Pilgrimage of Grace

The Pilgrimage of Grace of 1536-7 was generally agreed to have been the greatest and most dangerous of the Tudor rebellions. For a short time King Henry VIII lost control of the whole of the north of England, and civil war seemed a likely prospect. The movement broke out on 13 October, 1536, immediately following the failure of the Lincolnshire Rising. A London barrister of good Yorkshire family, Robert Aske, put himself at the head of nine …

…will discuss the nature of the Pilgrimage of Grace. Before we actually discuss the nature of the movement, we first need to analyze the cause of the Pilgrimage of Grace. First would be the economic matter. The economy in the sixteenth century was in great poverty. This poverty was exacerbated by more wide-ranging events. Before 1530 there was a considerable price inflation, and the pressure which this put on landlords were certainly transmitted to the tenants.