Sir Thomas.
What's the news?
This matter hangs like a fever: one day good, another bad.
With the promise of a pardon and the threat of an advancing royal army...
...the rebels in Lincolnshire have dispersed and gone home.
And in Yorkshire?
In Yorkshire and the whole North...
...we are facing the most dangerous insurrection that has ever been seen.
The rebels entered the town of York three days ago and celebrated Mass.
Some say they intend to march south.
Right behind me....
You know what they say....
Your Majesty, l write to you on an urgent matter.
We have had word that a pilgrim army is marching on Pontefract Castle...
...which is under my command.
l am compelled to tell you...
...that l cannot defend this castle without more soldiers and arms.
As the warden of the East Marches...
...and a loyal member of Your Majesty's council...
...l beg Your Majesty to consider negotiating with these pilgrims.
l remain your humble and obedient servant, Darcy.
What is it? What have you found?
A splinter of bone, Your Majesty.
You told me before it was an ulcer and easily cured.
-A wound like this, Your Majesty-- -Jesus Christ.
-You don't know what it is, do you? -Your Majesty must not be alarmed.
We shall apply a poultice to draw any more splinters to the surface.
Then we shall look to other remedies...
...to heal permanently Your Majesty's wound.
You treat me like a fool.
Everyone here treats me like a fool.
Get out. Get out!
Your Majesty.
Quacks and charlatans.
I'll find my own remedies.
Your Grace.
My lord, I was promised artillery when l arrived here...
...but l don't see any guns.
Your Grace, we have guns...
...but have been not been able to find any horses or drays to transport them.
Perhaps you don't understand.
I am about the king's most urgent business.
And if you cannot commandeer enough horses for His Majesty's use...
...how can you call yourself mayor?
Your Grace, l did not want to produce panic...
...by forcing people to part with their horses or drays.
Idiot.
I charge you, personally, to find enough horses within two days...
...and bring the guns on after our army...
...or, God help me, I will hold you to account.
With any luck, Mr. Mayor...
...l will afterwards get the chance to see you disembowelled at Tyburn.
Onward.
-Lady Rochford? -Madam.
The king is still confined to his chambers by his physicians' orders...
...but sends his regrets and hopes you are well.
I worry for him so much. Especially at such a time.
Well, Your Majesty is right to do so.
These rebels are nothing but villains.
They are totally alienated from true religion.
They want to take us back to the dark days of ignorance and superstition.
And by force.
I hope to God they will soon be overcome.
Yes.
Lady Rochford, I have something I wish you to arrange.
I'm sure it will give the king a great deal of pleasure.
Positions!
My God, Lord Darcy.
What a sight is there.
Arrant rebels against the king's majesty...
...brazenly bearing their badges of shame.
Indeed so, Your Grace.
I never thought in all my long days to see such a sight.
What are you going to do? Fire on them?
You know very well I have almost no useful guns.
Well, you could resist them all the same, and close your gates.
After all, those are the king's orders.
As to that, I think it better to talk to them first...
...as fellow Englishmen and fellow Christians.
I'll meet their leaders in the gatehouse outside the castle walls. Guards.
My Lord Darcy, Your Grace...
...we come here in peace.
Mr. Aske, as the king's representative...
...l have the means here to hinder you and to do some injury to your cause.
We have embarked upon this Pilgrimage of Grace...
...for the common good...
...for the love we bear to God's faith, our church and the maintenance of it.
For the preservation of our sovereign king...
...and the expulsion of villains' blood and evil councillors.
We mean to petition the king's highness...
...to stop the woeful destruction of our monasteries and abbeys.
Master Aske, you claim to be loyal to the king...
...but your very actions defy and deny the king's supremacy.
Lord Archbishop...
...there is no man now alive in England...
...more loyal to the king than l.
And l trust in time to prove it.
Our quarrel lies not with him, but only with those close to him.
It's well for you to sound so high and mighty...
...but it's you and your kind who are also to blame...
...for not advising the king honestly...
...about the spread of heresy and abuse throughout his kingdom.
For what are Cromwell and Cranmer...
...but heretics and manifest abusers of this commonwealth?
Lord Darcy, as I told you...
...we mean no displeasure to any person.
We ask for shelter and free passage.
All our pilgrims here have taken an oath...
...not to slay or murder out of envy...
...but to put away fear for the commonwealth...
...and march with the cross of Christ and their heart's faith before them.
But we will fight and die...
...if you seek to stop us.
I'm putting you in charge of defences here in the city.
We shall need to organise new levies.
Send word to every lord to be ready with his power.
Take all the weapons, harness and ordnance you need from the tower.
