Causes of the Pilgrimage of Grace

Question 1

Why was Henry prepared to support reformist views when he was catholic?

Answer 1

It helped undermine the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church, it helped ensure his supremacy

Question 2

What did the top down approach mean?

Answer 2

Reformist ideas were present in London and in the South East but Catholic ideas were prominant in the North and the South West

Question 3

How was Cromwell able to make doctrinal changes?

Answer 3

In 1535, Henry appointed Cromwell to be Vicegerent in Spirituals

(created for Cromwell and meant that he was Henry’s deputy in all spiritual and religious matters)

Question 4

What doctrinal changes were pushed by Cromwell? - bishops

Answer 4

New bishops were appointed who shared Cromwell’s views e.g. Hugh Latimer

Question 5

What doctrinal changes were pushed by Cromwell? - injunctions

Answer 5

injunctions (instructions) in 1536 to the English Clergy that attacked traditional practices such as pilgrimages and the worships of saints

Question 6

What doctrinal changes were pushed by Cromwell? - articles

Answer 6

The Act of Ten Articles 1536:

The doctrine of the New English Church, mostly in line with the Catholic belief although the number of sacraments necessary for salvation was decreased from 7 to 3

Question 7

What doctrinal changes were pushed by Cromwell? - royal letters

Answer 7

In April 1535, royal letters were sent to all bishops, nobility and JPs ordering them to imprison clergymen who continued to preach in support of the pope’s authority

Question 8

Changes to the royal succession

Answer 8

Mary being declared illegitimate

Question 9

How did the Act of Supremacy ensure obedience

Answer 9

made provision for an oath to be taken - loyalty from English subjects that recognized Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn

Question 10

The 1534 Treason Act - ensuring obedience

Answer 10

made it possible to prosecute (and execute) those who refused as traitors (for treason) e,g Thomas More (one Henry’s chancellors) and John Fisher (Bishop of Rochester)

Question 11

The impact of High-profile executions

Answer 11

created an atmosphere of fear and suspicion:

Question 12

At court, a conservative faction emerged whose aim was to restore the Catholic church, this included…

Answer 12

Thomas Howard (Duke of Norfolk) and Henry Percy (Earl of Northumberland)

Question 13

What did those who wanted the restoration of the catholic church see of Mary?

Answer 13

saw Mary (a practicing catholic barred from the succession in 1534) as their natural figurehead as restoring her would mean the promise of return to Rome in the future

Question 14

What role did the monasteries and convents play in people’s lives?

Answer 14

Mostly religious but also provided support for the poor and care for the sick and elderly.

Provided education and learning facilities and were significant employers

Question 15

Why were monasteries significant for farmers?

Answer 15

Farmers leased land off the monks and often did agricultural work for them

Question 16

Why were monasteries significant for employment?

Answer 16

provided employment on their estates for both unskilled agricultural labourers and skilled craftsmen - dissolved = fate of those relied for work becomes uncertain

Question 17

Why had the english monasteries had grown in power

Amount of people in religious houses and religious orders

Answer 17

their important religious function and the respect they held

By the 1530s there were nearly 900 religious houses in England about 12000 people in religious orders

Question 18

Why were monasteries more important in the North?

Answer 18

It was often badly hit by social and economic hardship and was therefore seen as a lifeline

Question 19

Why did Henry want to dissolve the monasteries?

Answer 19

monks and nuns owed obedience to the pope in Rome - Henry could not risk wealthy insitutions taking orders from potential hostile powers

Henry saw them as a valuable source of income for a potential catholic invasion

Question 20

Why did Cromwell want to dissolve the monasteries?

Answer 20

monastries represented the wealth and corruption of the Church

Promoted superstitious belief in purgatory

Question 21

What did the process of the dissolution begin with?

Answer 21

1535 Valor Ecclesiasticus: a survey of the finances all Church property and revealed the wealth of the monastries

ommissioners also had to find evidence of corruption

Question 22

What did the 1536 Act of Parliament mean?

