. Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us , add a link to this page, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content . Link to this page: Write what you mean clearly and correctly. References in periodicals archive ? Wilton Castle was created from a manor house by the Bulmer Family in 1330, in 1536 the estate were forfeited to the crown due to the Pilgrimage of Grace, but restored to them in 1547.

TEESSIDE TRIVIA He investigates the seven times that Britain came closest to revolution, beginning with the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, then the Jack Cade rising of 1450, the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, the English Civil War of the 1640s, the Jacobite Rising of 1745-46, the Chartist Movement of 1838-50 and ending with the General Strike of 1926. The centralization of power in Reformation England As a yeoman he was not just an in-between man straddling the worlds of gentry and non-gentry alike, but was a forest man, known to produce England's best archers but closely linked to the men who carried the local government at its lowest level, independent-minded and not afraid to remonstrate against royal authority - as happened in Cade's rebellion and the Pilgrimage of Grace. Pilgrimage of Grace | Article about Pilgrimage of Grace by The Free Dictionary Pilgrimage of Grace | Article about Pilgrimage of Grace by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Dictionary , Wikipedia .

Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536, rising of Roman Catholics in N England. It was a protest against the government's abolition of papal supremacy (1534) and confiscation (1536) of the smaller monastic properties, intensified by grievances against inclosures inclosure or enclosure, in British history, the process of inclosing (with fences, ditches, hedges, or other barriers) land formerly subject to common rights. Such land included fields cultivated by the open-field or strip system, wasteland, and the common pasture land. ..... Click the link for more information. and high rents and taxes. The Catholics protested their loyalty to Henry VIII, citing as their "great grudge" the position and influence of Thomas Cromwell Cromwell, Thomas, earl of Essex, 1485?–1540, English statesman. While a young man he lived abroad as a soldier, accountant, and merchant, and on his return (c.1512) to England he engaged in the wool trade and eventually became a lawyer. ..... Click the link for more information. .

In Oct., 1536, several thousand men occupied the city of Lincoln, but dispersed after receiving a sharp rebuke from the king. Almost immediately, another rally occurred in Yorkshire. The movement, which rapidly gathered strength in N England, was led by Robert Aske, a Yorkshire lawyer. Aske and his followers occupied York and then moved on to Doncaster. Thomas Howard, 3d duke of Norfolk, promised from the king a general pardon and a Parliament to be held at York within a year. The men dispersed. Aske was well received by the king in London. In Jan., 1537, Sir Francis Bigod of Settrington, Yorkshire, led an uprising at Beverley. Although Aske and other leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace tried to prevent this new disorder, they were arrested, tried in London, and executed in June, 1537. The northern counties were placed under martial law, and many people were hanged on mere suspicion of disaffection. The repression in N England after the Pilgrimage of Grace put an end to open opposition to the government's religious policy. Bibliography

Question: The 'Pilgrimage of Grace' was a revolt against which English king?
Answer: HENRY VIII