Edward Flashcards
Somerset Overview
-Lord protector from 1547-1549
- governed with members of his household.
- appointed Michael Stanhope as Chief Gentleman , further establishing his own control.
-Thomas Seymour - somersets brother- married Catherine Parr and was becoming close with Elizabeth. condemned with Act of Attainder and executed in 1549.
-pressured to resign from Lord Protector by Southampton, Warwick (duke of Northumberland), Earl of Arundel and Maquis of Winchester, eventually surrendered end of 1549.
northumberland overview
-Appointed himself Lord President of the Privy Council, to avoid the connotations of being Lord Protector that had come with Somerset.
-Purged the conservative Southampton and Arundel, appointed Sir John Gates as Vice-Chamberlain to ensure his control over the court.
-William Cecil became one of Northumberland’s chief administrators, fell out of favour during Mary’s reign but became close with Elizabeth.
-Edward and Northumberland drew up a plan known as the Devyse, to put Lady Jane Grey on the throne and to ensure the continuation of Protestantism.
-Executed for treason 22nd August 1553.
war with Scotland under somerset
-Sept 1547 – Invaded Scotland with a force of 16,000 men, 4,000 cavalry, 30 warships and 50 supply ships.
-Sept 1547 – Victory at the Battle of Pinkie against the Scots.
-Jan 1548 – Somerset appealed to Scotland to agree to marry Edward to Mary (future Queen of Scots).
-1547-49 – Established 25 garrisons on the Scottish border, with a further 14 planned. Had to remain at the border, did not have the economic or military power to push further in for a full invasion.
-June 1548 – 10,000 French troops arrived in Scotland.
-Marriage alliance between Mary, Queen of Scots and Henry II’s son.
-1549 – Western and Kett’s rebellions caused a distraction.
-1549 – French withdrew from Scotland, lucky escape for Somerset.
end of somersets rule
-Somerset fell from power Oct 1549.
-Aug 1549 – Henry II attacked Boulogne.
-England was bankrupt, could not afford to raise an army, financially pressured into making peace.
-Jan 1550 – Lord Russell and Lord Paget began to negotiate a settlement.
-28th March 1550 – Treaty of Boulogne:
o England gave up control of Boulogne for 400,000 crowns.
o England removed all troops from Scotland.
o Planned marriage between Edward VI and Elizabeth, daughter of Henry II.
o England and France formed a defensive alliance.
northumberland and scotland
-April 1550 – Began reorganisation of the Scottish border.
-By March 1552 – Scottish border was restored to before Henry VIII’s Scottish campaign.
-1550 – Henry II recaptured Boulogne.
-Engagement of Edward VI and Elizabeth, daughter of Henry II.
-1550 – Charles V caused a collapse in the Antwerp cloth market.
-England put a temporary embargo on the sale of cloth to the Netherlands, trade relations improved by June 1552.
-English relations with Charles V stagnated, refused to be dragged into the Habsburg-Valois wars.
-By cutting foreign ties Northumberland could focus on stabilising the economy.
-Charles V angered by the harassment of Princess Mary and increased Protestantism in England.
Western rebellion
-Devon and Cornwall.
-Causes:
o Iconoclasm of Church images, particularly Archdeacon William Body’s harsh removal, Body murdered April 1548.
o Outrage at the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, seen as too Protestant.
o Resentment of the March 1549 Sheep tax.
o Outrage at inflation, for example 1547-49 – Wheat prices quadrupled.
-11th June 1549 – Beginning of the Devon rebellion at Sampford Courtenay, led by Humphrey Arundell.
-Articles Produced, including:
o Mass in Latin.
o Transubstantiation.
o Images to be restored to the Church.
-Local gentry unable to deal with the rebels effectively, Hellier murdered, Peter Carew attempted to negotiate with the rebels 21st June, failed.
-29th June – Lord Russell ordered to find a solution.
-6,000 armed rebels in Exeter, Sampford Courtenay and Clyst Heath.
-2nd July – Rebels take Exeter, hold on to it for 6 weeks, rebels were defeated at Clyst Heath 6th August, at Exeter 16th August, and finally defeated at Sampford Courtenay 17th August.
-Over 3,000 rebels killed.
Ketts rebellion
-East Anglia.
-Causes:
o Belief that the local officials were abusing the commoners in East Anglia, in particular abuse of the Norfolk foldcourse system.
o Some religious motives, such as the request for removal of inadequate clergy, but was not the main reason for the rebellion.
o Frustration of the maladministration locally of the Howard family.
o John Guy – ‘the closest thing Tudor England came to a class war’.
-Began 8th July 1549, Robert Kett had his enclosures attacked, but joined and led the rebels.
-12th July – 16,000 strong rebellion established a base in Mousehold Heath, overlooking Norwich. Took Norwich 22nd July.
