Henry VII's government

Question 1

How many men were recorded as having attended the Council during Henry’s reign?

Answer 1

227

Question 2

What are elites?

Answer 2

Select groups that are considered superior in terms of ability, birth or qualities to the rest of a group or society.

Question 3

How many people actually regularly attended the council?

Answer 3

7-24

Question 4

What were the three main functions of The Council?

Answer 4

To advise the king
To administer the realm on the king’s behalf
To make legal judgements

Question 5

What were the three main types of councillor in The Council with examples?

Answer 5

1. Members of the nobility, such as Lords Daubeney and Dynham, though the working Council only rarely included the great magnates of the realm.
2. Churchmen such as John Morton and Richard Fox, who often had legal training and were excellent administrators.
3. Laymen, either gentry or lawyers, who were skilled administrators, such as Sir Reginald Bray and Edmund Dudley.

Question 6

What is a ‘magnate’?

Answer 6

In this context a member of the higher ranks of society.

Question 7

Who was John Morton?

Answer 7

A highly able churchman and lawyer, Morton began his public career as a passionate Lancastrian, but made his peace with the Yorkists to serve Edward IV, under whom he became the Bishop of Ely.
However, he worked against Richard III and was promoted for his services by Henry to Archbishop of Canterbury in 1486. He also became a cardinal in 1493.

Question 8

Who was Sir Reginald Bray?

Answer 8

Bray had been a faithful servant of Henry Tudor for a long time. He had helped Henry to raise funds before the Battle of Bosworth.
Under Henry’s reign his influence was exercised through his role as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He also led the Council Learned in Law.

Question 9

What is the Duchy of Lancaster?

Answer 9

A significant body of property, mostly bot not exclusively situated in Lancashire, which personally belonged to the king but was formally the territory of the duke; Henry VII’s habit was to grant positions of authority within the duchy to his most trusted servants.

Question 10

On what two things did the importance of the Council depend on?

Answer 10

Its key members (particularly Bray)

Council Learned in Law

Question 11

Who was Margaret Beaufort?

Answer 11

Margaret Beaufort married Edmund Tudor in 1455 and fave birth to the future Henry VII when aged only 14. He third husband was Thomas, Lord Stanley.
She, in her turn, remained an important unofficial adviser to the king. Margaret was granted a large landed estate by Henry at Collyweston in Northamptonshire.
She retained her political influence throughout her son’s reign.
However, her ability to intervene directly n political affairs was limited because she spent much of her time keeping her own lavish household.

Question 12

What is The Great Council?

Answer 12

The Council should not be confused with the Great Council. The Great Council was a gathering of the House of Lords, meeting without the House of Commons. It had no clearly defined functions and was an occasional rather than a permanent body. It met only five times in total throughout Henry VII’s reign. It usually concerned itself with issues relating to war or rebellion and was a means of binding the nobility to key decisions relating to national security.

Question 13

What was the function of Council Learned in Law?

Answer 13

Maintain the king’s revenue and to exploit his prerogative rights.

Question 14

what are prerogative rights?

Answer 14

Describes those rights or powers which the monarch could exercise without requiring the consent of Parliament.

Question 15

What system did the Council Learned in Law make in order to entrap many of the king’s subjects?

Answer 15

Bonds and Recognisances

Question 16

Who formed a feared combination of able and conscientious bureaucrats who raised the extraction of money from the king’s subjects to a fine art?

Answer 16

Sir Richard Empson

Edmund Dudley

Question 17

What is a bureaucrat?

Answer 17

An official in a government department, in particular one perceived as being concerned with procedural correctness at the expense of people’s needs.

Question 18

Edmund Dudley and Sir Richard Empson created enemies amongst some of the king’s other key advisers such as who?

Answer 18

Bishop Fox and Sir Thomas Lovell, who removed them after Henry VII’s death.

Question 19

Who was Sir Richard Empson?

Answer 19

Empson was a member of the king’s Council from 1494. He eventually chaired the Council Learned. Closely identified with the increasing ruthlessness of Henry VII’s regime, Empson was arrested shortly after the death of the king, charged with treason and executed in the following year.

Question 20

Who was Edmund Dudley?

Answer 20

Dudley came to prominence following the death of Bray. Steven Gunn argues that his role was to exploit financial opportunities, which gave him ample opportunity to make influential enemies. He therefore became vulnerable to counter-attack as soon as he lost the king’s protection. Upon Henry’s death he became accountable for what had been the king’s demands.

Question 21

What was the centre of the government?

Answer 21

The Royal Court

Question 22

Why was the Royal Court important in the government?

Answer 22

Royal court was magnificent and generous.
It was where the power of the monarch was demonstrated to all the courtiers in attendance.
It was through the court that rewards and status were distributed to those who were deserving or, more likely, well connected.

Question 23

What is a courtier?

Answer 23

A person who attends a royal court as a companion or adviser to the monarch.

Question 24

What privileges did courtiers enjoy in the court?

Answer 24

Paid positions or right to receive free food.

Question 25

What was a personal monarchy?

Answer 25

Medieval monarchy was personal. In any personal monarchy the political power and the influence of an individual depended more on the relationship that person had with the monarch than on any specific office which they might have held. Access to the king, therefore, was the main determinant of power and it was through the royal court that access was controlled. This remained the case whatever a particular monarch’s style of kingship was.

