Henry VII: Economic Development - Enclosure

Question 1

What type of work were most of the population involved in at the end of the 15th century?

Answer 1

• England was an agricultural country with the vast majority of the population involved in some form of farming

Question 2

How did farms operate across the country?

Answer 2

• Farming practices varied
• Some regions maintained a medieval open field system
• Some open fields were being enclosed
• Some regions never had open fields

Question 3

What is enclosure?

Answer 3

• Enclosure is the fencing off of common land and the abolition of rights over it so that it became the sole responsibility of the individual landowner

Question 4

What were the advantages of enclosure?

Answer 4

• Land could be divided into fenced off fields
• Selective breeding of animals could be practised
• Encouraged growth of a wider range of crops
• Reduced spread of weeds and animal disease
• Made it easier to assign land - this benefitted richer landowners rather than peasants

Question 5

What were the disadvantages of enclosure?

Answer 5

• Loss of the right to use common land, eviction of families who could not prove legal right to their land

Question 6

Was enclosure a prominent issue?

Answer 6

• Enclosure made farming less labour intensive and accessible which led to rural depopulation
• This was not a widespread issue and only greatly affected certain rich arable farmlands like the Midlands
• Only 3% of land was enclosed across England
• Not a new issue - practised for hundreds of years

Question 7

How did Henry try tackling the issue of rural depopulation?

Answer 7

• In 1489 Henry VII passed some legislation
• The word enclosure was not used in the act but it criticised the conversion of arable to pastoral land, and the decay of villages
• Act forbade the destruction of houses attached to 20 or more acres of land
• Never successfully implemented as it was left in the hands of landlords to enforce