1536.]
THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE.
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images, and in such wise to look on them with our princely favour as others by their example should not be discouraged to follow your steps.'[1]
Lord Shrewsbury, as soon as he found himself too late to prevent the capture of Pomfret, sent forward Lancaster Herald with a royal proclamation, and with directions that it should be read at the market cross.[2] Saturday, October 21.The herald started on his perilous adventure 'in his King's coat of arms.' As he approached Pomfret he overtook crowds of the country people upon the road, who in answer to his questions told him that they were in arms to defend Holy Church, which wicked men were destroying. They too and their cattle, their burials and their weddings, were to be taxed, and they would not endure it. The herald informed them that they were all imposed upon. Neither the King nor the council had ever thought of any such measures; and the people, he said, seemed ready to listen, 'being weary of their lives.' Lies, happily, are- ↑ State Papers, vol. i. p. 495.
- ↑ This particular proclamation—the same, apparently, which was read by Christopher Aske at Skipton—I have been unable to find. That which is printed in the State Papers from the Rolls House Records, belongs to the following month. The contents of the first, however, may be gathered from a description of it by Robert Aske, and a comparison of the companion proclamation issued in Lincolnshire. It stated briefly that the insurrection was caused by forged stories; that the King had no thought of suppressing parish churches, or taxing food or cattle. The abbeys had been dissolved by Act of Parliament in consequence of their notorious vice and profligacy. The people, therefore, were commanded to return to their homes, at their peril. The commotion in Lincolnshire was put down. The King was advancing in person to put them down also, if they continued disobedient.
