AS History (Tudor England 1485-1603) Notes PDF

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Tudor England: 1485-1603

Chapter 1: The Consolidation of power Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, became King Henry VII of England following his victory over Richard III’s forces at the Battle of Bosworth on the 22nd  August 1485. The victory terminated Plantagenet rule in England and saw the establishment of the Tudor dynasty. Henry’s claim to the throne was weak. He had descended through the female line represented by his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort. He also lived abroad since the age of 14. Henry became the Lancastrian claimant only because there was no one else who could fulfil his role. In reality though it was his victory on the battlefield alone which had brought him to the throne. Henry VII’s character and aims Henry VII had not been brought up to rule. Henry fled to France where he lived for the most of the time as a fugitive in the Duchy of Brittany. From 1485, Henry’s main purpose was to ensure that he kept his throne. Therefore his primary aim at the start of his reign was to consolidate his power which he did by a number of political actions combined with military success. Henry consolidated his power in a number of ways: ●

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He dated his reign from the 21st August 1485, the day before the Battle of Bosworth, thereby ensuring that anyone who had fought on the Yorkist side could be considered a traitor. He arranged to detain Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, and the Earl of Warwick, Edward IV’s nephew, each of whom could be seen as having a much greater claim to the throne than Henry himself. He made key appointments to his council and household, for example making Sir Reginald Bray Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Sir William Stanley Chamberlain of the Household. Having had her detained the previous year; in January 1486 Henry married Elizabeth of York. Henry was able to exploit royal propaganda the union of the two houses of Lancaster and York. For example, the Tudor rose combined the red rose of Lancaster with the white rose of York. A vital step in the securing of the dynasty took place in September 1489 with the birth of an heir to the throne, Prince Arthur.

Lambert Simnel and the rebellion of the Earl of Lincoln Lambert Simnel was being passed off as the Earl of Warwick by the Yorkists, who had been imprisoned by Henry, and was crowned as King Edward in Ireland in May 1487. The conspiracy was put together by John de la Pole (the nephew of Edward IV and Richard III), the Earl of Lincoln, himself a potential Yorkist claimant. Lincoln joined Lord Lovell and persuaded Margaret of Burgundy to support Simnel’s bogus claim and to pay for a force of mercenaries to invade England. In response Henry reinstated the Earl of Northumberland, who had led a major portion of Richard III’s army at the Battle of Bosworth. This helped to neutralise Richard’s old power base and also ensured that the traditionally Howard Yorkist family had no intention of joining the conspiracy. He also reinforced coastal defences in East Anglia. The two armies met at East Stoke near Newark in Nottinghamshire. Henry’s army led effectively by the Earl of Oxford, held firm and the Earl of Lincoln was killed in the battle, having been unable to

Tudor England: 1485-1603 add sufficient followers to the army of mercenaries with which he had landed in England with. The Battle of Stoke Field was significant as it brought an end to the War of the Roses. Henry was mild in his treatment towards those that rebelled against him which weakened the resolve of many Yorkists to oppose him. The Perkin Warbeck Imposture In 1491 Perkin Warbeck began to impersonate Richard, Duke of York in Ireland. Warbeck’s first attempt to land in England in 1495 proved to be a fiasco. Henry had been informed of Warbeck’s intentions by one of his royal agents, Sir Robert Clifford, and Warbeck was quickly defeated and fled to the court of James IV of Scotland. Sir William Stanley, Henry’s step-uncle and potential traitor, was Lord Chamberlain at a time when household government was still the normal model of political operation. ●

Household Government – medieval system of governance where the head of the household had authority over the property, labour, and the mobility of everyone living on his land.

