4. The Tudor Age
UNIT 4: THE TUDOR AGE
1. A NEW DINASTY
The arrival of the Tudors heralded a new age. With Henry VII came increasing peace,
power and enlightenment. This was the age of the great voyages of exploration. Mercator
would complete his first map of the world, and on the high seas, England and Spain would
become the great rivals for the supremacy. Portugal would establish trading links with India
and by the end of Elizabeth’s reign, the first charter for the East India Company would be
granted.
The later part of this period became a time of religious upheaval and intolerance, as
Protestantism confronted Catholicism.
In 1485, when the Tudor dynasty came to power, England was divided and bankrupt after
thirty years of civil war. The country counted for little on the continent, whether in
diplomacy, commerce or war. In just over a century, the brilliant Tudors steered the country
in a new direction to revitalise their kingdom and make it the envy of the world.
The transformation of medieval anarchy into efficient government owed much to the fact
that three of the five Tudor monarchs were rulers of extraordinary ability, and much also to
their continuing good luck. Their abilities showed themselves in their astute choice of
servants and policies; their luck in the fact that they lived to an advanced age left obvious
heirs to succeed them.
However, when the first Tudor, Henry VII, fought his way to the throne, few Englishmen
realised that an age of civil war, royal incompetence and bankruptcy was over. But Henry
soon proved to be one of England's most astute rulers. He quickly made his position at
home unchallengeable.
Propaganda was the key to Henry’s success. In order to be strong, the Tudors had to
appear strong. Magnificent displays of wealth and power were more than a way of life.
They were instruments of state.
Henry was active in other fields as well. He made a profitable trade agreement with Spain
and by such encouragement of trade, and his patronage of explorers, he opened up a new
chapter in England’s history.
1.1. The Tudor Government and Court
The Tudor name brought with it an aura of daring and excitement, although the nobility had
not supported its cause. Henry strengthened his claim on the throne by marrying Elizabeth
of York, the eldest daughter of Edward IV, thereby uniting the houses of York and
Lancaster under the new dynasty.
Henry VII (1485-1509) was anxious to establish his authority among his peers in Europe.
In 1486, he received the backing of Pope Innocent VIII, who recognized his right to the
throne and threatened excommunication to any who challenged that right.
1
4. The Tudor Age
The early Tudors, Henry VII and later his son Henry VIII, concentrated the residences they
governed from in the south-east and were unwilling to travel their kingdom as much as
their predecessors had done. Henry VII re-established the equilibrium of the English
monarchy and its finances. He was a meticulous man in every respect. He avoided
expensive wars. A peace treaty was agreed between England and Scotland in 1502, and
James IV married Henry’s daughter Margaret in 1503. He had also negotiated an alliance
with Maximilian in 1496.
With the birth of his son, Arthur, in 1486, Henry VII wanted to make a strong alliance with
the rulers of Aragon and Castile, whose court was one of the richest in Europe. Katherine
and Arthur were married in 1499. The link with Spain became even more important
following Columbus’s discovery of a route to the Indies in 1492. Henry took considerable
interest in trade and exploration. In 1496, he authorized and financed a voyage of
discovery by the Genoese sailor Giovanni Caboto, who set sail from Bristol in 1497 and
discovered Newfoundland (five centuries after the Vikings).
With the end of the Middle Ages, Henry’s reign is seen as the start of England’s glory and
the birth of modern England. His main achievement was in uniting a previously divided
England and bringing harmony with Wales and Scotland, which provided a solid base
upon which his successors would build. In 1502, the premature death of Prince Arthur, the
heir to the throne, propelled his younger brother Prince Henry into the unexpected role of
prospective king of England. On his father’s death in 1509, this accomplished young man
duly inherited the throne.
Henry VIII (1509-1547) is probably the best know king of England and may even be the
most notorious. Certainly his reign saw some of the most significant developments in
England since the time of Edward I. Moreover unlike his predecessors for the past one
hundred years, Henry was the first to inherit a comparatively united Kingdom, as an
assured successor with every right of inheritance for the throne. His father had established
good relations with leading countries of Europe, and with no foreign wars for some years,
the country’s finances were strong. England was in the best shape financially, spiritually
and administratively that it had been for a long time.
He obeyed his father’s wish that he marry his elder brother’s widow, Katherine of Aragon,
in order to continue the alliance with Spain.
