Why Pilgrimage of Grace took place Flashcards
RELIGIOUS causes - anger over the Reformation
The Dissolution of the smaller monasteries had already begun and people in the North had heard that monks and nuns had been treated very badly. The valor ecclestiasticus (examination into the wealth of the church and monasteries) in 1535 had also been hugely unpopular and added to rumours about the removal of the monasteries.
In spring of 1536, some of the King’s officials arrived in the North and rumours quickly began to spread that they were going to remove all gold and silver ornaments from the local churches. These had been paid for by local people to praise God, so people were very angry. It was also rumoured that the officials would stop all holidays on Saint’s Days and close all monasteries.
POLITICAL causes - especially anger at Cromwell
The demands of the Pilgrims (rebels) said that they were loyal to Henry VIII and were not traitors but that they blamed Cromwell, not the king, for the problems they were complaining about.
The leader, Robert Aske, insisted there should be no violence and stopped his men from using force to make landowners join the Pilgrimage (rebellion). Aske also insisted that his men pay for all food they took. This supports the idea they were mainly angry at the king’s advisers.
ECONOMIC and SOCIAL causes - the loss of monasteries as social institutions and poor harvest and taxation.
The Reformation had affected over 100 small monasteries in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Many of these monasteries had worked with their local communities in both educational and medical aspects of day-to-day life and the projected loss of these were, at a local level, potentially very negative.
Poor harvests in 1535 and 1536 had led to food shortages and fear of starvation. Also, landowners were still enclosing common land, making farmworkers unemployed and taking away the common land on which they grazed their animals. Finally, taxation was another problem, because in 1534, Cromwell had started raising extra taxes in peacetime and the people of the north wondered why the King needed more money if the country was not at war.
