Henry VIII - Tudor Serial Killer: His victims and their stories by Gerard Batten

Author:Gerard Batten [Batten, Gerard]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Bretwalda Books
Published: 2014-09-03T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Rebellion: The Pilgrimage of Grace

The dissolution of the monasteries and the overturning of a centuries old social order caused widespread discontent, especially in the north of England. The monasteries used to look after the poor, destitute and dying, and provide employment to many. Thomas Cromwell acknowledged this gap in the social fabric by passing the Beggars Act of 1536. This required the local parish or municipalities to assume responsibility for the “impotent poor”.[xlvii] Those capable of work were given it or taught a trade; “sturdy beggars” were to be punished. But these measures did not assuage the discontent, especially not where they were caused by genuine religious conviction. A few monasteries resisted closure by the threat of force of arms but these mini-rebellions were soon put down.

In September 1536 more dangerous resistance broke out in Lincolnshire. The uprising spread across the north of England to Yorkshire. The rebels demanded to keep the old religion, the restoration of the monasteries, less taxation, and Cromwell’s life. They went so far as to kill two of the King’s commissioners. This rebellion was not just one of the common people but included members of the minor aristocracy, who would normally be relied on to support the King and suppress discontent. Such a rising represented a real and dangerous threat to the regime.

By October the rebels had entered the city of Lincoln and their numbers had grown into thousands. Henry was incandescent with rage and had cause for serious alarm. He sought to pacify the rebels by denying further taxes were planned, yet demanded they surrender one hundred of their ringleaders. But his threats of destruction to them and their families were for the moment empty as he had no way of enforcing them.

The King appointed the Duke of Norfolk to crush the rebellion. Norfolk was his most experienced general, but there was no standing army and it took time to raise and equip soldiers, and he lacked money to pay for them. The rebel numbers were now thought to be in the region of 40,000 to 50,000, and hundreds more joined them by the day. The city of York was captured by the rebels and the revolt spread across the northern counties. They now styled themselves the Pilgrimage of Grace and marched with banners embroidered with the five wounds of Christ, His sacred monogram of IHS and an image of a chalice.[xlviii] Their leader was one Robert Aske.

Little is known of Robert Aske but that he was a one-eyed London lawyer in his thirties who had formerly been a servant of Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Nothumberland.[xlix] Aske met with the King’s messenger but refused to allow him to read out the King’s message to the rebels. Aske instead said that he would lead his pilgrimage to London to see the King, and there he would, “have all the vile blood put from his council and noble blood set up again; to have the faith of Christ and God’s laws kept and restitution done for wrongs done to the Church”.

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