Buy more if you need to from the merchants in the city.
Then it's true. We are in trouble.
Mr. Cromwell, His Majesty will receive you now.
I've just received a letter from Lord Darcy.
He says he's in great danger and cannot maintain his resistance.
And yet he holds a castle, a great stronghold.
Does he not mean to stand against these traitors?
Your Majesty, I've just been told...
...the rebels have already entered the town of Pontefract...
...with overwhelming numbers.
Mr. Cromwell...
...Pontefract is the gateway to the South.
It has great strategic importance.
You will write a letter to Lord Darcy at once.
You will tell him that l expect him to hold that castle at all costs.
Yes, Your Majesty.
And what of the royal army?
What are they doing to crush this rebellion?
Where is His Grace, the Duke of Suffolk?
And that bastard, Shrewsbury. I told him too.
What in God's name are these men doing?
-Gentlemen, men of York, friends. -Lord Darcy.
My lord.
Darcy and York have betrayed me.
Well, we shall see what end they come to.
And why haven't Shrewsbury and Suffolk attacked yet?
All I hear are their complaints and their excuses.
You know what l think?
I think they've become afraid of their own shadows.
I have a mind to go north myself.
I'll lead the army.
I'll teach these bastard ingrates and rebels...
...a fearful bloody lesson in slaughter.
I wish Your Majesty would not consider doing so.
Why? Do you suppose l'm too feeble?
I meant that Your Majesty's life is too precious to be put at risk...
...against such a common rabble.
If you chose to go, you'd be like a lion among wolves.
Sir Francis, I don't require you to flatter me.
No, Your Majesty.
Send a plain message to Suffolk.
Ask him why he refuses to obey my command...
...and ask him if he is a coward.
Majesty.
And Mr. Cromwell.
If things go badly, I'll know well enough who to blame.
Can l get Your Majesty anything for your pain?
Yes. l believe you can.
Your Grace, the Earl of Shrewsbury is here.
-My lord. -Your Grace.
Men, dismissed.
-Your Grace. -Your Grace.
We meet at a desperate moment, my lord.
Not only are the rebel forces overwhelmingly strong against us...
...but those men l do have I cannot altogether trust.
Many think the rebels' quarrels to be good and godly.
Still, the king has urged us to attack as soon as possible.
His Majesty would not do so if he saw our plight with his own eyes.
I've almost no horsemen...
...and those l do have are rather the flower of the North.
It is not possible to give battle knowing defeat to be a certainty.
Do you have some other plan?
-l intend to parley with them. -Parley?
My lord, it's our first duty to stop them escaping and marching south.
If they are talking, they are not marching.
Then you must tell the king.
Shrewsbury's forces are here.
Suffolk's here, not far from Newark.
It seems that they had originally planned to hold a line here...
...along the River Trent, to block our advance southwards.
How strong are they?
-We think Shrewsbury's men are 6000. -Aye.
Suffolk's a lot less.
They also lack horse and cannon.
And how many are we?
By my reckoning, somewhere over 30,000.
Thirty thousand.
We've kept large forces here...
...at Doncaster, at Jervaulx Abbey...
...and we're presently laying siege to Cumberland's castle at Skipton.
North of the River Don...
...we have almost complete control of the country.
Let them come onto us.
With God on our side, Mr. Aske, we shall prevail.
Poor you, Your Majesty.
Pour the ointment over it.
I smell sorrel and....
Linseed?
Meadow plant, crushed pearls, herbs of grace, other things.
I concocted it myself. I don't trust physicians.
Hold still.
You're very brave, Lady Misseldon.
Braver, l think, than my captains.
And much more beautiful.
There, it is done.
I trust Your Majesty is more comfortable.
Does Your Majesty wish me to stay?
It seems we were wrong to suppose...
...the king would realise his mistakes and the dangers to his soul.
Instead, he continues to encourage Cromwell...
...to vandalize and defile the houses of God and steal their treasures.
All for his own use and pleasure.
And yet, even in the darkness, there is light.
I mean, this great uprising of the faithful.
This Pilgrimage of Grace.
I have heard of it too.
The pilgrims who march beneath the banner of Christ.
The Holy Father asks you to write a pamphlet in English...
...denouncing the king and his advisers as heretics.
Of course.
-l'll start work on it straight away. -No, no, wait, wait.
His Holiness needs more from you than just your signature.
With my encouragement...
...he has decided to appoint you an official legate.
You will travel to France and to the Low Countries...
...and meet representatives of the king and the emperor.
-Eminence? -You will persuade them...
...to provide monies, arms and mercenaries...
...to support this most holy crusade in England.
If that is what His Holiness asks me to do...
...then of course I will do it, like an obedient son to a father.
His Holiness has agreed to make you a cardinal.
And here is your biretta.
I cannot accept.
Why not?
I'm not worthy.
In other words, you prefer your own judgement...
...to that of the pope, your Holy Father.
No doubt you suppose that makes you seem humble.
But, actually, it is the sin of pride, Father Pole.
His Grace informs Your Majesty...
...he has no choice in the matter but to treat with them.
In so doing, he hopes to bring the nobles and the gentry to treachery...
...and for their own interests...
...they will disown the commons if promised a pardon...
...as, in fact, happened in Lincolnshire.
They are not all to be pardoned.
Not the leaders. Never the leaders.
But what terms does Lord Suffolk intend to offer to make them go home?
His Grace does not go into details...
...but to allay Your Majesty's fears, he writes, in his own hand:
"I beseech Your Majesty to take in good part...
...whatever promises I shall make to these rebels...
...for surely I shall never keep any of them."
-Cavalry, ready? -Yes, sir.
Arms, double your front to the right.
-Arms, double-- -Yes, sir.
Aye, captain.
Alas, you unhappy men.
What fancy, what folly has led and seduced you...
...to make this most shameful rebellion...
...against a most noble and righteous king and sovereign?
Are you not ashamed?
How can you do this?
Not only giving offence to your natural sovereign lord...
...but giving us occasion to fight with you...
...that have loved you more than any other...
...and have always taken you for our best friends.
Your Grace, we mean no offence to His Majesty.
But we have a petition which we desire humbly to submit to him...
...for the restoration of many things which have gone amiss in this realm.
We demand the restoration of our abbeys and our ancient rights.
And that a new Parliament to be summoned...
...to address the people's sincere grievances.
I can decide nothing here.
But l propose a truce...
...during which time, two of your captains...
...can take your petition and present it to His Majesty.
The truce be maintained until they return.
We don't need a truce, we're no fools.
My Lord Darcy, can we talk a moment?
My Lord Darcy, you more than anyone here...
...has cause to be grateful to the king for his bounty...
...for the trust he reposes in you and would like to repose in you still.
And yet here l find you consorting with rebels and traitors.
For my part, I have been...
...and always will be true to the king, our sovereign lord...
...as l was to his father before him.
If you are as true and loyal as you say, then you can prove it to us...
...by giving over your captain, Mr. Aske, into our hands.
Sir, that l cannot and will not do.
For a man who promises to be true to someone...
...then betrays him, may truly be called a traitor.
His Majesty, the king.
-Your Majesty. -Your Majesty.
Your Majesty.
-Your Majesty. -Your Majesty.
-Madam. -Your Majesty.
It makes me happy to see you much improved.
I have a good physician.
Nevertheless, I intend we shall visit...
...the shrine of Sir Thomas Becket and give our thanks.
I have arranged for something else...
...which I hope, with all my heart, will make you very happy.
Your Majesty, the Lady Mary Tudor.
I ask Your Majesty for his blessing.
My own daughter.
May I present you to Her Majesty, Queen Jane?
I remember some of you were desirous...
...that l should put this jewel to death.
I've got you. You're safe.
Be of good cheer, Mary.
For l swear, nothing now will go against you.
Continue.
-Are you happy? -Yes, Your Majesty.
His Majesty agreed to give you lodgings at Hampton...
...and others at Greenwich Palace.
I have seen them both. They're beautiful.
I am very grateful to His Majesty and to you.
Everyone says my daughter is innocent...
...that she doesn't know any unclean or foul speech.
Do you believe that?
Do you believe that anybody could be that innocent?
Go and find out.
Lady Mary.
I wanted to apologise for my behaviour.
I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.
I will try, Sir Francis.
Jesus asks us to forgive everyone.
-Do you like games, Lady Mary? -Yes.
There is a new game at court you might enjoy.
-What is it? -lt's called Cunnilingus.
It's an old country practise.
How do you play it?
Well, you....
You....
I think you are making fun of me, Sir Francis.
No.
You can't touch me, for Caesar's, I am.
Your Majesty, Sir Ralph Ellerker and Mr. John Constable.
Gentlemen, l ask you this...
...what king has kept his subjects so long in wealth and peace?
So ministered justice equally to high and low...
...and protected you from all outward enemies?
I've read your submission.
Your first pretence is to maintain the faith.
Well, l'll tell you now, that nothing is more contrary...
...to God's commandments than rebellion.
Rising like madmen against your prince...
...leaving lands untilled and corn unsown...
...is not the behaviour of the proper commonwealth.
Your Majesty, I feel compelled to--
Hush.
You are before the king's majesty.
You make false claims about our intentions towards the church.
We have done nothing but what the clergy in York and Canterbury...
...agreed was in accordance with God's holy word.
God's holy word, gentlemen.
So how can the simple people say the contrary?
What presumption is it of them to claim knowledge of God's law...
...when they are ignorant and less knowledgeable...
...and should rather know their duty?
You have seen before in Lincolnshire...
...how temperate and forgiving is our inclination.
Though rebellion is against God's will...
...l declare my intentions through the pity and compassion of our heart...
...to pardon all of you who have transgressed...
...on condition that you now lay down your arms.
The Duke of Suffolk will come north again to Yorkshire...
...to moderate with you and make peace...
...and see you disbanded.
Good day, gentlemen.
Your Grace?
Your Grace should know...
...our army of pilgrims will not disperse just for the promise of a pardon.
Our pilgrimage is not over.
I do know. And I have told the king.
He has given me permission to negotiate with you further...
...in good faith.
On the basis of our petition?
Yes.
Does Your Grace have some token of this good faith?
You don't trust my word?
Not for me, for our captain, Mr. Aske.
He's a lawyer.
Here is a promise, in His Majesty's own hand...
...to deal with you openly, fairly and reasonably...
...as his loving subjects.
We are grateful and bounden to His Majesty.
Good night, gentlemen.
This is for the Lancashire Herald.
See that it is dispatched immediately.
Mr. Constable.
I beg you, do not put your trust in Mr. Cromwell.
Thank God and Your Majesty for your great mercy today.
I think you are the kindest of rulers...
...and l wish with all my heart the world knew it.
The world chooses what it wants to know, Jane.
But you can change its mind.
I beg you to restore and keep the abbeys.
Jane.
Think what the world would think. You listen to your people and heart.
Jane, l told you once before...
...don't meddle in my affairs.
Do you remember what happened to the late queen?
Yes.
I love you more than her.
More even than Catherine.
Don't spoil it.
Cardinal Pole.
My name is Diego Hurtado de Mendoza...
...and these gentlemen are all advisers to His Imperial Majesty King Charles V.
Sirs, I carry this letter of legatine authority...
...from His Holiness Pope Paul.
Shall we be seated?
We were aware, Eminence, that you were on your way here...
...but, forgive me, we remain a little unsure...
...as to the exact nature of your mission.
You are aware of the risings which have taken place across England...
...against the king, that heretic Cromwell and all his sect.
We have had some information, certainly.
And, naturally, we are intrigued.
These popular risings...
...are the greatest chance that we may ever have...
...to restore the true religion to England.
But the faithful people of my country need support.
Each of us, Senor Mendoza, in our own way...
...must encourage the risings to continue and to grow in strength.
Even if that means the overthrow of the king himself...
...not just his wicked council?
Yes.
We can imagine such an outcome without fear...
...for there is another, close to the throne...
...with a legitimate claim and a true faith.
The Lady Mary.
If not her...
...there is another Catholic with a legitimate claim.
A scion of the Plantagenets who ruled before the Tudors...
...and would gladly rule after them.
Of whom do you speak, Your Eminence?
I speak of myself, Senor Mendoza.
Ralph. John.
We have prayed for your safe return. Thank God, thank God.
The king in his mercy has offered us a general pardon.
He's sending the Duke of Suffolk to negotiate and treat with us...
...without precondition and on the basis of our demands.
-ls it true? -Aye.
I trust the king's good faith and mercy.
And here's proof of it.
We're to meet again here.
You've not said anything, John.
Is it because you do not agree with Sir Ralph?
No, I cannot agree with him.
How should I agree when l think that devil, Cromwell...
...has such a hold over the king that I account these promises...
...to be utterly worthless?
You don't think we should meet them?
No, I don't. I think we should expose their lies.
Call a general muster, take over the entire North...
...and only then condescend to a meeting.
Why are you so sure that their word is not to be trusted?
Because of this.
What's that?
It's a copy of a letter from Cromwell to the Yorkshire gentry.
I'll read some of it to you.
"There is hope they may disperse peacefully...
...but if these rebels continue...
...with their illegal assemblies and their defiance...
...then their rebellion will be crushed so forcibly...
...that their example shall be fearful to all subjects...
...so long as the world does endure."
"So long as the world does endure," gentlemen.
But the truth is, they cannot crush us.
And that's why the duke is forced to negotiate.
So this sure sign of their deviousness does not impress you then?