-York Herald offered full pardons to rebels who dispersed 21st July, Kett rejected. Pardons offered again 30th July, rejected. 1st August – failure of Earl of Northampton to retake Norwich.
-23rd August – Earl of Warwick (Duke of Northumberland) arrived with 12,000 men, 1,000 foreign mercenaries. 27th August – Rebels crushed, 3,000 killed, Kett executed 26th Nov along with 49 others.
economy under Somerset
-Debasement continued in order to fund the war with Scotland. Brought in £537,000 but made inflation worse.
-1547 – Chantries Act – Similar to the 1545 Act under H8, sold chantries for financial reasons, not religious, ended around 2,400 chantries.
-1547 – Vagrancy Act, ordered the church and local authorities to provide relief for the impotent poor, however any idle poor unemployed for more than three days were considered a vagrant, 1st offence – sold into slavery for two years, 2nd offence – sold into lifelong slavery, 3rd offence – death penalty. Never properly implemented due to its unpopularity.
-Established a Court of Requests to hear the cases of the poor against the wealthy.
-Poor harvest in 1548, further compounded inflationary pressures.
-June 1548 – Issued a proclamation enforcing all previous statutes against enclosure (continuity with Wolsey), became somewhat ‘a friend to the poor’. Established a commission under John Hale to investigate cases of enclosure in the midlands.
-March 1549 – Imposed a 5% tax on personal property and a tax on sheep. Deeply unpopular, repealed by Jan 1550.
economy under northumberland
-Jan 1550 – Sheep tax repealed, Vagrancy Act also repealed
-March 1550 – Treaty of Boulogne brought a payment of £133,333 (400,000 crowns) for the return of Boulogne.
-1551 – Debasement meant that silver coins were 75% copper.
-Summer 1551 – Collapse of cloth trade with Antwerp led to increased unemployment, particularly in East Anglia and the West of England.
-1550 – New Treason Act, re-imposed censorship and helped to restore law and order.
-Anti-enclosure still enforced.
-May 1551 – Coinage debased for the last time.
-1552 – Began reminting the coinage at its 1527 levels, to tackle to already existing inflation.
-Continued the pillage the church, chantries were sold and church plate was melted for bullion.
-1552 – New Poor Law, gave parishes a responsibility to collect funds for the deserving/impotent poor.
-1552 – Trade company set up by Sebastian Cabot to find a north east passage to the American continent.
-May 1553 – Sir Hugh Willoughby set out to find a route. Although he perished, his second in command, Richard Chancellor, reached the Port of Archangel and established diplomatic links with Tsar Ivan IV of Muscovy. Links would develop into the founding of the Muscovy Company in 1555.
-1553 – Financial situation stabilised, however Parliament voted against taxes and another £140,000 worth of crown lands were sold.
religious changes under somerset
-Changes were primarily ceremonial, not doctrinal.
-Feb 1547 – Denunciation of images in London, did not order the destruction of images but nonetheless led to widespread iconoclasm in September, while Somerset was in Scotland.
-July 1547 – Royal Injunctions issued, condemned many traditional Catholic practices, such as superstition and the veneration of images, Bible reading in English was permitted for all. Bishop Gardiner was imprisoned for refusing to accept the injunctions.
-Nov-Dec 1547 – First Parliament, Act of Six Articles, heresy laws and the Treason Act were all repealed. Government stripped itself of the powers to punish outbursts of anti-Catholicism, iconoclasm and destruction of Catholic altars. Chantries Act also passed.
-1548 – All Church images were banned.
-Jan 1549 – Act of Uniformity – Banned the Latin Mass, enforced the Book of Common Prayer (introduced May 1549) as the official liturgy of the Church. Congregation given bread and wine, change from the traditional Catholic practice of the wine being reserved for priesthood. Did not radically alter the mass, only drastic change was the language. Sparked the Western Rebellion of June 1549.
religious changes under northumberland
-More radical, doctrinal, Protestant reform 1550-53.
-1551 – Removal of Catholic Bishops such as Gardiner, Bonner, Day, Heath and Tunstall, replaced by Protestants such as Ridley, Hooper and Ponet.
-Rewriting of key services such as Baptism, Confirmation and Burial.
-Reform of Communion, including replacement of the wafer with ordinary bread. Highlighted influence of Zwinglian beliefs in consubstantiation.
-1552 Parliament:
o New Treason Act, became an offense to question the Royal Supremacy or any belief of the Church of England.
o Second Act of Uniformity, became an offense for clergy to not attend Church of England Services.
o Enforced the Second Book of Common Prayer.
-1552 – Second Book of Common Prayer – Removed all traces of Catholicism, confirmed consubstantiation.
-June 1543 – 42 Articles of Religion – Published by Cranmer, laid out the considerably Protestant doctrine of the Church.
