Henry VIII's Government Flashcards
1
Q
What was the role of parliament under Henry VIII?
A
- before 1530s, viewed the role of Parliament in the same way as his father (main roles to grant extraordinary revenue and pass laws)
- Wolsey was reluctant to use Parliament, only calling it once
- Cromwell exploited Parliament’s legislative possibilities much more thoroughly
2
Q
Why did conciliar governing come to an end under Henry VIII?
A
- Henry became fed up with the reluctance of his father’s senior councillors to support a war with France
- as he got more used to governing he started to assert his right to control decision making
- like minded courtiers that he was surrounded by reinforced his suspicions of councillors
- he became impressed with the organisational skills of Thomas Wolsey, who gave him what he needed and complemented his approaches
3
Q
What was the Court of Chancery?
A
- Wolsey was responsible for overseeing the legal system as Lord Chancellor
- he used the court of chancery to uphold fair justice, for things such as enclosure, contracts and land left in wills
- the court was too popular meaning justice was slow as it was clogged up with cases
4
Q
What was the Court of the Star Chamber?
A
- established in 1487 but became the centre of government and justice under Wolsey
- he extended the use of it from 1516 to increase cheap and fair justice
- encouraged use for private lawsuits too but it was too successful, so he was forced to set up a series of ‘overflow tribunals’ to deal with the pressure
5
Q
What was the Tudor Subsidy?
A
- a change in the way subsidies were collected
- Wolsey set up a national committee which assessed the wealth of taxpayers, meaning the nation’s revenue base became more realistic
- this is how Wolsey raised extraordinary revenue for war with France, however the amount raised was insufficient, leading to the Amicable Grant
6
Q
What was the King’s Great Matter?
A
- Catherine of Aragon was five years older than Henry and failing to produce a son
- Henry had also fallen in love with Anne Boleyn, who was refusing to become his mistress
- this meant Wolsey was required to secure a papal dispensation for the annulment of his marriage (known as the King’s Great Matter)
- Leviticus contained a prohibition on a man marrying his brother’s widow, so Henry claimed this marriage was illegal
- however Catherine argued that her previous marriage was never consummated
7
Q
What led to the fall of Wolsey?
A
- after 2 years of fruitless diplomacy, the Pope sent an envoy, Cardinal Campeggio, to hear the case alongside Wolsey
- the hearing was adjourned after a month meaning Wolsey had failed to secure an annulment
- he was already unpopular for the 1523 subsidy and the Amicable Grant
- In 1529 he was charged with praemunire and in 1530 he was arrested, dying before he could be executed
8
Q
What were domestic policies like under Cromwell?
A
- he was the new chief minister by 1532
- he suggested that Henry break with Rome and become the head of an English church
- according to historian Elton, he caused a ‘revolution in government’
- the privy council and parliament grew in importance (Reformation parliament 1529-1536)
9
Q
How was the Catholic church becoming weaker?
A
- weakened by humanist criticisms of Colet and Erasmus, and anticlerical satire of Simon Fish
- their claims to legal supremacy was challenged in 1528 by lawyer Christopher St. German who asserted the superiority of English law over the canon law of the church
- Cambridge theologians Thomas Cranmer and Edward Foxe assembled ‘Collectanea Satis Copiosa’ - a collection of historical documents that justified divorce on the basis of legal and historical principles
10
Q
How did Henry and Cromwell put pressure on the Pope?
A
1531
- the clergy were accused of praemunire and fined - they were forced to acknowledge that the King was ‘protector and supreme head of the English church’
1532
- the Act in Conditional Restraint of Annates was passed to increase pressure on the papacy by witholding the first year’s income from the office of the bishop
- formal submission of the Clergy forced Sir Thomas More to resign as Lord Chancellor
11
Q
What forced Henry’s annulment issue to end?
A
- Anne Boleyn consented to sexual relations, gambling that she’d become pregnant so he would have to take action
- by December 1532, it became known that Anne was pregnant, and the next month her and Henry had secretly married
- Archbishop Thomas Cranmer annulled Henry and Catherine’s marriage in May 1533
- succession problem wasn’t solved as Anne gave birth to a baby girl
12
Q
What was the Act in Restraint of Appeals?
A
- April 1533: founded on evidence in the Collectanea
- declared that the monarch possessed an imperial jurisdiction which wasn’t subject to any foreign power
- declared appeals could not be made to Rome regarding church court decisions ‘in causes matrimonial’ and in other areas
- this meant Catherine couldn’t appeal to Rome against her annulment
13
Q
What was the Act of Succession?
A
- April 1534
Declared that: - Henry’s marriage to Catherine was void
- the succession should be vested in the children of his marriage to Anne
- to deny the validity of his marriage to Anne was treasonable
- an oath should be taken to affirm an individual’s acceptance of the new marriage
14
Q
What was the Act of Supremacy?
A
- November 1534
- gave legislative force to the royal supremacy
- stated that the King was the Supreme Head of the Church of England
- effectively accomplished the Break from Rome
15
Q
What was the treason act?
A
- November 1534
- tightened so that treason could be committed by the spoken word as well as by deed or writing
- treasonable to describe the King as: heretic, tyrant, usurper or infidel
16
Q
What was the act annexing first fruits and tenths to the crown?
A
- November 1534
- annates paid by a bishop to the Pope would now be paid to the King
- increased the clergy’s financial burden and strengthened the royal supremacy
17
Q
What was the dissolution of the monasteries?
A
- between 1536 - 1542
- vast amount of Church’s land confiscated by the Crown significantly increasing the Crown’s wealth and power
- however the benefit was short lived as much of it was granted away or sold to raise money for foreign wars
18
Q
What caused the downfall of Anne Boleyn?
A
- relations between Anne and Cromwell had broken down and Cromwell felt his life was threatened
- he allied with the conservatives and persuaded Henry that Anne’s flirtatious manner had led to adultery
- she was executed 19th May 1536
19
Q
What led to the fall of Thomas Cromwell?
A
- Henry’s third wife Jane Seymour died after giving birth to a male heir, Edward
- In 1540 Cromwell tried to reconcile Henry with the League of Schmalkalden - German princes and free cities within the Holy Roman Empire who supported the rejection of the Catholic Church
- He arranged a marriage to Anne of Cleves but they didn’t get along and the marriage was annulled - led to Cromwell losing credibility
- Cromwell’s enemy, the Duke of Norfolk, suggested his niece Catherine Howard instead
- Cromwell was accused of treason and heresy and was executed
20
Q
What was Henry’s government like in his final years?
A
- a form of conciliar government was restored
- the fall of Cromwell saw the emergence of a Privy Council with a fixed membership
- some see Henry as being firmly in control, while others see him as being prey to court factions
