social (domestic policy)

• 1517 national enquiry to Enclosed land: ordered to rebuild houses and return land to farming
• some historians argue he was the 'champion of the poor'
• 1518-29 legal actions against landowners was 264 , with 222 brought to court and 188 verdicts reached
• Wolsey wanted to seek justice and challenge power of the aristocracy
• impact was small and temporary as 1523 Wolsey sacrificed gains
• Enclosures continued and rural poverty rose
• unpopular with nobles and landowners