Elizabethan Government

• Rewarded loyal service
• Vast array of patronage:
  • large numbers of offices in legal system, Church, armed forces, central bureaucracy, local admin and at court
  • honours such as peerage and knighthoods
  • favourable treatment regarding payment of taxes and debts
  • capacity to sell/ lease Crown lands cheaply
  • custom farms, licences and monopoly rights
  • pensions and annuities
• More to do with securing loyalty and gratitude than with administration
• Most crown appointments carries poor pay
• Gratuities = essentially bribes
• Successful courtier might hope for forms of patronage like a monopoly or customs farm
• Queen derived advantage from system
• Loyal and reliable men could be placed in sensitice positions in every aspect of government
• For patronage reasons, men were given sinecures
  • a post in government or (originally) the Church without any duties
• Frequently, ability failed to secure appointments

• Influence over queen's distribution of patronage also acquired legions of expectant/grateful friends
• Provoked much bitterness and jealousy throughout society
• Later years of Elizabeth's reign - expense of war greatly increased the number of monopolies to raise income
  • monopolies raised prices for many goods/services
  • made large profits
  • Queen's popularity suffered
• Monopolies debate in 1601 led to unique Commons victory over the Crown
• Beneficial but dangerous

• First Council
  • 19 members
  • priority = professional administration
  • council selected for competence and reliablity 
  • almost immediately an inner ring of fewer than 10 emerged
• Council of 1597 - 11 members
• Council of 1601 - 13 members
• Mary's principal adviser (Paget) = dismissed and replaced by William Cecil
• Balance shifted in favour of pragmatic Protestants
• Elizabeth's council = very much her own creation
• Cecil - Secretary of State to Lord Treasurer
  • Queen's most influential and reliable adviser
• Elizabeth's council included only 1 clergyman 
• Preference for active ministers over representatives of specific interests

Shaping National Policy

• Council = advisory body
• Men = capable of presenting their views persuasively and diplomatically
  • 1559 - Cecil's arguments induced reluctant monarch to help Knox drive out French in Scotland
• Could be skillful manipulators of public opinion
• Often responsible for Parliament's more agitated endeavors
  • notably on marriage/succession
• Council could make decisions in areas where Elizabeths will was not clearly expressed
  • e.g. eventual fate of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1586
• Council intervened constantly in the making of policy
  • execution of  Mary = unique - only major decision against Queen's wishes

Faction

• Council rarely a united body
• Councillors struggled to win Queen's favour
• Policy differences arose

Factions (cont.)

• Elizabeth never gave exclusive power to any single individual/faction
• Sometimes appointed men of opposing factions and varying views
  • e.g. Norfolk and Dudley
• Men competed for her favours

Executive Role

• Involved in the minutiae of everyday life
  • from serious to trivial matters
  • no aspect of life was beyond the scope of the council
• Supervised Queen's accounts
• Authorised every act of expenditure by the Exchequer
• Quasi-judicial role
  • investigated many crimes e.g. treason, sedition and popular disorder, which threatened security of the state
• Centralised system - enormous burden of work on council
• Cecil's role = pivotal

• Summoned total of 10

First Parliament

• January 1559
• Voted custom revenues
• Granted additional taxation (war with France)
• New religious settlement authorised (Protestant)

Legacy

• Met often since 1529
• Passed legislation (Reformation, government etc)
• Invaluable opportunity to sound out governing class
• Circumstances of new reign - made role indispensable 
• Elizabeth needed Parliament's approval for new Church; co-operation necessary in financial matters
• Elizabeth emerged as formidable politician

Conflict

• Protestant zeal brought many MPs into conflict with the Queen 
• Growing tendency of ocuntry gentry to acquire the representation of boroughs, displacing the townsmen who traditionally held these seats
  • gentry eventually comprised four-fifths of the Commons
• Elizabeth objected to Puritan bills - 1566, 1571, 1572, 1586-7 & 1593
• Elizabeth loath to allow Parliament to discuss her marriage and the succession
• Succession problem aggravated in 1568 by arrival in England of legitimate but Catholic heir to throne, Mary, Queen of Scots
  • Parliament ordered exclusion / execution of Mary
  • Elizabeth refused to accept Parliament's right to initiate measures against a fellow monarch
  • successful demand for execution = only one without conflict
  • succession = an issue which agitiated members throughout the reign

