Government in Henry VIII's Early and Middle Years

Henry’s attitudes towards government

• Wanted to let others do the mundane / boring work for him

• Style of government varied across his reign

• Henry’s view on Parliament also differed to his father’s yet the main functions of granting extraordinary revenue to the cown and to pass laws stayed

Parliaments summoned in Henry VIII’s reign

• Only summoned 9 Parliaments in total

• Henry only summoned the ones in 1510, 1512, 1515 and 1523

• His first minister Wolsey seemed to have a distaste towards Parliament, as only one was summoned during his period of dominance (the one in 1523)

• Primary reason for Henry calling Parliament was to secure revenue

• Parliament was met more frequently

Wolsey and end of governance by councils

• Governance via councils broke down due to conflicts between Henry and his councillors

• Councillors disagreed with supporting Henry’s war with France

• Henry took notice of Wolsey due to his effective management of the French campaign

• His influence eventually increased due to how close he was to the king, not his positions

Privy Chamber

• Originally before 1519 laid outside Wolsey’s immediate control

• Original role of Privy Chamber from H7’s reign was extented to include Henry’s closest young courtiers

• They became the Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber

• These men distructed Wolsey - who wanted to remove their influence

• 1519 - Wolsey removed the Gentlemen and replaced them with his own supporters

• Some of them recovered their positions though

• Meaning most of the Privy Chamber was still out of Wolsey’s control