In 1496, a small Scottish force crossed the border on Warbeck’s behalf but quickly retreated. Warbeck’s interests were soon sacrifiesed when James gave in to Henry’s offer of marriage to his daughter, Margaret. Warbeck made one final attempt to seek the English throne by trying to exploit the uncertainties created by the Cornish Rebellion in 1497, but his forces were crushed and Warbeck surrendered to the King and was tried and executed. It was convenient for Henry that Warbeck’s final attempts at conspiracy enabled him to get rid of the Earl of Warwick, potentially the most obvious claimant to the throne. Aged only ten at the time of the Battle of Bosworth, he spent most of his time in solitary confinement before he met his fate in 1499 having been accused of plotting with Perkin Warbeck against Henry, he was beheaded. Edmund and Richard de la Pole The final piece of dynastic security concerned Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, and Richard de la Pole, younger brothers of the Earl of Lincoln. Suffolk fled to Flanders in 1498 and once again fled in 1501, this time seeking refuge at the court of the Emperor Maximilian. The Treaty of Windsor in 1506 meant that Maximilian was willing to give up Suffolk, who was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Richard de la Pole, nicknamed the “White Rose”, spent a lot of time in exile but was killed fighting for the French forces at the Battle of Pavia in 1525.

Tudor England: 1485-1603

Chapter 2: Henry VII’s Government The King ruled with a “council” of advisers who supported him in making key decisions. Around 227 men are recorded as having attended the Council during his reign. In practice, however, Henry VII’s actual working Council was a much smaller affair with around six or seven members. The Council The Council under Henry VII had three main functions: ● ● ●

To advise the king To administer the realm on the king’s behalf To make legal judgements.

There were three main types of councillor: 1. Members of the nobility, such as Lords Daubeney and Dynham, though the working Council only rarely included the great magnates of the realm. 2. Churchmen such as John Morton and Richard Fox, who often had legal training and were excellent administrators. 3. Laymen, either gentry or lawyers, who were skilled administrators, such as Sir Reginald Bray and Edmund Dudley. During Henry VII’s reign the Council had no established rules and procedures, though it was a permanent body with a core membership. Those ‘professional’ councillors such as Bray and Dudley, who did not see themselves as courtiers, often met to deal with legal and administrative matters in London when other councillors were with the king elsewhere. The Great Council The Great Council was a gathering of the House of Lords, meeting without the House of Commons. It had no clearly defined functions and was an occasional rather than a permanent body. It met only 5 times in total throughout Henry VII’s reign. It usually concerned itself with issues relating to war or rebellion and was a means of binding the nobility to key decisions relating to national security. The Council Learned This body was developed during the second half of Henry’s reign. The function of the Council Learned was to maintain the king’s revenue and to exploit his prerogative rights. Historians argue that the Council Learned caused fear, frustration and anger as it bypassed the legal system. It was however, the expression of the king’s will and was thus important for the maintenance of his authority as it was for raising finances. ●

Prerogative Rights – describes those rights or powers which the monarch could exercise without requiring the consent of parliament.

The Council Learned was headed by Sir Reginald Bray and his associate Richard Empson, a fiercely ambitious lawyer and bureaucrat, whose ruthless approach seemed to define the behaviour of the Council Learned. Following Bray’s death in 1503, Empson was joined by Edmund Dudley and they formed a feared combination of able and conscientious bureaucrats who raised the extraction of money from the king’s subjects. ●

Bureaucrat – an official in a government department, in particular one perceived as being concerned with procedural correctness at the expense of people’s needs.

Tudor England: 1485-1603 Court and Household The court was the very centre of the government. The court was where the power of the monarch was demonstrated to all the courtiers in attendance. It was through the court that rewards and status were distributed to those who were deserving or well connected. Not only was the court where the support of the king could be attained, it was also where the support of the king could be obtained, which might be useful in the event of legal problems. ●

Courtier – a person who attends a royal court as a companion or adviser to the monarch.

There were different levels to the court: 1. The household proper was responsible for looking after the king, the courtiers and others who were being entertained. These requirements were supervised by the Lord Steward. 2. The politically important part of the system was the Chamber, presided by the Lord Chamberlain. The Lord Chamberlain and other senior officials were influential courtiers. The position of the Lord Chamberlain was both powerful and a matter of considerable trust. ● Chamber – The private areas of the court and also a key department for the collection of royal revenues. ● The Lord Chamberlain – An experienced nobleman and member of the king’s council, and a personal friend of the king; he had administrative and political power, often speaking for the monarch in an official capacity and was responsible for organising court ceremonies. Henry responded to the challenge of Sir William Stanley by remodelling the Chamber by creating a Privy Chamber, to which the king could retreat, protected by his most intimate servants. ●

Privy Chamber – comprising the close personal servants of the monarch; its members had direct access to the monarch and therefore could influence him or her more directly.

