English society at the end of the 15th century

Question 1

What was the structure of society like?

Answer 1

Still partly feudal:

King, senior churchmen and nobility (land owners), gentry, yeomen and citizens, labourers, vagrants and beggars.

Question 2

What was the difference between the nobility and the gentry?

Answer 2

Nobility- owned land - part of government

Gentry- gentleman who lived in large houses in the country and provided armies for war

Question 3

Who were yeomen citizens and labourers?

Answer 3

Yeomen- farmers, owned land or rented land in the country.

Citizens - Rich merchants and craftsmen in towns.

Labourers - worked for citizens or yeomen or shopkeepers

Question 4

Why were the nobility important in politics and power?

Answer 4

They dominated land ownership
Nobility/ peerage Comprised of around 50-60 people who were entitled to sit at house of lords
Henry relied on such families for the maintenance of order

Question 5

Why was Henry reluctant to replace dying out nobles?

Answer 5

They were usually replaced by others who had acquired the kings favour.

Henry distrusted the nobility as a class so was reluctant to create new peers.

Question 6

Who, specifically, did Henry trust and who did he never really trust?

Answer 6

Lancastrian military commanders such as Earl of Oxford and Lord Daubeney.

Never really trusted Earl of Northumberland despite him betraying Richard in BoB swaying it in H’s favour

Question 7

Which two basic ways did Henry control the nobility?

Answer 7

Punishments- e.g. political/ financial.

Rewards

Question 8

When did Henry pass retaining laws?

What did it stop wealthy magnates from doing?

Answer 8

1487 - the law restricted wealthy magnates recruiting knights and gentlemen known as ‘retainers’ to serve them as administrators or for military purposes.

Question 9

In what 4 ways did Henry control the nobility with punishments?

Answer 9

Through bonds and recognisances, acts of attainder, feudal dues, retaining
In a law in 1487 he attempted to limit their power - the law restricted the practice that wealthy magnates recruited knights and gentlemen known as ‘retainers’ to serve them as administrators or for military purposes

Question 10

What was the hierarchy of the church like?

Answer 10

The papacy 
The church at the top - owned land
The secular clergy 
Cardinals 
Archbishops
Bishops/Abbots.

Question 11

How much of the population did the gentry and nobility combined make up?

Answer 11

1%

Question 12

How many commoners were there?

Answer 12

Little more than 2 million

Question 13

What was the social ladder like for the commoners in towns and cities?

Answer 13

The Middling sort (Bourgeoisie), Educated and professionals (most numerous/influential group = lawyers, often collaborated with wealthy merchants) and merchants, then shopkeepers and skilled tradesmen (tended to dominate town councils/ borough corporations and played a key role in organisations such as guilds and lay fraternities which were common feature of rural life in pre-Reformation England) , then unskilled urban workers and beggars/prostitutes

Question 14

What was the social ladder like for the commoners in the countryside?

Answer 14

Yeomen farmers, then husbandmen/richer peasantry (bought or rented their own farms) then labouring peasants (relied on selling their labour or supplementing irregular income through planting of vegetables, grazing rights etc) and beggars.

Question 15

What did some of the regional, social variation/divisions arise from?

Answer 15

Demographic differences- sparsely populated north/west of imaginary line from Tees estuary to Weymouth = 1/4 of population while 3/4 = more densely populated south/east of line.
Difference in agriculture either side of the line.

Government structures - separate councils for north of England, wales and Ireland - justice increasingly administered at county level but magnate influence often cut across county borders.

Linguistic and cultural differences - particularly in Wales, Cornwall and Ireland

Question 16

Was there high levels of discontent in late 15th century?

Answer 16

No - probably because living conditions of the poor were improving - only two rebellions (lack of discontent compared to later in Tudor period) and seems to have avoided subsidence crisis which affected other countries

Question 17

What/when were the two rebellions and what triggered them both?

Answer 17

Yorkshire rebellion- 1489
Cornish rebellion- 1497
Both sparked by taxation

Question 18

What happened during the Yorkshire rebellion?

Answer 18

Sparked by resentment of the taxation granted by parliament in 1489 in order to finance an army for the Brittany campaign
The earl of Northumberland was murdered by his tenants/ the rebels when his retainers deserted him (in April in the North Riding of Yorkshire

Question 19

Why did Northumberland’s retainers desert him during the Yorkshire rebellion?

Answer 19

Punishing him because he had deserted Richard III at Bosworth
He was ultimately a victim of resentment against taxation

Question 20

What happened in the Cornish rebellion?

Answer 20

Arose from a tax needed to finance a campaign against Scotland - Cornish people saw this war as irrelevant to them
The people blamed the king and ministers such as Morton and Bray

Question 21

Why did the Cornish rebellion pose a greater threat than the Yorkshire one?

Answer 21

Larger numbers were involved (estimated 15,000).

Perkin Warbeck attempted to exploit the rebellion.

A march on London reached Blackheath raising question on Henry’s ability to retain countryside order (they had marched so far with no real attempt to stop them).

Question 22

What were the effects of the Cornish rebellion?

