Popular uprisings against the Crown

Overview

The Pilgrimage of Grace of 1536, with the religious, political and economic grievances behind it, Robert Aske's leadership, how the rising began at Louth and spread across the north, the Duke of Norfolk's promises, Henry VIII's revenge, and why it won none of its aims.

What you need to know

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Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What was the Pilgrimage of Grace?

   Model answer

   A mass rising in the north of England in 1536 against the religious and political changes of Henry VIII's government, and the most serious rebellion of his reign.

2. 2

   Which religious change did the rebels of 1536 resent above all?

   Model answer

   The closing of the smaller monasteries, which ended the charity, employment, schooling and hospitality they provided and stopped the prayers said there for the dead.

3. 3

   Who was Robert Aske?

   Model answer

   A Yorkshire lawyer who took charge of the rising, gave it the name of a pilgrimage rather than a rebellion, and insisted his followers took an oath and kept order.

4. 4

   What political demands did the rebels make?

   Model answer

   That the king dismiss the low-born advisers they blamed for the changes, above all Thomas Cromwell, and that a parliament be called in the north to hear their case.

5. 5

   What economic and social grievances fed the rising?

   Model answer

   Rising rents and heavy entry fines on taking a holding, enclosure of common land, a new law restricting how land could be left by will, and a tax demanded in peacetime.

6. 6

   Where did the trouble start, and how far did it spread?

   Model answer

   It began at Louth in Lincolnshire in October 1536, and although that rising collapsed it spread within weeks across Yorkshire and much of the north.

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