Henry VIII society and rebellions

Question 1

Who are the esquire?

Answer 1

People below the rank of a knight and above the rank of gentlemen

Question 2

What is an affinity?

Answer 2

Those who had a relationship with a person of higher status based on land holding and/or holding a position within the household

Question 3

What happened to heralds by 1530?

Answer 3

Heralds were unwilling to grant or confirm titles to anyone with lands worth less than £10 per year or goods worth under £3000

Question 4

How many gentry families were there by 1540?

Answer 4

5000

Question 5

Who were executed for treason but couldn’t be justified by legal standards of the time?

Answer 5

• The duke of Buckingham, Henry pole baron Montague
• Henry Courtenay
• Margaret Pole
• Lords Darcy and Hussey

Question 6

What happened to Thomas Kiennes?

Answer 6

In 1541, he was tried for the murder of a neighbour’s servant but he was convicted and hung like a common criminal

Question 7

What were the roles of nobles?

Answer 7

• maintaining local influence
• the recruitment of royal armies, e.g. the earl of Shrewsbury raised over 4000 men for the invasion of France in 1513
• great households and offer hospitality to their affinity and neighbours
• essentially servants to the crown

Question 8

Who was John, baron Russell?

Answer 8

He was raised to the peerage and endowed with lands in Devon to bolster royal authority in the south - west following the execution of the marquis of Exeter in 1538

Question 9

Who were the two non - royal ducal titles?
How did they gain the titles?

Answer 9

• Norfolk was restored to the titles which his father held
• Suffolk was promised because of the closeness of his personal relationship with Henry VIII, Suffolk from 1536 gained property in Lincolnshire to increase royal control

Question 10

What happened to the elites during Henry VIII’s reign?

Answer 10

The professional and commercial group (middle class) grew helping to challenge the feudal system. Ultimately, the peerage and gentry still represented the social elite

Question 11

How many more peers were there in 1547 and how did they achieve them?

Answer 11

9 and through royal service and close family relationship

Question 12

What changes and continuations were made to the gentry?

Answer 12

• The number of JPs increased and as a result, the local administrator numbers increased
• Many gentry members did unpaid administration on behalf of the crown
• Sons of the gentry gained legal training
• Clergymen still acted as local administrators so they could gain land and gentry status

Question 13

What happened to the commoners under Henry VIII?

Answer 13

• There were little changes to living standards in the first half of Henry VIII reign
• The rise in inflation caused a drop in real incomes after the amicable grant and after the war in France in 1544
• People still had a lack of possessions and many didn’t have a secure regular government
• Governments were fearful of commoners when outbreaks of disorder were more likely to happen

Question 14

What changes were made in the Anglo - Scottish borders?

Answer 14

• The area was hard to control as it was rural and inhospitable in the winter months
• Cattle and sheep rustling was a common problem
• It was split into 3 marches under the control of a warden
• Henry found it hard to pick wardens out of border magnate families, local officers from the gentry, local nobles or complete strangers as they could limit his control

Question 15

What were the regional issues in the English palatinates?

Answer 15

• Lancashire and Cheshire’s palatinate jurisdiction was reverted back to the crown
• Durham was still controlled by the bishop
• The act of resuming liberties to the crown of 1536 reduced the levels of independence for the bishop
• The palatinate court of chancery still operated

Question 16

What were the regional issues in Wales?

Answer 16

• The laws in Wales act 1536 divided Wales into shire counties, gave Welsh shires direct representation in the house of commons and gave Wales the same legal framework
• The earl of Pembroke and members of the Welsh gentry controlled the county politics in parliaments and legal profession on behalf of the crown
• This caused the catalyst of the loss of Welsh language and identity

Question 17

What were the regional issues in the council of the North?

Answer 17

• The North is defined as lands from the river Humber to Scotland but it could spread into Lincolnshire
• The council was made a permanent body based in York in 1537
• They had legal and administrative functions
• This was as a consequence of the mistrust in the government from the Pilgrimage of Grace

Question 18

Who were the Argonese faction?

Answer 18

A group of Northern earls who felt isolated from London so they wished to see Mary Tudor secured in the line of succession as justice for Henry’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon

Question 19

Who replaced Wolsey as chancellor?

Answer 19

Sir Thomas More

Question 20

Who was Elizabeth Barton?

