Chapter 2 - Henry VII’s Government Flashcards
What was the council and its three main functions?
The king ruled with a ‘council of advisers who supported him in making kev decisions. Around 227 men are recorded as having attended the Council during his reign. In practice, however, Henry VII’s actual working Council was a much smaller affair with around six or seven members.
The Council under Henry VII had three main functions:
• to advise the king
•to administer the realm on the king’s behalf
• to make legal judgements.
What were the three main types of councillor?
- Members of the nobility, such as Lords Daubeney and Dynham, though the working Council only rarely included the great magnates of the realm.
- Churchmen such as John Morton and Richard Fox, who often had legal training and were excellent administrators.
- Laymen, either gentry or lawyers, who were skilled administrators, such as Sir Reginald Bray and Edmund Dudley. This dependence on lawyers did not begin with Henry VII; they had also played a significant role in the ‘second reign’ of Edward IV from 1471, so Henry was continuing a trend which had become increasingly evident.
Info about how the council functioned
During Henry VII’s reign the Council had no established rules and procedures, though it was a permanent body with a core membership. Sometimes members also met separately, however, to deal with key administrative concerns when the king was not present, so it was possible for different members of the Council to meet in two places simultaneously. Those professional councillors such as Bray and Dudley, who did not see themselves as courtiers, often met to deal with legal and administrative matters in London when other councillors were with the king elsewhere. The importance of the Council depended on its key members (particularly Bray) and its offshoot, the Council Learned.
Was it essential to be a councillor to influence the king?
It was not essential for a man or woman to hold office as a councillor in order to advise the king. Indeed, the historian David Loades has argued that Henry’s most influential adviser was someone who held no office, his formidable mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort.
What was the Great Council?
The Council should not be confused with the Great Council. The Great Council was a gathering of the House of Lords, meeting without the House of Commons. It had no clearly defined functions and was an occasional rather than a permanent body. It met only five times in total throughout Henry VI’s reign. It usually concerned itself with issues relating to war or rebellion and was a means of binding the nobility to key decisions relating to national security.
What is the Council Learned in the Law, what was its function and how did it function?
The Council’s main offshoot was the Council Learned (or Council Learned in Law). This body developed during the second half of the reign, at first under Bray’s leadership. It often met in the office of the Duchy of Lancaster, where it formed what the modern historian John Guy describes as a ‘specialist board. Its function was to maintain the king’s revenue and to exploit his prerogative rights. It was the Council Learned which made the system of bonds and recognizances work so effectively and thus able to entrap many of the king’s subjects.
Perception of TCLINTL
The workings of the Council Learned have often been seen as a rather ‘shady operation by historians.
It was not a recognised court of law and those summoned before it had no chance to appeal. The modern historian Thomas Penn has argued that the Council Learned caused fear, frustration and anger, as it bypassed the normal legal system It was, however, the expression of the king’s will and was thus as important for the maintenance of his authority as it was for the raising of finances.
Unsurprisingly, in the process they created enemies amongst some of the king’s other key advisers, such as Bishop Fox and Sir Thomas Lovell, who removed them after Henry VIl’s death. The downfall of Empson and Dudley brought rejoicing on the streets. This is an indication of just how feared and unpopular their financial control became in the last years of Henry VIIs reign.
Who were the key figures of TCLITL and did they change?
Sir Richard Empson (c1450-1510)
Empson was a member of the king’s Council from 1494. He eventually chaired the Council Learned. Closely identified with the increasing ruthlessness of Henry VI’s regime, Empson was arrested shortly after the death of the king, charged with treason and executed in the following year.
Edmund Dudley (c1462-1510)
Dudley came to prominence following the death of Bray. Steven Gunn argues that his role was to exploit financial opportunities, which gave him ample opportunity to make influential enemies. He therefore became vulnerable to counter-attack as soon as he lost the king’s protection. Upon Henry Tudor’s death he became accountable for what had been the king’s demands.
What was the chamber?
The Chamber was overseen by the Lord Chamberlain.
It was used for holding audiences and public dining. It was the centre of court communications and court patronage.
What was the privy chamber?
This was the king’s private quarters.
He used it for work and leisure.
He met his personal friends and servants in these rooms.
Significance of the royal court
The Tudors, like their predecessors, relied heavily on the royal court. This was the centre of government. Since wealth was power, the royal court had to be magnificent and generous. In this, Henry VII was influenced by continental examples of royal courts, especially those in Burgundy and France. The royal court was always to be found wherever the king was at any given time. It was the focus of a personal monarchy and a place for royal ceremony, about which Henry VII was very enthusiastic. It was where the power of the monarch was demonstrated to all the courtiers in attendance. It was through the court that rewards and status were distributed to those who were deserving or, more likely, well connected.
