The Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536-1537, and the Exeter Conspiracy, 1538, Volume 1 (of 2)

The authors examine a major northern rising against royal policy, tracing its political background, local grievances, organization, outbreaks in Lincolnshire and the East Riding, mass movements, musters and negotiated truces, and the royal councils' military and diplomatic responses. They reconstruct events from contemporary documents, provide transcriptions, maps, and detailed chapter-by-chapter narrative, and analyze plots, affinities, rumours, and the movement's extent and failure. Appendices and corrections clarify sources and variant spellings. The account balances chronological narrative with documentary evidence to explain how regional disaffection coalesced into widespread insurrection and how negotiations and force ultimately determined its outcome.