Answer 20

• She was a nun from Kent
• In 1525, when she was William Warham’s domestic servant, she started trances and prophecies gaining her lay and clerical fame
  She began to threaten Henry VIII with dire consequences if he didn’t drop the projected annulment
• Thomas Cranmer began an investigation on her and after she was arrested, she confessed to having feigned her trances and inspiration
• She was condemned by parliament and executed at Tyburn on the 21st of April 1524

Question 21

Where were there uprisings in 1513 about Henry’s campaigns in France?

Answer 21

Yorkshire

Question 22

What was the resistance to the amicable grant?

Answer 22

• Resistance occurred in North Essex and South Suffolk in towns like Lavenham and Brent Eleigh
• The earl of Essex reported 1000 people on the Essex - Suffolk border
• The dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk faced about 4000 taxation resistors especially unemployed cloth workers
• The dukes handled the matter sensitively and the king backed down from the grant and gave an apology
• Suffolk countrymen were pardoned and leaders of the resistance were treated leniently
• Henry opted to invade France with money from selling monastic lands affecting Wolsey’s domestic reputation

Question 23

What were the social impacts of religious upheaval?

Answer 23

• At the start of Henry VIII’s reign, changes were made to the quality of the clergy and redundant monasteries were dissolved for educational purposes
• Royal junctions in 1536 attacked practices like holy days, pilgrimages and veneration of relics
• The dissolution of monasteries started in 1536 and people were fearful that parish churches would be attacked
• Henry gained all the church land but sold 2/3 of it for foreign policy
• Monasteries lost their educational purposes
• Monks and nuns became unemployed
• People didn’t like Henry as the head of the church
• Major monastic churches like Durham were cathedrals of their diocese but many doubled as local parish churches
• The dissolution would destroy communities, business opportunities, charity, education and basic services like news from the church
• Many tried to protect monasteries. At Hexham, royal commissioners were prevented from beginning the process of dissolution by the gathering of armed men

Question 24

What were the causes of the pilgrimage of Grace?

Answer 24

• People were fearful the dissolution would effect the charitable and education purposes of monasteries which Aske was also against
• Fear the north would be impovished by monastic lands falling into the hands of Southerners
• Many saw the injunctions as an attack on St Wilfrid in Yorkshire, church plate and jewels given by benefactors being lost, and parishes might be amalgamated
• Taxation
• People were against the Duke of Suffolk controlling Lincolnshire
• Tenant grievances in Cumberland and West Moorland
• Wanting Mary to be heir from the Argonese faction

Question 25

What was the Lincolnshire rebellion?

Answer 25

2nd Oct 1536: Started In Louth after rumors that Cromwell would take over parish churches
4th Oct: Dr Rayne (chancellor of the dioses of Lincoln) and Thomas Wulcey were killed in Horncastle by 18 rebels
7th Oct: Rebels and local monks met at Lincoln cathedral. The duke of Suffolk tried to send an army but rather the rebels dispersed

Question 26

What happened in Richmond, Cumberland, North Lancashire and Durham?

Answer 26

On the 25th of October 1536, rebels emerged. They sent out Captain poverty letters illustrating their economic motive

Question 27

What happened during the pilgrimage of Grace?

Answer 27

8th Oct 1536: After visiting rebels in Castor, rebels from Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire joined Robert Aske on a march to York
14th Oct: They took over Hull
16th Oct: They took over York with badges and banner of the 5 wounds of Christ
18th Oct: Pontefract castle was captured and its defender Lord Darcy joined them. A list of 24 aims called the Pontefract articles were given
26th Oct: 40,000 men met the duke of Norfolk and the earl of Shrewsbury in Doncaster where they talked. Norfolk promised to send the articles to Henry and then he sent a parliament to York and the rebels were pardoned
3rd Dec: Aske dined with Henry giving vague promises

Question 28

How did the pilgrimage of Grace re - start?

Answer 28

On the 16th of January 1537, Sir Francis Bigot reinstated the rebellion through the recreation of Captain poverty giving Henry a motive to punish the rebels and the North

Question 29

How were the rebellions suppressed?

Answer 29

• The Lincolnshire rebellion dispersed under Suffolk
• Norfolk didn’t fight the rebels as he was outnumbered
• Henry never aimed to follow through on the articles but he wanted the rebels to spread out
• In February 1537, the duke of Norfolk sent backup to suppress the new rebellion, declared marital law and hanged 74 rebels defying proper legal process
• A number of rebel leaders including Darcy and Hussey, members of the gentry and heads of monastic houses were brought to London tried and executed
• Robert Aske was executed on the 12th of July 1537 with a chain noose