https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzA9F91DKfePTHBJNmJqWW1wOFE/edit
Pilgrimage of Grace - Source question (12 mark - due January 22nd 2013)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ueiYuTxlhlxh6lYc13PSLcxkXwgaIGWNYi8xnrfICmo/edit
Seminar Paper
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzA9F91DKfePWlJQRlN3WExFUk0/edit
Opposition to the Reformation 1532-1536
Based on Christopher Haigh
Henry was a reformer not a heretic. Used the execution of John Lambert in 1538 to demonstrate this.
‘If you do commit yourself unto my judgement you must die, for I will not be a patron to heretics.’
Signal to Catholics that he was one of them. Haigh sees that Henry had little choice but to make concessions to the fear and ‘resentment of religious change which had been a growing political problem for six years or more.’
Elizabeth Barton – seer or fraud – it does not matter. It is her impact that counts. Led a group [e.g. Dr Edward Bocking] and was not a solo opponent. Highly critical of the divorce, Anne Boleyn, heresy, Tyndale’s bible and the new learning. Attempted to use printing press to spread prophecies. Cromwell acted and led to execution in 1534 along with Bocking.
Chapuys [Imperial ambassador] wrote to Charles V that there was much opposition amongst the Northern nobility to royal policy. Generally an exaggerated threat at this stage. However it seems that if the circumstances had been right – an interested Charles V- then there was enough discontent to have assembled the basis of an uprising of the nobility. Major magnates such as Abergavenny, Dacre, and Northumberland: military men such as Darcy and Sandys Exeter Norfolk Suffolk Shrewsbury
Cromwell also struck at preachers like those who supported Elizabeth Barton. In 1534 Cromwell closed down the Observant houses as they would not swear an oath of allegiance. Carthusians were prosecuted and executed as well.
Hatred of Anne Boleyn was common. A Lancashire cleric declared, ‘I will take none for queen but Queen Katherine; who the devil mad Nan Boleyn,, that whore, queen, for I will never take her for a queen.’
Rejection of Rome England
The suppression of the monasteries brought real opposition. Laymen did not fight for the papal primacy, visitations or to protect the clergy from taxation. By 1536 however the attacks were not abstract but real assaults on saint’s days and pilgrimages; there were English Bibles in churches and the monasteries were being destroyed.
In Lincolnshire
Swiftly the revolt grew. All those involved had to take an oath. By October there were perhaps 40,000 rebels. Priests and gentry appear to have been the leaders. Henry refused to negotiate on demands: no more suppression of monasteries, no taxation except in wartime, liberties of the church to be observed, heresy to be purged. The gentry were on unsafe ground and dispersed the commons on the 12th October and waited for the King’s concessions.
On 4th October the Northern rebellion had begun. Role of Robert Aske.
‘For this pilgrimage we have taken it for the preservation of Christ’s Church, of this realm of England, the king our sovereign Lord, the nobility and the commons of the same, and to the intent to make petition to the king’s highness for the reformation of that which is amiss within his realm and for the punishment of the heretics and subverters of the law.’
Rebel army was @ 30,000. Demanded punishment of heretics, of Cromwell and Cranmer, an end to the suppression, repeal of the statue of uses, reduction of taxes.
Henry offered negotiations. Meetings at York and Pontefract = 24 Pontefract articles.
Divergent interests; rents, enclosure, royal succession, Cromwell and nine religios grievances [at the head of the list] – heresy, restitution of the Popes primacy, reestablishment of the monasteries, freeing from first fruits and tenths.
The rebel banner of the five wounds of Christ was not a flag of convenience. The religious grievances came at the top of the list and it was the local impact of Henry’s reformation which had provoked the rebellion and it was the plight of the monasteries that was top of the grievance list. 16 of the 26 dissolved monasteries were restored by the rebels. Some claimed that it was the evicted monks who stirred the trouble.
‘The houses of religion not suppressed make friends and wag the poor to stick hard in this opinion, and the monks who were suppressed inhabit the villages round their houses and daily wag the people to put them in again.’
Sir William Fairfax January 1537.
Support for the rebellion in terms of men, provisions and money was common; the monks of Furness threatened loss of land to their tenants who failed to join in.
Henry did not later his policy. The rebellion ended in December with promise of pardon and Parliament to consider their grievances. Disturbances in jan’ and feb’ by a commons who knew it had been duped gave Henry the chance to gain retribution.
47 Lincolnshire
There was limited support across other parts of the country. Perhaps local commanders kept a tighter reign; perhaps the monasteries played a greater part in a poorer north. There was however minor affrays in Cornwall
The injunctions of 1536 and 1538 increased resentment. Fear of the English bible and unwillingness to buy one was common. Preachers were seen as heretics. Many felt the changes had gone too far. In 1538 Henry stopped the reformation in its tracks. [Or did he]?
Guy v Elton on the Pilgrimage of Grace
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Pilgramge of Grace
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GUY
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ELTON
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| Causes | A popular rising of the Northern region Similar to Elton: Religion – protect Catholic faith; anti – Cromwell; poor harvest; taxation (subsidy of 1534), dissolution of monasteries. Main grievance was religion as exemplified by the banner of the 5 wounds of Christ, the use of the word ‘Pilgrimage’. Influence of supporters of the Princess Mary along with catholic lawyers against Cromwell’s admin. (DEBATABLE) but does link Aske, Darcy, Lord Hussey and others. Court plotting? Darcy and Hussey in particular | Resented interference of central govt. Resented statute of uses (1536) Agrarian element-enclosures, higher rents Religion- Dissolution of the monasteries = final straw to a religiously conservative north Rumour!!!! |
| Events | Sees 3 revolts – Lincolnshire October Yorkshire - Northern Counties – October – December East Riding and North-West – Jan – Dec 1537 Little dispute about the sequence of events but he emphasises its importance and threat lay in the combination of social classes – nobility, gentry, clergy, people. | 1 October – Lincolnshire rose. Demands of no more dissolution, Cromwell given up, heretical bishops dismissed The loyalty of the rebels to the crown was not however in dispute. 19th October – dispute collapsed as Henry unwilling to listen to demands Yorkshire rose however – led by Robert Aske (his motivation was religious). Captured York-gained support of Lord Darcy and Archbishop of York Aske = 30,000 men. Suffolk = few Duke of Norfolk met Aske at Doncaster – agreed to relay demands to Henry. Story of double-dealing by Norfolk and Henry. Aske unable to take army south. 2 December: Aske gathered council at Pontefract and issued final demands: end to dissolution, repeal of the statute of uses, dismissal and punishment of Cromwell, restoration of papal jurisdiction and liberties of the church, and reformed Parliament free of royal interference. Aske too honourable and trusting. 6 December pilgrimage ends on promise of meeting some demands as well as free pardons. Aske declared himself a loyal subject. Minor riots continued Jan/Feb 1537.Then on Norfolk reeks revenge in the king’s name throughout the north – around 200 including Darcy and Aske |
| Results | Failed: No support from leading nobility – (emergency Privy Council) Norfolk, Suffolk, Exeter, Shrewsbury, Sussex, Oxford. 5 northern Earls – Cumberland, Northumberland, Derby, Westmorland and Shrewsbury remained loyal. | Elton very critical of the event; calls it a “futile, misdirected and ill-conceived venture”. Some sympathy and respect but much of the aims were selfish. Always doomed to failure, as it never spread to the rest of the country. Fear of anarchy overrode all factions and even Norfolk proved implacable in his opposition to it. “Loyalty and obedience to the king, the guardian of peace and order and the symbol of the state, dominated everything”. What were the results?
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