Monarchy and Government part 2 Flashcards
How was parliament organised
- Had two chambers;
- House of lords (Unelected)
> Hereditary peers and bishops sat - The house of commons
>elected Mps
> Two Mps were elected to represent each county of England
What powers did parliament have
- sole right to grant taxation
- sole right to pass laws
- however the monarch also had the right to veto laws they didnt like and to summon and dismiss parliamnt
How did wealthier memebers of society benefit from parliament
- to vote in a county you needed a property that biught in an income of at leat 40 shillings per year
- it was also common for members of the nobility to excersize patronage to ensure their clients were elected.
> The powerful dukes of Norfolk could usually influence the return of Mps in up to 8 boroughs
How would an act of Parliament be passed
- a bill had to be heard in both the commons and the Lords before being given royal assent by the monarch
When did parliament meet under Henry VII
Under Henry VII parliament met just 7 times in a regin lasting 24 years
When did Palrimaent meet under Henry VIII pre 1529
- Parliament met only 4 times between 1509-1529
- its role was mainly to grant taxation to fund the kings wars
how was parliament under Henry VIII pre 1529
- WHen the wars were going well, especially in 1513, it was usually not too difficult to persuade parliament to grant taxation for the defence of the realm,
- however by 1517, Henry’s foreign policy had become costly and inffecitive
- as the burden of taxation increased, parliament became less keen to grsant increasing amounts of money
What opposition did Wolsey meet from the commons parliament pre 1529
- In 1523, met stiff opposition from the commons to extract the amount of taxation he wanted,
- by this point, £288,814 had been raised in taxation, not mentioning the ‘loans’ raised totalling £260,000
- was met with silence when adressing the MPS personally
When did the refomration parliament sit from?
1529 to 1536
1529 session
- when plmt met in 1529, Wolsey had fallen from power and the king was still attempting to annul his marriage. Cromwell has not yet risen to power.
- At the time, there was some anti-clerical sentiment, but only 3 of the 16 statues passed in the first session dealt with religious matters
1531 session
- Met again in Jan 1531, by this point Henry was threatening to use PLMT as a method to put pressure on pope Clement VII to act
- He told the pope he planned to refer his divorce case to parliament, however this was more of a blackmail attempt than a real threat
1532 session
- Jan 1532 until May
- By then, Cromwell had been appointed to the Kings Council and was starting to use his power to enable Henry to divorce Catherine.
- He used PLMT to pass laws reinforcing Henry’s supremacy over the church and to make the divorce a reality
- Act in conditional restraint of annates passed
- Anti- clericalism in the commons was also manipulated by the production of the petition known as the ‘commons supplication against the ordinances’
Act in conditional restraint of annates
- Applied pressure to the church by threatening to forbid newly appointed bishops from making customary payments to the pope
- However this was not an easy process, facing opposition from both Commons and the Lords
- Hence why the Act was made ‘conditional’ (delayed for a year)
What was the ‘commons supplication against the ordinances’
a list of complaints about the church to which convocation was forced to submit
1533 session
- Plmt met again in Feb 1533 with some urgency, Henry had married Anne Boelyn, who was already pregnant, but any annulment from Catherine could still be challenged in Rome
- Henry needed to ensure that his coming baby would be legitimate and that his marriage and the succesion would be unchallegable
- At this point, Cromwell drafted the Act in Restraint of Appeals
Act in Restraint of appeals
- cut off any attempts by Catherine to appeal her case in Rome
- Allowed Thomas Crammer (AB of Canterbury) to declare Henry’s first marriage void under English law
1534 session
- Plmt was used to confirm and enhance the new Royal supremacy and the break with Rome
- The act of antes was made permament however due to opposition in the Lords payments from the pope to Henry were stopped completley
- The Act of succession, supermacy and the treason act were all passed
Act of succession
1534
- made Mary illegitimate and confrimed Liz as the new heir
- included an oath which meant Henry and Cromwell could monitor carefully any opposition to the new order
Act of supremacy
1534
- confirmed henry’s postion as supreme head of the church
Treason act
1534
- Widened the defintion of treason
- Under this act treason could be commited not only by deeds against the king or his family, but also by words
use of parliament from 1536-1547
Once the break with rome was complete, henry and cromwell continued to use parliment:
- Act of plmt 1536: dissolved smaller monasteries
