Goverment/Finances

• Local Goverment: Magnates – ruled a localities. These where nobles with lots of land and power and Henry wanted to suppress these as he viewed them as a potential threat 

  • JP’s - chief local government officers. These were a very key role as Henry trusted them a lot. 
  • Sherrif’s - dealt with minor crimes in county’s 
•  Regional Goverment: Councils which governed land which was too far away from Henry. The three were the council of Wales, Of the North and Of Ireland. It was hard for Henry to maintain significant control over these councils as they were very far away. One example of this  is the council of Ireland supported the Simnel rebellion. However the rest of the regional government remained loyal to henry. 

   
• The councils three main functions were: advise the king, administer the realm on the kings behalf and make legal judgements
• The council learned in law: Maintain the kings revenue and exploit prerogative rights (nobles) Richard Empson then Edmund Dudley
• Court and Household:

  Privy council – 227 members and they advised the king over matters, administered law and order and acted in judicial capacity. 6-7 regular attendees which meant Henry could keep a close eye. 

  • Chamber – dealt with nearly all aspects of royal income  
  • Royal court – courtiers, servants and artisans and it was the political and cultural backbone of England 
• Parliament: only met 7 times in henrys reign as Henry wanted to control the nobility. It passed laws and granted taxations
• henry relied increasingly on JP's to maintain law and order
• Crown lands:


  Henry was the countries largest land owner and the rental income from this property was very important. At the beginning of his reign it dropped to £12000 per year and so Henry decided to revert to Edwards system of the Chamber so it rose to £42000 a year by the end of his reign
• Customs revenue

  Tonnage and poundage was granted for life by Henrys first Parliment. Made him £38,000 a year by the end of his reign
• Pensions from other powers:

  Treaty of Etaples in 1492 - French paid Henry £5000 a year
• Extraordinary Revenue:

  • Henry received £400,000 from taxation but this provoked rebellions in 1489 and 1497.
• • Bonds – written agreements in which people promised to pay a sun if money if they failed to carry out their promises or duties 
  • Recognizance were a formal acknowledgment of a debt with the understanding to pay money if this obligation was not met 
• Crowns income was down to 12,000 in his first 2 years and rose to over 140,000 by the end of his reign