Pilgrimage of Grace (1536): Northern Revolt Against Henry VIII

The Pilgrimage of Grace was a great popular rising in the north of England in the autumn of 1536 against the religious and political changes of Henry VIII’s reign. Beginning in Lincolnshire and spreading through Yorkshire and beyond, it brought tens of thousands of men into arms under the leadership of the lawyer Robert Aske. It was the most serious threat Henry faced in his reign, and it ended in pardon, betrayal and around 200 executions.

Causes

The rising grew out of a mix of grievances. The Dissolution of the Monasteries, begun in 1536, was closing small religious houses that played a large part in northern life, providing charity, hospitality, employment and prayer. Rumours spread that parish church plate and jewels would be seized next and that new taxes would be charged on baptisms, marriages and livestock.

Religious change also caused alarm. After the break with Rome, the Ten Articles of 1536 reduced the number of sacraments emphasised and removed many holy days. Many northerners blamed Thomas Cromwell and reforming bishops such as Thomas Cranmer and Hugh Latimer for leading the king astray.

Economic and political complaints added to the anger. A new subsidy tax, rising rents and entry fines, and the Statute of Uses, which affected how landowners passed on property, all caused resentment. Some northern lords were also hostile to Cromwell and sympathetic to Princess Mary, Catherine of Aragon’s daughter.

The Lincolnshire Rising

The first outbreak came at Louth in Lincolnshire on 1 October 1536, when parishioners feared that commissioners were about to take their church’s treasures. Within days the rising spread to Horncastle and other towns, and gentry were forced or persuaded to join. Large crowds gathered at Lincoln, where the rebels drew up demands to send to the king. Contemporary estimates of the numbers at Lincoln ran to tens of thousands, though such figures are hard to verify. The Lincolnshire demands already contained the main themes of the wider rising: an end to the suppression of the abbeys, relief from taxation, and the removal of low-born councillors and heretical bishops from the king’s side.

Henry replied with a furious refusal and sent an army under the Duke of Suffolk. Faced with royal threats and divided leadership, the Lincolnshire rebels dispersed within about two weeks. Dozens of them were later executed, including the shoemaker Nicholas Melton, known as Captain Cobbler.

The Pilgrimage in Yorkshire

Meanwhile the rising had spread across the Humber into Yorkshire. Robert Aske, a lawyer from a gentry family of the East Riding, emerged as its leader. Aske had trained at the Inns of Court in London and had connections among the northern gentry, which helped him command respect from both commoners and landowners. He gave the movement its name and its discipline: the rebels swore an oath to defend the Church and the king, and marched behind banners showing the Five Wounds of Christ.

On 16 October the pilgrims entered York without a fight, and Aske had the expelled monks and nuns restored to their houses. A few days later Lord Darcy surrendered Pontefract Castle and joined the rebels. Further risings broke out in Durham, Lancashire, Cumberland and Westmorland.

By late October some 30,000 to 40,000 men had gathered near Doncaster, facing a much smaller royal army under Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk. Unable to fight, Norfolk negotiated. On 27 October a truce was agreed and two of the rebels’ gentry leaders took their petition to the king.

The pardon and the betrayal

In early December the pilgrims’ leaders met at Pontefract and drew up a list of demands, the Pontefract Articles. They asked for the monasteries to be restored, for heresy to be suppressed, for Cromwell and his allies to be punished, for Mary to be declared legitimate and for a parliament to be held in the north.

On 6 December at Doncaster, Norfolk offered the rebels a general pardon and promised that a parliament would meet at York to consider their grievances. Believing they had succeeded, Aske tore off his pilgrim’s badge and the armies went home. Over Christmas Aske visited Henry at court and was received with apparent kindness.

The promises were not kept. In January 1537 Sir Francis Bigod led a new rising in the East Riding, fearing that the king meant to break his word. It failed quickly, as did a rebel attack on Carlisle in February, but it gave Henry the excuse he needed to treat the earlier pardon as void.

Key people

• Robert Aske (c. 1500–1537): a one-eyed Yorkshire lawyer who led the Pilgrimage and was executed at York.
• Henry VIII (1491–1547): the king, who negotiated while he was weak and took revenge once he was secure.
• Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk (1473–1554): the royal commander who arranged the truce and later carried out the punishment.
• Thomas, Lord Darcy (c. 1467–1537): an old northern lord who surrendered Pontefract and joined the rebels; he was beheaded on Tower Hill.
• Sir Francis Bigod (1507–1537): a reform-minded gentleman whose January 1537 rising gave the crown its pretext for reprisals.

Punishment and consequences

From February 1537 Norfolk imposed martial law in the north. Around 200 people were executed for their part in the risings of 1536–1537, a figure that includes the Lincolnshire rebels. Victims included Lord Darcy, Lord Hussey, Sir Robert Constable, several abbots and monks, and many ordinary men hanged in their villages. Aske was hanged in chains from the walls of York Castle in July 1537.

Monasteries linked to the rebellion, among them Whalley, Jervaulx and Sawley, were seized and their abbots executed. Rather than slowing the dissolution, the rising helped speed the closure of the larger houses. The king also reorganised the Council of the North in 1537 to strengthen royal control of the region.

Legacy

The Pilgrimage of Grace showed both the depth of attachment to traditional religion in northern England and the limits of popular protest against a determined monarch. Like the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, it ended with royal promises broken and leaders executed.

Historians still debate its character. Some stress its religious motives, others the role of gentry and noble factions opposed to Cromwell, and others economic grievances among the common people. Most now see it as a combination of all three, held together by the sense that the old order of the Church and the commonwealth was under threat. The banner of the Five Wounds would be raised again in the northern rising of 1569 against Elizabeth I.

Timeline

• 1536, 1 October: the Lincolnshire Rising begins at Louth.
• 1536, mid-October: the Lincolnshire rebels disperse; the rising spreads into Yorkshire.
• 1536, 16 October: the pilgrims enter York under Robert Aske.
• 1536, 21 October: Lord Darcy surrenders Pontefract Castle.
• 1536, 27 October: first truce at Doncaster with the Duke of Norfolk.
• 1536, 6 December: Norfolk offers a general pardon at Doncaster and the pilgrims disband.
• 1537, January: Sir Francis Bigod’s rising in the East Riding fails.
• 1537, 30 June: Lord Darcy beheaded on Tower Hill.
• 1537, 12 July: Robert Aske hanged in chains at York.

Why it matters

The Pilgrimage of Grace was the largest rebellion of Henry VIII’s reign and the clearest sign of popular resistance to the English Reformation. Its defeat confirmed the crown’s authority over the Church and the north, and the reprisals that followed warned anyone else who might oppose the king’s religious policies.