Parliament Parliament, comprising of the House of Commons and the House of Lords had existed since the thirteenth century, but it met occasionally and was not, therefore, central to the system of government. It had two main functions: to pass laws and to grant taxation to the Crown. Only the king could call parliament, and Henry demonstrated his right to rule by calling his first parliament early in his reign. Henry called a total of seven parliaments in his reign, though five of these met in the first ten years of the reign leaving only two to meet in the remaining fourteen years. Justices of the Peace [JPs] Henry relied increasingly on Justices of the Peace (JPs) to maintain law and order in the countryside. JPs were appointed on a county by county basis and met four times a year to administer justice through the quarter sessions. Various Acts of Parliament were passed to increase the powers and responsibilities of JPs who were responsible for routine administrations such as tax assessments and the maintenance of law and order. In the role they superseded the traditional authority of the country sheriff.

Tudor England: 1485-1603 Bonds and Recognizances Henry VII restored law and order largely through forcing many of his subjects to take out bonds and recognizances. Some of the bonds and recognizances were the result of genuine debts owed to the crown. However, many of them were purely political. The king used bonds to enforce order and obedience. ● ●

Bond – a legal document which bound an individual to another to perform an action or forfeit a specified sum of money if they failed to do so. Recognizance – a formal acknowledgement of a debt or other obligation which could be enforced by means of financial penalty.

Crown Lands At the beginning of Henry’s reign income had dropped to about £12,000 per year. This was because the income from lands was collected and administered through the inefficient Court of Exchequer which showed Henry’s inexperience in such financial matters. It was probably in 1492 that Henry decided to revert to Edward’s system of administration through the Chamber, where policies were formulated and decisions were made. Finances improved and income from land had increased by the end of the reign to around £42,000 per year. Other Sources of Revenue ● ● ●

Customs revenue: tonnage and poundage had been granted for life by Henry’s first parliament. Annual income from this source increased from £34,000 to £38,000. Pensions from other powers: at the Treaty of Etaples in 1492 the French agreed to pay Henry a pension of £5000 per annum. Extraordinary revenue: Henry received over £400,000 from extraordinary taxation. However, raising revenue like this provoked rebellions in 1489 and 1497. Henry had to promise the parliament of 1504 not to raise any more money by this method. The most usual form of extraordinary revenue was fifteenths and tenths, which were imposed upon the alleged value of a taxpayer’s goods. Fractional taxes of fifteenths and tenths yielded around £203,000 between 1487 and 1497.

In total, Henry left plate and jewels worth around £300,000 and £10,000 in cash. Much energy was spent on improving Henry’s revenues, but there was a political price to be paid. The main victims of Henry’s policies were the nation’s landowners, precisely the people whose support Henry would need if his throne was threatened. Whenever earlier medieval monarchs had adopted this strategy, the outcome for the Crown’s authority had been disastrous. Henry’s policies were therefore quite dangerous.

Tudor England: 1485-1603

Tudor England: 1485-1603

Chapter 3: England’s relations with Scotland and other foreign powers, 1485-1509 Henry’s foreign policy aims were essentially straightforward. He certainly had no intention of restarting the Hundred Years War with France. He sought to maintain positive relations with foreign powers to ensure: ● ● ●

National security Recognition of the Tudor dynasty Defence of English trading interests.

Hundred Years War: Conflict that lasted on and off from 1337 to 1453 and was fought between England and France. Brittany and France Following an invasion in 1487 it looked as if the French would gain complete control of Brittany. In 1489 Henry summoned parliament to grant him extraordinary revenue to raise an army against the French. There were two main reasons for this: ● ●

His sense of obligation to the Bretons His fear that direct French control of Brittany could increase a potential French threat to England.

