Treatment of the Nobility

What were the rewards that Henry used to deal with the Nobility?

• Order of the Garter

• King’s Council

• Patronage

• Great Council

What were the punishments that Henry used to deal with the Nobility?

• Acts of Attainder

• Retaining

• Feudal Dues

• Crown Lands

• Bonds and Recognisances

What was the Order of the Garter?

• Significant honour - reserved for the king’s closest servants

• Created 37 Knight of the Garter such as the Early of Oxford, Giles Daubeney, Robert Wiloughby and Reginald Bray

• Effective for Henry because it gave prestige but not power or land

What was the King’s Council?

• Sign of the King’s confidence - emphasis on loyalty to trusted servants

• Two chancellors retained their positions for long periods: John Morton (1486-1500) and William Warham (1504-09)

• Treasurer was occupied by Lord Dinham until 1501 and then by Earl of Surrey until 1522

• Richard Fox became Keeper of the Privy Seal in 1487

• Five Key councillors from before Bosworth: Reginald Bray, Giles Daubeney and Richard Guildford, Thomas Lovell and John Riselly

What was Patronage?

• The giving of positions of power, titles, land

• First rewarded were those who supported Henry in the Battle of Bosworth

  • Earl of Oxford (John de Vere) - became major landowner in East Anglia

  • Jasper Tudor made Duke of Bedford

  • Thomas Lord Stanley made Earl of Derby

• Later rewarded on the basis of good service

  • George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury

  • Gilds, Lord Daubeney

  • Sir Reginald Bray

  • Edmund Dudley

What was the Great Council?

• Noblemen, called together by the King to discuss high matters of state - usually in moment of emergency

• Useful form of control for the King - gain agreement and support of his most important subjects for any potential controversial policy

• The five meetings

  • 1485 - calling of Parliament and announcement of Henry’s marriage

  • 1487 - response to Lambert Simnel’s threat

  • 1488 - authorise a subsidy for the campaign in Brittany

  • 1491 - authorise a war against France

  • 1496 - grant a loan of £120,000

What were Bonds and Recognisances?

• Bonds - written agreements in which people promised to pay a sum of money if they failed to carry out their promise

• Recognisances - formal acknowledgement of a debt or an obligation that already existed, with the understanding to pay money if this obligation was not met

• Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset - supported Richard in 1485. Required to transfer all land except two manors to trustees, give a recognisance for £1000 and find others who would give recognisances worth £10,000 on his behalf. By 1499, Dorset earned back the King’s trust and these agreements were cancelled

What were Acts of Attainder?

• Acts that led to a family losing the right to possess and inherit its land - led to social and economic ruin

• They were reversible and were used by H7 as a ‘sanction for good’

• Thomas Howard, the Earl of Surrey - he and his father (John Howard, Duke of Norfolk) had fought for Richard III at Bosworth. Rather than execute him - Henry attained is lands and imprisoned him.

  • March 1486 - Howard imprisoned and attained

  • 1487 - Refused to escape from the Tower during Simnel plot

  • January 1489 - Released after taking an oath of allegiance; process of reversal of attainder started; restored to title of Earl of Surrey

  • April 1489 - Put in charge of law and order in the north; quelled Yorkshire rising for Henry; rewarded by Henry (return of the nucleus of the Howard estates)

  • Spring 1491 - Put down second rising in Yorkshire (Ackworth

  • 1492 - Return of the remainder of attained Howard estates

• Edward IV passed 140 AoA and reversed 42 whereas Henry VII passed 138 AoA and reversed 46

• Number of Acts of Attainder passed per year(s):

  • 1485-86 - 28

  • 1487 - 28

  • 1489-90 - 8

  • 1495 - 24

  • 1497-1500 - 0

  • 1504-09 - 51

What were Feudal Dues?

• Emphasised power as King by asserting feudal rights such as:

  • Wardships - king took control of the estates of minors

  • Marriage - King profited from arranged marriages

  • Livery - King was paid to release wardships

  • Relief -King received money from inheritance

  • Escheats - payments made when land reverted to the Crown

• Katherine, Dowager Duchess of Buckingham was fined £7000 in 1496 for marrying without the King’s license

• Edward, Duke of Buckingham, was fined £7000for entering his inheritance in 1498 without license before he was 21

• Increase in proceeds in marriage and warship: from £350 in 1487 to £6000 in 1507

What are Crown Lands?

• Estimated that the amount of Crown land was five times larger by the later years of Henry VII than in Henry VI’s reign (1450s)

• Lands formerly held by Warwick and by the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester were almost all retained by Henry throughout his reign

• 1486 - Act of Resumption. Recovered for the Crown all properties granted away since 1455 (before Wars of the Roses)

• Henry rewarded loyal supporters with land not from crown estates but from the forfeited land of opponents (e.g. Acts of Attainder)

What was retaining?

• Long-held noble practice of recruiting Gentry followers

• Used for general administrative purposes and as local fighting forces

• Henry took steps to limit retaining

• Tried to tackle retaining on 2 different occasions

  • 1485 - the Lords and Commons had to swear in the 1485 parliament that they would not retain illegally

  • 1504 - proclamations ensured that nobles had to obtain special ‘placards’ or licences to retain. These had to be obtained from the King in person and are another indication of how policies relied on his personal input

• The 1504 Act had a penalty of £5 per month per illegal retainer. Applied to Lord Burgavenny with a fine of £70,550

• Also applied to Earl of Devon who gave a recognisance not to retain illegally in 1494. He broke this promise in 1506 and was forced to pay part of the sum due