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| 8 | <title>Primary Sources: The Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536</title>
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| 20 | <p align="center"> <br>
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| 21 | <p align="center">
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| 22 | <img border="0" src="grace.gif" width="418" height="74"><p align="center"> </td>
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| 30 | <td valign="top" width="48%" bgcolor="#FFFFE8"><font size=-1>The account
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| 31 | at right was written by the Tudor chronicler Edward Hall.</font><p>
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| 32 | <font size="-1">The Pilgrimage of Grace was the worst uprising of Henry
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| 33 | VIII's reign. It was a direct result of the dissolution of the
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| 34 | monasteries, a policy which confused and angered most Englishmen.
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| 35 | The original rebellion began at Louth in Lincolnshire in early October
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| 36 | 1536. The presence of a royal commission was the spark; the local
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| 37 | clergy encouraged it to flame. The Lincolnshire rebellion lasted but
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| 38 | a fortnight, but Yorkshire - led by the lawyer Robert Aske - was next.
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| 39 | With the charismatic Aske as their leader, the rebellion spread quickly.
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| 40 | Dissatisfaction with the king's religious and fiscal policies was deep and
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| 41 | widespread. An army of perhaps 30,000 men gathered in the north.
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| 42 | The king ordered the dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk and the earl of
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| 43 | Shrewsbury to respond. But there was no standing army in England;
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| 44 | also, popular sympathy lay with the rebels.</font></p>
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| 45 | <p><font size="-1">The king's forces were hopelessly outnumbered.
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| 46 | Worse, their soldiers lacked equipment and the desire to fight their
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| 47 | countrymen. And the rebel forces were far more experienced in
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| 48 | battle, having fought the Scots near-continuously during Henry's reign.</font></p>
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| 49 | <p><font size="-1">Faced with such odds, the king turned to diplomacy.
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| 50 | The rebels, after all, did not seek to overthrow him. Their primary
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| 51 | desire was for the dissolved monasteries to be restored. They also
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| 52 | criticized the king's 'low-born' advisers, particularly Thomas Cromwell.
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| 53 | His policies of high taxation and forced enclosures had worsened poverty
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| 54 | throughout northern England; it was already, as Norfolk told the king,
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| 55 | 'the most barren country of the realm'.</font></p>
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| 56 | <p><font size="-1">The king negotiated peace through Norfolk, conceding
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| 57 | their demands and promising a free pardon to all rebels who dispersed.
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| 58 | Monastic lands would be restored and a new parliament called to address
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| 59 | their concerns. The rebels accordingly dispersed. And then, on
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| 60 | the slightest pretext, Henry broke his word; martial law was declared,
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| 61 | rebel leaders were indicted and put on trial (many faced a jury of their
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| 62 | peers.) Several hundred rebels, including Aske, were executed.</font></p>
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| 63 | <p>
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| 64 | <br>
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| 65 | </td>
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| 66 | <td width="4%"></td>
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| 67 | <td valign="top" width="48%">
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| 68 |
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| 69 | <p><font color="#000000">[T]he king was truly informed that there was
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| 70 | a new insurrection made by the northern men, who had assembled themselves
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| 71 | into a huge and great army of warlike men, well appointed with captains,
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| 72 | horse, armour and artillery, to the number of 40,000 men, who had encamped
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| 73 | themselves in Yorkshire. And these men had bound themselves to each
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| 74 | other by their oath to be faithful and obedient to their captain.</font>
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| 75 | <p><font color="#000000">The also declared, by their proclamation solemnly
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| 76 | made, that their insurrection should extend no further than to the maintenance
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| 77 | and defence of the faith of Christ and the deliverance of holy church,
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| 78 | sore decayed and oppressed, and to the furtherance also of private and
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| 79 | public matters in the realm concerning the wealth of all the king's poor
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| 80 | subjects. They called this, their seditious and traitorous voyage, a holy
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| 81 | and blessed pilgrimage; they also had certain banners in the field whereon
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| 82 | was painted Christ hanging on the cross on one side, and a chalice with
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| 83 | a painted cake in it on the other side, with various other banners of similar
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| 84 | hypocrisy and feigned sanctity. The soldiers also had a certain cognizance
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| 85 | or badge embroidered or set upon the sleeves of their coats which was a
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| 86 | representation of the five wounds of Christ, and in the midst thereof was
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| 87 | written the name of Our Lord, and thus the rebellious garrison of Satan
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| 88 | set forth and decked themselves with his false and counterfeited signs
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| 89 | of holiness, only to delude and deceive the simple and ignorant people.</font>
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| 90 | <p><font color="#000000">After the king's highness was informed of this
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| 91 | newly arisen insurrection he, making no delay in so weighty a matter, caused
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| 92 | with all speed the dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, the marquis of Exeter,
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| 93 | the earl of Shrewsbury and others, accompanied by his mighty and royal
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| 94 | army which was of great power and strength, immediately to set upon the
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| 95 | rebels. But when these noble captains and counsellors approached
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| 96 | the rebels and saw their number and how they were determined on battle,
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| 97 | they worked with great prudence to pacify all without shedding blood.</font>
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| 98 | <p><font color="#000000">But the northern men were so stiff-necked that
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| 99 | they would in no way stoop, but stoutly stood and maintained their wicked
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| 100 | enterprise. Therefore the abovesaid nobles, perceiving and seeing
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| 101 | no other was to pacify these wretched rebels, agreed upon a battle; ...
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| 102 | but the night before the day appointed for the battle a little rain fell,
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| 103 | nothing to speak of, but yet as if by a great miracle of God the water,
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| 104 | which was a very small ford which the day before men might have gone over
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| 105 | dry shod, suddenly rose to such a height depth and breadth that no man
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| 106 | who lived there had ever seen before, so that on the day, even when the
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| 107 | hour of battle should have some, it was impossible for one army to get
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| 108 | at the other.</font>
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| 109 | <p><font color="#000000">After this appointment made between both the armies,
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| 110 | disappointed, as it is to be thought, only by God who extended his great
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| 111 | mercy and had compassion on the great number of innocent persons who in
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| 112 | that deadly slaughter would have been likely to have been murdered, could
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| 113 | not take place. Then... a consultation was held and a pardon obtained
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| 114 | from
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| 115 | the king's majesty for all the captains and chief movers of this insurrection,
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| 116 | and they promised that such things as they found themselves aggrieved by,
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| 117 | all would be gently heard and their reasonable petitions granted, and that
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| 118 | their articles should be presented to the king, so that by his highness'
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| 119 | authority and the wisdom of his council all things should be brought to
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| 120 | good order and conclusion. And with this order every man quietly
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| 121 | departed, and those who before were bent as hot as fire on fighting, being
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| 122 | presented by God, went now peaceably to their houses, and were as cold
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| 123 | as water.</font>
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| 124 | <br>
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| 125 | <br> <p align="center"><a href="primary.html">
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| 126 | <font size="2">to Primary Sources</font></a></td>
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