During the reign of King Henry VIII, the infamous Tudor King and monarch was incredibly fearful
of being killed or assassinated. It’s alleged he even bricked up the entrance to his bedroom
every night to prevent any assassin gaining access whilst the King slept. He even employed
food tasters to test his meals for poison before he ate, and he carried out many executions
across his nation to put people off rebelling against him. Henry VIII even executed some
of his closest friends including Thomas Cromwell and Sir Thomas More after the King turned
on them, and he did this with ruthless brutality, with them losing their heads on Tower Hill.
But the biggest threat from within England he faced was the Pilgrimage of Grace, a huge
protest which emerged in the North of England due to Henry and Cromwell’s Dissolutions
of the Monasteries. But the leader of them was a skilled English lawyer, but Robert Aske
once he was captured was executed in horrific and brutal scenes in York. Join us today as
we look at the execution of Robert Aske, remember to support our channel, please make sure to
subscribe.
Robert Asked was born around 1500, and he was a skilled lawyer and a barrister. He had
links to the royal family as his third cousin was Jane Seymour, the third Queen and wife
of King Henry VIII. As a barrister he was also a very religious man, and he was a man
who objected to Henry VIII’s changes with religion. One of the largest policies he was
offended with was the Dissolutions of the Monasteries. As Henry VIII split from Rome
and the Pope to push through a divorce and annulment with his first wife Catherine of
Aragon, he declared himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England. He made all of the
clergy swear their support in this, but then Henry VIII set his eyes onto the monasteries
and religious houses, and to steal their wealth. The Dissolutions of the monasteries made thousands
of monks and nuns homeless. Some were given measly pensions, but as inflation occurred
many struggled to make ends meat, and a number were more vocal in their opposition. Henry
VIII shut down the abbeys, monasteries, priories and nunneries and absorbed their wealth, riches
and land and benefitted greatly from this financially. Thomas Cromwell who was the spearhead
behind the brutal policy was seen as a figure of hatred, but many across England were executed
for their religious beliefs and lack of support for the King’s changes. Abbots who had lived
a peaceful life were hanged, drawn and quartered and this was hugely shocking.
There were other rebellions and protests in England at the time, but Henry VIII managed
to put down many of these. For example the Lincolnshire rebellion was put down with a
number of bloody executions, but it’s believed the Lincolshire Rising helped to inspire the
Pilgrimage of Grace. The Pilgrimage of Grace was a huge rebellion against the policies
of Henry VIII and Cromwell, and it broke out on the 13th October 1536. Robert Aske then
later became the leader of the rebels, but they were angry for a number of reasons. Politically,
many people were angry with the way Henry VIII left this wife Catherine of Aragon and
virtually held her under house arrest. Anne Boleyn his second wife was very unpopular,
and as a rumoured protestant, she was seen as a threat to religion in the country. Her
charges of Adultery and treaosn which resulted in her execution led many to question the
King and it damaged his reputation. Also people were suffering in England at the time from
high food prices caused by a poor harvest. By shutting down the monasteries, this took
further shelter and food away from the people of England as these religious houses provided
help for many people. Henry VIII also raised many taxes, and this made people in England
suffer more and more. Also with regards to the church, this was the centre of life in
England for centuries. Many were worried that their religion would be changed too much,
and there were rumours that the King would impose ridiculous taxes on the church which
people feared.
So Robert Asked was chosen to lead the people who rose up, and he was seen as a well thought
of representative who could articulate the demands of the protestors. In 1536, he led
9000 followers who had sworn an oath into the city of York. The protestors entered the
cities gates, and then occupied the city. He managed to order the expelled monks and
nuns back into their houses, and the people placed in the monasteries and houses by the
King were then forced out. They then restarted their catholic way of life. However the King
learned of this, and as time went on his numbers increased to around 40,000 people protesting
in Yorkshire. The protest was huge, and royalist leaders including Thomas Howard the Duke of
Norfolk were forced to negotiate with the rebels on behalf of the King. There was a
real threat that they could march to London and overthrow Henry VIII. In early December
1536, the rebels gathered at Pontefract Castle to consider a petition to be passed to the
King with their demands. They gave it to the Duke of Norfolk to give to the King, and Howard
then promised a pardon and a Parliament to be held at York to discuss the abbeys and
monasteries. With this, Ask then dismissed his followers as he believed he got what he
wanted. But Howard did not have the power to do this.
