Robert Aske (political leader)

Robert Aske (c. 1500 – 12 July 1537) was an English lawyer who became a leader of the Pilgrimage of Grace uprising against the Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535 in 1536.

Nine thousand insurgents marched on York, where Aske arranged for the expelled monks and nuns to return to their houses; the King's tenants were driven out and religious observance resumed.

[2] On 13 November 1536, Aske treated with the royal delegates, including Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and received an assurance of an audience and safe passage to the King.

Among the insurgents' requests was punishment of heretical bishops and of the King's evil advisers, recall of his anti-ecclesiastical legislation, prosecution of his "visitors", Lee and Layton, and a parliament in the North.

Aske was convicted of high treason in Palace of Westminster and was taken back to York, where he was executed on 12 July 1537,[3] on a scaffold erected outside Clifford's Tower.