Henry VIII: government

Question 1

Govt under H8

Answer 1

-H8 inherited a strong & efficient central & local govt structure, staffed by able administrators.
-H8’s early years saw good deal of continuity BUT changes after 1514.

Question 2

Different eras of H8’s govt

Answer 2

1. Govt by Councils 1509-1514: broken down by 1514 due to disagreements between H8 & councillors e.g. war over Fr & preference to surround himself with young courtiers.
2. Era of Wolsey as Chief Minister 1514-1529: W’s influence derived more from close relationship with H8 than from formal positions.
3. Thomas More & Reformation Parliament 1529-1532: W’s downfall brought return to conciliar govt, Thomas More NOT chief minister.
4. Era of Cromwell as Chief Minister 1532-40: Rose to power & dominated royal govt due to personal relationship with King especially in solving King’s Great Matter.
5. Govt by Privy Council 1540-1547: Power lay with conservatives. Faction rivalry intensified in a bid to control successor.

Question 3

In general…

Answer 3

-Parli grew in importance - especially from 1529 when ‘Reformation Parliament’ dealt with divorce & reformed Church. H8 also used Parli to grant extraordinary revenue for his wars.
-Role of Privy Chamber was extended in early years when king’s minions (young courtiers who enjoyed H8’s favour) became Gentleman of Privy Chamber.

Question 4

Wolsey 1514-1529

Answer 4

-Churchman of humble origins.
-Organisational abilities (esp in Fr campaign) impressed H8 and rose to Archbishop of York in 1514, Cardinal 1515 & papal legate 1518.
-Appointed Lord Chancellor 1515 - put him in control of royal govt & gave him immense power as all other courtiers had to go through him to speak to the king.

Question 5

W’s domestic policy centred on…

Answer 5

1) strengthening royal authority
2) raising finance for wars in Fr & Scot by calling Parli but W reluctant to do this.
3) overseeing the legal system - promoting royal authority by enforcing law and order.

Question 6

Legal system

Answer 6

-Presided over COURT OF CHANCERY - W used to uphold ‘fair’ justice in problems relating to enclosure of open fields for sheep faring, contract disputes & land left to others in wills. Main problem = too popular, justice slow.
-1516 onwards used COURT OF STAR CHAMBER - an offshoot of king’s council, centre of both govt and legal system, used to increase cheap and fair justice and heard cases of alleged misconduct & private lawsuit. Too popular, too successful for private lawsuits.
-Local law officers appointed to enforce royal law.
-Authority of Crown over regional councils extended.

Question 7

Raising of finance

Answer 7

-Instead of using local commissioner (generous to local nobility) to assess taxpayers’ wealth for raising of subsidies, set up national committee & more efficient network of royal commissioners appointed by W. Led to more direct & realistic assessments of wealth. Taxed nobility more than poor.
-Success because - led to more realistic and secure base for collecting revenue. Did not rely on local commissioners to assess wealth as tended to be too generous to local nobility.
-Problems - raisin money for second Fr war and subsidies insufficient. W introduced ‘Amicable Grant’ 1525 caused a lot of resentment as it was non-parliamentary tax. Led to widespread resistance amounting almost to rebellion.
-1525 extraordinary revenue raised insufficient to finance war so W tried to raise AMICABLE GRANT - in theory voluntary gift to king, in reality a heavy tax levied without parli approval. Widespread resistance, abandoned.
-1523 SUBSIDY & PARL RESISTANCE TO W . Historians believe W did not handle parl well. 1523 parl called to grant subsidy for 2nd Fr war. Guy called W’s handling of parl ‘arrogant & insensitive.’ Parl blocked W’s proposals because of high demand for subsidies.
-1526 ELTHAM ORDINANCES - to reduce royal household expenditure by reforming Privy Chamber’s finances but W also sought to reduce number of Gentlemen of Privy Chamber, one area of govt over which he did not have control. (Also tried to remove minions 1519, most recovered).

