On the 1st of October 1536, a monk and a shoemaker named Nicholas Melton stood before a crowd of twenty-two thousand people at St James' Church in Louth, igniting a firestorm that would soon engulf the north of England. This was not a planned military campaign but a spontaneous explosion of anger that began with the closure of Louth Park Abbey and the seizure of church plate. The royal commissioners had stripped the churches of their silver chalices, replacing them with tin, and confiscated jewels and gold crosses that families had donated in memory of their loved ones. The situation escalated when Dr. John Raynes, the Chancellor of the Diocese of Lincoln, was dragged from his sickbed and beaten to death by the mob, his registers burned to ash. The rising quickly spread to Horncastle and Market Rasen, where the protesters demanded the end of the dissolution of religious houses and the repeal of the Statute of Uses. By the 4th of October, the King had sent word for the occupiers to disperse or face the forces of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and by the 14th of October, few remained in Lincoln. The leaders, including the vicar of Louth and Captain Cobbler, were captured and hanged at Tyburn, while Thomas Moigne, a lawyer from Willingham, was hanged, drawn, and quartered for his involvement. The Lincolnshire Rising served as a grim precursor to the more widespread Pilgrimage of Grace, proving that the people of the north were willing to die for their faith and their traditions.
The Northern Gentry And The Poor
The true power of the Pilgrimage of Grace lay in its unique coalition of the northern gentry and the common poor, a union forged by shared grievances that transcended class lines. Robert Aske, a barrister from London and the youngest son of Sir Robert Aske of Aughton, emerged as the leader of the insurgents, leading a band of nine thousand followers who had sworn the Oath of the Honourable Men. These men entered and occupied York, arranging for expelled monks and nuns to return to their houses and driving out the King's newly installed tenants. The economic factors were as potent as the religious ones, with the northern gentry concerned over the new Statute of Uses and the poor harvest of 1535 leading to high food prices. The Dissolution of the Monasteries had affected the local poor, many of whom relied on them for food and shelter, while Henry VIII's habit of raising funds through taxation and confiscation of lands created a climate of extortionate rents and gressums. The northern nobility felt their rights were being taken away from them in the Acts of 1535, 1536, which made them lose confidence in the royal government. The lower classes used the nobility to give their grievance a sense of obedience, while the nobles hid behind the force of the lower classes with claims of coercion. This complex leadership structure allowed the rebellion to gain legitimacy and power, as the nobles and the commons used each other as a legitimizing force in an extremely ordered society.
In early December 1536, the Pilgrimage of Grace gathered at Pontefract Castle to draft a petition to be presented to King Henry VIII with a list of their demands, known as the 24 Articles to the King or The Commons' Petition. The Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, promised to present the petition to the King and also promised a general pardon and a Parliament to be held at York within a year, as well as a reprieve for the abbeys until the Parliament had met. Accepting the promises, Aske dismissed his followers and the pilgrimage disbanded, believing that the King would honor his word. However, Henry VIII did not authorize Norfolk to grant remedies for the grievances, and Norfolk's enemies had whispered into the King's ear that the Howards could put down a rebellion of peasants if they wanted to, suggesting that Norfolk sympathized with the Pilgrimage. Norfolk and the Earl of Shrewsbury were outnumbered, with 5000 and 7000 respectively, while there were 40,000 pilgrims, and upon seeing their vast numbers, Norfolk negotiated and made promises to avoid being massacred. The King's betrayal was swift and brutal, as he arrested Bigod, Aske, and several other rebels, such as Darcy, John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford, the Chief Butler of England, Sir Thomas Percy, and Sir Robert Constable. All were convicted of treason and executed, with Norfolk executing some 216 activists, including Lord Darcy, who tried to implicate Norfolk as a sympathizer.
The Blood And The Chains
The suppression of the rebellion was marked by a wave of executions that targeted the leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace, with 216 people executed in total, including several lords and knights, 7 abbots, 38 monks, and 16 parish priests. Robert Aske was hanged in chains at York, while Sir Robert Constable was hanged in chains at Hull, and Sir John Bulmer was hanged, drawn, and quartered, with his wife Margaret Stafford burnt at the stake. The details of the trial and execution of major leaders were recorded by the author of Wriothesley's Chronicle, which noted that on the 16th of May 1537, Sir Robert Constable, Sir Thomas Percy, Sir John Bulmer, and Robert Aske were arraigned at Westminster before the King's Commissioners. On the 25th of May, Sir John Bulmer, Sir Stephen Hamerton, knights, were hanged and headed, while Nicholas Tempest, esquire, and Doctor Cockerell, priest, were drawn from the Tower of London to Tyburn, and there hanged, bowelled and quartered, and their heads set on London Bridge and divers gates in London. Margaret Cheney, 'other wife to Bulmer called', was drawn after them from the Tower of London into Smithfield, and there burned according to her judgment, God pardon her soul, being the Friday in Whitsun week. The loss of the leaders enabled the Duke of Norfolk to quell the rising, and martial law was imposed upon the demonstrating regions, with the King's forces executing some 216 activists, including churchmen, monks, and commoners.
The Partial Victory And The Long Shadow
Despite the brutal suppression of the rebellion, the Pilgrimage of Grace achieved some partial successes that are often overlooked by historians. The government postponed the collection of the October subsidy, a major grievance amongst the Lincolnshire organisations, and the Statute of Uses was partially negated by a new law, the Statute of Wills. Four of the seven sacraments that were omitted from the Ten Articles were restored in the Bishop's Book of 1537, which marked the end of the drift of official doctrine towards Protestantism, and the Bishop's Book was followed by the Six Articles of 1539. An onslaught upon heresy was promised in a royal proclamation in 1538, and the government's response to the rebellion showed that the King was willing to make concessions to avoid further unrest. However, the rebellion ultimately failed to achieve its primary goals, as England was not reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church, except during the brief reign of Mary I, and the dissolution of the monasteries continued unabated, with the largest monasteries being dissolved by 1540. Great tracts of land were seized from the Church and divided among the Crown and its supporters, and the steps towards official Protestantism achieved by Cromwell continued, except during the reign of Mary I. The Pilgrimage of Grace remains a complex and multifaceted event that highlights the tensions between the north and the south, the common people and the nobility, and the Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformation.