Henry’s values and attitude

• Women inferior to men, reminded women of their places and that have to accept husband views with demur.
• God had ordered society as it was and sin for anyone to challenge place been assigned.
• Morality and civilisation depended on maintenance of social distinctions.
• Time spent of earth was brief interlude to eternal life.=Felt no guilt or sorrow about causing deaths
• Self discipline and endeavour- servants do work, masters devote time to etter their status. Kings= doing grand deeds, battle, court etc.

Beliefs

·        God= super being that rewarded or punished those who followed or roke commandments

·        Henry’s position allowed him to make special deals with God

·        Believed he must fight wars for valour like predecessors

·        Courtly love at first, giving gifts from war to his ‘fair lady’ to be rewarded with kissing her hand. Love later wavers

·        Honour: king should be obeyed and never under influence of others

Wolsey

Why was he able to rise to the top of political world?

• Outstandingly able
• Possessed very fine mind
• Character and personality marked him out
• Possessed drive and confidence necessary to seize opportunities that came his way
• Afraid of nothing and prepared to take calculated risks when need arose
• Won patronage of important people
• Flattered outrageously
• Be relied upon to carry out tasks that were entrusted to him
• Major break came when henryviii was eing browbeated by counsellors to carry on with fathers policies when he wanted to follow policy of his own. Wolsey gave king the advice he wanted to hear and won his approval. He encourage king to continue “life of gaiety” and leave boring work of government to people like him.
• Many leading figures from previous reign were either removed from scene of retired
• 1512-13 proved confidence to king by taking on responsibility of organising expedition force to invade france. Ensured right people were in right place with right equipment at right time.
• Wolsey also wanted the pope to appoint him a position that outranked Canterbury and so exerted pressure on him supported by henry VIII
• Wolsey made cardinal but wasn’t satisfied. Wanted control of English church, campaigned to become a ‘Legatus a Latere’
• Also wanted to e appointed to senior office of state, lord chancellorship
• 1514 he was the de facto chief minister
• 1515 archbishop warham, lord chancellor, resigned and wolsey took his place. Now in direct control of legal system of state.

Wolsey powers: how he maintained it

• Total power in church
• Had immense wealth
• Never relaxed, always active
• Most of power came from church- church pays salary,
• Vindictive
• Lord chancellor os state= power
• Wolsey worried about “favourites/minions” who were friends with henry at court and had influence over him so infiltrated people into the roupin 1518, gives them prestigious positions but outside of chamber so they’ll be too busy to talk to henry then suggest to henry to reform royal household
• When drift back in he makes them ambassadors and sends them to other countries.

Wealth

·        Y end of career= most richest man in country

·        Much less than half was from positions he had

·        Greater part of income = fees charged by ecclesiastical courts and gifts’ given each year

·        Was determined his court be equal to those in Europe

·        Invented parliamentary susidy, introduced amicable grants

Government and legal system

• Achieved little in domestic affairs
• Been accused of attempting to dispense parliament altogether
• Only 2 parl’s summoned during his period of power
• He did attempt to bring greater justice to legal system, trying to balance common law and civil law- introduced civil to replace common
• As lord chancellor he was head of legal system and responsible for kings council and chancery

Only great hostility to wolsey when he began to fall from power.

Why did Wolsey fall from power?

• Many those who could claim a right to throne had died or been executed.
• Still paranoid and this paranoia caused him to appoint wolsey to keep watch on nobility as he doubted their loyalty. Among these was Henry Brandon, one of his closest friends and supporters. Shows how disturbed henry was.
• Duke of Buckingham wasn’t as fortunate. He was a great magnate, controlling great amount of land and was sympathetic to white rose party. he foolishly said “henry might not be king for much longer” and wolsey found out. 1521 he was ordered to London, arrested, imprisoned and found guilty and executed.
• Percy family were incredibly powerful, had exercised virtually independent jurisdiction in N.E England. Henry fearful  of them, tried to take actions but head of family so timid he said nothing that could be misinterpreted as disloyalty. Henry forced the earl to name him as the heir so when he died all the percy lands reverted to the crown.
• White rose party still cause for concern, even after Richard de la pole’s death 1525.  none had strong claim to throne but still possibility they might act as focus of opposition to tudor dynasty. Leading members of party were 3 pole brothers (not related to de la pole) who  inherited claim from mother. Cavendish family also shared similar ancestry. Families careful not to be seen as being disloyal but let down by Reginald pole. When the break between henry and pope became final in mid 1530’s, Reginald publicly sided with pope and became enemy of the king. 1537 he was made cardinal and sent to netherlands to cross channel when time was right to convert England back.  Henry tried to get him assisinated=failed
• Geoffrey pole, was arrested and spent several months of ‘morale sapping’ imprisonment and forced to accuse friends and relatives of having taken part in traitorous conversations. Heda sof family- Lord montague, geoffreys older brother and marquess of Exeter were arrested and executed and children kept in custody. Countess of salisury executed, lord montague’s son died in prison but exeters sons survived along with Geoffrey pole who toured Europe.