Question 8

Historiography of Eltham Ordinances

Answer 8

Gwyn (often too sympathetic to W) - purpose of EO purely financial - humble household servants lost jobs just like some Gentlemen.
Starkey - EO reflected W’s fear that AG would make him so unpopular, he might lose political influence over H8.

Question 9

The King’s Great Matter

Answer 9

= annulment of H8 first wife and desire to marry Anne Boleyn (niece of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk).
1525 - asked W to secure papal dispensation for annulment providing biblical justification from Leviticus that marriage to brother’s widow illegal in God’s eyes.
1527 - W called special court to ‘try’ H for living with sin with Catherine, H8 pleaded guilty. Pope unwilling, Catherine’s nephew, Charles V (HRE & King of Sp) fiercely opposed, May 1527 - Charles’ troops entered Rome and sacked city, took Pope prisoner. Two years of fruitless diplomacy followed, Pope deliberately procrastinated.
1529 - Pope finally sent envoy, Cardinal Campeggio to hear case along with W in legatine court. Hearing opened June, Campeggio adjourned in July without agreeing to annulment. Oct - W charged with praemunire and surrendered possessions to king.
1530 - W arrested, died before he could be tried & executed.

Question 10

W’s succcesses

Answer 10

-Increasing royal authority - royal courts increasingly used local law officers. Regional Councils increased royal authority outside London. Minions in privy chamber more controlled by EO.
-Enforcing law & order - chancery & court of star chamber used to uphold fair justice.
-Raising finances for king - royal tax commissioners, reformed privy chamber’s finances.
-Resolving king’s great matter - got pope to hold legatine court.

Question 11

W’s failures

Answer 11

-Enforcing law & order - too popular, too many cases, slow.
-Raising finances for king - Amicable Grant = humiliating.
-Resolving King’s Great Matter - could not get Pope to rule in king’s favour, led to removal from office and ultimate failure.

Question 12

Cromwell as Chief Minister

Answer 12

-H8 determined to press ahead with ‘great matter’. Used scholars such as Thomas Cranmer to put theological case for annulment.
-Thomas Cromwell - took matters into own hands pressing series of measures and laws THROUGH PARLIAMENT to put pressure on Pope and release king from papal control.
-1531 ENGLISH CLERGY COLLECTIVLEY ACCUSED OF PRAEMUNIRE, ordered to pay £100,000 fine.
-1532 ACT IN CONDITIONAL RESTRAINT OF ANNATES -withholding payment of annates to Pope by English bishops in first year of office.
-1532 SUPPLICATION AGAINST ORDINARIES - accused bishops of overstating power and increased anticlerical pressure within House of Commons.
-1532 SUBMISSION OF CLERGY - surrender of Church’s law-making function to king, provoked resignation of Thomas More as Lord Chancellor.
-By Jan 1533 Anne pregnant, Cranmer conducted secret marriage. May - Cranmer annulled first marriage, Anne to be crowned Queen. Sept 1533 - Elizabeth born.

Question 13

Acts of Parliament to establish royal supremacy

Answer 13

-1533 April - Act in Restraint of Appeals (no appeals could be made to Rome against decisions of Church courts in Eng.)
-1534 April - Act of Succession (annulled Catherine, vested to new succession in Anne’s children; to deny H new marriage = treason)
-1534 Nov - Act of Supremacy (king declared Supreme Head of Church in Eng.)
-1534 Nov - Treason Act (treasonable to call H a heretic)
-1534 Nov - Act in Restraint of Annates (allowed annates withheld by 1532 act to be transferred from Pope to king.)
-1536 & 1541 - First and Second Suppression Acts (dissolved monasteries).

Question 14

Significance of Acts of Parliament to establish royal supremacy

Answer 14

-Restraint of Appeals = Catherine could not appeal to Rome against annulment.
-Succession = Princess Mary illegitimate; hopes for male heir with Anne.
-Supremacy = Pope’s authority no longer recognised in Eng: ‘break from Rome’.
-Treason = used against opponents of royal supremacy and brought down Thomas More, scholar, courtier & Lord Chancellor 1530-32, executed 1535
-Restraint of Annates = strengthened king’s position; special court set up to administer.
-1st & 2nd Suppression = confiscation of Church land to crown vastly increased wealth & power of crown.