From the beginning, he was guided by his ministers. Henry VIII preferred to involve himself
in European affairs. He supported Ferdinand of Aragon against the Moors, and joined the
Pope Julius II in the Holy League against France.
Henry wanted to be the centre of the European stage. When the Holy Roman Emperor,
Maximilian I, died in 1509, Henry stood as a candidate to succeed him, having earlier been
encouraged by Maximilan himself, who regarded him as a good prospect. However, the
electors made their selection from the controlling Hapsburg family.
Henry VIII was becoming increasingly concerned about the birth of an heir. His wife,
Katherine, had borne him six children, but only one of these, Mary, had survived infancy.
By 1526, when Katherine had turned forty, it was evident that Henry would not have a son.
It was unthinkable that he would be succeeded by a girl. Wolsey entered into negotiations
with the Pope, Clement VII, to formerly annul Henry’s marriage with Katherine. Clement
2
4. The Tudor Age
refused to accept it and Henry appointed himself the Head of a separate Church of
England with the authority to appoint his own archbishops and bishops.
Henry’s second wife was Anne Boleyn, who gave birth to a girl, the future Elizabeth I. In
1536, she was arrested, tried and found guilty of treason and executed. Eleven days after
Anne’s execution, Henry married Jane Seymour. She was never crowned queen because
an outbreak of plague in London delayed the coronation, and then Jane became pregnant.
Jane gave birth to a boy, the future Edward VI, but Jane was seriously weakened by the
birth and died twelve days later. Because she had given him a son and heir, Jane
remained the favourite of Henry’s wives, and after his death he was laid beside her in St
George’s Chapel, Windsor.
Now, Henry sought a political marriage with Germany, on the advice of Thomas Cromwell.
The bride was Anne, the sister of the duke of Cleves. The marriage was never
consummated and they agreed to divorce seven months later. His next marriage was to
the beautiful, teenage, Katherine Howard, a cousin of Anne Boleyn. Evidently Katherine
soon tired of her husband, who was thirty years older than her, and turned to her former
lovers. She was soon betrayed, charged with treason and executed in 1542. He entered
into his final marriage the following year to an older lady, already twice widowed, Katherine
Parr. Henry was now after a companion rather than a lover, and in Parr he found a woman
with whom he could converse on a wide range of subjects and who served as an excellent
stepmother to his three surviving children, Mary, Elizabeth and Edward.
During these problematic marriages Henry had not ignored the international scene, or
indeed the state of Britain. He considered the British Isles as his own empire, and he tried
to consolidate it in 1536 with the Act of Union, incorporating Wales as part of England. In
1542 Henry declared himself King of Ireland. The same year, Henry prepared to go to war
with Scotland. Finally he pursued an alliance marrying his son Edward to Mary (James V
of Scotland’s daughter), but this treaty was never ratified by the Scots.
Henry VIII died aged only 55, victim of his gross conduct. At times he ruled like a despot,
engineering everything to his own ends. Yet he could wield that power without it destroying
him and it is true to say that no other English King could have undertaken such reforms
and succeeded. It was through Henry, the first king to be referred to as His Majesty, that
the Modern English state was created.
As has happened so many times before, a strong and powerful king was followed by a
weak one. Edward VI (1547-1553) had been raised a Protestant, and at the outset of his
reign protestant reform continued at an even greater pace that before. He died in 1553
when he was 15 years old.
1.2. The Elizabethan Years
In 1558, Queen Mary I (Tudor) finally despaired of ever bearing a child, recognized her
sister, Elizabeth, as heir to the throne of England. Only a few days later, on November 17,
Mary was dead and Elizabeth was proclaimed queen.
Elizabeth I (1558-1603) began her long and triumphant reign. Her country was now
launched on one of the most glorious eras in its history. For more than a century
afterwards, the date of Elizabeth’s accession was celebrated as the great popular holiday
3
4. The Tudor Age
of a Protestant nation.
Elizabeth I possessed all the feminine qualities that are thought to be handicaps in a man’s
world. Yet this willful, illogical and often infuriating woman achieved more in her reign of 45
years than any of her subjects could have dared to hope. It was though her statemanship
and the magic of her personality that England was saved from political dismemberment
and civil war.
By character and upbringing she was a complete ruler. When she was queen, she
selected her ministers and servants with superb skill. Elizabeth was a wise sovereign.
Above all, she had the power to enchant and captivate her subjects. Year by year she
made journeys round the country, and these tours became a meeting point for sovereign
and people.
