'The main cause of rebellion in the years 1536 to 1558 was religious disagreements' Assess the validity of this view (25 marks)

Snapshot of part of the answer:

The Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 was caused primarily due to religious disagreement, Henry VIII’s vigorous religious changes were the main figurehead of the rebel’s grievances, fundamentally due to Robert Aske’s involvement in the rebellion. Due to the government pushing too quickly for fundamental religious change that most ordinary people did not sympathise with or understand. The primary religious grievance was the dissolution of the monasteries which took place from 1535-1540, the dissolution began with the dissolvement of smaller monasteries followed by the largest monasteries. Therefore by 1536 the work on resolving smaller monasteries had begun, the reformation affected over 100 monasteries in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire alone. Monasteries were a fundamental pillar of the church which provided people with charitable and educational functions, and so were a key source of learning in Tudor society, therefore the monasteries facilities and services were deemed useful by the majority of society. The loss of services that these monasteries provided was coupled with the fear that the North would be impoverished by monastic land falling into the hands of southerners and magnates, meaning the North would have lost its monasteries and land to the South. The collective fears over the dissolution of the monasteries went hand in hand with fear for parish churches and traditional church practices; due to the 1536 injunctions drawn up by Cromwell which were seen as attacking traditional religious practices, which had been central to society throughout the Tudor reign. For example, local saints and pilgrimages had been discouraged, which had previously been central to core church belief and were seen as a way to strengthen your faith. The rebels were supported by their key demands; the Pontefract Articles which expressed a range of religious grievances, reflecting both concerns of the common people and the clergy. There were also rumours that angered the rebels further for example a key rumour was that; church plate and jewels which had been bequeathed by parishioners would be confiscated and replaced with tin replicas thus destroying church wealth and the symbolic meaning of such ornaments. Therefore, the Pilgrimage of Grace was caused primarily by religious disagreement, mainly due to the anger over the dissolution of the monasteries.

Despite there being much religious motive behind the Pilgrimage of Grace, other secular motives also contributed to the rebellion. The ordinary rebels were more motivated by economic grievances such as resentment of taxation, essentially due to rent increases which angered many commoners and the increase of subsidies. In addition to this the crown’s attempts to impose the Duke of Suffolk upon Lincolnshire as a magnate may have been the initial spark of Lincolnshire rebellion which ultimately caused the Pilgrimage of Grace, despite him putting down the rebels in Lincolnshire. Historian Geoffrey Elton has argued that the rebellions were brought about by courtly conspiracy prompted by councillors who had been supporters of Catherine of Aragon who had died in 1536, and wanted to restore Princess Mary as her heir. These courtiers were able to exploit the religious and financial concerns of northerners to put pressure on the King as part of the factional politics of the reign, therefore these factors indicate that was not religious disagreement alone that caused the Pilgrimage of Grace.