Answer 22

In the short term it forced Henry to remove Lord Daubeney and his troops from the Scottish border to crush the rebellion.

The rebellions were easily crushed and the three leaders e.g. Lord Audley, were executed (most rebels leniently treated).

Made Henry ensure Anglo-Scottish tensions were eased and made him cautious about entering further foreign conflicts.

About 1,000 of the rebels were killed at the so-called Battle of Blackheath. Some were taken prisoner but many of the rebels simply fled.

Question 23

What did both the rebellions involve that made them a threat?

Answer 23

The involvement of the nobles made it a greater threat because of their level of power and the fact they were meant to support the King

Question 24

What changed in terms of society?

Answer 24

A growth of a professional and bourgeoisie who had become increasingly important in London and the major provincial cities such as Norwich and Bristol.

Economic pressure (especially since the black death) had increased social mobility and alarm amongst more conservative minded members of the upper classes whose sumptuary laws proved unenforceable.

Question 25

What is a sumptuary law?

Answer 25

Laws that attempted to regulate how individuals should dress, depending on their social status

Question 26

What affect had the black death had on population?

Answer 26

The later outbreaks (e.g. 1375 + 1378) reduced the population of England by half and it did not begin to recover until after 1450
These deaths caused a shortage of land usage and food

Question 27

What was key to the nobles power?

Answer 27

Bastard feudalism with wealthy magnates

Question 28

What was Henry’s response to bastard feudalism and when?

Answer 28

Passed acts to take action against nobles abusing the system (had to be careful as nobles = powerful)
In 1486 - Peers and MPs required to take an oath against illegal retaining or being illegally retained (illegality here remains undefined).

1487 - law against retaining was established.

1487 law reinforced by act passed in 1504 under which licences for retaining could be sought.

Question 29

What was the 1504 act regarding retaining?

Answer 29

Stated that only the King could grant licences for retaining. This lasted only for the duration of the king’s lifetime.

Lord Bergavenny was the significant victim of this act who was indicated for illegal retaining in 1507 and fined £100,000 (but probably paid no more than £1000 as Henry VIII pardoned him shortly after coming to the throne)

Question 30

Who was fined for illegal retaining?
How much?
When?

Answer 30

Lord Bergavenny was the significant victim of this act who was indicated for illegal retaining in 1507 and fined £100,000 (but probably paid no more than £1000 as Henry VIII pardoned him shortly after coming to the throne)

Question 31

Despite gentry not being a fixed caste, how could the identity of the greater gentry and the lesser gentry be established?

Answer 31

Greater = possession of a knighthood, considerable income and an imposing country residence or courtly connections. They possessed considerable social prestige e.g. dominating local office.

Lesser = Often had more in common with the local yeomanry, living far more modestly.

Question 32

Why was the Church important?

Answer 32

Not merely for it’s spiritual role but also as a great landowner

Question 33

Who were the two most important clergymen in H’s reign and what did that show?

Answer 33

John Morton and Richard Fox (both examples of administrative competence being valued above spirituality)
King also reluctant to appoint those of an aristocratic background so the higher clergy were becoming less socially exclusive

Question 34

Who were the peerage?

Answer 34

Groups of people who held one of the five ranks of the aristocracy (duke, marquis, earl, viscount, baron), they were usually considerable landholders, exercised considerable power in their localities and were members of the HoL

Question 35

What were the regional differences in agriculture?

Answer 35

South and east of the line, mixed farming predominated in the more densely populated counties (especially Norfolk, Suffolk and Kent)
In more sparsely populated areas in the North and the West, pastoral farming dominated with the rearing of sheep, cattle and horses
Exceptions to this rule - Pastoral farming dominated in the Fens and grain farming and fruit growing in Herefordshire and the Welsh border counties

Question 36

What were real wages like under Henry VII?

Answer 36

A slight increase in 1490’s.

Question 37

Define real wages and subsidence crisis?

Answer 37

Real wages - the value of income in relation to the price of goods on the market, instead of actual money received.

Subsidence crisis - When harvest failures raises food prices to such an extent that significant numbers of the poor die from starvation

Question 38

What were other causes of the Yorkshire rebellion?

Answer 38

Strong resentment about a Lancastrian monarch especially as a Yorkist one had been overthrown.

Yorkshire had been badly hit by a poor harvest and many in Yorkshire saw this tax as a tax too far.

Other northern counties were exempted from the tax because they were expected to use their finances to defend the country from the Scots.

Question 39

What were the outcomes of the Yorkshire rebellion?

Answer 39

Easily crushed by earl of Surrey.

Henry offered pardons to many of the rebels.

The new Earl of Northumberland was only a minor and the Earl of Surrey was made Lieutenant = No problems in the north

He failed to collect the region’s tax quota for the Brittany campaign:
£27,000 / £100,000 was raised

Question 40

What were other causes of the Cornish rebellion?

Answer 40

Henry had issued new regulations on tin mining and suspended the privileges of the local Cornish court and parliament.

Cornwall had previously been exempt from tax in Scotland because of the distance.

Cornwall had to pay a disproportionately large amount of the tax.