Henry VII - Society Flashcards
What was the Great Chain of Being?
Christian teachings, each class had a duty to serve those above and look after the interests of those below.
Seen as the natural order of society
What were sumptuary laws?
Laws that attempted to regulate how individuals should dress, depending on their social status - unenforceable
What had increased social mobility?
Economic pressures since the Black Death of 1348-1349
Caused alarm amongst conservative members of upper classes
The peerage
50-60 men
Not a closed caste
Relied on by crown for maintenance of law and order
Henry reluctant to create new peerage titles
What was retaining?
Dubbed bastard feudalism by Victorian historians
Wealthy magnates recruited retainers (knights/gentry) to serve them - could potentially use this to unlawfully influence a court case, or against the crown
What happened to Lord Bergavenny in 1506?
Fined £100,000 for illegal retaining
What were the types of gentlemen?
Greater gentry - knighthoods, authenticated coat of arms (by the college of arms), social prestige, imposing residences
Esquires ‘mere gentry’ - more numerous, more local than national horizons, more like yeomanry
Who famously declared it was the king of England rather than the pope that governed the church in England?
Martin V, Pope from 1417-1431
Why was the higher clergy becoming less socially exclusive?
Henry reluctant to appoint men from aristocratic backgrounds
Important clergymen?
John Morton
Richard Fox
Henry valued legal training and administrative ability over spirituality
Types of commoners
Citizens (middling sort) - rich merchants and craftsmen
Labourers - worked for citizens or yeomen, insecure
Yeomen - farmers with substantial land/ property
Black Death led to availability of land increasing this group
Husbandmen - smaller farms than yeomen and supplemented income via employment
How were regional identities enforced?
Local governement - justice increasingly at county level
Saints’ cults placed importance on local areas of pilgrimage
How was agriculture regionally divided?
South east - mixed farming
North west - pastoral farming
Some exceptions: pastoral in Kent, grain/fruit farming on welsh borders
How significant were regional divides?
Relatively small and relatively politically unified.
Areas of magnate influence often cut across county boundaries
Growing discontent of extension of centralised control and southern lords given positions in north
What complicated regional divisions?
Marcher lordships, and county palatines of Durham and Chester (kings writ did not run)
Ethnic and racial differences e.g. Wales, Ireland, Cornwall
North/ south mutual antipathy
