1B Duchy Lancaster

Question 1

What showed that The Duchy estate was so valuable

Answer 1

it required its own administrative council, which was staffed by its own
chancellor, chamberlain, two chief stewards, a receiver general,
an attorney general, two auditors and a clerk of the council.

Question 2

What was Henry IV keen to do and what showed this?

Answer 2

make a clear division
between his position as king and his private position as duke of
Lancaster, and a charter from 1399 states that the Duchy would
continue to be treated in exactly the same way as if he had never
become king.

Question 3

How does this indicate Henry’s insecurity on the throne

following his usurpation

Answer 3

measure was designed to ensure that should he lose the throne, his descendants would retain their Lancastrian inheritance.

Question 4

Why was the Duchy a benefit for the King

Answer 4

gave him a substantial source
of private income, as well as retinues on whose loyalty he could
rely.

Question 5

How was Henry able to gain popularity at parliament by being different to Richard

Answer 5

telling parliament that, owing to his
extensive private properties, he would be able to finance his own
requirements and would only seek money from taxation in times
of war.

Question 6

purveyance

Answer 6

where the king could

seize his subjects’ goods for his own use.

Question 7

Why was parliament less happy to grant taxation for Henry’s use

Answer 7

the personal wealth of
the Lancastrian kings, as well as the rather weak political position
of Henry IV as a usurper,

Question 8

How did parliament meet the monarch’s later requests for financial support

Answer 8

with the argument that the king should farm his own land to greater profit and live from this income.

Question 9

What did the Black Death mean for the king gaining income on Duchy

Answer 9

Reduced income- major shortages in agricultural workers. This meant that experienced labourers were hard to
find and agricultural workers were often able to demand higher wages. Consequently, most landlords experienced a reduction in income in this period.

Question 10

According to research undertaken by Helen Castor, under
Henry IV the average annual income of the Duchy for the king
was

Answer 10

£11,000

Question 11

What was the Duchy income used for under Henry IV

Answer 11

to support the
king and members of the royal family. Henry IV’s
younger sons did not have children, meant that this family was
smaller and so there was now surplus property. Some of this land
was used as a form of patronage to provide income for favoured
members of the royal household, but the remainder increasingly
came to be used to contribute to government finances

Question 12

How much of Duchy contributed to government finances under Henry Iv

Answer 12

£1,120 per annum avg

Question 13

While Henry V confirmed his father’s charter that the Duchy should be
regarded as the personal property of him as duke of Lancaster,
rather than a crown estate, he made various practical changes which made the Duchy much more closely linked to royal finances. What were they

Answer 13

In particular, placed the Duchy’s private administrative
council under the close supervision of crown officials and sought
to increase further the profitability of the farming of the estate.

Question 14

average annual revenue from the

Duchy increased under Henry V to

Answer 14

£13,000.

Question 15

How much, on average, supported government finances under Henry V

Answer 15

£4,400 each year

Question 16

What did the treasurer highlight In a public statement to parliament in 1433 that showed Henry VI’s reign saw a reduction in the annual government income for the Duchy

Answer 16

the lands provided an annual income of only £4,953 to the crown
and that of this £2,544 was consumed in costs of the estate,
leaving only £2,409 as profit.

Question 17

Why was Duchy’s profitability worsened due to Henry VI

Answer 17

the Duchy
revenues suffered from the lack of the strong personal leadership
of the king throughout the reign, firstly because of Henry VI’s
minority and later because of his mental instability. This meant
that there was little close supervision of Duchy finances, so the
land was utilised less productively and some money was lost
through corruption.

Question 18

How did marriage agreement between Henry V and Catherine of Valois contribute to less Duchy revenues

Answer 18

In 1420, it had been agreed that Catherine would receive an annual income of 20,000 crowns as part of the marriage settlement and, from 1422 onwards, it was arranged that
this would partly be funded by the Duchy lands, a situation which
continued until her death in 1437. Later, substantial revenues
from Duchy lands were diverted to fund Henry’s pet projects -
his educational foundations of Eton College and King’s College,
Cambridge.
Also 100wR

Question 19

How did the Duchy of Lancaster created a problem
for Henry IV, which was significant in the context of the political
instability of the period

Answer 19

the king was the head of the judicial
system and was supposed to arbitrate in cases of disputes
between leading nobles over land or tenants. Obviously, however, it
was very difficult for a monarch to seem obiective in such matters
if he himself had a vested interest in particular areas of the
country, as he was also that region’s ‘special good lord’.

Question 20

What did Henry IV, with the understandable uneasiness of a recent usurper, sought to
maintain

Answer 20

the very personal loyalty of his Lancastrian retinues

Question 21

Henry
V was more confident in his position as king, and so ensured he
not only maintained the loyalty of his father’s retinue, but also

Answer 21

widened his scope for patronage by including new men into his
service as part of the Duchy affinity. This allowed him to broaden
his influence and gain new loyal followers who did not distinguish
his role as duke from that of king.

Question 22

How did much of this good work come undone during the

reign of Henry VI.

Answer 22

During the royal power vacuum created by the king’s personal inadequacies, regional lords were required to not only manage their own lands and retinues, but also to enforce roval authority in the area. Clearly, such an arrangement was untenable in the long term, as it essentially required nobles accustomed to functioning in the essentially competitive world of 15th-century territorial politics to self-regulate and to seek the common good, not their own personal advancement.

Question 23

Example of areas where Duchy lands were substantial seeing conflict

Answer 23

East Anglia- law and order broke down 1440s when d Norfolk challenged Suffolk’s power in region

Question 24

What did territorial conflicts require

Answer 24

An active king to adjudicate and manage rivals, and under Henry VI, moderating and disciplining influence did not exist

Question 25

What did Edward IV claim about the Duchy 1461

Answer 25

although the Duchy of Lancaster
was to be held separately from other royal possessions, nonetheless
it was forfeit to the crown and was to be held by the kings of England
from then on.

Question 26

What did Edward also do to improve Duchy

Answer 26

Edward also took a range of measures to alter the management of royal estates, designed to improve the efficiency of their administration and size of returns.

Question 27

Charles Ross has
estimated that the income from all crown lands, including but not
limited to the Duchy, was no more than

Answer 27

£10,000 per annum in the

late 1470s and early 1480s.