Pilgrimage of Grace

Pilgrimage of Grace
A banner bearing the Holy Wounds of Jesus Christ, which was carried at the Pilgrimage of Grace
Location	York, Yorkshire, England
Date	October 1536 – October 1537
Attack type	Uprising and subsequent suppression
Perpetrators	Robert Aske Thomas Darcy, Baron Darcy Robert Constable Sir Francis Bigod
No. of participants	40,000
Defender	Thomas Cromwell, Vicegerent in Spirituals to Henry VIII Henry VIII of England

The Pilgrimage of Grace was a popular rising in Yorkshire in October 1536 against Henry VIII's break with the Roman Catholic Church, the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the policies of the King's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, as well as other specific political, social and economic grievances. It has been termed "the most serious of all Tudor rebellions".

Although sometimes used to refer to other risings in northern England at the time, including the Lincolnshire Rising twelve days before the Pilgrimage of Grace, the term technically refers only to the uprising in Yorkshire. The traditional historical view portrays it as "a spontaneous mass protest of the conservative elements in the North of England angry with the religious upheavals instigated by King Henry VIII". Historians have noted that there were contributing economic issues.

The Lincolnshire Rising was a brief rising by Roman Catholics against the establishment of the Church of England by Henry VIII and the dissolution of the monasteries set in motion by Thomas Cromwell. Both planned to assert the nation's religious autonomy and the king's supremacy over religious matters. The dissolution of the monasteries resulted in much property being transferred to the Crown.

The rising began on 2 October 1536 at St James' Church, Louth, after evensong, shortly after the closure of Louth Park Abbey. The stated aim of the uprising was to protest the suppression of Catholic religious houses, not the rule of Henry VIII himself. It quickly gained support in Horncastle, Market Rasen, Caistor and other nearby towns.