Elizabeth had all the credentials for being a strong queen. She inherited much from her
father, such as physical strength and resolution, his vicious temper, his cruelty, but also a
delight in pomp, a passion for power and a general joy of life. From her mother, apart from
her youthful beauty, she inherited a degree of insincerity and a tendency towards jealousy.
Early in her reign, Elizabeth admitted to a desire ‘to do some act that would make my fame
spread abroad in my lifetime’. She did this and more. Not one act, but her entire reign and
person were her undying memorial.
Throughout her reign, England had been fighting an unofficial conflict with Spain. Philip II
of Spain was infuriated by England’s piracy of Spanish ships from the New World. Philip’s
relationship with England continued to sour and the culmination of all this was one of the
most famous confrontations of all time, when the Spanish sent their Armada against
England in July 1588. Conflict with Spain dragged on for another fifteen years.
The end of the century saw England at the height of her power. Her great sea captains and
explorers such as Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, Martin Frobisher and John Hawkins,
meant that she effectively ‘ruled the waves’. Literature blossomed; this was the age of
Francis Bacon, William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund
Spenser. There were some great physicists and speculative thinkers who emerged in
Elizabethan’s years.
An important topic to be considered during Elizabeth’s reign was the revolution in Ireland.
In that country, opponents of the Elizabethan’s regime increasingly turned to Catholicism
as an expression of dissident. It led to a policy of plantation (replace disloyal Catholic
subjects in Ireland with loyal English settlers).
There also were a number of revolts against English monarchy during her reign.
2. THE PARLIAMENT
The creation of Parliament is one of the greatest gifts that Britain has given to the world. It
was under Henry III that, for the first time, in March 1265, a historic assembly gathered
together in the dim light of Westminster Hall. This achievement was the work of Simon de
Montfort.
4
4. The Tudor Age
The Parliament that Simon created lived on. From the small beginnings that he had
witnessed in Westminster Hall, a mighty power was to grow, which would help to depose a
king within the course of the following century.
The English Parliament consisted of two chambers, the House of Lords, who were the
nobility, and the House of Commons, elected representatives from the different shires and
main towns. In Ireland, the parliament was modeled on the English, though countries not
under the effective control of the English government were unrepresented. The Scottish
parliament had a single chamber for representatives on the Four Estates: the Lords, the
Church, the Lairds (minor landowners) and the boroughs. The Manx parliament, the
Tynwald, was self-elected. Until the Protestant reformation, the different Houses of Lords
included the abbots of the leading monasteries. In England, bishops continued to sit in the
Lords after the reformation, but in Scotland they were excluded after 1638.
Initially, Parliament met wherever the monarch found it convenient. Over the years, the
regional parliaments disappeared as political power became concentrated in London,
which gradually became the base of a specific British Parliament.
After the absorption of Wales into the English Kingdom (1536), some members from Wales
entered the English Parliament on a permanent basis. Union with Scotland in 1707, and
with Ireland in 1801, completed this process. This union resulted in the peripheries of
Britain being relatively over-represented.
At first, the strong Tudor monarchs controlled generally docile Parliaments. In contrast to
her predecessors, Elizabeth I called Parliament comparatively infrequently: there were
only ten parliaments in her reign of forty-five years.
But by the end of the Elizabeth I’s reign, the parliament was beginning to assert itself
again. In the most turbulent session, that of 1601, taxes to meet the cost of the queen’s
unpopular Irish wars were granted only after prolonged and acrimonious debate, because
the war of Ireland was swallowing up more English resources of men and money than all
Elizabeth’s other military commitments. And the Commons’ protests against governmentgranted monopolies of goods and services were stilled only when the queen promised to
curb them herself. Parliament was by then an integral part of English life.
3. THE TUDORS AND THE CHURCH
In the 16th Century, there was a great change in the Church. Up until then most people had
been Roman Catholic and the Pope in Rome, the head of church. In 1517, a German
monk called Martin Luther led a breakaway from the Roman Catholic Church. The new
Christians called themselves ‘Protestants’ because they were protesting against the
Roman ‘Catholic’ Church, its practices, its teachings and its customs. Their demand fro
reform led to this period of history being called the Reformation.
British people in Tudor times were very religious and had very strong beliefs. During the
118 years the Tudor kings and queens ruled, the British were often forced to change their
religion according to that of the reigning monarch, who made laws to oblige the people to
do so.
