Overall Limitations

• Naturally this active foreign policy was extremely expensive. The cost of warfare was rising very quickly and the endless diplomacy, major treaties and diplomatic missions cost a great deal as well.
• Throughout the 1520s Henry VIII had difficulties in funding these initiatives.
• The Amicable Grant of 1525 is perhaps the most famous example of problems associated with finances but there were also wrangles with the parliament of 1523.
• Militarily, England was seen as a second rate power. She still had no standing army and the government was constantly concerned about the limitations and lack of military training undertaken by Englishmen.
• England could not rely on a strong alliance with either of the main powers. Ferdinand of Aragon, the Emperor Maximilian and Charles V all let England down by making separate peace treaty with France.