Assess The Reasons For The Pilgrimage Of Grace

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Using your understanding of the historical context, assess how convincing the arguments in these three extracts are in relation to the reasons for the outbreak of the Pilgrimage of Grace.

Firstly, Extract A provides valid and useful inference into the social and political reasons for the outbreak of the Pilgrimage of Grace, but it undermines the important factor of religious influence, which interfered heavily with the motivation for the Pilgrimage of Grace at the time and was an essential contributor to its outbreak, due to the collapse of societal order perceived by most Catholics and ordinary civilians. For example, the extract states that the outbreak was “linked not to feudal or popular uproar but to the increasing distrust.towards a
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We could link this to the turning point in society made by 1534’s Act of Supremacy, which defined Henry as the supreme head of the Church of England. Fear may have arisen from this not only because of the lack of protection that the Pope could provide, but also Henry’s well-known ruthless nature and the potential for Catholicism as a whole to be banned- we could also see this fear arising from 1534’s Treason Act. Additionally, the new responsibility taken on by parliament was another major turning point, which strengthened the motivation for the Pilgrimage of Grace- mentioned in “A common interest joined the defeated court faction with the anti-court “country”.”. Therefore, Extract A is shown to have value in its depiction of the Pilgrimage of Grace being a social war of sorts. However, Extract A lacks any supporting opinion on the religious side of the reasons for the outbreak of the Pilgrimage of Grace, which was vital to its creation. Evidence for this could be seen within the Pontefract Articles, which were drawn up near the end of the Pilgrimage of Grace and could be assumed to be a final list of aims after the rebellion. They mentioned a need for the abbeys to be restored, and for Mary to