Monarchy and governmement part 3

Question 1

Changes to the structure of government

Answer 1

• During the period 1509-88 the chief ministers, especially Wolsey and Cromwell sought to change the structure of tudor government in order to increase its efficiency and extent its power

Question 2

What was the privy chamber

Answer 2

• a series of rooms where the royal family lived, under Henry it became an important political hun
• the chamber had its own staff, the most important of these being the groom of the stool - in charge of toilet

Question 3

staff in the privy chamber

Answer 3

• under Henry these positions were filled by his most trusted friends, usually men from the nobility or gentry
• the men were not simply servants due to their intimate and daily contact with Henry became his advisers and were often employed in formal areas of gvm

Question 4

What was the council

Answer 4

• a more formal body, existing since the medieval times to advise the monarch
• the monarch chose who should be on the council and did not have to take their advice, though it was often in their best interest to listen to their views
• helped monarch with day to day running of the country and acted as a judicial court. During the tudor period it became increasingly formal

Question 5

privy council under Henry (wolsey)

Answer 5

• until the 1530s, the council was still a fairly large institution of perhaps 40 members, most would not attend on a regular basis
• in 1526 Wolsey was planning the Eltham Ordiances to reduce this to 20 men that would meet daily
• although his plans initially came to nothing, by 1537 a council such as the one he had planned had emerged

Question 6

What was the privy council

Answer 6

• It emerged in 1537 without Cromwell’s planning,
• initially it appeared as an unplanned response to the political crisis of the previous year when Henry was faced with series rebellin and needed a close group of men for advice

Question 7

role of the Privy council ed

Answer 7

• Under Ed the council became less important politically as gvm was very dominated by the kings protectors who used control of the privy chamber to achieve this

Question 8

role of privy council may

Answer 8

• Mary’s council continued as it had done in Henry’s reign.
• Although she had 50 named councillors, only 19 of these were ‘working’ councillors who met 3 or 4 times a week.
• Her council in particular tended to advise her on her marriage and return to catholicism, although they did not always agree

Question 9

role of privy council liz

Answer 9

• under elizabeth it reached its peak- membership went down to about a dozen key individuals and by the 1590s these men met almost everyday sometimes twice.
• By this time, the council had become an essential part of the government which handled much of the day to day business of the country .
• This did not mean the monarch was sidelined, because he or she appointed councillors and could dismiss them at their will

Question 10

changes to the crowns finances

Answer 10

• a constant theme of the tudor period was the tension between the crown’s income and expenditure
• both wolsey and cromwell attempted to put the crown’s finances on a more secure footing, but were only partially successful
• in theory the monarch was supposed to be financially independent

Question 11

crowns sources of income

Answer 11

Two main ones:

• ‘ordinary revenue’ which came from the royal lands an d the monarchs status as a landlord
• ‘extraordinary revenue’ which was usually taxation granted by plmt for the monarchs special needs, usually costs of war

Question 12

issues facing the crown and their finances

Answer 12

• even with some considerable boosts to the crowns income (i.e. through rents and sale of lands) the monarch rarely had enoughh money
• they were often reliant on parliamentary taxation and other more legally dubious source of income
• in 1521 for example, royal officials were so short of money they had to resort to loans to pay the royal servants

Question 13

how was the issue with the crowns finances not helped by their extravagant expenditure?

Answer 13

• Henry spent more than £100,000 building hampton court and whitehall, while the royal household in the 1550s was costing £75,000 a year to run
• even liz who avoided the costs of war until 1585 found it difficult to balance the royal books and died owing £350,000

Question 14

changes to royal finance under Henry

Answer 14

• financial policy under Henry was driven by his desire for war
• Estimated income from crown lands in 1515 was £25,000 per annum but Henry’s war against france 1512-14 cost about £1M
• Cromwell and Wolsey were wholly responsible for funding Henry’s ambitions

Question 15

Finance under Wolsey

Answer 15

• tried new methods to handle it, introduced the subsidy which raised £322,099 between 1513-1523
• a further £117,936 was raised through the traditional form of taxation, the fifteenths and tenths
• however not enough to fund henry’s wars, Wolsey was forced to less legal methods (the Amicable Grant 1525) which in effect was a forced loan from his taxpayers