A new rising not authorised by Aske took place in 1537 named Bigod’s rebellion, because
they knew that the promises would not be kept.
This rebellion failed and Henry VIII then arrested the leaders, including Robert Aske.
He was convicted of treason and was then to be executed. It was said of the executions
of the rebellions’ leaders that, ‘Also the 16-day of May there were arraigned at Westminster afore
the King’s Commissioners, the Lord Chancellor that day being the chief, these persons following: Sir
Robert Constable, knight; Sir Thomas Percy, knight, and brother to the Earl of Northumberland;
Sir John Bulmer, knight, and Ralph Bulmer, his son and heir; Sir Francis Bigod, knight;
Margaret Cheney, after Lady Bulmer by untrue matrimony; George Lumley, esquire;Robert Aske,
gentleman, that was captain in the insurrection of the Northern men; and one Hamerton, esquire,
all which persons were indicted of high treason against the King, and that day condemned by a jury
of knights and esquires for the same, whereupon they had sentence to be drawn, hanged and
quartered, but Ralph Bulmer, the son of John Bulmer, was reprieved and had no sentence.
And on the 25-day of May, being the Friday in Whitsun week, Sir John Bulmer, Sir Stephen
Hamerton, knights, were hanged and headed; Nicholas Tempest, esquire; Doctor Cockerell,
priest; Abbot quondam of Fountains; and Doctor Pickering, friar, were drawn from
the Tower of London to Tyburn, and there hanged, bowelled and quartered, and their heads
set on London Bridge and divers gates in London.
Robert Asked had been seized and was taken to the Tower of London before he was convicted
of High Treason in Westminster. Henry VIII wanted to send a clear message to the people
of York in particular where the rebellion began, and because of this he arranged for
Aske to be taken to York. With this, he was taken into the city and on the 12th July 1537
he was due to be executed. He was to be hanged in chains, which was a terrible way to die.
Many who were executed in this way were hanged alive in chains, taking several days to die,
being slowly suffocated to death. Their remains would then be picked at by the birds for months.
No accounts of his death occur, but there is a telling in a Nobel showing what his final
moments were like. It was said that, ‘Then Aske met the full assault of darkness without
reprieve of hoped for light, for God ultimately vanquished was no God at all. But yet, though
God was not God, as the head of the dumb worm turns, so his spirit turned, blindly, gropingly,
hopelessly loyal, towards that good, that holy, that merciful, which though not God,
though vanquished, was still the last dear love of a vanquished and tortured man...
By this time that which dangled from the top of the Keep at York, moving only as the wind
swung it, knew neither day nor night, nor that it had been Robert Aske, nor even that
it had been a man. Even now, however, it was not quite insentient. Drowning yet never drowned,
far below the levels of daylight consciousness, it suffered. There was darkness and noise,
noise intolerably vast or unendurably near, drilling inward as a screw bites and turns,
and the screw was pain. Sometimes noise, pain, darkness and that blind thing that dangled
were separate; sometimes they ran together and became one. But in his dying, his consciousness
moved on, beyond a point where any of us are ever entitled to knowledge.
Robert Asked met a bloody end being hanged in chains from York Castle. He was the man
who caused great panic for Henry VIII, and he served as a real threat to his reign as
the support he gathered could have possibly defeated the royalist forces.
Thanks for watching
To support our channel, please make sure to subscribe
Thanks again for watching