Robert Aske

Robert Aske is a Yorkshire lawyer who becomes the reluctant figurehead of a rebellion against Henry VIII's break with Rome and the dissolution of the monasteries. Devout, articulate, and genuinely beloved by the commons who follow him, he insists he wants only to petition the king, not to overthrow him.

Gerard McSorley plays him without a trace of the usual rebel-leader swagger — Aske is a careful, faithful man swept into history by conviction rather than ambition, and that plainness makes him oddly moving. The show lets his sincerity sit uneasily against Henry's court, where sincerity is rarely rewarded.