Provided by the author(s) and NUI Galway in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite the published version when available. Title The Pilgrimage of Grace: Rhetoric, Reward and Retribution Author(s) Loughlin, Susan Mary Publication Date 2013-05-12 Item record http://hdl.handle.net/10379/4400 Downloaded 2021-09-28T03:13:33Z Some rights reserved. For more information, please see the item record link above. The Pilgrimage of Grace: Rhetoric, Reward and Retribution By Susan Loughlin Galway Doctoral Research Fellow A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisors: Professor Steven Ellis and Dr Alison Forrestal Department of History School of Humanities National University of Ireland, Galway May 2013 The Pilgrimage of Grace: Rhetoric, Reward and Retribution Table of Contents i. Abstract ii. Foreword iii. Acknowledgments iv. List of Abbreviations Introduction p.1 Chapter One: Background: Government and Religion in 1536 p.19 Chapter Two: The Pilgrimage of Grace: A Holy Crusade? p.33 Chapter Three: Resumption of Revolts and Royal Retribution p.68 Chapter Four: Rehabilitated Rebels and Reward p.99 Chapter Five: Loyalty and Patronage p.130 Chapter Six: Perceptions and the Pilgrimage: The Crown’s Response p.172 Chapter Seven: The Rhetoric of Resistance and Religiosity p.199 Conclusion p.231 Appendices p.248 Bibliography p.256 Abstract Abstract The Henrician phase of the English Reformation should, arguably, be called an experiment. A reformation pre-supposes that there was a need or desire for reform and the evidence of a genuine, widespread theological conviction would need to be present. The label ‘Henrician religious experiment’ or the description ‘Henrician religious policy’ appear to be more fitting. The Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, the largest uprising of the Tudor period, forms the centrepiece for this thesis as a case study for the investigation of this hypothesis. This thesis will review the evidence for opposition to the Crown’s religious changes and highlight the propaganda, patronage and retribution used in the enforcement of the government’s policy. The Pilgrimage of Grace is useful in illuminating the wider themes under consideration. Although the motivation of the participants has been the subject of debate among historians, there is an abundance of evidence to support the contention that the rebellion was primarily motivated by religious concerns. The evidence to support the religiosity of the rising will be presented and discussed here. The thesis will also examine the official government rhetoric and propaganda as well as identifying the patronage and reward the regime used as a method of control. The thesis will endeavour to gauge the impact the Henrician religious innovations had upon the North of England in the aftermath of the rebellion. Foreword Foreword The English Reformation has been the subject of much study and its paradigm (until relatively recently) was arguably shaped by present- centred history and a ‘national agenda’. The Reformation was regarded as necessary in the process of state building, forging a national identity and freeing the people from foreign tyranny and Papal superstition. This consensus paradigm was challenged by what became known as the ‘revisionist’ school. The project seeks to harness the work of scholars such as Christopher Haigh and Eamon Duffy in seeking to illustrate that the Reformation was not an uncontested event. The Pilgrimage of Grace, a massive, spontaneous uprising against Henry VIII’s policies, in particular his religious policies, involved some 30,000 men and illustrates that the Henrician Reformation was far from a welcome development, especially in the North of England. Essentially, this thesis seeks to build upon the revisionist paradigm and to explore ways in which compliance with the Crown’s policies was achieved - namely rhetoric, reward and retribution. Elton examined the ‘policy and police’ of the Reformation and this thesis aims to build upon this and challenge some of the conclusions; it is at least worth considering the possibility that Thomas Cromwell operated a spy network and used reward (patronage) as a weapon in securing compliance. By building upon previous scholarship and systematically examining the evidence of dissent and the government’s methods from 1536, the thesis will seek to demonstrate that the Crown’s policy was based upon a three-pronged attack – propaganda, patronage and punishment. It will also seek to understand the intriguing question as to how some rebels paid the ultimate price for participation in the 1536 risings; whilst others were rehabilitated and went on to prosper in the Foreword aftermath. Why was this? What impact did the Pilgrimage have upon Northern society and religiosity in the period between 1536 and the next major rising in the North in 1569? Acknowledgments Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the National University of Ireland, Galway and in particular, the College of Arts for