Answer 22

Authorisation of dissolving the smaller monasteries (those worth less than £200 p/a)

Question 23

How did they dissolve the monasteries?

Answer 23

They were destroyed: lead stripped from roofs and melted down, stained glass images smashed

Question 24

How did the dissolution of the monasteries cause rebellion

Answer 24

communities became worried their local parish churches were under threat too

e.g. people at Louth (Lincolshire) were worried that their recently built spire for their church was going to be destroyed

Question 25

What first sparked the Lincolnshire rebellion?

Answer 25

The dissolution of the monasteries and the activities of government officials in the localities

Question 26

Why did rebels dislike Cromwell and Cranmer?

Answer 26

They attacked traditional practices like pilgrimages and worshipping saints which scared people as they didn’t think their souls would be prepared for afterlife

Question 27

What does the name the ‘Pilgrimage of Grace’ suggest?

Answer 27

Religious motivations as they were modelling themselves on Catholicism
(traditional catholic rite of peaceful pilgrimage)

Question 28

What did the rebels carry that also represented Catholocism?

Answer 28

A banner showing the 5 wounds that Christ received in his crucifixion

Question 29

How many of the demands in the Pontefract Articles were religious?

Answer 29

9 out of 24

Question 30

Why were religious causes the most significant factor in causing the 1536 rebellion?

Answer 30

Religious changes was a factor that united gentry and landlords (political causes) and the commons (economic causes)

Question 31

How did the government make social and ecomonic grievances worse in 1534?

Answer 31

made worse by the government demands for taxation in the 1534 subsidy

hit the North the hardest as it coincided with two years of bad harvest and poor weather

Question 32

What methods were used to collect the subsidy and how did these contribute to growing resentment in the North? (social cause)

Answer 32

Commissioners had to inquire into each person’s ability to pay which strengthened the feeling of government intrusion in people’s lives - existing already from valour

Question 33

Why did tenants rebel?

Answer 33

about the demands placed upon them on by their landlords e.g. entry fines and enclosures

Question 34

What were entry fines?

Answer 34

fine paid when a tenant died and was succeeded by an heir - placed a burden on tenant farmers who were unable to/unwilling to pay

Question 35

What was enclosure?

Answer 35

Tenant farmers forced off their lands by landlords so it could be incorporated into a larger farm closed off for profitable sheep farming

more of an issue particularly in York as it was a more populated area and therefore there was an increased demand for land

Question 36

Who rebelled because of

social and economic causes?

Answer 36

poorer peasants and agricultural workers - most affected by economic hardship

These issues did not affect members of the gentry and nobility and Robert Aske

Question 37

Why were social and economic causes a significant factor in causing the rebellion

Answer 37

certainly increased support

primary cause was certainly religious as this cause was only motivation for peasants

Question 38

Which members of the Northern nobility were involved in the revolts of 1536?

Answer 38

Sir Thomas Percy,
Lord Darcy
Lord Hussey

Question 39

Political cause of the rebellion?

Answer 39

Possible pilgrimage was the result of a Court-based plot by the conservative faction to restore Princess Mary to the royal succession and remove Cromwell.

Question 40

Evidence of political causes of rebellion

Answer 40

Catholic sympathies of northern nobility/gentry explain some of the articles e.g. repeal of 1534 Act of Supremacy and the removal of Cromwell and Richard Rich + The Act of Uses 1535

Question 41

Who rebelled because of

political causes?

Answer 41

Gentry and landlords
unlikely that these grievances affected majority of rebels who did not have extensive lands or property

does suggest why the rebellion may suggest that the rebellion was increasingly directed/controlled by the genry and nobility but not how and why it stated

Question 42

Why were political causes a significant factor in causing the rebellion

Answer 42

The impetus for rebellion came from below with the commons trying to recruit the genty not the other way around

does suggest why the rebellion may suggest that the rebellion was increasingly directed/controlled by the genry and nobility but not how and why it stated

Question 43

Doctrinal changes by Cromwell summary

Answer 43

Bishops
Injunctions
Articles
Royal letters