A rebellion of northern English peasants in 1536-37, during the reign of Henry VIII, grieved by the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the systematic disenfrenchisement, dissolution, and demolition of their abbeys and monasteries under the charge of Thomas Cromwell.
However one looks at the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it was a drastic and overdone piece of cultural and religious vandalism legalized by royal command. It represented the ruthless and uncaring demolition of a long established way of life. While corruption was a way of life with many of the poorly managed monasteries, the monasteries themselves were a long established English way of life. It can be safely assumed the those officials appointed to carry out the ghastly work took like care to explain the king's reasons for their dessolution. It was only natural that it threw the popultion into confusion and dismay at what was happening. When the officials couldn't care to tend to their sensitivities, it was bound to provoke sharp reactions. And provoke it did, and the Pilgrimage of Grace was it. The rebellion began in Lincolnshire but soon the whole of the north was swept up into its gathering currents. Seeing it as an insult to his majesty, Henry VIII ordered the most severe measures to put it down. Luring them with false promises into negotiations, he turned on them just as they were ready to make peace. The defeat of the rebellion made Crowell even more powerful, but it also laid the seed for his fall from grace. The rebellion also very likely quickened Henry's decision to make the dissolution of the monasteries total.
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