Henry VII's Government Flashcards
What were the key features of the council under Henry VII?
Three main functions:
- To advise the King
- To administer the realm on the King’s behalf
- To make legal judgements
- Permanent body with a core membership
- Sometimes met separately
- Historian David Loades argues that Henry’s key advisor was his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort
- around 227 members
What were the key features of the Council Learned under Henry VII?
- Function was to maintain the King’s revenue and exploit his prerogative rights (rights that could be exercised without the consent of parliament)
- Therefore made the bonds and recognisances system work effectively
- Not recognised as a court of law, so those summoned before it had no chance to appeal (caused fear and anger according to historian Thomas Penn)
- Key figures were Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley: their financial control was feared and unpopular
What were the different levels to the court under Henry VII?
- Household proper: responsible for looking after the King
- Lord Chamberlain: an influential courtier, who was powerful and trusted (big blow when Sir William Stanley was discovered to be a traitor)
- Responded to betrayal by creating a Privy Chamber, where the King could retreat with intimate servants - made it harder for people to regain King’s support
What were the key features of Parliament under Henry VII?
- Main functions: to pass laws and grant taxation to the crown
- Only the King could call Parliament: Henry called it seven times
- Henry’s early parliaments mainly concerned with national security and raising revenue - e.g. first two passed numerous acts of attainder
What were the key features of Justices of Peace under Henry VII?
- Function to maintain law and order in the countryside - also tax assessments
- Met four times a year to administer justice
- Most JPs were local gentry who fulfilled their unpaid tasks either out of a sense of duty or because they wanted local prestige
- Various Acts of Parliament were passed to increase the power and responsibility of JPs
What was the purpose of the Exchequer and Chamber?
To collect revenue from royal property, and collect taxes and customs
Why did Henry VII change from the Exchequer to the Chamber?
- While using the Exchequer system, he received £11,700 from lands in his first year, while Richard was estimated to have made £25,000 in one year
- The system was inadequate for Henry: he had to get loans to pay for his marriage and coronation
What were the differences between the Exchequer and the Chamber?
- The Exchequer had its own officials, whilst the Chamber was under the King’s direct supervision
- The Chamber was faster than the Exchequer
What were some examples of ordinary revenue?
Crown Lands:
- held by the King by inheritance or confiscation
- greatly increased amount of land due to attainders
- estimated that the amount of crown land was five times larger by the end of Henry’s reign than in the 1450s
Feudal Obligations - payed for various reasons:
- wardship: the king had the right to look after the heir and their land if the heir was a minor
- livery: to recover land from wardship
- relief: money paid when land was inherited
Bonds and recognisances:
- bonds were agreements where a person promised to pay money if they failed to keep a promise
- recognisances were formal acknowledgements of an already existing debt or obligation
- In 1491, friends of the Marquis of Dorset signed bonds totalling £10,000 as a promise of good behaviour
What were some examples of extraordinary revenue?
- Loans: from richer subjects in times of emergency - Henry appears to have repaid these
- Benevolences: a type of forced loan with no repayment
- French Pension: part of the Treaty of Etaples, really a bribe to remove the English army
