Was Mary responsible for social and economic crisis during her reign?

What 4 reasons continued to drive up inflation during Mary I’s reign?

• population increases

• debasement of coinage

• harvest failures in 1555 & 1556

• ‘sweeting sickness’ - 1557 & 1558 killing 1 in 10, the population had dropped by 5%

How did the Duke of Northumberland attempt to improve crown finances?

set up a commissioner to investigate the shortcomings of the system and to recommended reforms

Why did Northumberland’s commissioner never get put into effect?

• Edward’s death prevented

• person largely responsible for making the recommendations (Walter Midway) was regarded with suspicion on religious grounds

What 6 changes did Mary implement to the economy?

• Court of the Exchequer

• Rents on the Crown Lands

• Exchequer successfully pursued Crown debtors

• A new Book of Rates

• Cost of Calais removed

• Plans made to reissue coinage

What change did Mary implement to the economy regarding the Court of the Exchequer?

took over both the Courts of the Firsts Fruits and Tenths and the Court of Augmentations

• financial administration under Lord Treasurer Winchester was competent

What change did Mary implement to the economy regarding the Rents on the Crown Lands?

re-evaluated and raised

• estimated that this raised £40,000 per annum

What change did Mary implement to the economy regarding the exchequer successfully pursuing Crown debtors?

e.g. Sir Thomas Egerton owed £7497 and repaid all the money after a spell in the Tower of London

• however - not everyone paid up (especially those in political favour of Lord Williams)

What change did Mary implement to the economy regarding a new Book of Rates?

fixed the level of duty to be paid on certain products in 1558

• badly needed: level was last fixed in 1507 & hundreds of commodities were untaxed or taxed well below inflation levels - new rates 100% higher

• custom revenues rose from £29,315 in 1556-7 to £82,797 in 1558-9

What change did Mary implement to the plans made to reissue coinage?

plans made due to the debasement made during Henry VIII’s and Edward VI’s reign

• did not happen until Elizabeth I reign

How does historian P. Williams describe Mary I’s financial record?

at least ‘adequate’

• Mary had begun her reign with debts of £185,000 but by her death this had increased to £300,000

• situation could have been better if she wasn’t involved in a war with France for the last 18 months of her reign

What was Mary’s attitude to economic and social policy?

For Mary, all other policy areas were secondary to religion

Why did Mary I try to help the poor?

Became more involved in areas relating to the poor relief

• response to the extent of the problems that country faced between 1556 to 1558

• huge morality rate due to the series of harvest failures and taxation was too high in order to pay for the war against France

How did Mary I try to help the poor?

enforcement of laws against hoarders and strong encouragement to convert pastures to tillage

• difficult to assess the effect of the measures