Cromwell in Power - 1532-40 Flashcards
Explain the backround of Cromwell
Thomas Cromwell rose from a humble background to become a lawyer and secretary to Wolsey during his period of dominance and after Wolsey’s fall in 1529 rose to become his principle secretary. By 1532 was his Chief Minister.
- Cromwell’s quick-wittedness and vast abilities and skills attracted Henry and due to his self-taught intelligence rather than formal education like nobility made him more intelligent and articulate than most of the high born courters
- humble back round meant he was well suited for a role of dominance.
State the Domestic Poliies in Goverment under Thomas Cromwell.
- Demise/end to conciliar government
- Replacement of old household system of finances to a bureaucratic system.
- Formulation of Privy Council.
- Number of new Courts established;
Court of First Fruit and Tenths & Court of Augmentations
Explain How Cromwell’s ending of conciliar government changed government.
Upon Wolsey’s downfall conciliar government continued on for nearly 3 years and with no sign of the ‘Kings Great Matter’ being resolved.
It was emergence of Cromwell which brought conciliar gov to an end, as Cromwell had advanced career under Wolsey and began rising steeply
1- his proposal of enabling Henry to secure annulment for his marriage to Catherine and the proposal of breaking with Rome and appointing himself head of the English church.
Explain the significance of Cromwell’s Replacement of old household system of finances
2 key changes of significance
1 = replacement of old household system of finances to bureaucratic system
Previously most of Kings incomes were received by individual offices who’s conduct was not properly regulated by ‘clearly formulated procedures nor properly audited and therefore was weak and could be exploited as not regulated.
The New bureaucratic system legally constituted that departments received money from pre-specified sources and paid out money for properly stationed reasons only and were efficiently audited to ensure that they were acting as they should.
Explain the significance of Cromwell’s Formulation of the Privy Council.
The 2nd key change = Formulation of privy counsil;
- Previously council was made up of around 100-200 members however Cromwell changed this by significantly dimuting it into a privy council of about 20 members specifically designated councillors whom assumed the responsibility for the day-to-day running’s of government and advised the king.
Elton argued that when an administration relying on household was replaced w one exclusively bureaucratic a revolution took place in Government.
Elton argued that some unidentifiable time in the 1530s the medieval system of a large council system was around 200 members, most of whom very rarely attended meetings. As the informality of the medieval system normally resulted in one or two councillors gathering most of the power into there own hands (such a Wolsey) the change was a movement of control away from a small minority/influential individuals o a powerful and knowledgeable bureaucratically organised group.
And created an administration based on departments whom were responsible to parliament - an administration which the crown for the first time ceased ultimate control.
Explain the significance of Cromwell’s establishment of 2 new Courts.
Cromwell introduced a number of new courts to administer most of crowns other finances /sources of income - the most famous 2 being;
Court of the First Fruit and Tenths & Court of Augmentations
- they were set up to handle church wealth (which was newly coming into the kings pocket due to break w Rome as Annates previously paid to the Pope in Rome would be paid to Henry).
- First Fruit & Tenths
meant that annates + revenue previously given to Pope became perfectly acceptable to pay to the king .Therefore Parliaments role as a making body was strengthened and Henry now had control of English Church, and religious policies which strengthened Royal Supremacy.
Consequently by 1534 relationship between England + pope in Rome for a millennium was effectively smashed into pieces.
- Called courts as held legal powers to determined disputed over what was owed to government and what should be paid out of it. The house was also subject to close regulations related to the monies it controlled.
Explain Cromwells other achivements in Parliment.
Act of Restraint of Appeals 1533
Drafted expertly by romwell founded on evidence of the Collectance Act which declare the monarch possessed an ‘Imperial Jurisdiction’ not subject to any foreign power(eg papacy). Thus annates wouldn’t be paid to pope in Rome and meant Catherine couldn’t appeal to the pope against annulment of marriage.
- Act of Succession 1534
declared Henrys marriage to C void and succession vested in his children with Anne Boleyn
declared that to deny validity of marriage to Anne was treasonable and everyone had to take oath of acceptance of new marriage. - Treason Act 1534
Dramatically tightened treason as could now be committed just by speaking words as well as writing/actions thus calling King ‘heretic,tyrant,usurper’ etc was treason + punishable by death.
What evidence is there to DISAGREE that Cromwell masterminded revolution in Government’ as Elton claimed?
Evidence predominately fails to support Cromwell’s revolution in government.
- Many of his changes were piecemeal and not great changes nor were they long lasting i.e. Not all of the Courts he introduced were permeant and many did not actually survive long-term
- A lot of systems implemented were not new or at all ‘revolutionary’ but suggested more of a return to old medieval systems such as return to chamber system developed by Henry V11 and the use of the Exchequer (old Yorkist system) t o many things were a tep backwards rather than paving the way for the future.
- His formulation of Privy Counsel and filtering out various nobility suggests a lot of his measures were in order to decrease others influences over the king + increase own dominance. Nobility resented Cromwell’s influence + though council system meant that they were involved in all important decision making its suggested Cromwell did this to limit the effectiveness of these new arrangements by keeping tight control over activities (such as formulating agendas and implementing council decisions) playing into his ow hands rather than passing them over to permeant officials in ‘service’ of the council.
- Evidence to suggest significant reason for developing the new system of finances = similarly to benefit himself as it strengthened his hold over the governments finances. Eg bureaucratic system of accountability was not introduced until 1540s in the meantime Cromwell as able to spend sizable sums of Kings finances.
- Elton argues Cromwell master minded + knew precisely what he wanted to implement. Though is generally thought although Cromwell had aspirations and goals they were in no-sense a well developed philosophy and plan that he coherently aimed to put into practice but more so influenced by the need to satisfy the Kings needs of the moment and ward of attacks from opponents.
OVERALL JUDGEMENT ON ELTIONS CLAIMS OF RVEOLUTION BY CROMWELL?
There’s general agreement that Cromwell was
- a remarkably talented gov official who exercised his outstanding abilities in turning Henry’s often hazy political aspirations into fully worked-out policies that he then implemented in detail against considerable odds
- His work -rate was phenomenal and made it unnecessary for him to ever really learn the abilit to delegate effectively.
- There’s major differences in the abilities ad techniques he applied but some argue Cromwell could possibly be the most effective government minister of all time and not many have been able to convincingly argue that he was not.
However Elton’s grander claims about a compete Revolution in Government Master-minded by Cromwell are far less convincing. Although it was a decade during the decentralised medieval monarchy took on many features of a modern centralised buearrtratic state a lot of the dessions and changes that took place under Cromwell were piecemeal and largely inspired/caused by the King in order to achieve different objectives. A lot of decisions were made under the pressures of the moment and kings demands as his prime motivation as always to please his master and its a miracle so much consistency did take place during these circumstances.