- second act 1539: dissolved larger monasteries too
Parliament also used to pass acts dictating religious belief:
Act of 10 Articles
Act of 6 articles
2nd and 3rd Acts of succession
act of ten articles
1536
promoted a more ‘reformed’ version of faith
act of 6 articles
1539
reflected Henry’s reversion to a more conservative doctorine
second and third acts of succession
1536 and 1544
rewrote the line of succesion twice more
shift from ‘king and parliament’ to ‘king in parliament’
events of the 1530s created this notion
- the idea that the most powerful insitution in the country was the king acting alongside parliement, rather than without it
- the ‘king in parliament’ also had newfound authoity over the chruch
- the theory was that God had granted Henry royal suprmacy, but the people had giiven Henry the authrotiy to assume the supremacy through plmt
Mary and Lizs’ resopnsr to the reformation parliament
- Mary had to repeal the supremacy throguh parliament
- Liz reasserted it again, through another Act of PLMT
Each time this happened, Parliament gained more power
Unforseen consqeucnes of the refomration Parliament
- Although Henry was always careful to say that Parliament was only acknologin his supremacy, rather than granting it to him, this was not the case
- Once parliament had been used to create the Royal supremacy and break with rome, substeqeunt monarchs were forced to return to it whenever they wanted to alter the religious and political settlement enforced in the 1530s
HOw else did the refomration parliament mean parliament gained power?
- Monarchs were forced to call parliament more frequently
- Before 1529 plmt had met just ffour times in 20 years, yet between 1526-1536 there were sessions nearly every year
- In a sense marked a turning point for the frequency wth which plmt met
What did frequent parliament meetings cause?
- The commons in particular became increasingly confident
- more frequent meetings meant that groups with particular agendas (i.e. puritans under Liz) began to use plmt as a means of achieving their aims
- also meant local MPS became more confident in expressing their veiws, and were less easily intimdated by the presecne of their moanrch
- tudor monarchs, especially LIz had to develop new tactics for managing Parliament
number of parliamentary sessions under Edward
- two in total
1547-52
1553
ways parliament changed under Edward
- mostly used parliament to accelerate the puritan refomration
- regency council was ruling for ed
ways parliament didn’t change under Ed
- Ed was too young to implement many changes
- continued Henrys use of parliament for religious change
number of parliamentary sessions under Mary
5
Ways parliament changed under Mary
- Mary’s parliaments of 1553-4 reversed religious changes and returned to catholicism
- saw a growth in organised protestant opposition led by independent MPS in the commons
opposition in parliament under Mary 1st bill
- 1555 serious opposition to two proposed bils:
> First bill poposed paymennts to the church known as ‘First Fruits and Tenths’ which had been seized by Henry should be returned to the church
- caused such pposition that it was only passed by the ueens supporters keeping the house sitting until 3pm
opposition in parliament under Mary 2nd bill
‘Exiles bill’
- proposed the lands and property of englishmen who had gone into exile and refused to return could be seized
- this bill was defeated when Sir Anthony Kingston, Mp for Gloucestshire, locked the doors of the House and forced the speaker to put the ill to a vote before its supporters could arrived
ways parliament didnt change under Mary
- Mps were opposed to Marys catholic beliefs
- the rate of tax remained the same
Number of parliamentary sessions under Elizabeth
6
ways parliament changed under Elizabeth (Number of MPS)
the number of Mps in the house of commons grew from 302 in 1512 to 462 by 1586
this growth explains why the council felt the need to ‘manage’ parliamentary buisness more
ways parliamrnt changed under Elizabeth (confidence)
- parliament was growing more assertive
- in 1563 and 1566, the commons dared to raise the issue of marriage an succession with the queen, something unimaginable under Henry
examples of parliaments confience under Elizabeth
- in 1566 the council was forced to allow parliament time to debate marriage and succession, going against liz’s wishes
- Elizabeth tried to restrict parliaments claims to freedodm of speech in 1566 and 1576,
- she told thm parliament was free to diccuss matters of ‘commonwealth’ ubut not maters ‘of state’
overall judgement of chnage under liz
though the changes during liz reign were seemingly small, n the 1590s the relationship between monarch and plmt did become strained as a result of the political tensions of the last decade
How accurate is it to say that there were major changed in the role of parliament? (20)
- power and authority
- growth in confidence
- relationship with the monarch
