Northern unrest during the Pilgrimage of Grace

Northern unrest during the Pilgrimage of Grace is presented as a religious and political movement that briefly brings the Crown to the edge of a major confrontation. Its supporters gather under the language and symbols of pilgrimage, not rebellion, and their demands unite opposition to religious change with calls to restore lawful government. The movement’s strength compels the king’s representatives to negotiate; its apparent victory ends in a royal pardon and renewed public hope, but not a clearly documented settlement of every demand.

Political and Ecclesiastical Background

The crisis follows Henry VIII’s claim to authority over the Church in England. When Margaret Pole’s son Montague reports that the Church has surrendered to the king, he describes a change in which the Pope is to be disregarded in England and the king will rule the Church himself. Thomas More, who had served as Lord Chancellor, has resigned and returned home. Margaret’s account presents the change not as a narrow dispute over office, but as an expansion of royal control over the Church’s wealth, laws, and courts.

The succession oath makes the conflict personal as well as institutional. At Westminster Palace in 1534, Thomas Cromwell administers the oath to the assembled nobility. The Pope has publicly judged the marriage of Katherine of Aragon and Henry VIII valid, while Henry’s government asserts the opposite and requires political assent to its own settlement. Margaret recalls that Thomas More refused to sign the oath as written, although he offered to accept a revised version. Henry had promised More that he would not force him to choose on this matter, but, in Margaret’s telling, broke that promise. Such clashes over who could declare a marriage valid, command the Church, and define succession formed the background against which opposition could gather.

Rumor and religious expectation also shape the atmosphere. Margaret recounts reports of unusual comets and of a red globe seen above a Carthusian church; a monk interpreted the sight as a sign that the king’s anger would fall on those preserving a prophecy. These accounts do not establish the cause of the northern rising, but they show how religious fear and talk of coming conflict circulated alongside political news.

From Rumor to Organized Pilgrimage

By early October, reports of uprisings, including in the South, keep Margaret in London. An encounter with a man who recognizes her as a friend of the old faith gives her a first account of the movement’s chosen identity: it is called the Pilgrimage of Grace, and its adherents speak of passing through a pilgrimage gate. They march under the Five Wounds of Christ, a sacred emblem that presents their cause as religious observance rather than an armed challenge to the king.

The movement’s rapid growth gives that language considerable force. Sir Thomas Percy has either been captured by the pilgrims or joined them; the reports Margaret receives cannot establish which. Under Robert Aske’s leadership, the pilgrims enter York in October without a shot being fired in their defense: the city gates are opened to them. The force is said to number twenty thousand, a scale Margaret’s account compares with the army that established Henry VII’s rule at Bosworth. The comparison emphasizes the potential national reach of the rising, even as its participants claim a religious purpose.

The pilgrims’ first actions in York underline that purpose. They restore two Benedictine houses, Holy Trinity and the nunnery of St. Clement. When bells ring at Holy Trinity, townspeople rejoice and go to hear Mass. The restoration of religious houses thus becomes a public demonstration of what the movement opposes and what it hopes to recover: institutions and worship associated with the old faith.

Lords, Badges, and the Threat of Battle

The rising places members of Margaret’s family in an exposed position. Montague tells her that he has been ordered to muster tenants and prepare to march north to suppress the pilgrimage; Geoffrey Pole is also expected to raise a force. Margaret has been given a badge of the Five Wounds and the White Rose of York by Lord Thomas Darcy, and she warns Montague that he cannot fire on the pilgrims. Her badge joins religious allegiance to Yorkist identity, making a private token of loyalty part of the larger political crisis.

News from Pontefract sharpens the dilemma. Lord Thomas Darcy has surrendered his castle to the pilgrims, and those under his command in both the castle and town have sworn the pilgrim oath. The Archbishop of York is with them. Darcy distributes the Five Wounds badges he had at the castle, strengthening the movement’s claim to act under a sacred banner. In Margaret’s account, that banner makes it harder for Christian soldiers to regard the pilgrims as ordinary enemies.

Montague’s proposed response reflects the possibility that the movement might spread beyond the North. He tells Margaret to go to the country, where she could provide leadership, money, and supplies if the South rose in support. He and Geoffrey will go north with their force and join the pilgrims when the time is right; he also intends to send for Reginald Pole. This is a plan, not a reported outcome: the account records the expectation of wider support without establishing that Margaret organized a southern rising or that Reginald returned at the head of an army.

Negotiation and the Royal Pardon

The scale of the northern force makes the prospect of a royal victory uncertain. At Doncaster, the lords, gentry, and commons assemble in battle order, while Margaret’s sons wait with the king’s side but are prepared to change allegiance. The pilgrims bring their demands to Thomas Howard. Margaret reports that they number more than thirty thousand and are led by Yorkshire gentlemen and lords; the king’s army is hungry, poorly supplied, and short of money. The pilgrims agree to parley, avoiding a battle that, in her account, could have destroyed the royal force.

Their demands combine religious restoration with political reform. They call for the faith of their fathers and the law to be restored, for the king’s noble advisers to return, and for Thomas Cromwell, Richard Riche, and the bishops they regard as heretical to be banished. Margaret says that even men serving in the king’s army, including Thomas Howard, agree with much of this program. Thomas Howard is to carry the pilgrims’ request for a general pardon and an agreement to restore the old ways to the king. The account establishes the request and the subsequent pardon, but does not show that every demand was accepted.

Pardon and Public Hope

After the king consents, Thomas Howard carries the royal pardon north through freezing weather. At Doncaster, the Lancaster herald presents it to the assembled northerners. Robert Aske then tells the pilgrims that they have won a great victory, asks to be released from command, removes his Five Wounds badge, and promises that they will wear no badge but the king’s. The movement’s conclusion is therefore marked by a turn from a distinctive religious emblem to royal allegiance. Margaret follows suit, putting Darcy’s badge away in an old chest; she believes the pilgrimage is over and that her sons will return home.

London responds with public rejoicing. Church bells ring at Christmas, and Margaret understands the celebrations as an expression of relief that the country and Church have been saved. During the court’s progress from Westminster to Greenwich, crowds acclaim Henry VIII, his queen, and especially Princess Mary Tudor. Although Mary has been demoted and is no longer officially a princess, the people cheer her as one. She rides a white horse beneath her standard, whose Tudor rose appears almost white because its red center is small, and also flies her mother’s pomegranate flag. The scene makes popular recognition visible where formal authority has denied it: the crowd’s welcome gives Margaret reason to hope that Mary’s status, like the old religious order, may yet be restored. That hope closes the episode, but remains a hope rather than a confirmed political result.