The Tudors - Henry VIII - The Pilgrimage of Grace - Episode 25

This I'm Stark and in this video we are looking at the pilgrimages of grace. So we have to look at the religious causes and the secular causes of the rebellion at first. And first of all we'll start with the religious causes because although there was many various secular motives involved in the rebellion, the underlying theme was the religious changes under Henry VIII and the first motive came from the dissolution of the monasteries. By 1536 the dissolution of the monasteries were clearly underway and many undesirable effects were induced, especially considering the fact that Robert Aske, who was the rebel leader, was a keen advocate of the monasteries. And the undesirable causes included the loss of both charitable and educational functions, the potential loss of parish churches and the risk of an impoverished north caused by monastic land being controlled by the south. Now along with the dissolution of the monasteries the 1536 injunctions, which were drawn up by Cromwell, attacked many traditional religious practices. Now these included the celebration of important saints, pilgrimage and rumours that parish churches may be amalgamated, which meant that they were united under one unit. Now there were also many secular causes, which means non-religious, and firstly many ordinary rebels joined because they were motivated by their economic deprivation after further increases in taxation. Supporters of Catherine of Aragon, who had died previously in January 1536, wanted to reinstate Princess Mary as the heir to the throne. The crown attempted to impose the Duke of Suffolk upon Lincolnshire as a great magnate, which dissatisfied many people. And there would have been other reasons, considering the great scale of this rebellion. So the actual rebellion began on the 2nd of October 1536 in Lincolnshire, before it spread over the Humber regions and into East Yorkshire under the leadership of Robert Aske. Now during this start the Chancellor of Lincoln, Dr. Rain, was brutally murdered. Now at the same time a second and more military uprising commenced from Ripon and Richmond. Now this soon spread to Cumberland, North Lancashire and Durham. So this shows the scale of the rebellion, which happened predominantly in the north of England. Now the rebels in the second rebellion were more hostile towards the gentry, due to their letters which were sent out under the name of Captain Poverty. So in other words this was mainly based on the economic problems that they faced. So Henry VIII did manage to suppress a rebellion in the end, and although the Lincolnshire rebellion collapsed under pressure from the Duke of Suffolk, the geographical scale of a rebellion did make it extremely hard to stop. So therefore when rebels occupied York and Hull, this alarmed Henry VIII. Now the King ultimately sent an army under leadership from the Duke of Norfolk, and when he was outnumbered by the rebels he offered them a pardon and the promise of the restoration of dissolved monasteries and a free Parliament. However the King had no desire to stick to this promise, and when the rebellion was renewed in Cumberland in 1537, the Duke of Norfolk suppressed the rebellion and hanged 74 rebels, including the leaders Darcy and Hussey. Now the rebellion shook Henry VIII as he realised the scale of religious opposition, however this failed to prevent and stop the rate of religious change in England. So thanks for watching and see you soon, bye.