Society

• Elites in English society during Henry VIII's reign


  • Remnants of the feudal system
  • Growth of a professional and commercial group
  • Traditional nobles and the greater gentry
• Traditional nobles and the greater gentry


  • Wielded considerable political and economic influence
• Peerage


  The nobility
• The size of the peerage increased by 9
• New peers


  Achieved their rank as a result of successful royal service as courtiers or soldiers
• New peers


  • Edward Seymour, elevated to the earldom of Hertford
  • Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, was the only duke and never enjoyed royal favour
• Henry VIII's promotion of non-royal ducal titles

  • Norfolk - nepotism
  • Suffolk - patronage (a practice criticised by Erasmus)
• Henry VIII only promoted 2 non-royal ducal titles, Norfolk and Suffolk
• Henry VIII bestowed property on nobles


  To enable them to exert royal authority in particular areas
• Nobles endowed with property

  • Suffolk was endowed with property in Lincolnshire after the rebellion there in 1536
  • John, Baron Russell was raised to peerage and endowed with land in Devon to bolster royal authority in the south-west following the execution of the Marquess of Exeter
• Noble households


  • Remained critical to the maintenance of local influence and to the recruitment of royal armies
  • To do so too openly could make a noble an object of royal suspicion
• Noble households


  • The Earl of Shrewsbury raised over 4000 men for the invasion of France in 1513
• Bastard feudalism had not died away completely, but the nobility was gradually being brought more under the control of the monarch
• Gentry


  John Guy estimates there were 5000 gentry families in 1540
• Knighthoods


  Conferred as a sign of royal favour
• Susan Bridgden suggested there were about 200 knightly families in 1524
• Esquire


  A gentleman who was entitled to bear a coat of arms was certified as an esquire by the royal heralds
• Gentry


  • JPs and many other members were drawn into unpaid administration on behalf of the Crown
  • Members were keen on their sons acquiring legal training to take on such roles
• Laymen became increasingly prominent as the Crown's local administrators, whose office holding often generated the income which would bring about landownership and gentry status
• Rise in the rate of inflation


  Led to a drop in real incomes which contributed to resentment to the imposition of the Amicable Grant
• Social structure remained substantially unchanged, with the vast majority of people having very few possessions and little chance of regular and secure employment
• While full-scale rebellions were relatively rare, outbreaks of disorder were much more common
• Wales before 1536


  • A separate territory from England though in practice was under English control
  • Comprised marcher lordships and the Principality of Wales
• The Laws of Wales

  1. Unified administration and created a formal political link with England

  2. Divided Wales into shire counties

  3. Gave the Welsh shires direct representation in the House of Commons at Westminster for the first time

  4. Brought Wales into the same legal framework as England
• Wales had little of a separate identity except for the survival of the Welsh language in some parts of the country
• Control of Wales


  Continued to be exercised on the Crown's behalf but became increasingly the responsibility of members of the aristocracy
• Members of an anglicised Welsh gentry who controlled county politics were elected to Parliament and became increasingly prominent within the legal profession
• English palatinates


  • Lancashire, Chester, Durham
  • Separate jurisdictions from the rest of the kingdom
• This mattered little in Lancashire and Cheshire where the exercise of palatinate jurisdiction had long fallen back into royal hands
• Durham


  Still technically separate, with palatinate jurisdiction still being exercised by the bishop
• The Act Resuming Liberties to the Crown of 1536 reduced the level of independence enjoyed by the bishop, but did not destroy it completely
• The palatinate court of chancery in Durham continued to operate
• The Anglo-Welsh border


  The lands which were governed as part of the Principality of Wales, along with the four bordering English counties came under the jurisdiction of the Council of Wales and the Marches, which were based at Ludlow, Shropshire
• Counties under the Council of Wales and the Marches

  • Shropshire
  • Hertfordshire
  • Worcestershire
  • Gloucestershire
• The Anglo-Scottish border


  • Remote
  • Inhospitable in the winter months
  • Both sides had a reputation for lawlessness
  • Cattle and sheep rustling were rife and violence was common
• The border marches


  Split into 3, each under the jurisdiction of a warden
• Appointing wardens from a local noble family ran the risk that the noble would exploit his office to enhance his own power at the king's expense
• Henry VIII's options for appointing wardens

  • Local officers from the gentry class
  • Complete outsiders
• These two groups were more likely to owe complete loyalty to the king but had limited influence on local people who often saw themselves as owing primary loyalty to a local magnate
• The Council of the North

  • Re-established by Henry VIII and Cromwell as a permanent body based in York with a professional staff
  • Had both administrative and legal functions
  • Helped to keep the north quiet during the summer of rebellions in 1549