effects of the dissolution

• Within the space of 5 years, TC had ended a tradition of English monasticism stretching back over 5 cents
• Historians use words such as ‘vandalism’ and ‘plundering’ to describe the methods used because religious houses had their valuables confiscated and melted down (whatever their worth as religious artefacts), including lead from their roofs
• Many of the impressive monastic buildings that had been a feature of the mediaeval landscape fell into disrepair and became crumbling ruins, while others were sold off to become houses for the wealthy
• The many beneficiaries of the dissolution were H and the nobility
• H’s seizure of the lands and assets of the monasteries brought him great wealth
• It has been estimated that the total value of the dissolution amounted to about 10% of the entire wealth of the kingdom, and this monet came to H in one great transfer during the 1530s
• For the next 50 years or so it was used to finance the kind of ambitious FP which H dreamed about at the start of the reign
• In the longer term, it did little to help the monarchy’s financial independence
• As the cost of wars continued and escalated (because of greater commitments and rising inflation), H and his successors sold off monastic lands to raise money
• The land was usually sold off at full market value; very little was given to courtiers as rewards or favours
• It was after the fall of TC that land was sold off rapidly in the last years of H’s reign
• More than ½ of the monastic lands were sold off in the years 1543-47
• In this way, the Crown lost control of these lands and the possibility of collecting taxes in the future
• Historians are still debating who bought the land from the Crown
• It is a difficult question to answer because there is no clear national pattern
• much of the property was bought wither by members of the nobility to strengthen their existing regional holdings, or by the lesser gentry as a way of establishing their presence in a local community
• For some writers, the growing visibility of the gentry class is the most important effect of the dissolution of the monasteries, because it illustrates an important change in society from the traditional ruling elite to a more widely-based ruling class
• Prots also benefited from the dissolution
• For them, the closure of these strongholds of Catholic ritual dealt a great blow to the possibility of a return to Catholicism in England 
• The main losers were the inhabitants of the monasteries and, to some extent, the local communities around them
• For all their possible failings, monasteries did offer services to people living nearby which weren’t entirely taken over by other institutions after they closed
• Monks and nuns lost their work and their accommodation, although most received compensation in the form of pensions or one-off payments
• One monk was still receiving a small annual pension until he died in 1607
• About ⅕ of ex-monks managed to secure other paid positions within the Church in order to supplement their pensions
• Unfortunately, the government was least generous to the friars and nuns who came from the poorest establishments
• historians have generally refused to link the dissolution to a rise in poverty, because the number of affected in each local community wasn’t that great and because there were other opportunities within the Church or in the homes of the great Catholic families for these people to take up
• Some writers point, in particular, to the effect of the dissolution on learning
• Monasteries were places where great libraries of books had been built up over generations and where the sons and daughters of well-off families might go to receive part of their education
• Evidence suggests that the great libraries were broken up, as books were taken by private collectors or simply burned
• some new cathedrals were founded from what had been religious institutions, for example, Peterborough Cathedral
• In many other places the church within the monastery was retained as the local place of worship
• Some schools that had been attached to monastic institutions re-opened
• There are a few H schools as a result
• many of the Ed VI schools that exist now in England are, in fact, re-foundations from earlier places of learning under the direction of monks