HIS MOTIVES:

·        Trying to reduce importance of nobles so as to widen the gap between himself and most important nobles

·        Trying to move to modern system where king was the source of all significant over and influence

·        However no consistency in henry’s behaviour towards nobility

Faction

·        Factions formed as in privy chamber they had greatest opportunity to influence king/queen

·        Access had been limited during Henry VII to the privy chamber

·        HenryVII opened it up and more people had access to the privy chamber.

·        People with access to the privy chamber were ambitious, wanted to influence king to pursue policies they favoured. Also wanted kings patronage (position/lands/titles) and may want to influence king against rivals

·        Factions formed around common objective [eg: catholics with Cromwell against anne Boleyn] rarely lasted long and once achieved they disintegrated

·        Councillors of henry [wolsey,Cromwell] had to be able to control or manipulate factions and retain influence with king

·        Having access to privy chamber led to decisions taken in privy council being overturned. Undermines role of privy council.

·        Between 1529-32 henry uncertain of his direction. Under great pressure from 2 rival groups

-Pro Boleyn faction                                                -pro catherine or aragon faction

·        Doesn’t know whether to get rid of pope but desperate for son and heir

·        Until 1532 thomas more was chancellor and member of Catherine of aragon/conservative faction

·        However influence of conservative faction began to decline because of boyeln faction offering henry a solution to his problem

·        1530- dominated by Cromwell- manipulate and control factions initially worked with Boleyn’s until Seymour’s came along.

·        1540-prominent conservative faction at court and was led by Norfolk and bishop Gardiner. Aim was power and counter reformation

·        same period new faction emerged and there focus was the succession

·        edward not healthy, if he died who’d get throne as both daughters=illegitimate

·        during 1540 henry played one faction off against another as hadn’t appointed new chief minister after Cromwell

·        conservative faction fell out of his favour coz of his failed marriage to Catherine howard. Takes sides with new faction concerned with sucession. Results in 6^th marriage to Catherine Parr

Henry and the Church

·        church=largest landowner

·        45,000 clergy in England, 10,000 were monks and nuns, rest were priests, bishops etc.

·        church + crown usually worked together ‘twin pillars if society’

·        abuses within church, people been critical of church since middle ages.

·        Henry didn’t question authority of church until late 1520’s. church powerful ally

·        Henry realised church gave him good servants- best educated

·        Church-valuable source of income and good means of rewdarding those who served him [eg:wolsey]

·        Church taught great chain of being-made everyone accept it, suppressed revolt

England on the eve of reformation-Opposition?

• Pope still accepted as being power, religious orders still supported, clergy were respected everywhere else and the support for parish churches remained high. Can be seen due to the number of church and chapels built, the donations they received, and the money left in wills to parish churches. Also high attendance at church
• Religious guilds were numerous, supported by locals and sacraments, rituals and intercession were still largely popular.
• Main opposition in south east to church- merchants and traders wanted bigger role

, growing criticism of pope and his power, new ideas in Europe spread to S.E first, 2 big universities oxford and Cambridge were hotbed for protestant ideas, superstition-images unpopular, loyalty to pope was diminishing after 1534.

·        There may have been some aspects of the church that needed reform. The rumours about the ‘gluttonous monks’ and the feel of dissatisfaction from the S.E was a problem but there is no clear evidence the church was as corrupt as people feared. Many were still loyal to religion, the practises such as rituals remained popular, the clergy, pope and religious order were still respected so maybe reform wasn’t entirely needed based on the state of the church at this time.

Parliament

·        If changed were going to be firm as possible and enforceable the easiest way to achieve that was to get parliamentary approval as when they return to their constituencies they will be the ones to enforce that law.

·        Because changes were so enormous it was really important to get a cross section of support. It’d give a chance to sound out any opposition as people will discuss it

·        Henry hoped to put pressure on pope by showing him the ‘political nation’ was behind him in all his and the pope might change his mind

·        Did henry in 1529 have an agenda? Most say he had an agenda to use parl to pressurise the pope but hadn’t thought any further.