Interpretation - Pilgrimage of Grace

Question 1

What were the main causes of the Pilgrimage of Grace?

Answer 1

Political, Economic, Religious

Question 2

What were the political causes of the Pilgrimage of Grace?

Answer 2

• Aragonese faction decamped to the North, consolidating and using the North as a power base - North felt excluded from London and were looked down on by southerners.
• Percy’s, Darcy’s and Hussey’s involved- were they planning a coup?
• Some of the concerns of the rebels were also the concerns of the gentry.
• Some gentry and nobles objected to the influence of low-born Thomas Cromwell

Question 3

What were the economic causes of the Pilgrimage of Grace?

Answer 3

• Bad harvests, heavy taxation, enclosure, rumours of new taxes on sheep and baptism. Rebels did not want to have to pay the taxes due from the Subsidy Act of 1534.
• Statute of Uses, removing right to leave land to whoever wanted & increased tax when estate changed hands, unpopular with nobility.
• ‘rack-renting’, pilgrims wanted rent rates to reduce as under Henry VII
• Dissolution of monasteries had economic element – provided assistance to the poor.

Question 4

What were the religious causes of the Pilgrimage of Grace?

Answer 4

• Unifying factor and general appeal.
• Concern about religious reforms about Luther’s heresies.
• Wanted restoration of power of pope.
• Protesting gov assault on saints, pilgrimages and holy days.
• Dissolution of the monasteries.

Question 5

Paragraphs - degree of threat posed by the Pilgrimage of Grace?

Answer 5

Leadership and organisation, location, supporters, government response.

Question 6

Degree of threat posed by the Pilgrimage of Grace - Leadership and organisation?

Answer 6

• Aske educated lawyer able to articulate issues and encouraged rebellion as trad pilgrimage.
• Rebels well-organised; coordinated and efficient - recruits mustered into companies.
• All rebel groups Aske as overall leader - constant contact - harder for gov to put down.
• Ensured rebellion remained peaceful - gain more support.
• Aske believed VIII’s promises, taken advantage of.

Question 7

Degree of threat posed by the Pilgrimage of Grace - Location?

Answer 7

• Began East Riding of Yorkshire. Took over York, Hull.
• The rebellion covered most of the North and North East of England by late October; the only region where they were less successful was Lancashire
• In all 9 regional uprisings took place.

Question 8

Degree of threat posed by the Pilgrimage of Grace - Support?

Answer 8

• Largest mass rebellion of Tudor period - support from members of the nobility and the gentry, clergymen and monks, as well as the commons.
• Influential rebels from nobility and gentry e.g. Darcy, Hussey, Percy families
• Darcy & Hussey members of conservative faction at court. - - Percy family factor in convincing some men to join.
• Local communities often joined if their parish church or monastery was under threat

Question 9

Degree of threat posed by the Pilgrimage of Grace - Government response?

Answer 9

• Serious threat, nine rebel armies formed across North.
• Taken by surprise, no of rebels & rapidity with which armies gathered.
• Nobles and gentry joined – gov couldn’t rely on usual means to deal.
• Rebel army was 30,000 strong, had to play for time.
• Mistake of sending home for 2nd army - rebels 3 weeks to prepare strategy.
• October, the Duke of Norfolk and Earl of Shrewsbury marched north with 8,000 men and were outnumbered – negotiate – presented with 5 articles to give to King.
• December rebels asked for Kings pardon, granted together with promise parliament in North & negotiations on monasteries. Most rebels went home.
• Jan realised had been tricked, brief unsuccessful rising.
• Rebel leaders executed.
• Where gentry stayed loyal no instability – rewarded loyal

Question 10

What were the main outcomes of the Pilgrimage of Grace?

Answer 10

Political, economic, religious

Question 11

What were the political outcomes of the Pilgrimage of Grace?

