Topic 4: Challenging Religious Changes 1533-37

Question 1

The Dissolution of the Monasteries 1536-40:

Answer 1

• Cromwell’s conduct of dissolution: March 1536, he dissolved all religious houses less than £200 per annum
• dissolution of smaller monasteries: 372 institutions in England and 27 in Wales (fell into this category)
• dissolution of the larger monasteries: process began in the latter part of 1538: the remaining 202 institutions yielded within 16 months

Question 2

Lincolnshire Rising: (1st- 18th Oct 1536)

Answer 2

• led by Melton, protesting dissolution of the parish church’s
• 10,000 men initially congregated to protest and hoped Lord Hussey would support them at court

Question 3

Causes:

Answer 3

• BAD HARVESTS 1535: grain prices were up by 82%
• 1534 SUBSIDY: criticising peacetime subsidies
• dissolution of the smaller monasteries 1536

Question 4

Pilgrimage of Grace:

Answer 4

• 9,000 initially started marching under banners of the 5 wounds of Christ and calling themselves ‘pilgrims’
• Duke of Norfolk had 8,000 vs a force of 30,000 pilgrims
• Pontefract Articles: the 24 grievances, 9/24 were religious e.g heresy, the restoration of Mary, 3/24 economic- including an end to enclosure, 6/political (e.g removal of Cromwell) and 6 administrative (e.g parliament in North)

Question 5

Consequences:

Answer 5

• 216 in total were executed (Bigod’s rising was an excuse to execute those involved in the Pilgrimage, some 178 executions specifically resulted from the Lincolnshire Rising and Pilgrimage of Grace (which included 74 executions at Carlisle in 1537 when the Duke of Norfolk proclaimed martial law) and some 10 people died in prison before trial or conviction, yet 37 accused persons were acquitted; 108 pardoned after conviction; 16 were reprieved; 13 allegations were quashed of Grace),
• Bigod executed at Tyburn in 1537
• ## 1541 Royal Progress made by Henry to the North where he stopped in York for 5 days

Question 6

Leadership of the rebellions:

Answer 6

leaders executed for the pilgrimage of grace included Lords Darcy and Hussey, Sir Robert Constable, Sir Thomas Percy (his son= Percy, Earl of Northumberland under Northern Rising) , Sir Franics Biogd, Sir John Bulmer and Aske. Clerical victims included James Cockerell, William Wood

Question 7

Robert Aske:

Answer 7

• he formulated the oath, taken by the rebels, at York on the 17th October, which bound the rebels to take up Christ’s cross, to defend the Catholic Church and remove the ‘evil councillors’ from the king’s council (Cromwell, Cranmer, Audley and Sir Richard Rich)
• cause was bonded by religious imagery: the banners and badges of the Five Wounds; the ballads and marching songs; the quasi-religious oath and the use of the term ‘pilgrimage’

Question 8

Francis Bigod:

Answer 8

Executed in June 1537 for treason

Question 9

Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk:

Answer 9

• when he confronted the Pilgrims at Doncaster Bridge, his army was heavily outnumbered
• initial truce offered for the dispersal of the rebels on the 8th December, the duke promised that the suppressed abbeys would be restored and a free parliament summoned
• the Duke of Norfolk proclaimed martial law at Carlisle

Question 10

Lord Hussey: (example of noble involvement)

Answer 10

• reason for potential involvement (the Crown’s rival of fiscal feudalism in the final session of the Reformation parliament threatened landowners)
• in September 1534, with Darcy had assured Chapuys (the ambassador for the Holy Roman Empire) that if Charles V were to declare war, English politics would be transformed by insurrection

Question 11

Lord Darcy: (example of noble involvement)

Answer 11

• Lord Darcy surrendered Pontefract Castle to the rebels

Question 12

Henry VIII:

Answer 12

• to try and combat the rebellion, Henry immediately ordered the nobility to arms: the dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, the Marquis of Exeter and the earls of Shrewsbury, Derby, Arundel and Huntingdon