Free Speech

• Members who raised such issues as Church reforms, the Queen's marriage and succession encountered objections based not on the merits of their proposals, but on their right to initiate discussion of them
• Matters of "commonweal"
  • mostly private and local matters
  • national social & economic questions (e.g. poor law)
  • Parliament free to discuss these
• Matters of "state"
  • Belonged to royal prerogative
    • religion
    • foreign policy
    • Queen's marriage
    • succession
    • purveyance and monopolies
  • not even permitted to discuss these issues unless invited to do so by Queen
• Most MPs respeced limits
• Disciplined those who pushed her too far

Taxation

• Inadequacy of Crown's ordinary revenue - Elizabeth had to ask Parliament to vote subsidies in peacetime
• Reign of Elizabeth witnessed the development of a major instrument of parliamentary opposition
• Matters of "commonweal", social and economic questions could be raised
  • narrowed scope for conflict
  • e.g. Crown accepted poor law
• Queen's prerogative might be at stake - royal rights (purveyance and monopolies) = major economic grievances
  • differences occasionally arose
• Monopolies
  • cheap way for crown to reward courtiers and raise money for royal needs
  • artificially raised prices to consumer
• Discontent = intense during economic crisis (1590s)

Co-operation

• Elizabeth's parliaments considered and passed a much greater number of laws than predecessors
  • average = 33 Acts per session
• Elizabeth was never denied funds 
• Voted taxes in years of peace as well as war
  • during war years agreed to multiple subsidies
• Harmony vital on question of money
• Hardly ever intruded with foreign policy
  • domestic and religious issues = more problematic
• Puritan agitation
  • acted individually/formed shifting alliances which varied issue to issue
  • no evidence of significant Puritan opposition willing or able to lead commons against Crown
• Monopolies row 1601 not work of organised opposition movement
• Disputes over parliamentary privilege 
  • spontaneous reactions
• Parliament didn't attempt to claim a role in the everyday admin of country
• No attempt to secure parliamentary government

The Role of the Council

• Commons opposition = use of Parliament by Privy Councillors to influence monarch
• Supported 1571 bill to punish all who failed to take communion - anti-Catholic measure
• Opposed more radical bills
  • e.g. Strickland's proposed reform of the Prayer Book in 1571

Control and Consensus

• Queen had means by which to "manage" Parliament
• Patronage not sufficient to enable Elizabeth to "pack" the commons with nominees/dependants
  • did provide useful nucleus of such people
• Councillors worked hard to get business of Crown through Parliament
• Queen could dissolve a troublesome Parliament 
  • did so in 1567
• Could also withold the Royal Assent
  • she did so more than 60 times
• Dependents of Crown = more than half the 80-odd members of Lords

Control and Consensus (cont.)

• Crown could exercise more directly coercive powers
  • sedition laws forbidding discussion of parliamentary business outside
• Personal contribution of Elizabeth
  • focus of attention and activity; also tactful
• Cooperation = dominant theme in relations between Elizabeth and her Parliaments
• Parliament met so rarely under Elizabeth 
  • hardly suggests an increase in power/importance
• Reign of 45 years: met 13 times; sessions were fewer than 10 weeks long
• Legislative role = important; not questioned by Elizabeth
• Made limited changes requiring Parliament's approval
• Parliament largely lost central role it acquired during years of revolution after 1529

• Government of every country = principally the responsibility of voluntary, unpaid members of local nobility and gentry
• Substantial increase in burdens imposed on local government
• Burden grew; organisation of local government changed; Crown's lack of money meant there was no departure from reliance on local elites

