Henry VII finances

• Henry VII finances factors

  1. ordinary revenue
  2. extraordinary revenue
  3. nobility measures
• ordinary revenue

  -  Wardship, livery & marriage

  -  Feudal dues = nobles held land for King in return for money

  -  Guaranteed annual payments

  -  Restoration of crown lands (5x bigger than under Henry VI through Act of Resumption, 1486)

  -  Duchy of Lancaster income increased x10
• ordinary revenue (counter)

  -  Only earning a small fraction of what other countries were making (Charles VIII’s £750,000 per year)

  -  Unable to gain back all owned land

  -  Smuggling was a problem at customs duties (Edward IV custom duties = £70k -> Henry VII = £40k)
• extraordinary revenue

  -  Taxes

  -  Highly dependent on Parliament for grants & policies

  -  Loans from wealthy subjects (£203,000 over his reign)

  -  Church sent money for special occasions (eg. knighting of Arthur, marriage of Margaret to James IV)

  -  French Pension (£5000 per year)
• extraordinary revenue (counter)

  -  H still had to repay loans to wealthy subjects

  -  Alienated nobility

  -  Tax uprisings, eg. Yorkshire (1489) & Cornish (1497)
• measures agst nobility

  -  Financial penalties used over legal punishments (eg. Earl of Northumberland raped a ward, interfering with Crown’s wardship = £10,000, 1515)

  -  Acts of Attainders

  -  Bonds & recognisances = written agreements whereby a person promised to pay a sum of money if they failed to keep their promise of good behaviour (eg. Earl of Westmoreland, £10,000 after Bosworth)
• measures agst nobility (counter)

  -  Led to resentment from nobility

  -  Not incredibly effective in restoring finances on a large scale, mostly just for power over nobles/gentry