The term 'Pilgrimage of Grace' is used…

October 1536 CE

The term 'Pilgrimage of Grace' is used for the movement that breaks out on October 13, 1536, immediately following the failure of the Lincolnshire Rising.

Historians have identified several key themes of the revolt: The northern gentry have concerns over the new Statute of Uses.

The poor harvest of 1535 has also led to high food prices, which likely contribute to discontent.

Many people in northern England dislike the way in which Henry VIII had cast off his wife, Catherine of Aragon.

Although her successor, Anne Boleyn, had been unpopular as Catherine's replacement, as both a rumored Protestant and a southerner, her execution in 1536 on trumped-up charges of adultery and treason has done much to undermine the monarchy's prestige and the King's personal reputation.

Aristocrats object to the rise of Thomas Cromwell, who was 'base born'.

The local church is, for many in the north, the center of community life.

Many ordinary peasants were worried that their church plate would be confiscated.

There were also popular rumors at the time which hinted that baptisms might be taxed.

The recently released Ten Articles and the new order of prayer issued by the government in 1535 had also made official doctrine more reformed, which went against the conservative beliefs of most northerners.

Robert Aske is chosen to lead the insurgents; he is a barrister from London, a resident of the Inns of Court, and the youngest son of Sir Robert Aske of Aughton, near Selby.

His family was from Aske Hall, Richmondshire, and had long been in Yorkshire.

In 1536, Aske leads a band of nine thousand followers, who enter and occupy York.

He arranges for expelled monks and nuns to return to their houses; the King's newly installed tenants are driven out, and Catholic observances are resumed.

The rising is so successful that the royalist leaders, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, open negotiations with the insurgents at Scawsby Leys, near Doncaster, where Aske has assembled between thirty and forty thousand people.

Norfolk promises 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 has met.

Naively trusting the king's promises, Aske dismisses his followers.

Jesse Childs (a biographer of the Earl of Surrey, Norfolk's son) specifically notes that Henry VIII did not authorize Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk to grant remedies for the grievances.

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, seeing their vast numbers (he and the Earl of Shrewsbury were outnumbered: they had five thousand and seven thousand respectively but there were forty thousand pilgrims) negotiated and made promises to avoid being massacred.