Robert Aske (political leader)
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Robert Aske (1500 – July 12, 1537) was an English lawyer who became the leader of rebellion in York. He led the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 and was executed by Henry VIII for treason in 1537.
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[edit] Biography
Aske was the younger son of Sir Robert Aske of Aughton near Selby, a scion of an old Yorkshire family. The family was well connected: one of Aske's cousins was Henry Clifford, the Earl of Cumberland.
Aske became a lawyer, and was a Fellow at Gray's Inn. A devout man, he objected to Henry's religious reforms, particularly the Dissolution of the Monasteries. When rebellion broke out in York against Henry VIII, Aske was returning to Yorkshire from London. Not initially involved in the rebellion, he took up the cause of the locals and headed the Pilgrimage of Grace. By October 10 he had come to be regarded as their "chief captain". Most of Yorkshire, and parts of Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland and Westmorland were in revolt.
On October 13, 1536, Aske treated with the royal delegates, including the Duke of Norfolk, and received an assurance of an audience and safe passage to the king. He travelled to London, met Henry VIII, and received promises of redress and safe passage.
As he began his journey back north, fighting broke out again. This allowed Henry to change his mind, and he had Robert Aske seized and brought to the Tower of London. He was convicted of high treason in Westminster and was taken back to York in chains, where he was hanged in July 1537 on a special scaffold erected outside Clifford's Tower.
Some versions of events say that he was hung, drawn and quartered, as was usual at the time for non-noble traitors. Others maintain that he asked to be hanged in chains since he thought this was less painful than being hung, drawn and quartered; but in actual fact this form of execution usually lasted five to six days due to the victim being able to half-breathe and therefore dying of suffocation.
[edit] Namesakes
Aske shares his name with, and is likely to be a member of the same Yorkshire family as, another Robert Aske, a wealthy haberdasher in the City of London who is most famous for leaving the bulk of his estate to create the charity which founded a number of schools.
[edit] Portrayals
Aske was played by Sean Bean in the 2003 television serial Henry VIII. The circumstances surrounding Aske's life feature prominently in C. J. Sansom's novel Sovereign.
