Insurrection: Henry VIII, Thomas Cromwell and the Pilgrimage of Grace

Autumn 1536. Both Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn are dead. Henry VIII has married Jane Seymour, and still awaits his longed-for male heir. Disaffected conservatives in England may have seen an opportunity for a return to Rome and an end to religious experimentation. However, Thomas Cromwell has other ideas. In August, the Lutheran influenced Ten Articles of the Anglican Church was published and the dissolution of the monasteries had started. The obstinate monarch, enticed by monastic wealth, is determined not to change course. Fear and resentment has been unleashed in northern England in the largest, spontaneous uprising against a Tudor monarch. That rebellion is the Pilgrimage of Grace, in which 30,000 men have taken up arms against the king. This book reviews the evidence for that opposition and examines the abundant examples of religiously motivated dissent. It also highlights the rhetoric, reward and retribution used by the Crown to enforce its policy.