Royal councils

Question 1

What was the prime function of councils?

Answer 1

To transmit the monarch’s wishes into actions and ensure that the country was effectively governed

Question 2

How many men attended Henry VII’s council, how many were in regular attendance, and who were his principal advisers?

Answer 2

227

20

The Archbishop of Canterbury/Lord Chancellor, the Lord Privy Seal, the Lord Chamberlain, and household servants

Question 3

What did Henry VIII do and who continued to hold important posts?

Answer 3

Added more nobles to the council;

Clerics

Question 4

What was the case by 1540 and why?

Answer 4

A small, select group of councillors had emerged into a privy council

Due to the rebellions that beset Henry in 1536

Question 5

What did Henry VIII’s council come to reflect and who assumed prominent roles?

Answer 5

Noble factions according to the king’s changing matrimonial circumstances

Senior members of the Boleyn, Howard, Seymour, and Parr families

Question 6

What happened to the size of the council under Edward and Mary and who did it contain?

Answer 6

Increased from 30 to 40 members

A mixture of nobles, bishops, law officers, and household servants

Question 7

Under Elizabeth what happened?

Answer 7

Numbers in attendance fell back from around 20 to fewer than 12

Question 8

What happened to the frequency of meetings and composition?

Answer 8

By 1603 it was meeting every day

Heavily influenced by the secretary and treasurer, and was dominated by members of the household and sons of officials

Question 9

What did Cromwell do in the 1530s?

Answer 9

Had given the office of Secretary of State a key role in the central administration

Question 10

What ensured that the privy council survived as a vital administrative office?

Answer 10

Elizabeth’s dependence on Cecil and Walsingham

Question 11

What did Walsingham do?

Answer 11

Assumed responsibility for maintaining stability

Question 12

Who did the Council in the Marches of Wales take there orders on but what happened in the sixteenth century?

Answer 12

The privy council

Developed into administrative and judicial councils in their own right, with a president, secretary, chief justice, and clerks

Question 13

Until 1536 what was the case?

Answer 13

No changes in the administrative organisation of the Welsh marches and lordships

The Crown held most of the land in Wales and there were few independent lordships

Question 14

What did Henry VII do in 1487?

Answer 14

Restored a council at Ludlow, placed Jasper in charge, and invited the leading Welsh and English nobles to attend

Question 15

Who were the Council of Wales’s presidents after 1495?

Answer 15

Often bishops, men like William Smith and Rowland Lee

Question 16

What happened in the 1530s?

Answer 16

Lee restored royal authority (effective power used to rest with local landowners) by rebuilding castles and enforcing justice more effectively

Question 17

What did the statutes of 1536 and 1543 do and what did they mean for Wales?

Answer 17

Created twelve new counties in Wales and extended the council’s authority to cover five English border counties

Wales now had an English administrative and judicial system and elected 24 MPs to Westminster

Question 18

What did the Welsh lords accept and why?

Answer 18

The political and religious reforms under Henry VIII

They were bribed with church land and offices as they were keen to become JPs and enhance their local position

Question 19

What was there none of and what did George Owen write in the 1590s?

Answer 19

Revolts or rebellions against the Crown in Tudor Wales

‘No country in England so flourished in one hundred years as Wales has done’

Question 20

What did Henry VII do and who dominated the Council at Henry’s accession?

Answer 20

Revived the Council of the North after a lapse

The Clifford, Neville, Percy, and Dacre families

Question 21

What happened in 1489, what did it herald, but what was the case?

Answer 21

Earl of Surrey was appointed as his lieutenant

The king’s ntention to develop greater control over the northern counties

Influence remained limited

Question 22

What happened in 1525 and 1530 and 1537?

Answer 22

The Council of the North was remodelled

Received judicial functions in 1537, acting as a regional Star Chamber under the presidency of the Bishop of Durham

Question 23

What did Henry VIII do?

Answer 23

Invited leading nobles to attend

Kept a watchful eyes on proceedings by assuming himself the wardenship of the marches and appointing gentlemen as his deputies

Question 24

What happened in 1544 and why?

Answer 24

Two deputy wardens were enobled after

Norfolk declared that ‘wild people’ could only be controlled by men of ‘good estimation’

Question 25

What did Edward and Mary do?

Answer 25

Restored the Dacres and Percys as wardens

Question 26

From 1563 what did Elizabeth do?

Answer 26

Started to appoint more southern nobles and northern gentry to the wardenship

Question 27

What happened following the northern earls’ revolt?

Answer 27

Earl of Huntingdon was appointed president

The council’s authority was increased to cover all northern counties except Lancashire

Question 28

What did the Council of the North play a major part in doing and what demonstrates this?

Answer 28

Upholding order and dispensing justice

After 1570, there were no more revolts or disturbances