Government

• 1509 - 1514

  • conciliar government, inherited from his father
  • used parliament in a similar way to his father, for extraordinary revenue for war with France 1512 - 1514 and to pass laws like in 1510 the council learned in law was abolished
  • henry liked the nobility since he grew up in england and needed jousting friends but was very suspicious and harsh towards potential usurpers like in 1513 he executed the earl of Suffolk and later the duke of buckingham (1521)
• Wolsey's Domestic Policy

  • Court of Chancery- court of equity, tried to uphold fair justice, became popular and clogged
  • court of star chamber- centre of justice, challenged noble power, 120 cases a year necessitated overflow tribunals eg there was one for the poor
  • enclosure- 1517 national enquiry, 260 cases drafted against illegal enclosing. this ceased in 1523 due to landowning parliament
  • 1515 act of resumption, returned crown lands
  • Wolsey raised 822k but expendature was 1.7mil which means not enough to finance war
• what is a court of equity?

  a court authorised to apply equity (fairness) rather than principles of law
• Wolsey's Domestic Policy


  • Tudor Subsidy, a way of collecting tax, Wolsey had a committee set up to assess wealth to dictate tax paid
  • 1525 Amicable Grant, not enough taxes for war with france, a tax with ten weeks notice that led to rebellion so henry recalled it (ruining Wolsey's reputation)
  • 1526 entham ordinances, was put forward as a way to reduce Privy Council expenses by getting rid of unnecessary members but replaced some with wolsey supporters like the groom of the stool with henry norris some suggest it was a way to save face after the amicable grant
• Wolsey and the King's Great Matter/ Royal Supremacy

  • by the 1520s Henry is sick of Catherine of Aragon whos too old to produce him a male heir and hes in lust with the young Anne Bolyne
  • Wolsey is tasked with securing Papal Dispensation for an annulment
• Wolsey and the King's Great Matter/ Royal Supremacy

  • scripture- leviticus "if man shall take his brother's wife it is an impurity" they tried to use it to say the previous papal dispensation was invalid and therefore the marriage illegal
• Wolsey and the King's Great Matter/ Royal Supremacy

  • legal- Wolsey is papal legate so holds a hearing in england. Cardinal Campeggio was sent by the pope to delay processions and in 1529 Catherine of Aragon asks for the proceeding in rome
• Wolsey and the King's Great Matter/ Royal Supremacy


  • diplomacy- england tried to save the pope from the Holy Roman Empire's "sacking of rome" via allying with france but fails. Charles is Catherine of Aragon's nephew so he is doubly interested in taking rome
• Wolsey's Fall

  • wolsey failed to get the annulment
  • had his reputation ruined by the Amicable Grant and Anne Bolyne saying he is delaying the annulment process
  • He wasnt well liked, because of his origins as the son of a butcher from ipswitch and was very arrogant
  • 1529 he was accused of praemunire and charged with treason but died of illness before he could be executed
• Cromwell and the Annulment, exploiting weaknesses in the church

  • pre-existing humanist critique from John Colet and Erasmus
  • Collecteana Satis Capiosa collated by Thomas Cranmer and Edward Foxe which was a document containing legal and historical justifications for the annulment
  • christopher st german - lawyer who previously attacked the church's legal supremacy
• Cromwell and the annulment, pressuring the pope

  • 1531 -he accuses the clergy of praemunire and fines them, forcing them to admit the king was the supreme head as far as the church would allow
  • 1532 -act in conditional restraint of annates, took taxes meant for rome / pope for the crown
  • 1532 - house of commons supplication against the ordinaries- a petition against the church meant to increase anticlericalism
  • 1532 - formal submission of clergy to henry VIII - clergy admits the king was the supreme head and has legal jurisdiction
• Cromwell and the Annulment, Parliamentary Acts

  • 1533 - Act in Restraint of Appeals, the monarch has imperial jurisdiction so no more appealing legal cases to Rome
  • 1534 - Act of Supremacy, king become supreme head of the church meaning england actually breaks from rome
  • 1534 Act of Succession, secures the annulment and Anne Bolyne's kids will be heir making Mary illegitimate
  • 1534 - Treason Act, it's treason to speak act or write about the royal supremacy being wrong
  • Annexing first fruits and tenths to the crown, more annates (payments) given to the crown rather than rome
• Cromwell's Domestic Policy / Reform Parliament


  • constitutional revolution - head of the church and state meant more royal authority over semi independent states like Wales
  • political revolution - king and parliament became king in parliament, parliament increased in importance for legislation
  • bureaucratic revolution - privy council becomes an engine of government and special department begin to form eg financial courts like the court of wards which collected noble estates from minors and the court of augmentations which handled the dissolved monasteries income
• Cromwell's Domestic Policy / Reform Parliament

  • some historians say there was no revolution since the monarchy was still highly personal, parliament was used in basically the same way and was dropped by the following monarchs
• Cromwell's Domestic Policy / Reform Parliament

  • privy council became more professional, smaller group of 20 bureaucrats rather than just nobles
  • 1535 - act of union with wales
  • parliament- cromwell called it more than wolsey for the break extraordinary revenue and monastery dissolution which set a precedent of cooperation between parliament and the crown
  • cromwell felt threatened by anne bolyne and henry had his eye on jane seymour so 19th may 1536 shes executed for trecherous adultery and incest
• Cromwell's Fall


  • by the 1540s his influenced waned despite his achievement of fixing the king's great matter
  • he had tried to set up henry and anne of cleves but she doesnt meet his standards and their marriage is quickly annulled
  • duke of norfolk suggests his hot other neice (he was also Anne Bolyne's uncle) Catherine Howard
  • rumor spreads that cromwell isnt securing the divorce quick enough, hes accused of treason and executed on 28th July 1540, henry marries catherine the same day
• 1540 - 1547 Conservative Faction

  • Privy Council now has fixed members and has split into factions
  • the Conservatives accept the break wit rome but oppose doctrinal changes, led by Duke of Norfolk and is dominant until 1545
  • Associated with: fall of cromwell; catherine howard; six articles act 1539
• 1540 - 1547 Reform Faction

  • led by Edward Seymour and Thomas Cranmer, accepted the break with rome as an opportunity to introduce protestantism
  • associated with: fall of catherine howard; katherine parr; arrest of the duke of norfolk
  • rose to dominance at the end of the reign because Parr was protestant and seymour gained power as Edward's , now heir thanks to the 1543 succession act, uncle and put the regency council in place
• the government was what during 1509 - 1514?

  Councilliar
• what years were wolsey in power?

  1514 - 1529
• what years were cromwell in power for?

  1530 - 1540
• what was the council 1540 - 1547

  counciliar again but with faction