What was the Pilgrimage of Grace? | Tudor Rebellions | 4 Minute History

on the 16th of October 1536 a Yorkshire lawyer named Robert asked let several thousand men into York taking the city unopposed inspired by events in nearby Lincolnshire the rising in Yorkshire spread quickly during support from Westmoreland Cumberland and Lancashire the rebels circulated handbills and ballads which were nailed to church doors and market crosses and read aloud and thumb in ale houses asking his followers rejecting the label rebels swore an oath to Almighty God his faith and the Holy Church they wore badges and carried banners depicting the five wounds suffered by Christ at his crucifixion and called their uprising a pilgrimage as for the rising in Lincolnshire members of the gentry were recruited to the course some joined willingly out of shared conviction that Henry's religious reforms were going too far some joined in hope that by assuming positions of leadership they could prevent the rebels themselves from going too far others were forced to do so or at least that's what they later claimed undeterred by reports of the collapse of the Lincolnshire rising asked led his pilgrim south where they besieged and captured Pontefract castle and recruited its defender Lord Darcy to their side Darcy too would later claim he had been forced to join the rebels by late October the rebels who were estimated to numbered between thirty and forty thousand marched South to Doncaster to face the smaller royal army led by Thomas Howard the Duke of Norfolk and George Tolbert the Earl of Shrewsbury contrary to his orders Norfolk entered into talks with the rebels back in Pontefract castle asking the other leaders of the pilgrimage drew up their articles what is sometimes called the commoners petition this listed their 24 demands these included the destruction of works by Protestant reformers including Luther for Henry to give up his position as supreme head of the English church for the smaller monasteries and religious houses to be reinstated and their goods returned and for Lady Mary Henry's eldest daughter to be made legitimate once more the rebels also wanted the King to hold a parliament at York or Nottingham Norfolk received the articles and promised to present them to the king he also promised that the king would call a parliament and pardon the rebels asked announced these promises to the pilgrims many of whom doubted Norfolk however with some persuasion the rebels disbanded and returned to their homes ask was invited to visit the King in London that Christmas but would return to York in January with nothing more than vague promises while asked continued to trust the word of the Duke of Norfolk it was clear that having disbanded the pilgrims he had lost the leverage he once had in January 15 37 rebels under Sir Francis biggert started a new uprising this gave Henry the excuse he was looking for to punish the north for the pilgrimage of grace Norfolk was sent to pacify the region 178 people were rounded up sent to trial and executed keen to distance themselves from any allegation of treason for having participated in the pilgrimage the local gentry vigorously supported and took part in these and other reprisals asked who had returned north with Norfolk was also charged with raising rebellion after his pardon he was convicted and hanged in York on the 12th of July 1537 the man who had not so long ago been invited to attend the King's Christmas court his hands not with a noose made of rope but one made of chain in 1539 parliament passed a second act of the suppression of religious houses leading to the dissolution of the remaining larger monasteries and Cromwell's campaign against the cult of saints their images relics and shrines continued unabated the pilgrimage had failed given the collapse of the rising in Lincolnshire was asked naive to think that the revolt he led would fare any better it is important to remember that without representation in Parliament popular uprisings and accompanying petitions to the King were one of the few ways ordinary people could make their voices heard in some cases this tactic had been successful when Cardinal Wolsey attempted to raise the tax without parliamentary consent to fund a war with France 4,000 rebels rose up and reached Lavenham and Suffolk the planned amicable grant as the tax was called was abandoned along with the war was to fund and the rebels were pardoned perhaps it is unsurprising that ask expected to be able to bargain with the king an uprising to protest a single tax was one thing though but asked and other leaders of the pilgrimage hadn't really was that for Henri religious policy was not negotiable and that in questioning his reforms they were challenging his right as head of the church to impose them [Music] you