Henry VIII

1. Church ~ owns land

Strcuture = archibishops (powerful, part of gov), bishops (important, some hold gov office), clergymen

• Hugely important - not just spiritually - great landowner. 
• Social status of clergy varied -  at lower parish level, curates & chantry priests modestly rewarded for dealing with spiritual needs of ordinary folk. 
• Bishops and abbots of large religous houses were important figures entitled to sit in house of lords and had political roles also. 
• Henry VII tended to use power he had over Church to appoint only men who had legal training and whose administrative competence was valued more than their spirituality, as bishops. 
• Two important clergymen, Morton and Fox. King reluctant to appoint men whose social background was aristocratic. 

NOBILITY ~ own land - Dukes, Earls & Barons, part of gov. 

• Novility dominated land ownership. Comrpimised about 50-60 men. Nobility replaced with people who had bought King's favour, crown relied on such families for maintenance of order in countryside.
• Henry VII reluctant to reward nobility titles, distrustful of nobility. 
• Controlled nobility through bonds and recognizances. 
• Key to Nobles' power was system '******* feudalism', which wealthy magnates recruit knights and gentlemen to serve as administrators.
• Nobleman could use retained men to bring unlawful influence on court case against crown. 

BELOW NOBILITY = GENTRY ~ gentlemen, large houses in country, provide armies for war

• Great landowners
• Most important members of gentry - Bray, sought knighthoods as confirmation of social status
• 1490, 375 knights
• Knights together owned 15-20% of countries land

BELOW GENTRY = YEOMEN ~ farmers, own or rent land 

• Farmed substantial properties for increasingly sophistictated market economy
• Decline in population 1348-49 reduced demand for land, resulted in drop of land values 
• Below yeomen were husbandmen, both referred to as peasants.
• Laborours depended on money for their labour, their position was very insecure

EQUAL TO YEOMEN = CITIZENS ~ rich merchants, craftsmen in towns

• In towns and cities, relatively small no. of educated professions of whom the most numerous and influential were lawyers, exercised considerable inf. often in collab. w wealthier merchants.

BELOW CITIZENS = BOURGEOISIE 

• Society witnessed growth of a preoffesional and mercantile bourgeoisie who's become increasingly important in London, and major cities. 

BELOW YEOMEN & CITIZENS = LABOURERS ~ work for citizens or yeomen

• Lower down social role but still respectable -  shopkeepers and skilled tradesmen.
• Groups tended to dominate borough corporations and played a key feature in common features of urban life in pre-reformation England.

BELOW LABOURERS = VAGRANTS AND BEGGARS

Positives on the economy:

• Cloth trade responsible for 90% of value of English exports. 
• An increase of over 60% in volume of cloth exports during Henry's reign.
• Industry offered opportunities for rural employment 
• Increasing proportion of finished cloth was exported from London through Merchant Adventurers, it reinforced commercial dominance within country 
• Established commercial axis with Antwerp which was it's main money market

Negatives on the economy:

• Historic cities had suffered significant decay as cloth industry tended to move to newer manufacturing centres in smaller market towns
• Adventurers couldn't get complete domination as proved unable to overcome trade priviledges enjoyed by Hanseactic League. 

Positives on the economy:

• Most industrial activities e.g. weaving, were small-scale craft operations which recquired little capital investment
• Much of coal from NE was shipped to Newcastle to meet growing demand for domestic and industrial fuel in London
• Development of basic pumping technology in 1486 enabled greater production

Negatives on the economy:

• England remained dependent on cloth industry, in trading terms, especially as other industries remained small and failed to compete effectively with continental competitors
• Mining recquired more capital investment but remained fairly small scale