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
  • Subsidy taxes on sheep
• 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