Wolsey, the son of a town grazier [one who pastures cattle and rears
them for market] and butcher, who was another supporter of classical
learning. He rose through the church, the gateway to advancement in a
diversity of occupations of clergy such as secretary, librarian,
teacher, attorney, doctor, author, civil servant, diplomat, and
statesman. He was a court priest when he aligned himself with Henry,
both of whom wanted power and glory and dressed extravagantly. But he
was brilliant and more of a strategist than Henry. Wolsey called himself
a reformer and started a purge of criminals, vagrants and prostitutes
within London, bringing many before the council. But most of his
reforming plans were not brought to fruition, but ended after his
campaign resulted in more power for himself. Wolsey rose to be
Chancellor to the King and also Archbishop of York. As the
representative of the pope for England, he exercised almost full papal
authority there. But he controlled the church in England in the King's
interest. He was second only to the King and he strengthened the crown
by consolidating power and income that had been scattered among nobles
and officeholders. He also came to control the many courts. Wolsey
centralized the church in England and dissolved the smaller monasteries,
the proceeds of which he used to build colleges at Oxford and his home
town. He was an impartial and respected justice. When Wolsey was not
able to convince the pope to give Henry an annulment of his marriage,
Henry dismissed him and took his property, shortly after which Wolsey
died on his way to be imprisoned in the Tower to be tried for treason.
Thomas. Cromwell, a top royal official, was a self-taught attorney,
arbitrator, merchant, and accountant. He was the son of a
clothworker/blacksmith/brewer/innkeeper, Like Wolsey, he was a natural
orator. He drafted and had passed legislation that created a new church
of England. He had all men swear an oath to the terms of the succession
statute. Thomas More, the successor Chancelllor to Wolsey, was known for
his honesty and was a highly respected man. More did not yield to
Henry's bullying for support for his statute declaring the succession to
be vested in the children of his second marriage, and his statute
declaring himself the supreme head of the church of England, instead of
the pope. He did not expressly deny this supremacy statute, so was not
guilty of treason under its terms. But silence did not save him. He was
attainted for treason on specious grounds and beheaded. His conviction
rested on the testimony of one perjured witness, who misquoted More as
saying that Parliament did not have the power to require assent to the
supremacy statute because it was repugnant to the common law of
Christendom.
Henry ruled with an iron fist. In 1536, he issued a proclamation that
"any rioters or those in an unlawful assembly shall return to their
houses" or "we will proceed against them with all our royal force and
destroy them and their wives and children." In 1538, he proclaimed that
anyone hurting or maiming an officer while trying to make an arrest
"shall lose and forfeit all their lands, goods, and chattel" and shall
suffer perpetual imprisonment. Moreover, if one murdered such an
officer, he would suffer death without privilege of sanctuary or of
clergy. In 1540, he proclaimed that there would be no shooting by
handgun except on a shooting range. Henry had Parliament pass bills of
attainder against many people. For the first time, harsh treatment of
prisoners in the Tower, such as placement in dungeons with little food,
no bed, and no change of clothes, became almost a matter of policy.
Through his host of spies, Cromwell heard what men said to their closest
friends. Words idly spoken were distorted into treasonable utterances.
Fear spread through the people. Silence was a person's only possibility
of safety.
Cromwell developed a technique for the management of the House of
Commons which lasted for generations. He promulgated books in defense of
royal spiritual authority, which argued that canon law was not divine
but merely human and that clerical authority had no foundation in the
Bible. A reformed English Bible was put in all parish churches.
Reformers were licensed to preach. Cromwell ordered sermons to be said
which proclaimed the supremacy of the King. He instituted registers to
record baptisms, marriages, and burials in every county, for the purpose
of reducing disputes over descent and inheritance. He dissolved all the
lesser monasteries. When Cromwell procured a foreign wife for Henry whom
Henry found unattractive, he was attainted and executed.
Henry now reconstructed his council to have a fixed membership, an
official hierarchy based on rank, a secretariat, an official record, and
formal powers to summon individuals before it by legal process. Because
it met in the King's Privy Lodgings, it was called the "Privy Council".
It met daily instead of just during the terms of the Westminster courts
from late autumn to early summer. It communicated with the king through
intermediaries, of whom the most important was the King's Secretary.
Because it was a court council, part of it traveled with the king, while
the other part conducted London business. When Henry went to war in
France, part of the council went with him, and part of it stayed to
attend the Queen Regent.
Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote the first English
Common Book of Prayer. With its use beginning in 1549, church services
were to be held in English instead of Latin. The celebration of the
Lord's Supper was a communion among the parishioners and minister all
sharing wine and bread. It replaced the mass, in which the priests were
thought to perform a miraculous change of the substance of bread and
wine into the body and blood of Christ, which the priest then offered as
a sacrifice for remission of pain or guilt. This reflected the blood
sacrifice of Christ dying on the cross. In the mass, only the priests
drank the wine. The mass, miracles, the worship of saints, prayers for
souls in purgatory, and pilgrimages to shrines such as that of Thomas
Becket, were all to be discontinued. Imprisonment or exile rather than
death was made the penalty for heresy and blasphemy, and also for
adultery.
