Henry VII - Controlling the Nobility

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  • Henry VII - Controlling the Nobility
    • Patronage
      • Vacant lands were also absorbed by Henry's personal domains - making him the largest landowner in the country
      • Henry (largely) abandoned Edward IV's policy of distributing lands to loyal followers
        • There were some grants at the beginning of his reign but Henry was concerned not to create a new group of nobles who could rise to become a potential threat
      • the number of nobles fell by about 1/4 during his reign through deaths and attainders
        • When Henry need royal agents in local communities, he looked to men lower down the social scale who did not have extensive lands in the area
          • These men were dependent on him for the position and status they held and were not distracted by competing loyalties.
    • Attacks on Retaining
      • Retaining was the practice by which a nobleman kept a large number of men as his personal staff.
        • Retainers were used to put pressure on tenants who were slow in paying their rent, or on juries to return the verdict their master wanted.
          • Henry (Like Edward IV) regarded them as a lawless element.
      • Laws were passed in 1485 and 1504 against illegal retaining
        • The 1504 Act required nobles to obtain a special licence from the King before they could retain large numbers of men
          • and imposed severe fines if they did not  The Penalty was £5 per month per illegal retainer.
      • The idea behind the law were sound, but the problem had gone on too long to be settled so easily  Nobles found ways to avoid getting a licence, for example by covering up records of wages they paid to servants - so that no one knew exactly how many men were being retained
    • Financial Controls
      • Henry would demand a financial bond from individual nobles or their families
        • This would place the noble in debt to the thrown - so he would remain loyal in the future
          • In effect Henry forced nobles to agree with him or face a ruinous fine
            • It was a widely used policy and in Henry's last decade of being king about 2/3s of nobility were held under bonds
    • THE NOBILITY OVERVIEW
      • He needed to win the support of the nobles and at the same time make sure their power and arrogance were controlled
        • There were two ways he could do this: either to buy their support by rewarding them with land and titles, or to force them to support him by showing him the unwelcome concequences of oppostion Henry was most inclined to use the second option
      • Henry's relationship with leading nobles was critical to his survival as King.  He depended on them to maintain law and order in areas where they held land and estates
      • Nobility depended on three main factors: land, wealth and support To maintain their independence from the King
        • Henry reduced all three during his reign, while being careful not to push them into open rebellion.
          • However, Nobility had grown powerful in the fifteen century, gaining more lands at the expense of the crown.
            • Henry was fortunate in 1485 that victory and that a series of deaths in the 1480s meant that key families,  were now headed by children  Henry VII used a variety of different policies to reduce his reliance on the nobility and to limit  their power

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