In all this conference it is evident that the greatest importance attached to Norfolk’s representation of the King’s attitude. If he had spoken the strict truth, he would have said that Henry was very angry, that the few concessions which he had made had been forced from him by sheer necessity, that he was absolutely determined not to yield an inch more, that in particular he would not give up the monasteries or the supremacy, and that he was extremely anxious to punish the leaders of the rising. There is no reason to believe that Norfolk was so tactless as to reveal any of this. He probably encouraged the Pilgrims’ idea that Henry had been so far misled by Cromwell and that witch Anne Boleyn that he did not realise what he had been doing. The Pilgrimage had opened his eyes, and for this he was grateful. But it would be undignified in him to grant petitions which were backed by force. Only let the Pilgrims submit and disperse, and the King, now restored to his right mind, would do all they desired, if they would proceed by entreaty and constitutional means. As the Pilgrims regarded Norfolk as almost one of themselves, his words would have all the more weight. But on the one point they were still unpersuadable; the monasteries must be allowed to stand. Norfolk knew perfectly well that the King would never agree to this, but he had received a significant hint from his master as to how he should act in these circumstances. In his letter of 2 December Henry had reminded him: “you said you would esteem no promise you should make to the rebels nor think your honour touched in the breach of it.”[68] The implication is clear:—“Why do you trouble me about making concessions to the rebels? Promise anything they demand for yourself, but leave me free to repudiate it afterwards.” Finding that there was no other way of dealing with the problem of the monasteries, Norfolk and the Pilgrims finally agreed upon a compromise. The abbots must surrender their houses to the King’s commissioners, but they should then be restored by the King’s authority until the next parliament, which was to settle their fate[69]. At the end of the day Aske and his companions returned to the rest of the three hundred at the Grey Friars with these terms: a free pardon, the promise of a free parliament, and the provisional restoration of the abbeys. After laying the proposed treaty before them, Aske, at Norfolk’s request, rode back to Pontefract the same night to communicate the terms to the assembly there[70]. Meanwhile Norfolk and the rest of his council wrote to the King, stating the terms they had made, and honestly declaring that they did not believe there would be any possibility of peace unless the King would give up the abbeys, at any rate temporarily[71].