Question 15

Domestic policies under Cromwell 1532-1540 as a revolution

Answer 15

-achieved royal supremacy through acts of parliament enhancing status.
-helped give parliamentary law (statute law) precedence over Church law (canon law).
-by end of 1530s, recognised that Statute Law made by ‘King-in-Parliament’.
-future monarchs could only change laws without parliament.

Question 16

Cromwell replacing ‘personal’ approach with modern form of govt

Answer 16

1. more bureaucratic approach that involved creating departments , controlled by rules & procedures e.g. Court of Augmentations and Court of First Fruits and Tenths - established to look after H’s income from Church, subject to scrutiny and careful auditing of all accounts.
2. composition of Privy Council changed - reducing to 20 men who took responsibility for business of govt. Increased efficiency and higher value placed on talent as opposed to reward for personal service or status within govt. Instead of untrained mbers of nobility more value put on being legally trained professionals.

Question 17

Cromwell’s fall

Answer 17

-Followed failure of H8’s fourth marriage to Protestant German princess Anne of Cleves - a marriage Cromwell arranged to suit his foreign policy.
-Cromwell tried and executed for treason and heresy and executed July 1540 on same day H married Catherine Howard, niece of Duke of Norfolk (one of Cromwell’s enemies).

Question 18

Govt in H8’s last years 1540-1547

Answer 18

-Form of conciliar govt restored - different because Privy Council had fixed membership.
-Privy Council = King’s third chief minister.
-Power in court in 1540 law with conservatives in Council who were anxious to halt further religious change e.g. Norfolk, Gardiner & Wriothesley. By 1540 won 3 key victories.
1. 6 articles in law (limiting religious innovation)
2. TC (enemy) fall.
3. Increased access to H8 through new wife Catherine Howard (niece of D of N).
-As king’s health began to deteriorate factional rivalry between those of differing political and religious views intensified in a bid to control his successor.
-1544 Succession Act ensured H’s son safe succession in law naming Edward as heir, with Mary, then Elizabeth next in line should he fail to survive or produce children.
-By 1546-7 Reform faction dominant.

Question 19

Norfolk’s influence threatened

Answer 19

-Threatened following Catherine Howards execution for treason 1542 & H8’s sixth marriage to Catherine Parr.
-Catherin Howard N’s niece.
-Managed to extricate himself from whole affair, wounded politically.
-Problems reinforced when H married Protestant Catherine Parr.
-Conservatives failed to break friendship between Henry and Cranmer in 1543 by suggesting Cranmer = Protestant heretic.
-H rejected claims and put Cranmer in charge of investigation into the claims.

Question 20

Reform faction dominant

Answer 20

1. Catherine Parr - Protestant sympathiser , gathered Prot scholars at court and ensured Prince Edward & Princess Elizabeth education = protestant.
2. Edward Seymour - Prince Edward’s uncle which helped built his position at court and he was a successful military commander in war v Scot.
3. William Paget - trusted by H8, one of chief advisors fr 1545 onwards.
4. Anthony Denny = keen supporter of reli reforms, 1546 was made Chief Gentleman of the King’s Privy Chamber. As H illness confined him to his private apartment in his last months Denny’s role became crucial - spent a lot of time with H and decided who visited the king. Dry stamp = good impression of the royal signature, using it meant the reform faction led by Denny and Seymour could legalise any document they chose incl an altered version of Henry’s will. This left succession as agreed in 1544 succession act but added provisions to strengthen power of Regency Council established to rule on the child Edward VI’s behalf.

Question 21

How can you prove reformist faction had won?

Answer 21

1. Earl of Surrey (N’s son) executed. had spoken openly re his family’s claim to throne = sensitive issue given H illness and heir being young boy. also, Surrey foolishly put part of royal coat of arms on family emblem. Norfolk in prison but escaped execution by timely death of Henry In Jan 1547.
2. Bishop Gardiner removed from Regency Council
3. henry’s will in hands of reformist faction.