HENRY VII: CROWN & NOBILITY

Question 1

According to the teachings of the Church, what was the natural order of society?

Answer 1

The Great Chain of Being. The Nobility had a duty to serve their social superior, the King, God’s deputy on earth.

Question 2

What does Henry’s reign mark the end of in terms of the nobility?

Answer 2

The end of an independent feudal nobility and the beginning of a service nobility.

Question 3

How did Henry make his task of bringing the nobility to heel easier?

Answer 3

By deliberately keeping the peerage small by limiting the number of new lords that he created.

Question 4

How many Earls did Henry create? How many did Edward IV create?

Answer 4

Henry = three
Edward = nine

Question 5

Who were Henry’s three earls?

Answer 5

1) His stepfather, Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby.
2) Philibert de Chandee, became Earl of Bath.
3) Sir Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon.

Question 6

Who were two noblemen who were not made peers? Who was elevated from Earl to Duke?

Answer 6

Not made peers = Sir William Stanley and Sir Rhys ap Thomas. Even though Henry owed much of his victory at Bosworth to them.
Jasper Tudor = Earl of Pembroke to Duke of Bedford.

Question 7

How many … did Henry make?

• Marquis?
• Viscounts?
• Barons?

Answer 7

One Marquis (briefly)
One Viscount
Eight Barons

Question 8

How much did the peerage shrink from 1485 to 1509?

Answer 8

62 in 1485 to 42 to 1509.

Question 9

What was the Order of the Garter?

Answer 9

Useful alternative to the bestowal of peerage.

Old-established honour, that involved no financial obligations.

Question 10

How many of Henry’s closest followers received the Order of the Garter during his reign?

Answer 10

37. Among those were Sir William Stanley and Sir Rhys ap Thomas.

Question 11

What was one reason for Henry facing fewer over-mighty nobles?

Answer 11

Lack of close male relatives.

Question 12

How did Henry VII use Crown lands to diminish the power of the nobility?

Answer 12

The lands that came to the crown from extinct peerage families were not given away again. E.g. Warwick and Gloucester.

Question 13

How did Henry VII use the monitoring of marriages to control the nobility? Give an example.

Answer 13

Ensured that powerful magnates did not link themselves with great heiresses. E.g. Katherine Woodville married her third husband without royal consent and was fined £2000.

Question 14

What years did Henry pass laws against retaining?

Answer 14

1497 and 1504.

Question 15

Give an example of an individual fined for illegal retaining.

Answer 15

Bishop Stanley, in 1506, was fined £245,680 for illegally retaining.

Question 16

What was Henry’s attitude towards patronage?

Answer 16

Unlike his predecessors, he did not try to buy the loyalty of his nobility through patronage.
It had to be earned.

Question 17

What does the career of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey demonstrate?

Answer 17

How Henry was prepared to forget past mistakes if perpetrators subsequently performed loyally to him.

Question 18

What was the background of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey?

Answer 18

Imprisoned in the tower but released in 1489 and put in charge of maintaining law and order in the North.
After his success in suppressing the Yorkshire Rebellion, he was given back more of the Howard estates.

Question 19

Which financial system did Henry manipulate to his advantage?

Answer 19

Bonds and recognisances. Used with all elite classes as a method of ensuring their loyalty.

Question 20

Give an example where an act of attainder was used to pressure a great magnate.

Answer 20

Lord Dacre, 1506, forced to enter a bond of £2000 as proof of loyalty.