Question 16

What does subsidy mean

Answer 16

which was a new form of parliamentry taxation in 1513 that was based on an assessment of each individuals wealth

Question 17

What was the result of this finance under Wolsey

Answer 17

• as the amicable grant was on top of the high levels of taxation already demanded
• and ‘loans’ extracted in 1522-23 that had raised £260,000 but not been repaid

the result was rebellion. Wolsey was forced to take full responsibility and withdraw the grant, while Henry claimed no knowledge of his minister’s plans

Question 18

Finance under Cromwell

Answer 18

• in the 1530s, Cromwell tried to solve these problems by the acquisition of former monastery lands for the crown
• this temporarily raised Crown income to a peak of £126,296 in 1541, but this did not last, as by the end of Henry’s reign two thirds of these lands had been sold of
• Cromwell also created 4 specialised financial courts to handle the increased flow of money to the crown, however only two of these lasted

Question 19

financial courts (cromwell)

Answer 19

The courts of Augmentation, First Fruits and Tenths, Wards and Liberies and General Surveryors

• however only the court of Wards and Liveriers lasted beyond the end of the tudor period

Question 20

Financial developments under Ed and Maz

Answer 20

• more crown lands were sold off to reduce debt,
• under Maz crown income from Customs, which had remained the same since 1507, was reformed, increasing income from duties on imports and exports from £25,9000 in 1550-1 to £82,797 in 1558-9

Question 21

financial developments under Liz

Answer 21

• she repead the benefits of earlier changes but did little to change the financial system
• her main contribution was to end the debasement of the coinage, which had begun to be done under MAz
• her natural caution also meant she avoided costly warfare till 1585, but after this th war with spain led to high levels of taxation

Question 22

why was the financial management of the war with spain so bad

Answer 22

• liz and her advisers did nothing to reform the system of taxation.
• the result was decreasing returns, subsidy yielded £140,000 in 1558 but only £80,000 by 1603
• this in turn led to Liz’s controversial exploitation of her royal prerogative, which soured the last years of her reign

Question 23

debasement of the coinage

Answer 23

• from the 1540ss, the tudor regime began melting down the gold and silver coinage and mixing it with other metals
• this was to create more ready money for henry to spend on his warfare,
• the practice had serious effects on the economy, causing inflation.

Question 24

the tudor legal system

Answer 24

• the tudor legal system was comprised of a series of national and local law courts where most cases were heard
• however, there were also ‘special’ courts of equity, which were used to try cases where there was no legal precedent or those with difficult circumstances surrounding the case
• examples of these courts include the star chamber, chancery and the kings council, much more flexible

Question 25

changes to the legal system wolsey

Answer 25

• the role of the star chamber expanded. Number of cases per year grew to 120, vs previous average of 12
• wolsey used the star chamber to prosecute over powerful members of the nobility and pursue his campaign against illegal enclosure but he faced considerable opposition form plmt and this did not outlast his fall
• by Lizs’ reign the star chamber was used as a covenant court for trying cases of riots and abuses of the judicial system,

Question 26

changes to the legal system crowmell

Answer 26

• 1536 act abolished franchises
• 1536 parliament passed a fact which bought wales into line with the english judicial system
• these permanent changes helped enhance royal power as the monarch now had more control

Question 27

what were wolsey cromwell and cecil reffered to as?

Answer 27

• chief ministers of the crown

Question 28

why is Wolsey and cromwell’s background important to note

Answer 28

both rose from humble beginnings meaning they were reliant on Henry for their promotion and power

espeiccally because they lacked the traditional landed estates, wealth and rank that other servants of the crown possessed.

Question 29

wolseys background

Answer 29

• son of an ipswich butcher

- clever boy sent to Magdalen college, oxford and then embarked on a career in the church

Question 30

how did wolsey rise

Answer 30

• 1509 became an almoner to Henry and under the patronage of Richard Fox became a member of the Kings council that year
• was a clever administator and rapidly rose further because he pleased the king by co-ordinating the war effort agianst france in 1512-14