Answer 11

• Henry VII showed strength
• Percy family destroyed
• Contributed to the removal of Cromwell
• Resulted in re-organisation and strengthening of the Council of the North

Question 12

What were the economic outcomes of the Pilgrimage of Grace?

Answer 12

• Landlord-tenant relations
• Statute of Uses repelled.
• 1534 subsidy act repealed

Question 13

What were the religious outcomes of the Pilgrimage of Grace?

Answer 13

• Failed to stop dissolution of monasteries.
• The participation of abbots and monks in the rebellion further proved to Henry that they were a security threat and result in Henry’s support for Cromwell’s dissolution of larger monasteries
• Bishops Book restored many conservative practices.
• The Act of Six Articles (1539) replaced the Ten Articles. Many catholic practices were restored.

Question 14

Whose rebellion was the Pilgrimage of Grace?

Answer 14

• Elton: organised by an out-of-favour court faction, led by men such as Hussey
• Gunn: work of the parish clergy and leaders of society in villages and small towns e.g. richer yeomen and tradesmen
• Bush: a ‘movement’ of the commons’

Question 15

Was the Pilgrimage of Grace a rebellion of the gentry?

Answer 15

• Organisation suggest it was not spontaneous and only the gentry would have the ability/connections to organise this large-scale rising
• Some of rebel demands e.g. complaint for Statute of Uses, only appealed to the gentry
• Gentry most affected by changes to royal policy and the new influence of Duke of Suffolk and Lincolnshire
• Nobility and gentry involved had the motive of losing their position in court and the resentment of Cromwell and Boleyn
• Rebel demands attacked Cromwell, Rich and Audley, all men the gentry had lost out to
• Names of heretic who were attacked would not have been familiar to the commons
• Gentry argued they were coerced, but useful get out after the failure

Question 16

Was the Pilgrimage of Grace a rebellion of the commons?

Answer 16

• The nine host armies began as a protest of the people
• It was the belief in the ‘society of orders’ that made the commons want gentry and nobles as leaders, they also thought these groups would best articulate their views
• Original name ‘pilgrimage of grace for the commonwealth’, also seen in demands on taxation, tenants’ rights and wealth of local churches
• Once gentry forced into joining they tried to control the rebellion

Question 17

Was the Pilgrimage of Grace the work of the clergy?

Answer 17

• Clergy and monks played a significant role; expected as they were the ones whose lives had been dramatically hit by religious changes
• Clergy supplied money, e.eg. in Lincolnshire they provided the rebels at Louth with funds
• Some monks joined the rising, armed and horsed
• In Louth it was the priest who encouraged the rising

Question 18

Court factions?

Answer 18

• Elton suggested the POG was the result of court faction
• The Aragonese faction, who had been defeated at court and in parliament, following the fall of Catherine of Aragon and the break with Rome, appealed to the country to stop further changes and raised a popular rebellion to achieve this
• The issue was exacerbated by Henry’s centralising policy that undermined the feudal ties in the north, this saw men such as Hussey, Darcy and Constable lose influence
• This loss of influence in the north can be accounted for in the rebel demands for a parliament in the North
• Hussey also had links with Catherine and her daughter Mary
• The men who led the rebellion had been replaced in the Aragonese court by Cromwell and Richard Rich
• This view is given further credibility by the attack on Cromwell, Rich and Cranmer in the Pilgrim’s Ballad
• The rebels demanded the restoration of Mary to the succession
• The organisation of the rebels suggests it was not spontaneous
• Articles that attack a number of international exploiters that the gentry would have never heard of and also a number of Pontefract reformers who had not been published in England, suggesting elite leadership
• Managed to raise support by exploiting the economic and religious grievances in the North

Question 19

Economic and social?

