Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > The Pilgrimage of Grace: The Rebellion That Shook Henry VIII's Throne > Status Update

‘As soon as Norfolk was ready for the spectacle, Aske climbed to the gallows on top of the tower, asked for forgiveness again ‘and after orisons made on the ladder, commended his soul to God’. When they had finished butchering his body, it was hung there in chains; and John Aske, summoned with others of the Yorkshire gentry to be present, was one of those who watched all the things they did to his youngest brother.‘

‘Dacre had been alerted by the Duke of Norfolk, who was at Fountains Abbey when he heard about the battle at Kirkby Stephen bridge and the failure of Sir Thomas. Clifford having proved himself useless, Norfolk sent an urgent despatch to Dacre, asking him to be ready for an attack on Carlisle and to conduct at least a holding operation there until the Duke could reach him with reinforcements’

‘The Duke was charged with reaching Doncaster by Candlemas and there he would be met by the gentry who were most likely to serve his purposes. He would administer a new oath to them, the local commons would receive it next, and this swearing of obedience would be enacted wherever else in the North Thomas Howard went. From Doncaster he was to ride on to Pontefract, where more gentlemen would be waiting‘

‘When Wednesday’s deliberations came to an end, Aske and his companions returned to their Franciscan retreat, to report progress to the rest of the 300 stationed on the island. Being informed by the negotiators that they would thereby gain the free parson, the assurance of a new Parliament and the holding operation on the monasteries, these agreed to the deal that had been struck with the Duke of Norfolk’

‘The moment he set eyes on Bowed and Ellerker, the monarch flew into one of his famous tempers, which continued for some time until Howard and other royal counsellors managed to calm him down... Had he been aware how very insecure his throne really was that night in Windsor, he might seriously have considered making some concessions to the Pilgrims.‘

‘The openly agreed outcome of the two parley was that Howard and the Earl of Shrewsbury’s son, Francis, Lord Talbot, should go south without delay, accompanied by Robert Bowes and Sir Ralph Ellerker representing the Pilgrims, to present the petition and further arguments to the King himself. They would then return with the royal response to their overtures. Meanwhile, there would be a truce’

‘His father had paid the royal armies eightpence a day but Henry had reduced this to sixpence, which was tuppence less than the Pilgrims were given out of their own infinitely slimmer treasury; and, though he was begged by Howard and others to restore the old eightpence, Henry wouldn’t hear of it. It was not as though this was pocket money... they were expected to pay for their own food when campaigning’

‘But no symbol was more potent or more evocative than the religious insignia of the Five Wounds of Christ, which depicted a bleeding heart (sometimes a Host) above a chalice, both being surrounded at the corners of the illustration by the pierced hands and feet. This derived from a cult that had developed across Europe over 200 years or so’

‘The siege, in fact, lasted no more than five days and the town surrendered on 19 October. The balance swung in favour of the rebels because Hull started to run out of provisions and because there was a genuine fear that the place might be burned down. Another important factor was that Sir Ralph Ellerker decided to negotiate‘

‘Eventually, there must have been at least 40,000 men under arms and hostile to the government across the North of England; maybe as many as 50,000. Overwhelmingly, they were commoners, who eventually managed to attract to their cause, by one means and another, six members of the nobility, twenty knights and thirty-five lesser gentlemen’