Courtiers enjoyed paid positions or the right to receive free food. Not only was the court where advancement could be attained, it was also where the support of the king or other influential persons could be obtained, which might be useful in the event of legal problems.
When was privy chamber created?
1495
Significance of ‘personal monarchy’
Medieval monarchy was personal. In any personal monarchy the political power and influence of an individual depended more on the relationship that person had with the monarch than on any specific office which they might have held. Access to the king, therefore, was the main determinant of power and it was through the royal court that access was controlled. This remained the case whatever a particular monarch’s style of kingship was.
What were the two different levels to the court?
- The household proper was responsible for looking after the king, the courtiers, guests and other ‘hangers-on’ who were being entertained.
These personal and catering requirements were supervised by the Lord Steward. - The politically important part of the system was the Chamber, presided over by the Lord Chamberlain. The Lord Chamberlain and other senior household officials were influential courtiers. The position of Lord Chamberlain was both powerful and a matter of considerable trust. It was therefore a considerable blow to Henry VII to discover in 1495 that his Lord Chamberlain, Sir William Stanley, had been involved in a treasonable plot with the pretender Perkin Warbeck.
Henry’s response to conspiracy at court
Henry’s response to this challenge was to remodel the Chamber by creating a new Privy (i.e. private) Chamber, to which the king could retreat, protected by his most intimate servants.
Impact of creation of privy chamber
This changed the character of the court, thus making it more difficult for those who were out of favour to regain the king’s support. Henry cut himself off from much of the king’s traditional contacts at court.
Importance of parliament at this time
Parliament, comprising the House of Commons and the House of Lords, had existed since the thirteenth century, but it only met occasionally and was not, therefore, central to the system of government.
Two main functions of parliament
To pass laws and to grant taxation to the Crown. It had a further subsidiary function as a means by which local issues and grievances could be passed on to the king’s officials by local Members of Parliament (MPs).
Info about lords and mps
At this time the House of Lords, comprising the Lords Spiritual (bishops and abbots of major religious houses) and the Lords Temporal (the nobility), was the more important of the two houses. The House of Commons comprised two MPs for each county, two MPs for each borough, and representatives of the two universities (Oxford and Cambridge). The right to vote was largely restricted to men of property,
‘forty shilling freeholders in the counties, though the precise voting qualification varied in boroughs
Dates and number of parliaments called
Only the king could call Parliament, and Henry demonstrated his right to rule by calling his first parliament early in his reign. Henry called a total of seven parliaments in his reign, though five of these met in the first ten years of the reign leaving only two to meet in the remaining fourteen years.
- Nov 1485 - Mar 1486
- Nov 1487 - Dec 1487
- Jan 1489 - Feb 1490
- Oct 1491 - Mar 1492
- Oct 1495 - Dec 1495
- Jan 1497 - Mar 1497
- Jan 1504 - Apr 1504
Reasons for calling his parliaments
Henry’s early parliaments were largely concerned with issues of national security and the raising of revenue. For example, his first two parliaments passed numerous Acts of Attainder. These declared individuals guilty without having to go through the inconvenience of a trial if they were alive; if they were dead, their property would be forfeit to the Crown. His first parliament granted tonnage and poundage (customs revenues) for life; other parliaments granted extraordinary revenue, taxation granted to enable the king to wage war. The most usual form of extraordinary revenue was fifteenths and tenths, which were imposed upon the alleged value of a taxpayer’s goods. Fractional taxes of fifteenths and tenths were made in 1487, 1489-90, 1491-92 and 1497, yielding £203,000. Henry’s final parliament in 1504 did manage, however, to limit the demand for eva pariname revenue, and received an undertaking that the king would not seek more revenue by this means.
Did parliament function effectively
There is little surviving evidence of the parliamentary proceedings in
Henry’s reign. However, the research of historian Paul Cavill has shown that, on the whole, Parliament operated effectively, the king respected its decisions and there were a number of private acts passed in response to local demands for improvements. There is little evidence that the king tried to ‘manage Parliament through his ministers.
Henry’s attitude to maintaining law and order
As had been traditional throughout earlier centuries, the king relied on well-placed members of the nobility to exercise power on his behalf, although there was a delicate balance to strike to ensure that the more influential of these nobles did not themselves become so powerful that they could challenge the king’s own
authority.
Situation with number of magnates
Henry did not have the luxury enjoyed by Edward IV, who had divided the whole country into spheres of influence, each controlled by a great noble (or magnate). The number of magnates had been reduced in the last years of the Wars of the Roses and their lands had fallen into the hands of the Crown.
Magnate control was largely confined to the north of England, to Henry’s relatives the Stanleys in the northwest and to the Earl of Northumberland in the northeast and Yorkshire, though the murder of the latter in 1489 left Henry without a great magnate to exercise power on his behalf in that strategically important area.