Government

• Great Council

  Roles: advise the king, provide administration for the king, conclude legal judgments and cases
• Composition of the Great Council

  • Nobility (rare since he distrusted them)
  • Churchmen (Richard Fox, John Morton) - legal status
  • Layman Sir Reginald Bray and Edmund Dudley - legal status
  • GENTRY
• The Great Council had no real established rules, and other people in HVII's life arguably held more influence like Lady Margret Beaufort
• Council Learned

  Main offshoot, second half of his reign
• Members of the Council Learned

  • Sir Reginald Bray (dead in 1503)
  • Edmund Dudley
  • Richard Empson (executed in 1510)
• Main function of the Council Learned

  Maintain and increase HVII's revenue - personal royal finances
• The Council Learned was deeply unpopular, because it was bypassing ordinary legal processes through royal prerogative rights
• Court of HVII

  Relied heavily on his court, structure and design was meant to reflect the wealth of the king, must be perceived as vastly rich, Grand and magnificent, Reflected the idea of the personal monarchy concept, with personal authority
• Structure of the King's Court

  • Household proper: looking after the king
  • Chamber: Lord Chamberlain, most politically influential in the scene, King's inner circle
  • Lord Chamberlain: Sir William Stanley in 1495 involved in plot with Perkin Warbeck, noble trying to plot against the king
• Parliament

  Roles: pass legislation, grant taxation
• Parliament was called 7 times - mostly for taxation in the 1st half of the reign, it was very effective for what the king needed, with mild restrictions in 1504 when he wanted to raise extraordinary revenue, to lessen the demand, Overall effective and he didn't try to manage it through his ministers
• Domestic policy

  Rely on well trusted nobility to administer justice across the realm, However a lot of magnate families are gone because of the War of the Roses so he couldn't rely on them heavily
• Two major domestic policies

  • JPs - met quarterly to administer justice, made up of local gentry, used them to maintain law and order, Powers of them were raised by an increase of Acts of Parliament that also raised their responsibilities
  • Bonds and Recognizances - result of genuine debts owed to the crown for the most part, Enforce obedience and raise revenue for the king
• JPs

  Tax assessments, investigations of complaints, Fifteenths and tenths were fractional taxes yielding over 200k for the crown
• Bonds

  Legal documents binding an individual to another to perform an action
• Recognizances

  Formal acknowledgements of debt
• Financial policy

  Crown lands were important for the king's revenue, but at the beginning they were inefficiently administered by the Court of Exchequer, In 1492, he reverted to EIV's system of administration through the Chamber, Increased profits from wardships and Parliament granted feudal aid in 1504, Statute of Uses 1489 cut out a loophole in royal prerogative rights, Prerogativa Regis, for avoidance of this charge, Customs revenue gained through tonnage and poundage (granted for life by HVII's first Parliament), French pension (Treaty of Etaples 1492), Fines and income from bonds, though bonds were more of a threat than a guarantee