Answer 19

• The demands contained a number of economic grievances
• Complaints about the 1534 subsidy act
• Complaints about enclosure, which was a problem in some of the more heavily populated areas of the Lake District and the West Riding of Yorkshire
• Complaints about entry fines
• Harvests of 1535 and 1536 were poor
• Combined with rumours of impending taxes of sheep and cattle – arguably created by the gentry to hoax the commons into rebelling
• Encouraged discontent
• Dissolution of the monarchy was also an economic issue as they played a vital role in the local economy, and provided help in times of distress, like the economic situation faced

Question 20

Religion:

Answer 20

• Haigh argued that although the demands of the rebels, as expressed in the Pontefract articles, contained a range of issues, the secular demands were a late addition to the religious grievances
• Break with Rome
• Suppression of the monasteries
• Banner of the rebels depicted the five wounds of Christ
• The pilgrims oath contained the statement that they were undertaking the pilgrimage in the name of Christ
• The demands made at Pontefract were also concerned with religion
• The religious grievances were at the head and made up 9 out of 24 of the rebels demands
• The restoration of the Pope;
• The legitimisation of Mary, a future Catholic monarch
• The restoration of the abbeys and associated monastic practices
• Complaints in the demands against some reformist bishops, such as Cranmer, and some European reformers, such as Martin Bucer
• The new taxes on baptism, burial and marriage were unpopular, particularly among the poorer elements
• Rising occurred immediately after the closure of some of the smaller monasteries
• The area of Lancashire that was the first to rise was around the dissolved monasteries
• The rebels themselves chose a name that had a religious resonance; considering the Protestant objections to pilgrimages and pilgrims, this cannot have been as unimportant to them.

Question 21

What were the political causes of the Pilgrimage of Grace?

Answer 21

• Elton suggested the POG was the result of court faction
• The Aragonese faction, defeated at court and in parliament, after the fall of Catherine of Aragon and the break with Rome, appealed to the country to stop further changes and raised a popular rebellion to achieve this
• The issue was exacerbated by Henry’s centralising policy that undermined the feudal ties in the north, this saw men such as Hussey, Darcy and Constable lose influence
• Rebel demands for a parliament in the North
• Hussey also had links with Catherine and her daughter Mary
• The men who led the rebellion had been replaced in the Aragonese court by Cromwell and Richard Rich
• Attack on Cromwell, Rich and Cranmer in the Pilgrim’s Ballad
• The rebels demanded the restoration of Mary to the succession
• Articles that attack a number of international exploiters that the gentry would have never heard of and also a number of Pontefract reformers who had not been published in England, suggesting elite leadership
• Managed to raise support by exploiting the economic and religious grievances in the North

Question 22

What were the economic causes of the Pilgrimage of Grace?

Answer 22

• The demands contained a number of economic grievances
• Complaints about the 1534 subsidy act
• Complaints about enclosure, which was a problem in some of the more heavily populated areas of the Lake District and the West Riding of Yorkshire
• Complaints about entry fines
• Harvests of 1535 and 1536 were poor
• Combined with rumours of impending taxes of sheep and cattle – arguably created by the gentry to hoax the commons into rebelling
• Encouraged discontent
• Dissolution of the monarchy was also an economic issue as they played a vital role in the local economy, and provided help in times of distress, like the economic situation faced

Question 23

What were the religious causes of the Pilgrimage of Grace?

Answer 23

• Haigh argued that although the demands of the rebels, as expressed in the Pontefract articles, contained a range of issues, the secular demands were a late addition to the religious grievances
• Break with Rome
• Suppression of the monasteries
• Banner of the rebels depicted the five wounds of Christ
• The religious grievances were at the head and made up 9 out of 24 of the rebels demands
• The restoration of the Pope;
• The legitimisation of Mary, a future Catholic monarch
• The restoration of the abbeys and associated monastic practices
• Complaints in the demands against some reformist bishops, such as Cranmer, and some European reformers, such as Martin Bucer
• Rising occurred immediately after the closure of some of the smaller monasteries
• The area of Lancashire that was the first to rise was around the dissolved monasteries
• The rebels themselves chose a name that had a religious resonance; considering the Protestant objections to pilgrimages and pilgrims, this cannot have been as unimportant to them.