Society

• English society at the end of the fifteenth century

  • Not as rigidly hierarchical as France or Spain but highly stratified
  • Feudal system with the king at the apex and those who laboured on the land at the base
  • Growth of a professional and mercantile group who were important in London, Norwich and Bristol
• Economic pressures since the Black Death of 1348-49

  Increased social mobility and created alarm amongst more conservative-minded members of the upper classes who attempted vainly to uphold traditional values by passing sumptuary laws which proved unenforceable
• The Black Death killed 20-40% of the population within 2 years
• Later outbreaks reduced the population by half
• Deaths caused by the Black Death

  Shortage of land usage and food
• Nobility


  • Dominated land ownership
  • Henry VII was deeply distrustful of the nobility as a class so was reluctant to create new peerage titles
  • Only trusted Lancastrian military commanders e.g. Earl of Oxford and Lord Daubeney
  • Relied on Northumberland to control the northeast on behalf of the Crown
  • Henry's most important method of controlling the nobility was through bonds and recognisances
  • The key to the nobility's power was bastard feudalism
• Bastard feudalism


  1. Wealthy magnate recruited knights and gentlemen to serve them as administrators or accountants, or sometimes for military purposes

  2. Noblemen could use their retained men to bring unlawful influence on others in a court case, or use them against the Crown

  3. Henry sought to limit the military power of the nobility through legislation against retaining
• Henry remained conscious of the fact that loyal retainers were essential to maintain the Crown's security
• Took strong action against individual nobles who were held to abuse the system e.g. Lord Bergavenny in 1506
• Limits on retaining employed during Henry's reign

  1. In 1486 peers and MPs were required to take an oath against illegal retaining or being illegally retained

  2. In 1487 a law against retaining was established

  3. The 1487 law was reinforced by an Act passed in 1504, under which licences for retaining could be sought
• Gentry


  • The most important members such as Sir Reginald Bray sought knighthoods as confirmation of their social status
  • In 1490 there were about 500 knights
  • Peers and knights together owned 15-20% of the country's land and together they formed a homogenous elite with a common outlook derived from their substantial interests as landowners
• Churchmen


  • Spiritually important and a great landowner
  • Curates and chantry priests were modestly rewarded for dealing with the spiritual needs of ordinary folk
  • Bishops and abbots of larger spiritual houses were entitled to sit in the House of Lords and who often had political roles to undertake
  • Martin V, Pope from 1417-1431, declared that the king of England rather than the Pope governed the Church of England
  • Henry VII only appointed men as bishops who had legal training and valued their administrative competence over their spirituality
  • John Morton and Richard Fox were the most important clergymen
• Commoners


  • 'The middling sort' were rich merchants and craftsmen were the top level of the commoner group
  • In the countryside they comprised yeomen farmers who farmed substantial properties for an increasingly sophisticated market economy
  • The most numerous and influential educated professionals were lawyers who exercised considerable influence with wealthier merchants
  • Shopkeepers and skilled tradesmen dominated the borough corporations (town councils) and also played a key role in organisations such as guilds and confraternities which were a common feature of urban life in pre-Reformation England
  • The decline in population that had occurred as a result of the Black Death in 1348-49 reduced the demand for land and the resulting drop in land values had enabled the emergence of 'peasant aristocracy' (Joyce Youings)
  • Below yeomen came husbandmen who typically kept smaller farms than yeomen who supplemented their farming incomes through employment by yeomen or gentry
  • Labourers were usually dependent for income on the sale of their labour and could supplement their irregular income through the planting of vegetables or the exercise of grazing rights
• Regional divisions


  • South and East- mixed farming, densely populated e.g. Norfolk, Suffolk, Kent
  • North and West- pastoral farming, sparsely populated, predominated with the rearing of sheep, cattle and horses
  • Exceptions: Pastoral farming dominated in the Fens and in the wood pastures of the Kent and Sussex Weald, and grain farming and fruit growing in Herefordshire and the Welsh border counties
  • Londoners looked down on the north for its perceived savagery
  • Northerners were envious of southern riches
  • Regional identity reinforced by local government structures and saints' cults
• Derek Keene argued that mediaeval England 'was a country where ideas of language and nationhood conferred a strong sense of a single identity than ever before
• Social discontent and rebellions


  • Little social discontent comparatively
  • No subsistence crises- John Guy 'Tudor England's greatest success was its ability to feed itself'
  • Real wages increased
  • Living conditions for the poor appeared to be improving
• The Yorkshire Rebellion, 1489

  1. Resentment of taxation granted by Parliament in 1489 to finance the involvement of English forces in the campaign in Brittany

  2. Became particularly notorious because of the murder by the rebels of the Earl of Northumberland outside Topcliffe in the North Riding of Yorkshire in April of that year

  3. Northumberland was a victim of resentment against taxation and was murdered by his own retainers who deserted him as punishment for his desertion of Richard III at Bosworth
• The Cornish Rebellion, 1497

  1. Sparked by the demand for extraordinary revenue to finance the campaign against Scotland

  2. Posed a much greater threat than the Yorkshire Rebellion due to the sheer number involved (approx. 15,000), the attempt to exploit the rebellion made by Perkin Warbeck, and the rebels marching on London, only being halted at Blackheath

  3. Questioned the effectiveness of the Crown's systems for maintaining order in the countryside and challenged the security of Henry VII's regime

  4. Henry only punished the leaders and treated the bulk of the rebels with conspicuous leniency

  5. The rebellion shocked Henry into ensuring that Anglo-Scottish tensions were eased and made him particularly cautious about entering into any further foreign conflicts