In September 1536 he had a grant of £1,000 to come to London to make arrangements about his lands. The matter was incomplete when the Pilgrimage of Grace began. Northumberland's brothers and mother were open sympathisers with the rebels, but the Earl himself remained loyal to the Crown. The rebel leader Robert Aske and his men came to Wressle Castle, where Percy was ill in bed, and asked him to resign his commands of the marches into the hands of his brothers, or at least go over to the rebels. He refused both requests; and when the lawyer William Stapleton went up to see him, he was in despair. Aske sent him to York, to protect him from his followers, who wanted to behead him.