After the King dissolved the greater monasteries, he took and sold
their ornaments, silver plate and jewelry, lead from roofs of their
buildings, and finally much of the land itself. Many maps of manors and
lands were made at this time. Three monasteries were converted into the
first three treating hospitals in London, one for the diseased, one for
the poor, and one, Bethlehem (or "Bedlam" for short), for the mentally
ill. But there were still many poor, sick, blind, aged, and impotent
people in the streets since the closure of the monasteries. In 1552,
there were 2,100 people in need of relief, including 300 orphans, 600
sick or aged, 350 poor men overburdened with their children, 650 decayed
householders, and 200 idle vagabonds. The poor often begged at parishes,
where they spread disease. London then set up a poor relief scheme. The
Bridewell was established to set to work the idle, vagabonds, and
prostitutes making feather bed ticks and wool-cards, drawing of wire,
carding, knitting, and winding of silk. Parishes were required to give
money for the poor in 1563. Other towns followed London's lead in
levying a poor rate.
Henry used the proceeds from the sale of the monasteries for building
many new palaces and wood ships for his navy. In war, these navy ships
had heavy guns which could sink other ships. In peace time, these ships
were hired out to traders. Large ships were constructed in docks, made
partly by digging and partly by building walls. In 1545, Henry issued a
proclamation ordering all vagabonds, ruffians, masterless men, and
evil-disposed persons to serve him in his navy.
The former land of the monasteries, about 30% of the country's land,
was sold and resold, usually to great landowners, or leased. Title deeds
became important as attorneys sought the security that title could give.
Some land went to entrepreneurial cloth manufacturers, who converted the
buildings for the manufacture of cloth. They bought the raw wool and
hired craftsmen for every step of the manufacturing process to be done
in one continuous process. This was faster than buying and selling the
wool material between craftsmen who lived in different areas. Also, it
was more efficient because the amount of raw wool bought could be
adjusted to the demand for cloth.
Many landowners now could live in towns exclusively off the rents of
their rural land. Rents were increased so much that tenants could not
pay and were evicted. They usually became beggars or thieves. Much of
their former land was converted from crop raising to pasture for large
herds of sheep. Arable farming required many workers, whereas sheep
farming required only one shepherd and herdsman. There were exceptional
profits made from the export of wool cloth. But much raw wool was still
exported. Its price went up from 6s.8d. per tod [about 28 pounds] in
1340 to 20s.8d. in 1546.
Villeinage was now virtually extinct. But a lord could usually claim a
small money-rent from the freeholder, sometimes a relief when his land
was sold or passed at death, and occasionally a heriot from his heir.
There was steady inflation. Landlords made their leases short term so
that they could raise rents as prices rose. Copyholders gradually
acquired a valuable right in their holdings: their rent became light -
less that a shilling an acre.
The knights had 70% of the land, the nobles 10%, the church 10%, and
king 5%. At least 85% of the population still lived in the country. Rich
traders built town or country houses in which the emphasis was on
comfort and privacy. There was more furniture, bigger windows filled
with glass, thick wallpaper, and formal gardens. Use of thick,
insulating wallpaper rose with the rise of paper mills. It was
stenciled, hand-painted, or printed. Some floors were tiled instead of
stone or wood. They were still strewn with straw. The owners ate in a
private dining room and slept in their own rooms with down quilts. Their
soap was white. They had clothing of white linen and white wool, leather
slippers, and felt hats. Men wore long tunics open at the neck and
filled in with pleated linen and enormous puffed sleeves. The fortunes
of landowners varied; some went into aristocratic debt by ostentatiously
spending on building, clothes, food, and drink, and some became indebted
by inefficient management. Some had to sell their manors and dismiss
their servants.
All people generally had enough food because of the commercialization
of agriculture. Even the standard meal of the peasant was bread, bacon,
cheese, and beer or cider, with beef about twice a week. Also, roads
were good enough for the transport of foodstuffs thereon. Four-wheeled
wagons for carrying people as well as goods. Goods were also transported
by the pulling of barges on the rivers from paths along the river. A
plough with wheels was used as well as those without.
Henry made proclamations reminding people of the apparel laws, but they
were difficult to enforce. Henry also made a proclamation limiting the
consumption of certain meat according to status. Seven dishes were
allowed to bishops, dukes, marquises, and earls; six to other temporal
lords; five to justices, the King's council, sheriffs, and persons with
an income of at least 200 pounds yearly or goods worth 2000 pounds; four
to persons with an income of at least 100 pounds or goods worth 1000
pounds; and three dishes to persons with an income of at least 100
pounds or goods worth 500 pounds. There were limits on types of meat
served, such as a maximum of one dish of great fowl such as crane, swan,
and peacock; eight quail per dish; and twelve larks in a dish. People
used tin or pewter dishes, platters, goblets, saucers, spoons,
saltcellars, pots, and basins. They used soap to wash themselves, their
clothes, and their dishes. A solid, waxy soap was from evaporating a
mixture of goat fat, water, and ash high in potassium carbonate. They
had bedcovers on their beds. Cloth bore the mark of its weaver and came
in many colors. Cloth could be held together with pins that had a shank
with a hook by which they were closed. They burned wood logs in the
fireplaces in their houses. So much wood was used that young trees were
required by statute to be given enough lateral space to spread their
limbs and were not cut down until mature. The organ and the harp,
precursor to the piano, were played.
