Henry VII

• Council

  • 7 councillors
  • advise, administer, make legal judgments
  • made up of laymen, churchmen and nobility
  • permanent body
• Parliament

  • didn't meet a lot
  • 5 in the first 10 years, 2 in the last 14 years
  • did what Henry wanted
  • grant tax and make laws
• JPs

  • law and order in countryside
  • given power to impose bonds on sheriffs
  • unpaid administration
  • met 4 times a year
• Nobility

  • controlled local regions
  • Oxford = Essex and East Anglia
  • Surrey = North
  • Daubeney = South
• Council Learned in Law

  • collected bonds
  • maintained Henry's prerogative rights and revenue
  • Empson and Dudley were unpopular
• Court

  • centre of government
  • Privy Chamber - led by the Lord Chamberlain and protected by Henry's most intimate servants
• Controlling the Nobility: financial controls

  • 2/3 under bonds
  • Lord Burgavenney under £5000 in debt
• Controlling the Nobility: retaining

  • 1485 and 1504 Acts against retaining
  • keeping large numbers of men as staff
  • fined his mother, Margret Beaufort
• Controlling the Nobility: attainders

  • stripped off land and title off nobles
  • 138 passed and 46 reversed to show loyalty
  • Act of Attainders 1485
• Controlling the Nobility: patronage

  • rewarding men
  • not alot
  • Jasper Tudor, Oxford etc
• Extraordinary Revenue: bonds and recognisances

  • debt under the Monarch
  • collected by the Council Learned in Law
• Extraordinary Revenue: loans and benevolences

  • organised by royal council for certain things
  • 1491 - £48,000 collected for war
• Extraordinary Revenue: clerical taxes

  • special tax from the Church
  • simony (forbidden)
• Extraordinary Revenue: parliamentary taxes

  • for war
  • 15th and 10ths = moveable property
  • triggered rebellions in 1489 and 1497
• Extraordinary Revenue: feudal dues

  • gifts for special occasions
  • £30,000 for Arthur's knighthood in 1504
  • Arthur died 1502
• Ordinary: legal dues

  • money from fines and attainders
  • SWS fined £9000 then £1000 yearly
• Ordinary: Custom Duties

  • certificates for coastal trade
  • updates Book of Rates twice
  • increased income to £40,000
• Ordinary: feudal dues

  • wardship and livery = king looks after minor' land
  • marriage = right to arrange tenant daughter's marriages
  • organised by Hussey which increased finances to £6000
• Ordinary: Crown lands

  • 1486 Act of Resumption gained land back from the War of Roses
  • increased income to £42,000
  • administered by Sir Reginald Bray
• Star Chamber 1487

  • Star Chamber Act
  • prosecute rioting, rebellions and abuses
  • heard petitions against ruling from other courts
• court of chancery

  • heard cases on feudal land disputes and complaints about mistakes made by the Crown.
  • king couldnt be sued but acknowledged mistakes
  • the Council Learned in Law became much more powerful where feudal dues were concerned.
• court of equity

  • The monarch could provide justice if the law was unable to deal with a crime properly.