Question 26

What were the different levels to the court?

Answer 26

1. The household proper was responsible for looking after the king, the courtiers, guests and other ‘hangers-on’ who were being entertained. These personal and catering requirements were supervised by the Lord Steward.
2. The politically important part of the system was the Chamber, presided over by the Lord Chamberlain. The Lord Chamberlain and other senior household officials were influential courtiers. The position of Lord Chamberlain was both powerful and a matter of considerable trust. It was therefore a considerable blow to Henry VII to discover in 1495 that his Lord Chamberlain, Sir William Stanley, had been involved in a treasonable plot with the pretender Perkin Warbeck.

Question 27

What was Henry’s response to the challenge of being betrayed by Lord Chamberlain and people he trusts?

Answer 27

Response was to remodel the Chamber by creating a new Privy Chamber, to which the king could retreat, protected by his most intimate servants.

Question 28

What is the Chamber?

Answer 28

The private areas of the court; also a key department for the efficient collection of royal revenues.

Question 29

What is The Lord Chamberlain?

Answer 29

Also known as the Chamberlain, an experienced nobleman and member of the king’s council, and a personal friend of the king; he had administrative and political power, often speaking for the monarch in an official capacity, and was also responsible for organising court ceremonies.

Question 30

What is the Privy Chamber?

Answer 30

Comprising the close personal sebants of the monarch; its members had direct access to the monarch and therefore could influence him or her more directly.

Question 31

What does the term ‘chivalrous’ mean?

Answer 31

To be gallant, or courteous, the chivalrous culture of the early Tudor court was a code of conduct associated historically with the dutiful behaviour of medieval knights.

Question 32

What are the two main functions of Parliament?

Answer 32

To pass laws and to grant taxation to the Crown.

Question 33

How many parliaments did Henry call in his entire reign?

Answer 33

Seven

Question 34

What were Henry’s early parliaments mainly concerned with, first and second?

Answer 34

Issues of national security and the raising of revenue.

Question 35

What was extraordinary revenue?

Answer 35

Money raised by the king from additional sources as one-off payments when he faced an emergency or an unforeseeable expense of government; this could be made up of parliamentary grants, loans, clerical taxes, for example.

Question 36

What are fifteenths and tenths?

Answer 36

Standard form of taxation, calculated in the 14th century, paid by towns and boroughs for the Crown

Question 37

How much did the fifteenths and tenths tax yield?

Answer 37

£203,000

Question 38

What is a bond?

Answer 38

A legal document which bound an individual to another to perform an action or forfeit a specified sum of money if they failed to do so.

Question 39

What is a recognisance?

Answer 39

A formal acknowledgement of a debt or other obligation which could be enforced by means of financial penalty.

Question 40

At a local level, who did Henry increasingly rely on to maintain law and order in the countryside?

Answer 40

Justices of peace.

Question 41

Various Acts of Parliament were passed to increase the powers and responsibilities of JPs who were responsible for routine administration such as what?

Answer 41

Tax assessments, alehouse regulation, the investigation of complaints against local officials, and the maintenance of law and order.

Question 42

What were the sources of royal income?

Answer 42

Crown lands
Profits from feudal dues and the exercise of the royal prerogative
Customs revenue
Pensions from other powers
Profits of justice
Extraordinary revenue

Question 43

At the beginning of Henry’s reign income had dropped to how much and why?

Answer 43

£12,000 per year
Because income from lands was collected and administered through the inefficient Court of Exchequer, which exemplifies Henry’s inexperience in such financial matters.

Question 44

What did Henry do with the exchequer?

Answer 44

Moved it to his household

Question 45

What was the result of Henry moving the exchequer into his household?

Answer 45

Finances improved markedly and the income from land had increased by the end of the reign to around £42,000 per year.

Question 46

To how much had income from lands increased at the end of Henry’s reign?

Answer 46

£42,000 per year

Question 47

What is wardship?

Answer 47

An aspect of the feudal system which enables the Crown to gain the profits from property held by a minor.

Question 48

What is feudal aid?

Answer 48

A right by which the Crown could impose a tax on their tenants for the knighting of the eldest son, the marriage of the eldest daughter or to ransom a lord; this was typical of a skillful way in which Henry revived old forms of raising revenue, much to the irritation of landowners.

Question 49

What was the Statute of Uses?

Answer 49

A law passed to prevent property from being turned into trusts which in modern terms were mechanisms for avoiding pausing tax on a deceased person’s estate.

Question 50

By how much did Henry’s revenue from customs increase?

Answer 50

From £34,000 to £38,000

Increase of £4,000

Question 51

How much is the French pension worth and what treaty was this agreed at?

Answer 51

£5,000 per annum

Treaty of Etaples

Question 52

Between 1504 and 1507, how much money was promised to the king through bonds but not all collected?

Answer 52

£200,000

Question 53

How much money had Henry raised from extraordinary taxation and what were the limitations of this?

Answer 53

Henry received over £400,000 from extraordinary taxation.
Helped to provoke rebellions in 1489 and 1497. Henry had to promise parliament not to raise any more money by this method.