Lord-Lieutenants

• Head of each county; relatively new creation
• Appointed to almost every county
• Office for life
• Duties included:
  • levying of forced loans
  • enforcement of economic regulations
  • supervision of the JPs 
  • acquainting Council with events in their county

Justices of the Peace (JPs)

• Numbers rose fivefold under Tudors
• 50 per county by 1600
• Workload grew with great increase in statute (parliamentary) law under Tudors
• Acquired numerous administrative duties
  • poor law and economic regulation
  • maintenance of highways and bridges etc

Special Commissions

• Appeared particularly often during Elizabeth's reign 
• e.g. Oath to the royal supremacy (1559) was imposed by special commissions
• More often than not dominated by local men (albeit specially selected ones)

Below County Level

• Constables, churchwardens, overseers of the poor & other officials - carried out numerous functions
• Under the supervision of JPs and Sheriffs

Problems

• Degree of control = far from complete
• JPs developed an esprit de corps - led to emphasis on local interests
• majority of JPs were relatively inactive
• Some abused positions for personal profit
• Many parts of the country - recusancy fines weren't enforced
• Often militia = inadequately prepared
• Subsidy commissioners collecting parliamentary taxation permitted outrageously distorted assessments - greatly diminished Crown revenue
• 1590s - country exhausted by demands of war and afflicted by high inflation and bad harvests
• Resentment against parliamentary taxes
• Danger of rebellion - NORTHERN REBELLION

Strengths

• Parliament acted as a focus of national unity 
• Privy Council ensured a remarkably close supervision of life in England
• Office of Lord-Lieutenant was a great prize
  • holders cooperated rather than risk deprivation
• Uncooperative officials could be and often were removed
  • one-third of JPs replaced soon after Elizabeth's accession

Conclusions

• Men of local standing = far more appropriate than anonymous bureaucrats
• So much variation between (and within) counties
• Some areas were badly governed
  • from the perspective of both Crown and people
• most part - succeeded in having its policy implemented
  • better than French monarchy with 40,000 bureaucrats

Overview

• Supervised by council as a whole, not just finance ministers
• Expenditure kept on a tight reign
  • virtually no building
  • bureaucracy not expanded
  • official salaries more or less frozen
  • household reduced and cut its spending
  • gifts/pensions given less frequently
  • courtiers rewarded with wardships rather than monopolies
• Avoided crippling expense of war
• Most impressive financial achievement = funding of war against Spain and conquest of Ireland
• More systematic exploitation of purveyance
  • crown's right to buy goods below market price
• Great increase in granting of monopoly rights
• Crown lands worth £600,000+ sold
• Parliamentary taxation requested more frequently 
• Ship money = demanded

Ordinary Revenue

• Increased from about £200,000 to £300,000 p/a
  • kept pace with inflation
  • record large annual surplus
  • pay off (£227,000) debts left by Mary
  • accumulated cash reserve of £300,000 by 1585
• Rise in ordinary revenue:
  • fining recusants
  • diligent collecting of debts 
  • explaining revenues of vacant diocese

Parliamentary Taxation

• Primarily "subsidies"
• Yielded about £2.5 million during reign 
• Frequently secured during times of peace

Parliamentary Taxation (cont.)

• Not efficiently administered 
  • collectors often negligent/corrupt
  • many potential payers = untaxed
  • under-valuation
• Without adjusting for inflation - subsidy fell from £140,000 (start) to £80,000 (end)

Problems

• Overall rate of inflation roughly 75%
• Land income rose by only 25%; custom revenues baely rose at all
  • government failed to increase rents/duties in line with inflation
• Wardships yielded only a fraction of income
• Various forms of Crown debt which favourites were allowed to leave unpaid

Conclusions

• Crown relied upon unpaid volunteers in provinces and personal servants of officials in departments of state
• Defences of country severely undermined
• Need to employ extraordinary measures such as ship money - led to discontent
  • widespread avoidance of ship money 
  • great dispute of 1601 over monopolies
• Monarchy became financially dependent on Parliament
  • nation's principal defence against royal absolutism