A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



bequeath the crown was rightly regarded as a dangerous innovation. Orthodox Catholics, who 

 were very numerous in the north, saw with horror men whom they regarded as heretics in favour 

 at Court and promoted to bishoprics. The final blow was the suppression of the less wealthy 

 monasteries. The wild accusations of immorality and wickedness brought against these establish- 

 ments by their suppressors went for little amongst the populace.*' The abbeys were the bankers of 

 the gentry, the great employers of labour and relievers of distress, and the entertainers of the 

 traveller. The people rightly foresaw that the greater houses would soon follow the lesser, and a 

 plentiful crop of rumours arose that any church less than five miles from another was to be pulled 

 down, that all church plate was to be seized and only pewter chalices used, that fees were to be 

 extorted for baptisms, weddings, and funerals.** In the first week of October 1536 the smouldering 

 fires of discontent blazed out into rebellion in Lincolnshire. The people rose and forced the gentry 

 to join with them in demanding the restoration of the religious houses, the repeal of the Statute of 

 Uses, the removal and punishment of the upstart Cromwell, Lord Privy Seal, whom they saw to be 

 the chief agent in all the hated changes and supposed to be their originator, and the reform of other 

 abuses. The insurgents had no leader, and with good reason distrusted most of the gentry whom 

 they had put at their head. Within a fortnight the whole rising had collapsed. Amongst the 

 gentry whom the commons had seized was Robert Aske, a member of an old and well-connected 

 family in Yorkshire, practising as a lawyer at Westminster. He happened to be near Sawcliffe*' 

 when the Lincolnshire rising broke out, and as his sympathies were evidently well known to be 

 with them, the insurgents appointed him one of their captains; but he did not play any part in this 

 rising, as by his endeavours to unite the commons and the gentry he became suspected by both. 

 Upon the collapse of the rising he returned to Yorkshire, where he had already tried to keep the 

 people quiet by instructing the men of Marshland to wait for those of Howdenshire, and the men of 

 Howdenshire to wait for those of Marshland, and both to wait for orders from himself. For a few 

 days he was successful, but meanwhile the commons had risen in the north of the county, round 

 Dent, Sedbergh, and Wensleydale.*' About the same time, on Sunday 8 October, a proclamation 

 in Aske's name, but apparently not written by him,*' reached Beverley ; Roger Kitchen at once 

 rang the town bell, and Richard Endyke proclaimed in the market-place that all should take the oath 

 to the commons on pain of death. Next day the people assembled in arms on Westwood Green, 

 and, by persuasion of an Observant Friar, chose William Stapleton as their captain, with his nephew, 

 Brian Stapleton, Richard Wharton, and the bailiff of Beverley as petty captains." Beacons were 

 fired and recruits flocked in from all sides, and when Aske reached Howdenshire on Thursday, 

 12 October, the church bells were jangling an alarm and the whole district was up in arms. Aske 

 at once took command and ordered a muster at Weighton, and next day advanced with part of his 

 forces towards York, the rest going with Stapleton to Hull. Meanwhile Lord Darcy had hastily 

 occupied Pontefract Castle for the king, and had been joined there by Archbishop Lee, Archdeacon 

 Magnus, and other loyalists. The castle, however, was in bad repair and not furnished with guns 

 or ammunition, the garrison was unreliable, and the townspeople would not supply provisions.*' The 

 Earl of Shrewsbury and the Duke of Norfolk were hastening towards Doncaster; '" but York had 

 declared for the insurgents on the 1 6th," and so rapid were their successes that Sir Thomas Percy 

 of Seamer, who had been sent for by Aske to help in taking York and had then been counter- 

 manded to Hull, was stopped with the information that Hull had fallen, and was ordered to 

 Pontefract, where he arrived only to find that the castle had surrendered on 20 October.'* Lord 

 Darcy, indeed, had not been in a position to offer any long resistance, and it is clear that he was not 

 sorry to be compelled to join the insurgents, as he and Sir Robert Constable at once took up the 

 position of leaders of the commons with Aske. Aske had displayed such skill and energy that he 

 was now acclaimed chief captain, though he wished some person of higher position to take the post." 

 Not only did he bring his opponents to terms quickly, but he also kept strict discipline in his host, 

 and when his men entered York there was no plundering, and all that was taken was paid for. At 

 Hull, also, discipline was enforced by Sir William Stapleton, who prevented his men from setting 

 fire to the shipping, and treated a man found guilty of robbery to so salutary a ducking in the river 

 that no more cases of theft occurred.^ 



The old Earl of Northumberland, lying ill at Wressell Castle, refused to have anything to say 



"L. and P. Hen. VIII, :s.n (i), 901. "Ibid, xi, 768. 



"Ibid, xii (i), 6 ; this account of the rising given by Aske himself, together with his later deposition; 

 when arrested (ibid, goi, 946, 1,175), ^°<i ^^^ depositions of William Stapleton (ibid. 392), are the best 

 authorities for the general course of events during the Pilgrimage of Grace. 



" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xi, 563-4, 841. " Ibid, xii (i), 6. 



"Ibid. 392. «Ibid. 1022. 



"Ibid, xi, 77 1-6. "Ibid, xii (i), 1018. 



"Ibid. 393. "Ibid. 6, 946. 



"Ibid. 392. 



412 



