HVII establishing royal authority

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establishing royal authority

HVII's personality & mode of governing would undoubtedly have been shaped by his early experiences:

personal strengths:

  • spoke & understood several langs
  • knew dangers of imposters
  • built a close group of loyal and trusted colleagues while in exile 

personal disadvantages:

  • no formal experience of estate & financial management 
  • not attended eng court 
  • not developed effective relationships w/ pol nation 
  • knew little of the country & virtually unknown to eng people 
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relations w/ nobility

  • english magnate a sig force in eng gov although noble families no fell to about 60 after war of roses
  • in HVII's reign there was a signficant change in the relationship between crown & nobility who came to act less free
  • they were drawn into local & central gov 
  • system of gov was more centralised under HVII 
  • changes driven by gentry 
  • royal service most effective way to move up the ladder 
  • gentry became more skilled admins 
  • power within counsel became more concentrated in hand of fewer men, mostly lawyers underlining the peripheral status of those men who attened only occassionally and diminishing the improtance of the nobility as a group - ADDRESSING ******* FEUDALISM 
  • HVII turned to a conciliar solution for every admin problem 
  • H was reluctant to grant titles and land as rewards and instead prefferd ancient honour of ORder of the Garter 
  • he closely surveryed noble families 
  • used Acts of Attainder to punish any nobleman who proved treacherous 
  • 1487, secured star chamber Act, which established a tribunal headed by the 3 primary officers of state 
  • financial survelliance to ensure obediance and loyalty through bonds & recongisances 
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penalties used by HVII

  • ACTS OF ATTAINDER: parliament passed act to declare a nobleman guilty of a crime against the crown , usually treason. the noble might be imprisoned, and the attainted family lost the right to inherit lands and titles, these acts were reversible 
  • ACTS AGAINST ILLEGAL RETAINING AND MAINTENANCE: noblemen kept retained men who served them as accountants and land agents, but who also fought in their private army. these retained men wore the noblemens badge, known as livery to confirm their loyal service. Noblemen sometimes used their retainers to bring unlawful infuence on others in a court case, although there were legal retainers which H allowed to continue 
  • BONDS AND RECOGNISANCES: a bond recongised that the person involved recognised himself as owing the lump sum stated, which was not payable if the condition was observed. if the conditon was not observed, the sum stated was paid. a person did not have to do anything wrong to give a bond. most givers of bonds did not pay 
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