Henry VII - Finance

·         To improve the management of finance

·         To increase royal income

Money that is guaranteed and the monarch can plan their long term future with

·         Crown lands

·         Feudal dues

·         Customs duties

Legal dues

·         Henry inherited all the lands held by the Houses of York and Lancaster, the Earldoms of Richmond and Warwick, the duchy of Lancaster and the principality of Wales

·         Sir Reginald Bray developed these techniques of estate management further and applied them to other lands

·         Henry preferred to hold onto land the maximise both his influence and his income from leases and rents

·         1486 – Act of resumption – claim all crown lands that has been granted away since the start of the Wars of the Roses

·         Did not always act on these claims

·         The potential threat to a noble family could be more useful to control them than actually pressing the demand for return of the land to the king

·         Traditional rights held by the crown to demand money deriving from the principle that the king was the sole owner of all kingdom’s and that others held it as his tenants

·         Relief – paid by an heir when he received his inheritance

·         Marriage – the kings right to arrange marriages of the daughters of tenants at a profit

·         Wardship – control of the estates of heirs under adult age, which allowed the king to manage these lands for his own profit

·         Livery – payment made by a ward on reaching adulthood and taking control of his lands

·         In 1487 his income from wardships and marriages was £350, by 1507 it had risen to £6,000 per year

·         Paid on goods entering or leaving the country

·         Money came largely from tunnage and poundage

·         Henry introduced certificates for coastal trade

·         Twice updated the book of taxes

·         Customs duties rose from about £35,000 per year at the beginning of his reign to about £40,000 at the end

·         Money from fines and other payments made by people appealing before the King’s court

·         Payments came from both common law courts and the special courts operated by the royal council

The attainder of Sir William Stanley in 1495 brought an immediate payment of £9,000 and £1,000 per year thereafter

Extra money collected by the king in emergencies and needs the approval of parliament

·         Bonds and recognisances

·         Loans and benevolences

·         Feudal dues

·         Clerical taxes

·         Parliamentary taxes

·         Payments made as a guarantee of good behaviour

·         Demanded from those whose loyalty was suspect

·         Henry used a special government court – the council learned in law – to enforce the payment of these debts

·         The kings right to ask for financial help in particular emergencies

·         Organised the royal council, loans could be requested from both individuals and instructions, such as town co operations

·         The council learned in law was also used to enforce these payments

·         The king was entitled to gifts for special occasions

·         Gifts were paid by leading nobles, but parliament was also expected to make a grant on behalf of the people it represented

·         Special taxes which the king could levy on the church

·         He raised £300 for the post of Archdeacon of Buckingham for example

·         This practice called ‘simony’ was forbidden by the church but widely practiced

·         Special grants of taxes by parliament to finance royal policies such as military action in Europe or Scotland

·         Parliamentary taxes were available when needed, but they were often unpopular, and triggered two rebellions in Henry’s reign

Rulers creating a stable and centralised government through changes made during their reign which leads to and increase in power for the monarch