Pilgrimage of Grace causes
Political causes
- Rebels wanted Princess Mary legitimised and restored to the line of succession because Henry had divorced Catherine of Aragon
- The marriage had been annulment - which states that the marriage had never existed in the first place
- Mary had been baptised (illegitimised) and could no longer be part of the line of succession due to this marriage
- Inspired by disaffected pro-Araganese supporters
- Pro-Araganese wanted wanted to regain lost status in the cause
- The main two Aragansese nobles are Darcy and Hussey
- Araganese factions one is known as the conservative faction - stood for traditional role of monarchy and church and disliked the sense of any change
- Wanted to a parliament to be held at York or Nottingham - North of the Trent
- This is because the North didn’t feel they had a strong political voice
- Evil Councillors
- Rebels identifying crown servants and criticising advice they are giving to the monarch
- Rebels attack and challenge the advisors but loyal to the monarch - it is a loyal rebellion
- Crown servants were not from traditional wealthy families and the older nobles’ power was transferred to ‘men of low birth’
Religious Causes
- 10 of the 24 demands were religious
- Closure of the monasteries in the North of England
- Dissolution in the Northern England (mainly in Lincolnshire) - the people in the North felt singled out - they were annoyed
- Dr Ligh was sent up to Lincolnshire was sent to dissolve the smaller monasteries
- People were worried in the dissolution of the monasteries meant they would lose the local members of the clergy meaning they will lose their instruction on the path to heaven
- They wanted the pope to be restores as the head of the Church of England instead of the monarchy
- In the North they had very strong traditional catholic views and listen to the pope and not the monarch - defending papal authority
- papal authority is where the pope has more power of the church rather than the monarchy
- Henry had more control of the church and the rebels wanted to reverse that power back to the pope
- There was resentment of tithes and the poor quality of many priests - in Cumberland and the region to the West of Pennies
- Reinstate smaller religious houses
Social Causes
- Nobility kept increasing rent which made it unpayable
- The tenants that were unable to pay were evicted
- Nobility were raising rent above the entry fine (Rat Renting) then subletting it (renting it again) in order to make more profit
- This increased the rent for mainly peasants - making their lives more difficult
- Dissolution in the North
- The poor depended on them for help, they were hospitals for the poor and they provided food and shelter
- Most people lost their basic education, meaning they were losing their path to heaven as they would need to be able to read the bible
- Most monasteries spent 5% of their income on providing help for the poor, and this was a huge amount, and the dissolution of monasteries hugely affected the poor
- Rioting over illegal enclosures (mountains, forests, and parks)
- Nobles were building fences around land to stop the commons from using it
- Grievances about enclosures happened in two places - one in Giggleswick (Yorkshire) and Kendal (Lancashire)
Economic Causes
- Rebels did not want to have to pay taxes
- Government taxation
- Inflation was hitting the North
- Particularly in the cost of land to rent
- 2 in 4 harvests failed so there was an inflation in food
- The inflation results in considerable hardship for the poor and for those dependent on charitable giving as little as 3% of monastic wealth went towards the poor
- Tenths and Fifteenths were being difficult to pay