English Society under Henry VII

Question 1

What were attainders and how did Henry VII use them to control the nobility?

Answer 1

• Attainders were special laws passed by parliament which allowed someone to be declared guilty of treason without going on trial
• Henry used them to seize the titles and possessions of nobles he suspected of disloyalty
• He was often prepared to reverse them if he thought he could secure gratitude and loyalty
• During his reign, 138 were passed, of which 46 were reversed (more towards the end of his reign as he descended into paranoia)

Question 2

What was patronage like under Henry VII?

Answer 2

• Henry largely abandoned Edward’s policy of distributing land to loyal followers
• Henry didn’t want to create a new group of nobles so the no. fell by about 1/4
• Vacant lands fell to Henry and he became the largest landowner

Question 3

How did Henry VII attack retaining?

Answer 3

• 1485 law: meant Parliament, Lords and Commons had to swear that they wouldn’t retain illegally
• 1504 law: required nobles to obtain a license from the King before they could retain a large no. of men - the penalty was £5 a month per illegal retainer
• Nobles found a way around this by covering up records of wages so no one knew how many men they were retaining

Question 4

How did Henry VII financially control the nobles?

Answer 4

• He demanded financial bonds from nobles so they would be in debt to the crown and would have to remain loyal in the future - in his last decade as King, 2/3 were held under bonds
• In 1507, Lord Burgavenny was convicted of retaining 471 men and was fined £70,000
• The Council Learned was established to act as a royal debt collector

Question 5

When was the Yorkshire Rebellion, what was it caused by and what happened?

Answer 5

• 1489
• Resentment of the taxation to fund English forces in Brittany
• The Earl of Northumberland was murdered by his tenants as a victim of the resentment of taxation
• His retainers allowed the tenants to murder him as they deserted him just like he had deserted Richard at Bosworth

Question 6

When was the Cornish Rebellion, what was it caused by and what happened?

Answer 6

• 1497
• Caused by taxation to finance the campaign against Scotland
• Posed a greater threat than the Yorkshire rebellion as there were a greater number of people involved, there was an attempt to exploit it by Warbeck, and the rebels managed to march to Blackheath before being halted
• Raises questions about how effective the systems were for maintaining order in the countryside
• Made Henry more cautious about entering any other foreign conflicts