Henry viii transformed England domestically 1509-1527?
How accurate is this assessment of henry viii’s early political
domestic policy?
There were many aims that henry viii tried to achieve
through his domestic policies such as to increase efficiency of
government, increase power, improve law, and order and
show support for the nobility.
Henry had changed the administration from what henry vii
had. Henry viii had decreased the size of the privy chamber
from 12 to 6. This was reduced to make the government
more efficient as there were too many people in the
workload. Henry had also decided to expel the minions in
1519. They were close friends and noblemen and decided to
replace them with advisors. However, this had meant that
henry was not showing support for the nobility. In 1526, he
introduced the Eltham ordinances which was to get rid of
people not working efficiently in the government. However,
this was never implemented so it was a failure. This suggests
that there was a lack of success for henry’s administration
policies and did not show support for his nobles.
Henry also reformed the legal system to increase law and
order. This was shown by increasing the power of the star
chamber and the court of the chancery. The system of the
court being implemented this way was to show there was no
discrimination between classes of people. This was called
impartial justice because everyone was equal according to
the law. Overall, this was a success as the legal system.
Henry had to try and control the nobles by giving them
support and reducing their political power. Henry had
increased the power of JP’s and made them swear to the
crown. This caused conflict between the JP’s and the nobles.
However, at the start of henry’s reign he executed Empson
and Dudley who when in charge of the star chamber created
fake cases to gain more money for the country. this gave
support for nobles as they were long enemies. Henry was
unsuccessful in controlling the nobility as he undermined
them with JP’s and replaced them with advisors.
Henry like most kings wanted to create as much money as
possible. He had to gain money for the war in France. he
went to parliament to ask for money and wanted £800,000
and received £130,000 so he did receive some which can be
seen as a success however he did not get the amount he
requested. The Amicable grant was created to ask people to
donate to the country for war. However, this did not work as
there was widespread passive resistance which meant that
little money was raised, and the project was dropped. Henry
viii lacked funds for his war in France and made peace.
In conclusion, in the short-term henry’s domestic policy was
successful in areas such as legal system and parliament.
However, he failed to show support for the nobles. Part of
this failure could be due to Wolsey rising to the top very fast
but after the amicable grant henry started to him in a
different light not as the great advisor he was.