chapter 10 - society

• New peerages were created through 

  • family relationships to the king e.g. Thomas Seymour.
  • Also through service at court or military
• Henry created two new non-rival Dukedoms: Norfolk and Suffolk.

  (Duke was the highest title a peer could get)

  • Suffolk was promoted to a duke due to his relationship with Henry
• Henry gained more control over the nobility, although bastard feudalism was still present
• Nobles were used by Henry in times of war to recruit armies, such as the earl of Shrewsbury recruiting 4000 men for the invasion of France in 1513
• Henry controlled the nobles by using the legal actions including: 

  • execution, including hanging like a commoner even though nobles were normally beheaded
  • Acts of attainder.
• Treasonous nobles that were executed included:

  • Duke of Buckingham executed in 1521
  • Thommas Fiennes, was hung like a commoner
  • Henry Pole - Baron Montague 
  • Henry Courtenay - Marquess of Exeter
  • Margaret Pole - Countess of Salisbury 
  • Lord Darcy and Lord Hussey both executed for roles in rebellion in 1536
• The number of the gentry and the number of the Justices of the Peace increased under Henry VIII.

  • Many of the gentry were trained in law and replaced the clergy as administrators 
  • These LAYPEOPLE  took over from the clergy who were displaced due to the reformation
• • The social structure remained the same
  • Commoners owned little and there was employment instability 
  • There were a few rebellions but social order did break down in certain areas especially following the amicable grant in 1525
• The Tudors were a welsh family and before the Act of Union in 1536 Wales was ruled by Marcher Lordships
• • The Act of Union 1536 
  • Divided wales into shire counties like England
  • Gave these counties representation in parliament 
  • They now followed the same legal framework as England
  • wales was incorporated into England and had little separate identity. 
• the aristocracy were responsible for ruling wales
• The Palantinates were three counties which had separate jurisdiction from the rest of the kingdom. 

  These were: Durham, Lancashire and Cheshire.

  • Lancashire and Cheshire still remained dominated by the crown
  • Durham was mostly under control of the Bishop of Durham
• The Act of resuming liberties of the crown 1536 - removed most of the power held by the Bishop of Durham
• Border administration:

  • The council of Wales and the Marches controlled 4 bordering English counties ( Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Glocestershire) as well as the lands in the Principality of Wales.
  • Was based in Ludlow , Shropshire which gave easy access to the law and benefited the area under their jurisdiction.
• Scottish Border:

  • The scottish border was a problematic and remote area
  • lawlessness - cattle / sheep rustling was common
  • The border with Scotland was split into three marches, each under the jurisdiction of a warden.
  • appointing a good warden was difficult
• The council in the north

  Henry needed more control in the North

  • The Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 gathered lots of support 
  • It led Henry and Cromwell to establish the council in the North based in York.
  • It had administrative and legal functions 
  • It helped keep the north quiet during the summer rebellions of 1549.
• the wealth of the landholding gentry increased under Henry as he sold monastic lands cheaply to them at the end of his reign
• Dissolution of the monasteries meant that there were less services available to society such as; hospitals, schools charities etc...

  monks and nuns also became unemployed

  Some monks received pensions but nuns received nothing
• in 1513 people in Yorkshire refused to pay their extraordinary tax
• There were uprisings to the Amicable grant in 1525

  • The earl of essex reported 1000 people gathered on the Suffolk-Essex border in order to resist payment
  • The dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk said 4000 people
  • The dukes handled the matter sensitively and the king backed down
  • Wolsey publicly begged the king to offer a pardon to those who rebelled and the leaders of the uprising were treated leniently.
  • Henry therefore funded his invasion of France with the sale of monastic lands. 
• Causes of the Lincolnshire rising and Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536:

  1. Dissolution of the monasteries: 

  • Possible loss of parish churches
  • Loss of services which monasteries offered - education, charity 
  • People feared that the north would be impoverished and lands would be given to southerners
  • Rebel leader Robert Aske supported the monasteries
• Causes of the Lincolnshire rising and Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536:

  2.Fear for parish churches / religious practices:

  • The 1536 injunctions drawn up by cromwell were seen as attacking religious practices
  • Celebration of local saints and completing pilgrimages had been discouraged
  • Rumours that the wealth of the church would be confiscated and parishes may be amalgamated
• Causes of the Lincolnshire rising and Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536:

  3. Non-religious motives: 

  • economic problems such as taxation
  • Captain poverty was a figurehead of the rebellion
  • The attempt to put the Duke of suffolk in charge of Lincolnshire may have sparked the Lincolnshire rising.
  • Elton argued that the rebellions were caused mostly by courtly conspiracy from councillors who supported Catherine of Aragon. 
  • Extension of the rebellion to the west of the Pennines may have been linked to tennants’ problems 
• Captain poverty - figurehead for the rebellions in 1537
• Robert Aske - leader of the pilgrimage of grace
• Lord Darcy and Lord Hussey - Lords part of the Lincolnshire rebellion
• there were over 30,000 people who rebelled during the Pilgrimage of Grace
• Why rebellion failed in 1536:

  • Henry held a meeting with Aske and promised to hold a parliament in York
  • Henry made Aske promise there will not be another uprising in the north, which would have been impossible for him to do.
  • February 1537 - new uprising not authorised by Aske who was trying to keep the peace.
  • Caused Henry to nullify agreements
• • The king sent an army north under the comamnd of the Duke of Norfolk .

  When Norfolk encountered rebels near Doncaster, he was hugely outnumbered.

  Norfolk negotiated with the rebels and promised a pardon, to establish a free parliament and to restore the dissolved monasteries. 

  The king had no intention of following these promises

  • Norfolk crushed the rebellion in feb 1537 and 74 people were executed
• the nobility only grew by 9 members over Henry VIII's reign
• the nobility were treated better under Henry VIII than under his father. They returned to their traditional roles such as raising armies like Shrewsbury did in 1513
• the nobility were brought under control under henry VIII.

  • Duke of Buckingham executed in 1521 for a vague treason charge
  • Marquis of Exeter charged with conspiracy & executed in 1538
  • Thomas Fiennes hanged like a commoner in 1541 for murdering a neighbour's servant
• the number of gentry increased under Henry VIII and John Guy estimates there were roughly 5000 gentry families.

  They benefited from the cheap selling of monastic lands.

  The gentry largely replaced the clergy as administrators.

  The number and power of the JP's also increased.

  The gentry benefited the most under Henry VIII
• Wolsey and Cromwell demonstrated that social mobility was possible in Henry VIII's reign
• Commoners lives were mostly unchanged.

  They were impacted by religious change and high inflation due to debasement.

  Outbreaks of disorder were common especially following the Amicable Grant + after religious change e.g. Pilgrimage of Grace
• Act of Union 1536 - Divided Wales into Shire counties + gave them representation in the House of commons
• The Act Resuming liberties to the crown 1536 - reduced the power of the Bishop of Durham.
• there was resistance to the Amicable Grant in 1525 which showed Henry could not operate independently to the wills of the taxpayers.
• The economic causes for the pilgrimage of Grace included:

  • fear of the wealth of the church being confiscated
  • fear of the north becoming impoverished due to dissolution
  • fear Northern land would be given to southerners
  • ordinary rebels hated taxation