I say we do not stop our vigilance, but prepare for our meeting...
...clarify our positions...
...and strengthen our arguments...
...and have our church leaders endorse them.
Why should we fear, John, when we are about God's work?
I know we are, but--
I only hope that none of us, nor our grandchildren...
...ever live to regret this moment.
I wanted to wish you success for your journey...
...and for the conference with the rebels.
I am grateful to Your Majesty.
You know I desire more than anything else a peaceful remedy.
You have my permission to prolong the truce for as long as necessary.
You may also affirm my general pardon to all the rebels.
Except their leaders.
I want them brought to you still, with halters around their necks.
Your Majesty knows the rebels, no doubt unjustly...
...blame Master Cromwell for many of their actions.
Repeatedly, they ask for his removal and punishment.
What should l tell them?
You know what this is?
Fruit from the New World.
New things come in...
...everything changes.
I have a great appetite for novelty.
Tell them what you like.
Gentlemen, I have read your new petition.
Among other articles...
...you asked for the setting up of a special convocation or parliament...
...to debate without fear or His Majesty's displeasure...
...questions of heresy, the royal supremacy...
...and maintenance of the faith.
I can tell you now that the king has graciously conceded to your request.
A special parliament will be summoned...
...to be held not far away at Westminster, but here in York...
...to debate and decide on all these questions.
Thank you.
We've also asked for the heresies...
...of Luther, Wyclif and Tyndale be annulled and destroyed.
We've asked that the heretics, bishops and temporal be punished.
That Cromwell, Audley, Sir Richard Rich...
...be punished as subverters of the good laws of this realm...
...and maintainers of false sects.
That is not for me to decide, whatever my true feelings...
...but such questions are what the parliament...
...will be constituted to decide.
Is it possible that this parliament can also debate...
...the question of papal obedience, touching the cure of souls...
...and the legitimacy of the Lady Mary?
Yes, Mr. Aske.
I can guarantee all these great matters...
...can be put before the parliament without fear or favour.
And the king is still willing to offer a general pardon?
Yes. l say that with hesitation.
The more His Majesty understands the causes of this uprising...
...and the loyalty of the pilgrims to his person and rule...
...the more he is persuaded to show clemency.
There is one other great matter.
Your Grace knows that we demand...
...that the suppressed abbeys should stand or be restored.
This is our sticking point.
We were always determined to fight and die...
...for the maintenance of our religious houses.
What l can say about that...
...is that all further destruction of the abbeys will cease...
...until the parliament meets.
It will then be up to Parliament to decide if and when...
...the others will be restored.
Go home and put aside your arms.
By standing together and by standing strong...
...l believe we have achieved as much as we could have gained...
...when we first took up this great pilgrimage of ours.
It is almost Christmas.
Go home and celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank God, as we thank the king's majesty...
...that all this has been achieved without bloodshed.
Please listen to the king's herald.
"His Gracious Majesty, King Henry VIIl...
...hereby pardons by royal command...
...all those subjects...
...who have transgressed and risen in unlawful rebellion."
I therefore ask every one of you...
...to disperse, go home and put aside your arms...
...firm in the knowledge that our faith is to be maintained...
...and not destroyed.
What is it, husband?
I believe it's from the king.
What does it say?
Father?
"My trusty and well-beloved Aske.
I am informed that notwithstanding your offences committed against us...
...in the late rebellion attempted in those parts...
...you are now at heart repentant.
And since you are determined to be a faithful subject...
...we have conceived a great desire to speak with you."
-Oh, Father! -Hush, children. Listen to your father.
"And to hear the whole circumstance and beginning of that matter."
The king wants to speak with me. You believe it?
"I therefore order you, as our faithful subject as we now repute you...
...to come to court for Christmastide.
You are not to let anyone know...
...but will use plainness and frankness...
...in all things we shall demand of you...
...and we may have cause to reward you even further."
There's a credence attached saying that:
"You shall safe come and go from court...
...returning before the 1 2th day of Christmas."
Just make sure that he means to honour the promises...
...Lord Suffolk made on his behalf.
Is it not obvious the king has taken this to heart?
This is written in his own hand.
You're still too trusting. I wouldn't go on my own.
But there is a promise of safe return.
Yeah, well, promises can be broken.
Mr. Constable, the promises of a king...
...are worth more than the promises of ordinary folk.
Here's what we shall do.
I will arrange to lay post horses...
...all the way between here and London...
...so that if, God forbid, Mr. Aske...
...you are imprisoned or otherwise badly treated...
...l will hear about it straightaway...
...and raise the people again for your deliverance.
Thank you, Lord Darcy.