Lukewarm Support for Religious Change – Acquiescence

• The days of the independent and rebellious regional magnates were over. None of the nobility had enough land or armed men to launch a military attack on the king.
• At the time of the Pilgrimage of Grace 1536, the nobility remained loyal to the Crown.

  • Those involved in the Pilgrimage of Grace were lesser landowners.
• The nobility were often conservative in religious affairs but realised that the Reformation might lead to material gains. Therefore they did little or nothing to oppose the changes.
• The so-called Exeter Conspiracy of 1538, involving some members of the aristocracy existed more in Thomas Cromwell’s imagination rather than in actual fact.