When the first Tudor, Henry VII (1485-1509) came to the throne, England was a Roman
5
4. The Tudor Age
Catholic country. The head of the church was the Pope in Rome, Clement VII. When Henry
VIII (1509-1547) acceded to the throne, he was a devout Catholic and defended the
Church against Protestants. He joined Charles V in opposing the reformist programme
expounded by Martin Luther and in 1521, Pope Leo X honoured him with the title Fidei
Defensor “Defender of Faith”, which still appears as FD on coins today.
The great challenge arrived when the Pope refused to grant Henry VIII a divorce from
Catherine of Aragon. In response to this, the king set up the Protestant Church of England.
The reason was that the Roman Catholic faith believed in marriage for life. It did not
recognise divorce. King Henry VIII declared himself Supreme Head of the Church of
England. The English Parliament passed two separate acts, in 1534 and in 1559. The title
of “Act of Supremacy” is given to these separate acts. Both acts had the same purpose: to
establish the English monarch as the official head of the Church of England, supplanting
the power of the Catholic pope in Rome. The Act of 1534 confirmed the break from Rome
and marked the start of centuries of religious conflict in Britain.
In 1535, Henry VIII ordered the closing down of Roman Catholic Abbeys, monasteries and
convents across England, Wales and Ireland. This Act became known as the ‘Dissolution
of the Monasteries’.
Under King Edward VI (1547-1553), Britain was officially a Protestant nation. Catholics
were treated badly and Catholic bishops were excluded.
When Mary I was crowned Queen (1553-1558), England became a Catholic nation again.
During the last three years of her reign, 300 leading Protestants who would not accept
Catholic beliefs were burned to death at the stake. She became known as ‘Bloody Mary’.
Under Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603), England was again a Protestant nation. It was
under her that the Anglican Church became firmly established and dominant. In 1559, the
Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity restored the Protestant Church in England and made
Elizabeth its Head. Elizabeth did her best to sort out the problem of religion. She wanted
England to have peace and not be divided. She tried to find ways which both the Catholic
and Protestant sides would accept. She did not call herself the Head of the Church of
England, instead she was known as the ‘Supreme Governor of the English Church’.
Elizabeth disliked and punished extreme Protestants and extreme Catholics who tried to
convert people to their faiths. The reformation was not an immediate success. It took about
a century to work through society. Many of the gentry and MPs continued their allegiance
to the old religion well into the 1600s, and some beyond, simply ignoring legislation against
Catholics. Outlying areas of the British Isles, including much of Ireland and small
communities, never experienced the reformation.
3.1. The Reformation
Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a German Monk who started a religious movement called
the Reformation, which led to the birth of the Protestant faith. He was a Catholic monk who
did not believe that you could just buy your way into heaven. In 1517, he protested against
the Catholic practice of granting indulgences. An indulgence was a pardon instead of
punishment for a sin. To gain an indulgence, a person had to perform a good deed. This
was often giving money to the church, so it looked as if the Church was selling pardons.
6
4. The Tudor Age
Luther protested that this was wrong. He believed that a man could only be saved by the
grace of God.
The conflict between Henry VIII and the Roman Catholic Church eventually led to the
seizure of Church properties by the state, and the dissolution of the monasteries. Henry
needed to reduce the power of the Church in England, as well as find money to fund his
fruitless and expensive wars against France and Scotland.
Henry VIII put Thomas Cromwell in charge of getting rid of the monasteries. In 1536, the
Parliament passed the Act of Suppression, which became known as the ‘Dissolution of the
Monasteries’, and Henry ordered the closing down of the wealthy Roman Catholic Abbeys,
monasteries and convents across England, Wales and Ireland. Over 3,000 monasteries
were dissolved, demolished for building materials, sold off or reclaimed as Anglican
Churches.
In 1539 the second Act of Suppression was passed to sanction the transfer of further
monastic possessions to the state. Henry VIII took ownership of all the buildings, land,
money and everything else. Some of the small monasteries stayed open because they
paid some money to the king. The smallest monasteries, those with an income of less than
£200 a year, were closed.
Some of the monastic buildings and lands were sold off after the dissolution. Others were
converted into magnificient houses by their new owners. But the most sought-after
buildings were the outlying farms, ready-made manor houses for a new generation of
landowners.
The last monastery to be dissolved was Waltham Abbey in 1540, and this marked the end
of the Dissolution.
Wales also suffered the religious upheaval of the reformation. At first, the reformation
merely substituted one barely intelligible language, Latin, with another, English. The Welsh
people enthusiastically embraced Protestantism. A measure of Catholicism survived and St
Winifred’s Well at Holywell has remained a centre for pilgrimage until today.
