english society under Henry viii

• Increased peerage, e.g. Seymour was made Earl of Hertford
• Bastard Feudalism was slowly dying, e.g. Thomas Fiennes, Baron Dacre of the South was executed like commoner for killing his neighbour's servant
• Henry was not afraid of executing nobles, e.g. Lord Hussey and Lord Darcy in 1536 after Pilgrimage of Grace
• There were about 2000 gentry families though the term gentry was undefined , 200 nightly families and increase in administrative personnel due to more JP's
• In 1536 the Laws in Wales act was passed which divided the country into counties similar to the English ones, gave Wales a representative in parliament and brought it into the English legal framework. It gave anglicised Welsh gentry the job of exerting control on behalf of England.
• Durham was the only one of the three palatinates in England that hadn't been brought under English control. It was controlled by a bishop until the 1536 Act Resuming Liberties to the Crown which limited his power but did not take it completely.
• The Anglo scottish border created issues so Henry split it into three marches under the jurisdiction of wardens, but the issue was who the wardens would be, gentry or nobility
• Following the Pilgrimage of Grace, the Council in the North was re-established as a permanent body in York. It quieted the 1549 summer rebellions
• Short term impacts of religious change: fall of Wolsey arguably, dissolution of monasteries, execution of More, royal injunctions, Pilgrimage of Grace
• Long Term Impacts of reformation : monastic land given to Crown, education and charity of monasteries lost, monks and nuns left jobless
• Many places tried to protect their monasteries e.g. Hexham and Northumberland had armed men preventing prevent royal commissioners
• The largest opposition to the Amicable Grant was the assembly of about 4000 people at the border between Norfolk and Suffolk. Wolsey publicly begged Henry to pardon those involved.
• The Pilgrimage of Grace started with the Lincolnshire riding and spread to Yorkshire. A secondary rebellion that was more militant started in between Ripon and Richmond in 1536
• The rebels in the Pilgrimage of Grace were more hostile to gentry due to resentment of landlords as shown by the class antagonism in the Captain Poverty letters.
• A recreation of the Captain Poverty letters in 1537 sparked another short rebellion.
• The Pontefract Articles were the most cohesive list of demands made by the rebels
• Religious causes : dissolution of monasteries, fear that north would now be impoverished, fear of attack on church traditions, and rumours that will be amalgamated and church plate and jewels would be seized
• Secular causes: economic motivation, attempt to enforce Suffolk on Lincolnshire, and courtly conspiracy to return Mary to succession
• Lincolnshire rising was quickly defeated by Suffolk
• The outnumbered Norfolk was able to appease and diffuse the rebels that had occupied Pontefract castle with a promise of pardon and restoration of monasteries
• the renewed uprising in Cumberland 1537 gave Henry the excuse to go back on Norfolk's promise. He hanged 74 rebels as well as executing, Hussey and Darcy and heads of monastic houses involved in the Uprising. After the first round of executions henry was more merciful.