endowing me with a Fellowship. I would like to thank my Supervisor, Professor Steven Ellis, for his encouragement, guidance and support and for keeping faith in me, when I had doubts in my ability to complete this work. Dr. Alison Forrestal kindly read the previous drafts and pointed out areas which left room for improvement and discussed constructive ways of moving the project forward. I would like to acknowledge the assistance given to me by the staff of The National Archives, Kew, the British Library, London and the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York, in particular, Victoria Hoyle. In addition, I am grateful for the help of the Special Collections staff in NUIG. I embarked upon this journey with a number of my peers and they helped to sustain me throughout the arduous process – I’d like to think it was reciprocal! A special mention to Dr. Mark Phelan, Dr. Maura Stewart, Dr. Siobhan O’Gorman, Dr. Dermot Burns and Katherine O’Driscoll. I would also like to thank my friends in Galway who were both a source of calm and distraction during this process – Louise Rooney, Mairead Murphy and Lynsey Potter. I would like to express my love and thanks to Brendan, Mairead, Ciara, Patrick and Sean Loughlin. I also wish to acknowledge the friendship, loyalty and encouragement of Rosaleen Ivers, Liza O’Malley and Fiona Bass. I wish to recognize the contribution of my grandparents in igniting my curiosity and fostering my love of learning – Edward & Una Loughlin and Martin & Bridget Duffy. Finally, my enduring and heartfelt love and appreciation to my parents, John and Kathleen Loughlin, without whom none of this would have been possible. In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Galway, 19 April 2013. List of Abbreviations BL - British Library, London Cotton Calig: Cotton Caligula Cotton Cleo: Cotton Cleopatra Cotton Vesp: Cotton Vespasian CSP, Sp. - Calendar of Letters, Despatches and State Papers Relating to the Negotiations Between England and Spain, Preserved in the Archives of Simancas and Elsewhere, Edited by Pacual De Gayangos, Tanner Ritchie, Ontario. HJ – The Historical Journal JBS – The Journal of British Studies L&P - Letters & Papers, Foreign and Domestic of the Reign of Henry VIII, Vols X – XXI, Arranged & catalogued by Gairdner & Brodie, H.M Stationery Office, London, 1905. PP – Past and Present TNA - The National Archives, Kew TNA, SP 1: State Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII: General TNA, SP 6: State Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII: Theological Tracts. TNA, SP 7: State Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII: Wriothesley Papers, 1536-1540 TNA, SP 15: State Papers Domestic, Edward VI - James I: Addenda Stat Realm - The Statues of the Realm, Volume III, (ed.) A. Luder, London, (1810-28). Introduction The Pilgrimage of Grace: Rhetoric, Reward and Retribution THESIS INTRODUCTION ‘Of all the enigmas in the English Reformation, the motivations and intentions of King Henry VIII remain some of the most difficult to elucidate’.1 This is a view echoed by Felicity Heal when she stated that making sense of Henrician religious policy was a ‘trying business’.2 Heal went on to argue that Henry’s own erratic and eclectic understanding of his role as Supreme Head was ‘underpinned not by a coherent theology but by little more than a “ragbag of emotional preferences”’.3 It is perhaps, for these reasons that the study of the English Reformation remains an appealing and fascinating task. As Susan Wabuda has stated, the challenges for understanding what the Reformation presents are among the most rewarding in all fields of scholarship.4 In the same year, Alec Ryrie gave as his raison d’être for a study of The Gospel and Henry VIII that the ‘golden age of the local study of the English Reformation’ was drawing to a close. Ryrie therefore justified his attempt at a national overview as ‘traipsing once again through the crowded field of Tudor high politics...despite the fact that it might appear to be pointlessly repetitive’.5 The Reformation in England is indeed a fascinating subject to explore and the aim of this thesis is to focus on one particular event, the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, and use it as a case study to highlight and discuss specific themes – religiosity, rebellion and reward.6 The Pilgrimage was a huge 1 Lucy Wooding, Rethinking Catholicism in Reformation England, Oxford, 2000, p.50. 2 Felicity Heal, The Reformation in Britain and Ireland, Oxford, 2003, p.133. 3 Ibid – Heal cites Diarmuid MacCulloch, Reign of Henry VII, p.178. 4 Susan Wabuda, ‘The Reformation Revised: The English Reformation Beyond Revisionism’, History Compass 1, 2003, p.3. 5 Alec Ryrie, The Gospel and Henry VIII: Evangelicals in the Early English Reformation’, Cambridge, 2003, p.7. 6 As Peter Marshall has stated, the study of the Reformation is often a personal engagement or debate about the meaning of religion – see Peter Marshall, ‘(Re)defining the English Reformation.