3.2. The Counter-Reformation
Mary Tudor (1553-1558), who was the most unpopular queen in British history, had lived
for many years in the cold light of her father’s disfavour before she came to the throne in
1553.
Mary survived her father’s rage, her brother’s ardent Protestantism and the Duke of
Northumberland’s unsuccessful attempt to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne in her
stead. Her years of trial had left her determined to restore the Roman Catholic religion and
destroy heresy in her kingdom. And she thought that the nation’s welcome on her
accession was a sign of support for such policies. In this she was mistaken.
At first, Mary was deceptively successful. The Church of England was quickly suppressed
by Parliament, and the Mass was restored. But Protestantism persisted. The queen
launched the persecution that was to win her the nickname of ‘Bloody Mary’.
7
4. The Tudor Age
In her private life, Mary I was simple, kindly and fond of children. She lacked guile or
sophistication.
Despite the pleas of her advisers, she set her heart on a Spanish marriage. Early in 1554,
she married, by proxy, Philip of Castile, heir to the Spanish throne. Although the queen
adored her husband, he gave her a cold response and spent little time with her. Philip’s
aims were to secure support in his war with France, and an heir to the throne. In the first
he succeeded, but in the second he failed. This was the deepest disappointment to Mary.
Her marriage to Philip reinforced the old religion. The Catholic marriage was soon followed
by the burning of leading Protestants.
Mary was able to re-establish a Benedictine monastery at Westminster and small religious
houses elsewhere. In the parishes, churchwardens’ accounts graphically show how church
furnishings were restores, altars re-erected, statuary replaced, bells re-hung and the old
service books returned.
Early in the winter of 1558, Mary Tudor finally despaired of ever bearing a child and
reluctantly recognised her sister, Elizabeth, as heir to the throne of England. Only a few
days later Mary was dead and Elizabeth proclaimed queen. It was the end of the CounterReformation in Britain.
4. THE ABSORPTION OF WALES INTO THE ENGLISH
KINGDOM
Edward I conquered Wales in 1283 and the country was divided into two different areas.
The land that the king controlled became known as the Principality. This area was ruled in
a similar way to England. The Principality was divided into shires (counties) which were
governed by officials appointed by the king. However, two-thirds of Wales continued to be
ruled by Marcher Lords.
Henry VII was a Welsh man who had relied heavily on Welsh soldiers to help him win
victory. After he became king, Henry VII rewarded many Welsh leaders who had helped
him with titles and government posts. When Henry VIII was king he became concerned
with the way that Marcher Lords ruled their lands. Henry’s fears about the power of the
Marcher Lords grew after his break with the Catholic Church in 1534. Henry decided to
take control of the whole of Wales to protect himself.
Wales had a certain strategic importance, both as a possible invasion route for the catholic
powers of France or Spain, and secondly and more importantly because Wales controlled
the main lines of communication with Ireland.
4.1. The Acts of Union of 1536-1543
Between 1536 and 1543, the English Parliament passed a series of laws that became
known as the Acts of Union during the reign of King Henry VIII of England.
The Principality was made up of the lands controlled by the king and the land controlled by
the Marcher Lords, now joined together to form a united Wales. Like England, the whole of
8
4. The Tudor Age
Wales was now divided into shires. The administration of these shires was based on the
shires in England with each one having its own Justice of the Peace.
Under the terms of the Act of Union of 1536, Wales was granted permission to be
represented in Parliament.
The Welsh gentry had been petitioning for change for many years. They wanted the same
opportunities to accumulate land and get rich as their English brethren. By bringing the
administration of Wales into line with that of England, and thereby offering the Welsh ruling
class the same opportunities for advancement, Henry VIII could be reasonably certain of
their reciprocal support.
The main administrative provisions of the Act are: the division of Wales into a system of
counties and the provision of parliamentary representation. Statutory recognition was also
given to the Council of Wales and the marches.
With regard to the law: it provided the Welsh with equality under the law with the English.
Regarding language: English would be the only language used in the courts.
Welsh gentry welcomed the new system for it eased access to administration posts, land
and wealth.
The Acts of Union served the interest of Henry VIII and were considered a success but
they had a notorious impact on Welsh’s identity, culture and economy.
