Pilgrimage of Grace: Pontefract Parley and Articles, October 1536
History & Significance
The Pilgrimage of Grace was an English Catholic popular revolt beginning in Yorkshire in October 1536 before spreading to other parts of Northern England, including Cumberland, Northumberland, Durham and north Lancashire. The protests occurred under the leadership of Robert Aske. The "most serious of all Tudor period rebellions", the Pilgrimage was a revolt against King Henry VIII's break with the Catholic Church, the dissolution of the lesser monasteries, and the policies of the King's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, as well as other specific political, social, and economic grievances.
Following the suppression of the short-lived Lincolnshire Rising of 1536, the traditional historical view portrays the Pilgrimage as "a spontaneous mass protest of the conservative elements in the North of England angry with the religious upheavals instigated by King Henry VIII". Historians have observed that there were contributing economic factors.
During the Tudor era there was a general increase in the population across England, concentrated in the areas around Yorkshire. This led to a series of enclosures of once common lands. The increased competition for resources, lack of access to once common land, and a greater pool of available labour led to an increase in the price of goods and a lack of employment, resulting in unrest amongst the population.
In 1535, the year preceding the revolt, bad harvests led to a series of grain riots in Craven in June 1535 and Somerset in April 1536 where grain prices were 82% higher than those in 1534.
The Lincolnshire Rising was a brief rising against the separation of the Church of England from papal authority by Henry VIII and the dissolution of the monasteries set in motion by Thomas Cromwell. Both planned to assert the nation's religious autonomy and the king's supremacy over religious matters. The dissolution of the monasteries resulted in much property being transferred to the Crown.
The royal commissioners seized not only land, but the church plate, jewels, gold crosses, and bells. Silver chalices were replaced by ones made of tin. In some instances these items had been donated by local families in thanksgiving or in memory of a family member. There was also resistance to the recently passed Statute of Uses, which sought to recover royal fees based on land tenure.
On 30 September 1536, Dr. John Raynes, Chancellor of the Diocese of Lincoln, and one of Cromwell's commissioners, was addressing the assembled clergy in Bolingbroke, informing them of the new regulations and taxes affecting them. One of his clerks further inflamed matters regarding new requirements for the academic standards of the clergy saying "Look to your books, or there will be consequences", which may have worried some of the less educated attendees. Word of his discourse and rumours of confiscation spread rapidly throughout Lindsey and soon reached Louth and Horncastle.
The ground they fought on
The site of Pilgrimage of Grace: Pontefract Parley and Articles, October 1536 lies on Pennine Upper Coal Measures Formation, bedrock that formed in the Westphalian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete.
Aske had written to the lords inside the castle on 19 October, rebuking them for tolerating heresy and threatening an assault. Darcy offered to yield the next day, but Aske pressed him and by eight o'clock on the morning of 20 October the castle had fallen. Darcy protested that he could not hold out, claiming he had not enough gunpowder to fill a walnut shell and no firewood to cook for his men. Whatever the truth of it, the old baron shared much of the pilgrims' cause, and the gates were opened rather than defended.
Robert Aske's pilgrim host numbered tens of thousands, estimated at perhaps 30,000 to 40,000; Pontefract Castle was held by Lord Darcy with a garrison of about 300.
- None recorded at Pontefract; the castle surrendered without a fight.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything a full report reveals about Pilgrimage of Grace: Pontefract Parley and Articles, October 1536
This page covers Pilgrimage of Grace: Pontefract Parley and Articles, October 1536. A full Aubrey report for the area pulls together this battle alongside scheduled monuments and everything else the record holds within a few miles:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Scheduled Monuments near Pilgrimage of Grace: Pontefract Parley and Articles, October 1536
Battles near Pilgrimage of Grace: Pontefract Parley and Articles, October 1536
Explore the landscape around this battlefield
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in the UK — drawing on Domesday records, scheduled monuments, Victorian OS maps, geological data and archaeological archives to tell the full story of a place.
- Pilgrimage of Grace · Wikipedia
- The Surrender of Pontefract Castle, 20 October 1536 · The Tudor Society