Henry VIII

Question 1

The social hierarchy of the countryside

Answer 1

Nobility
Gentry
Yeoman
Tenant farmers
Landless or labouring poor
Vagrants, homeless

Question 2

Social hierarchy of towns

Answer 2

Merchants
Professionals (lawyers, clergy, doctors)
Business owners
Skilled craftsmen
Unskilled workers and the unemployed

Question 3

Structure of the government

Answer 3

King
Privy chamber 
Royal household
Royal council
The court
Parliament
Justices of the peace

Question 4

The renaissance prince

Answer 4

Strong athlete
Musician
Good dancer
Spoke French, Spanish and Latin

Question 5

Henrys view on sovereignty and monarchy

Answer 5

Appointed by god
People had a duty to obey him
Monarchy and the court were the centre of England
He was very stubborn

Question 6

Henrys style of government

Answer 6

Used royal council and the privy chamber to help make decisions
Personal adviser (Wolsey until 1529, Cromwell 1529-1540)
Delegated power as a routine tasks bored him

Question 7

Henrys strengths

Answer 7

Popular
Strong team of experienced advisers
Strong and stable country
Strong connections with France due to Catherine of Aragon
Rich

Question 8

Henrys weaknesses

Answer 8

Naïve - only 18
Naïve - required to spend money on expensive wars and on his court
Disinterested 
Risk taker
Egotistical and overconfident

Question 9

Wolseys personality

Answer 9

Not a member of nobility
Extremely intelligent 
Very ambitious 
Charming and persuasive 
Willing to carry out the kings wishes
Ruthless with anyone who threatened him or the kings government 
Alter Rex (second king)

Question 10

Wolseys rise to power

Answer 10

1498- gained a degree at oxford and became a priest
1509- a member of the royal council as royal almoner (in charge of giving money to the poor)
1514- bishop of Lincoln and archbishop of York
1515- lord chancellor and Henrys chief minister, and cardinal
1518- papal legate (popes representative) - becoming the most powerful and senior churchman in the country

Question 11

The Eltham ordinances 1526

Answer 11

• cutting spending on meals and servants
• laying off sick or unneeded servants
• reducing the amount of money paid to pope, for expenses such as food, fuel and lodgings
• reducing the number of gentlemen in the privy chamber from 12 to six

Question 12

Wolsey and enclosure reforms

Answer 12

• using fences to divide land into fields that were often used to graze sheep, allowing landowners to make money through the wool trade
• reduced the land available to tenant framers and the poor who had less common land to graze their animals
• Wolsey set up an inquiry in 1517 to investigate this practice and reduce its effect on ordinary people

Question 13

Wolsey and the justice system reforms

Answer 13

• strengthened the star chamber
• encouraged the poor to bring cases to the court
• increased the courts work rate
• supported the cases of the poor against the rich
• oversaw cases himself

Question 14

Wolseys financial measures

Answer 14

• fifteens and tenths (taxes on movable good)
• crown lands (recovered crown lands from the nobility increasing the income to the government, this raised £15000 in 1515 alone
• the subsidy (tax on incomes, the more you earned, the more you paid)
• forced loans (forced major landowners to lend the government money in 1522 and then again in 1523)
• clerical tax (voluntary gift made by the church to the king)