H

3. Absolute monarchy

enry VII, the founder of the Tudor dynasty, felt that he had to restore the English Crown to its former position. The Wars of the Roses had undermined agriculture, trade and industry. Moreover, they had undermined confidence in monarchy as an institution: the king was seen as unable, or unwilling, to protect the rights of all his subjects. The royal government was manipulated by individuals who fell in and out of favour. The king had to restore his right not only to reign, but also to rule.

Henry VII firmly believed that wars damaged the development of trade. Remembering the lessons of the civil war he forbade any nobleman to keep armed men. At the same time, the king built a regular army that obeyed nobody but himself. Henry strengthened England’s prestige and wealth by six commercial treaties that restored England’s position in the European market. Realising that England’s future depended on international trade, Henry freely spent money on building ships for a merchant fleet.

Henry VII made peace with France. In order to avoid military conflicts with Spain and Scotland he married his elder sons Arthur, and after his death, Henry, to the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon, and his daughter Margaret to King James IV of Scotland. It was also during his reign that England started its famous policy of ‘divide and rule’, preventing any country of Europe from becoming overwhelmingly strong.

Although Henry refused to help Columbus who approached him in search of financial support, the king backed the voyages of James Cabot, a Venetian sailor in the English pay, who in 1497 discovered Newfoundland and sailed along part of the North American coast. That stirred England’s interest in North America.

Henry VII was known for the efficiency of his financial and administrative policies. He introduced new methods of government concentrating all power in his hands. The ministers were personally selected by the king for their ability, shrewdness and loyalty. The king was preoccupied with utmost economy. In a relatively short period of time he managed to establish a system of checks, the record of which never left his hands. He personally looked through all the record books and signed every page. When Henry VII died in 1509, he left about 2 million pounds, a vast sum equal to at least 15 years’ ordinary revenue at the time.

Henry VII is known as the founder of an absolute monarchy.

• H

  4. Reformation

  enry VIII’s reign

One of the major events of the 16 century was the Reformation – a grandiose revolution in consciousness of people, revision of substantive provisions of Christian dogmas and of divine service. The reformation split Europe, having opposed to each other blocks of the Protestant and Catholic countries, and England was steadily involved in the conflict with powerful Catholic powers.

King Henry VIII waged costly wars on the Continent and in Scotland. He centralized administrative authority, made use of Parliament’s powers and incorporated Wales into England. Henry also built a modern Royal Navy and got the nickname ‘Father of the English Navy’. Upon his death, he left a modern fleet of 53 warships. He patronized the arts and astronomy and was well-read in theology. At the same time, he was pleasure-seeking and wasteful with money. He spent so much on maintaining a magnificent court and wars, that his father’s money was soon gone. Gold and silver from America added to the economic inflation. In order to raise more money, Henry ordered to reduce the amount of silver used in coins. Although this step resulted in immediate profit, it led to a dramatic rise in prices. Within twenty-five years, the English coinage was reduced to a seventh of its value.

• Church and state

Although Henry VIII’s father had become powerful by taking over his nobles’ lands, the lands owned by monasteries and abbeys remained untouched. The Church was a huge and powerful landowner. Since it was controlled from Rome, it was an international organization with Spain and France struggling for control over Papacy. For one thing, the Catholic Church could work against the king’s authority, for another, taxes paid to the Church reduced the king’s income. At the same time, the Church was losing its respect and popularity with the population as the clergy often failed to perform church services but lived in wealth, comfort and sin.

But the European ideas of Reformation proclaimed by Martin Luther in Germany and John Calvin in Geneva were not very popular in England, although the English humanists demanded reform of the Church from within. In 1521 the king got the title ‘Defender of the Faith’ from the Pope for his best-selling book criticizing Luther’s teaching. But a break with Rome became a political necessity five years later.

• Break with Rome

In 1526, Henry VIII decided to obtain a divorce from his wife, Catherine of Aragon, or, strictly speaking, a papal declaration that his marriage was invalid since Catherine had previously been married to his brother. One of the real reasons for the divorce was the fact that Catherine could not provide a male heir to secure the future of the Tudor dynasty. Their only surviving child was Princess Mary. Another reason was that Henry was planning an alliance with France against Spain and Catherine was a Spanish princess. There would have been no problem for Henry with the Pope if Rome had not just been taken by Cathrine’s nephew, King Charles V of Spain. For political and family reasons the king of Spain objected to the divorce. Pope Clement did not want to anger either Charles V or Henry VIII. When he finally forbade the divorce, Henry broke away from Rome by the Act of Supremacy (1534) which declared that the king of England was supreme head of the Church of England. Through several Acts of Parliament, England became politically a Protestant country, even theough the popular religion was still Catholic. Henry VIII established the Protestant Reformation in England by creating the Church of England with the monarch as the supreme head.

When the Church was brought under the control of the State, the king took the English Reformation further. He ordered to have a careful survey of all Church property, the first properly organised tax survey since the time of the Domesday Book. Henry VIII closed down 823 monasteries and confiscated their property. As Church lands and property were sold to the rising classes of merchants and landowners, Henry’s policy made him popular with them. Monastery buildings were either neglected or destroyed and the stone was used as building material. The suppression of monasteries was the greatest act of official destruction in British history.

• Henry VIII’s family life

As for Henry VIII’s family life, he married Anne Boleyne who bore him a daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth I. Anne was suspected of adultery and beheaded in 1536 and Henry married Jane Seymour who died in 1537 leaving him a son. Then came Henry’s marriage to Anne of Cleves which was latter annulled. Henry’s fifth wife, Catherine Howard, was executed for adultery in 1542. His last marriage was to Catherine Parr who survived him and died in 1548, a year after his death. Henry VIII died of leg ulcer which made his last years a misery.