Truce in the Pilgrimage of Grace followed by royal suppression

The truce in the Pilgrimage of Grace turns a royal promise of reconciliation into the prelude to punishment. The king’s pardon briefly persuades the northern pilgrims that their demands may be heard and their communities restored; the Crown soon uses the unrest that follows to justify arrests, executions, and the renewed closure of religious houses. In Margaret Pole’s account, the reversal is marked by emblems of trust—the pilgrims’ badge, a royal chain, and a small brooch—that outlast the promises they were meant to signify.

The struggle over authority

The conflict unfolds amid a larger contest over who may define religious and political legitimacy in England. When the Church surrendered to Henry VIII, Margaret’s son Montague reported that the king would rule the Church himself and that the Pope’s authority in England was to be disregarded. Thomas More resigned as Lord Chancellor. The change was not simply administrative: it placed the king above the Church’s courts and laws, while leaving those who believed the Pope still had authority to decide whether obedience to the king was lawful.

The dispute over Katherine of Aragon’s marriage made that division concrete. The Pope had publicly ruled the marriage valid, while Henry VIII declared Katherine no longer his wife and asserted the status of his new queen and her daughter. At the 1534 oath of succession, Thomas Cromwell required the nobility to swear to the king’s settlement. Margaret understood that the oath demanded assent to a royal account of marriage and succession that conflicted with the Pope’s ruling. Thomas More would not sign the oath as written, although he was willing to accept a revised version; Henry had promised not to test his friend on the matter, then broke that promise. This background gives the later pardon its political weight: the contest is not only over order in the North, but also over whether the king’s word and authority can replace older religious obligations.

The pardon and the promise of peace

After resistance in the North, Henry VIII consents to a pardon. Thomas Howard carries it through freezing weather and waits outside Doncaster while a herald offers it to thousands of assembled northerners. Robert Aske, their leader, tells the pilgrims that they have won a great victory and asks to be released from his command. When they agree, he removes the badge of the Five Wounds and promises that they will wear no badge but the king’s. His gesture presents the truce as a transfer of allegiance, not a continuation of revolt.

Margaret keeps a different emblem. She takes the badge Thomas Darcy had given her from her pocket, kisses it, and puts it away in an old chest. She believes she no longer needs it as a secret reminder of her loyalty: the pilgrimage is over, the pilgrims have prevailed, and her sons may come home. London celebrates the news with church bells. As the court travels from Westminster to Greenwich, Margaret’s household watches, and her grandchildren cling to her as they cross the frozen river. The domestic scene gives the political settlement an intimate promise of safety and reunion.

That confidence is reinforced by reports that the king has been pressed to reach an agreement with the pilgrims. Margaret hears that the demands include the Church’s return to Rome, the restoration of older noble advisers, and a free Parliament. Robert Aske is said to have received a golden chain from the king and an offer of a place on the Privy Council. Margaret imagines him carrying assurances north that the queen will be crowned in York, the abbeys restored, and the promised Parliament held. In this interval, royal pardon and royal favor seem capable of making peace real.

The truce unravels

Reports of renewed arms begin to undermine the settlement. Thomas Howard arrests several men accused of wrongdoing and sends their names to Thomas Cromwell. The northern lords worry that the North is becoming unruly, but Aske insists that the pilgrims are not rebelling: he carries the king’s pardon and wears the king’s scarlet satin jacket. He argues that isolated offenders do not invalidate the peace or the pardon. Yet Sir Thomas Percy and Sir Ingram Percy, who had marched under the Five Wounds banner, are arrested as soon as they arrive at court and sent to the Tower of London.

Margaret’s son Geoffrey dismisses the arrests, saying the Percys were rebels who had used the pilgrims as cover. Margaret does not challenge him. At first, the evidence seems to support his confidence: abbeys reopen, pilgrims disperse after swearing loyalty, and religious men and women return to their houses. Sacred objects emerge from hiding places; carvings are recovered from woodpiles, crucifixes from drainage ditches, and vestments from concealed wardrobes. Monks return to their cells, repair windows and roofs, and reopen doors. Margaret asks Prior Richard to return to Bisham. When her grandson Harry asks whether Reginald will come home, she answers that she thinks he will.

The pardon, however, proves no reliable protection. In February, nine people are charged with treason in York and sentenced to death. A desperate force from Carlisle fights the northern lords and is defeated; the account reports hundreds killed and the survivors taken prisoner. London celebrates the defeat, while Thomas Cromwell promises Sir Christopher Dacre an earldom for his service. What Margaret had understood as a settlement now appears to be a fragile pause during which royal authority can identify and isolate opponents.

Royal suppression

Thomas Howard declares martial law in the North, setting himself above the ordinary local authorities. He conducts rapid hearings and imposes death sentences, while his men question communities about participation in the pilgrimage, the ringing of church bells, and prayers for the Church’s return. The king orders Howard to target monasteries that had resisted, demanding that the monks and canons be made an example. He also orders the families of executed rebels to be found and punished if they bury their relatives in consecrated ground. The policy reaches beyond armed participants: it seeks to punish mourning and to make the bodies of the dead part of the warning.

A messenger later brings Margaret a small pansy brooch, the one she had given Thomas Darcy. The message wishes her luck and says better times will come. Darcy had not visited because he believed the king’s promise of pardon had secured a victory and that he was protected. The recovered brooch makes that mistaken confidence personal: an object once exchanged between people is returned as evidence of how completely the meaning of pardon has changed.

The trials extend the purge from common people to lords, gentry, clergy, and women. Among those brought before juries are eight men and one woman, including two distant kinsmen of Margaret and Robert Aske. Aske is held in the Tower of London without money, fresh clothes, or adequate food. He has a full pardon for leading the Pilgrimage of Grace and, after returning north, has tried to persuade others to accept it and trust the king. Cromwell reframes Aske’s assurances that a Parliament would meet and monasteries would be restored as evidence of treason. The government thus turns the hopes that had helped secure the truce into grounds for prosecution.

Aske is taken from the Tower to trial and returned to prison, then carried north to York and publicly executed at Clifford’s Tower, in view of those who had heard him promise that the pilgrims were pardoned. His former position as a royal guest, honored with the king’s chain, stands in stark contrast to his end as a condemned leader. Margaret and other lords appeal to Cromwell for mercy for the northerners; he refuses. The truce has not reconciled the king with the pilgrims. It has separated those who trusted the pardon from the power that now defines their trust as disloyalty.