4.2 The Increase of the Welsh Language and Culture
The Act of Union of 1536 completed the long process of the absorption of Wales into the
English Kingdom. English became the language of administration but the majority of the
people remained Welsh-speakers (monoglot). Basic literacy was in Welsh during the next
centuries.
The Protestant-reformation took root in Wales but Nonconformity and Methodism became
more popular than Anglicanism. The first full translation of the Bible into Welsh was
published in 1588. The early translation of the scriptures into that language helped
Protestantism become accepted in Wales and contributed greatly to the survival of the
Welsh Language. A growing market for Welsh language books led to the establishment of
the first presses in Wales. The Welsh language survived as a living tongue.
The Welsh elite took enthusiastically to the Renaissance, building houses and very
impressive art collections.
The identification with the Celtic past became an important way for the Welsh to assert
their different identity from the English. Celtomania went to some way to persuade the
English the Welsh were not simply quaint.
During the modern period Wales remained predominantly agrarian, specialising in cattle
production, dairy products and cloth-manufacture. The countryside suffered gradual
enclosure and deforestation. Settlements remained small and scattered.
9
4. The Tudor Age
5. SOCIETY AND ECONOMY IN THE TUDOR PERIOD
Tudor England was an agricultural society. Most of the population lived in small villages
and made their living from farming. During the 16th century, trade and industry grew rapidly
and England became a more and more commercial country. Mining of coal, tin and lead
flourished. So did the iron industry. During this period England became richer and richer.
The upper class and middle class saw a big rise in their standard of living. However the
lowest section of society, the wage labourers, became worse off.
During the 16th century there was inflation, especially in the mid-century, and prices rose
steeply.
Tudor society was divided in four broad groups. At the top were the nobility who owned
huge amounts of land. Below them were the gentry and rich merchants. The most
important gentlemen never did any manual work. Below the gentry were yeomen and
craftsmen. Yeomen owned their own land and both were often able to read and write.
Below the yeomen were the tenant farmers who leased their land from the rich. There
were also wage labourers. They were often illiterate and very poor.
In the 16th century about 50% of the population lived at subsistence level. They had just
enough food, clothes and shelter to survive. However it was possible to move from one
class to another.
Life in Tudor England was governed by a rigid social system, which was held to follow
‘God’s Divine Laws’. At the centre of the political and artistic life of the nation lay the
magnificence of the court. The court, with its pomp, ceremony and ostentation, became the
centre of power and prestige.
The degrees of society were mirrored by its clothes. Tudor etiquette stipulated that people
had to dress according to their station in life.
10
4. The Tudor Age
More than any other individual, Elizabeth herself summed up in her person the spirit of the
age.
By 1547 the population of England had begun to rise once more. Some towns, notably
London, were beginning to expand rapidly. London began the process of transformation
from a middle-ranking European city of some 50,000 people in 1450 to the largest in
Europe by 1700. In the 15th century the population of England may have been around 2 ½
million. By 1525 it had risen to around 3 million and by 1600 it was about 4 million.
In Tudor England about a third of the population lived in poverty. Their suffering always
increased after bad harvests. A shortage of food resulted in higher prices. This meant that
poorer families could not afford to buy enough food for their needs.
In the 16th century, unemployment was a major cause of poverty. Some large landowners
changed from arable to sheep farming, increasing unemployment rapidly. The closing
down of the monasteries in the 1530s created even more unemployment.
In 1550 Parliament passed a law stating that every parish had to build a workhouse for the
poor. To get money to pay for these workhouses, vicars were given permission to ask
everyone in the parish to give money.
In 1576 a new Poor Law was introduced. Each parish had to keep a store of wool, hemp,
flax, iron or other stuff that was to be handed out to the unemployed.
In the Tudor Age, the economy was bolstered by the shift in trade to the Atlantic and by
influxes of religious refugees from Catholic Europe. These were often young and energetic
people with skills new to England, especially in the new draperies such as serge-making,
which flourished in harness with traditional broadcloth manufacture. The arrival of such
new skills, distinct from native work, was supported by workers in sufficient numbers to
provide for a market anxious for new products and was a great success.
The centre of gravity of European commerce was shifting from the Mediterranean, whose
merchants had dominates European trade for centuries, to the Atlantic coast of Europe.
The wool trade continued to prosper and sheep became so prolific that Henry VII had to
introduce a new law restricting the number of sheep anyone could hold.
Foreign skilled workers had long been in demand in England in banking, insurance and the
development of credit facilities. They continued to be in demand under the Tudors and
Stuarts.
11