England and Brittany agreed to the Treaty of Redon in February 1489 according to which the Duchess Anne would pay for a small English army to defend Brittany from French threat. The English army went to Brittany but Anne surrendered and married Charles VIII. This left the army stranded in Brittany and meant that Maximillian lost interest in the matter. The situation was worsened by Perkin Warbeck seeking French backing for his claim to the English throne. However, Henry did recover skilfully. He launched an invasion of France in 1492 and the French quickly sought to a peace settlement. At the signing of the Treaty of Etaples in November 1492, Charles VIII agreed to withdraw support for Perkin Warbeck. Henry’s strategy proved to be successful as he managed to defend national and dynastic interests. Moreover, he had improved his financial position and ensured a period of brotherhood in Anglo- French relations. European powers during the reign of Henry VII Scotland: ● ●

Scotland was the only country with which England shared a border with and where cross-border lawlessness was the way of life. Scotland often worked closely worked with France as part of the ‘auld alliance’, which was explicitly anti-English.

Spain: ● ● ●

The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in 1469 helped to bring the two kingdoms together However, the death of Isabella in 1504 weakened that perception. The next few years saw Ferdinand involved with conflict to reassert his control over Castile which impacted Henry VII’s foreign policy.

Tudor England: 1485-1603

France: ● ●

The most powerful European country, France was seeking to bring duchies like Brittany and Burgundy more directly under the control of the French Crown. France and England shared a long-standing hostility which included the Hundreds Years War, 1337-1453.

Holy Roman Empire: ● ●

Loose federation of about 300 states, mostly situated in what is now Germany. The emperor was elected and Maximillian I was elected in 1486 and became emperor in 1493.

Burgundy, Netherlands and the Holy Roman Empire Most of England’s exports went through the ports of the Netherlands, such as Antwerp and Bruges, which came under Burgundy’s rule. It was thus important to maintain good relations. But the presence of Margaret, the widowed Duchess of Burgundy and the sister of Edward IV and Richard III complicated matters. Margaret enlisted the help of his stepson in law Maximillian (who became Holy Roman Emperor in 1493) who passed down rule in the Netherlands to his sixteen year old son Phillip in 1494. Relations between England and Burgundy deteriorated as a result of the hospitality which Maximillian and Phillip were offering to Perkin Warbeck. Henry gambled and put an embargo on English trade with Burgundy. Relation did improve to an extent after Warbeck left Burgundy and Henry and Phillip were able to agree the Intercursus Magnus in 1496 which brought the end to the trade embargo. ●

Intercursus Magnus: The major commercial treaty between England and the Duchy of Burgundy which restored normal trading links between the two.

One of the outcomes of the resulting Treaty of Windsor was a new trade agreement, the Intercursus Malus. Henry demanded a trade deal which would have given a much stronger trading position to English merchants in the Netherlands if the deal was enforced. ●

Intercursus Malus: A trade agreement from 1506; this treaty never became fully operative and by the following year trading relationships had been restored on the basis of the Intercursus Magnus.

Another outcome was that Phillip and Maximillian agreed to hand over their Yorkist fugitive, the Earl of Suffolk, whom Henry imprisoned in the tower. Henry seemed to have improved both England’s trading position and the security of his dynasty. Spain Spain was ruled by Ferdinand and his wife Isabella. Spain was a powerful state with which Henry hoped to develop good relations. The Treaty of Medina del Campo in 1489 gave Henry some international peace and security to which he aspired: ● ● ●

The two monarchies offered mutual protection in the event of attack They agreed not to harbour rebels or pretenders The treaty arranged a marriage alliance between Arthur, Prince of Wales, and Catherine, Princess of Aragon, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella.

Tudor England: 1485-1603

The details of the marriage were finally agreed in 1499 and it took place in 1501. However, the death of Arthur in 1502 brought complications to Henry’s relations with Ferdinand: ●

Ferdinand was reluctant to agree to a marriage between Henry’s second son Prince Henry and Catherine. The marriage would require a papal dispensation which could be arranged but at a price.

Papal Dispensation: Permission was required from the Pope in order to be exempted from the law or observances of the Church; it was considered only in special or unusual circumstances. ● ●

In 1504, Henry lost enthusiasm for the marriage, when...