People went to barbers to cut their hair and to extract teeth. They
went to people experienced with herbs, roots, and waters for treatment
of skin conditions such as sores, cuts, burns, swellings, irritated eyes
or scaly faces. For more complicated ailments, they went to physicians,
who prescribed potions and medicines. They bought potions and medicines
from apothecaries and pharmacists.
The King, earls, who ruled counties, and barons, who had land and a
place in the House of Lords, still lived in the most comfort. The King's
house had courtyards, gardens, orchards, wood-yards, tennis courts, and
bowling alleys.
The walls of the towns were manned by the citizens themselves, with
police and watchmen at their disposal. In inns, travelers slept ten to a
bed and there were many fleas and an occasional rat or mouse running
through the rushes strewn on the floor. The inn provided a bed and ale,
but travelers brought their own food. Each slept with his purse under
his pillow.
In markets, sellers set up booths for their wares. They sold grain for
making oatmeal or for sowing one's own ground. Wine, butter, cheese,
fish, chicken, and candles could also be bought. Butchers bought killed
sheep, lambs, calves, and pigs to cut up for selling. Tanned leather was
sold to girdlemakers and shoemakers. Goods bought in markets were
presumed not to be stolen, so that a purchaser could not be dispossessed
of goods bought unless he had knowledge that they were stolen.
The ruling group of the towns came to be composed mostly of merchants,
manufacturers, attorneys, and physicians. Some townswomen were
independent traders. The governed class contained small master craftsmen
and journeyman artisans, small traders, and dependent servants. The
major streets of London were paved with stone, with a channel in the
middle. More water conduits from hills, heaths, and springs were built
to provide the citizens of London with more water. The sewers carried
only surface water away. Households were forbidden to use the sewers.
Privies emptied into cesspools.
The Merchant Adventurers' Fellowship brought virtually all adventurers
under its control and organized and regulated the national cloth trade.
It had a General Court of the Adventurers sitting in the London Mercers'
Hall. Various companies were granted monopolies for trade in certain
areas of the world such as Turkey, Spain, France, Venice, the Baltic,
and Africa. These were regulated companies. That is they obtained
complete control of a particular foreign market, but any merchant who
cared to join the company, pay its dues, and obey its regulations, might
share in the benefits of its monopoly. The companies generally confined
trade to men who were primarily merchants and not shopkeepers. In 1553
explorer Sebastian Cabot formed the Muscovy Company, which was granted a
monopoly in its charter for trade with north Russia. It was oriented
primarily to export English woolen cloth. It was the first company
trading on a joint stock, which was arranged as a matter of convenience
and safety. The risks were too great for any few individuals. It hired
ships and assigned space to each member to ship his goods at his own
risk. The dividend was returned to the subscribers of the capital they
put in plus an appropriate share of any profits made on the voyage. The
members began leaving their money with the company for the next voyage.
A general stock grew up. In 1568 were the first industrial companies:
Mines Royal, and Mineral and Battery Works. The cloth, mining, iron, and
woodcraft industries employed full-time workers on wages. In the
ironworks and foundries, the furnace blowing engines were worked by
water wheels or by a gear attached to donkeys or horses. The forge
hammers were worked at first by levers and later by water wheels. The
day and night hammering filled the neighborhood with their noise.
Land held in common was partitioned. There were leases of mansion
houses, smaller dwelling houses, houses with a wharf having a crane,
houses with a timber yard, houses with a garden, houses with a shed,
shops, warehouses, cellars, and stables. Lands with a dye-house or a
brew-house were devised by will along with their dying or brewing
implements. There were dairies making butter and cheese.
Citizens paid taxes to the king amounting to one tenth of their annual
income from land or wages. Merchants paid "forced loans" and
benevolences. The national government was much centralized and had
full-time workers on wages. A national commission of sewers continually
surveyed walls, ditches, banks, gutters, sewers, ponds, bridges, rivers,
streams, mills, locks, trenches, fish- breeding ponds, and flood gates.
When low places were threatened with flooding, it hired laborers, bought
timber, and hired carts with horses or oxen for necessary work. Mayors
of cities repaired water conduits and pipes under their cities' ground.
The matchlock musket came into use, but did not replace the bow because
its matchcord didn't remain lit in rainy weather. The matchlock was an
improvement over the former musket because both hands could be used to
hold and aim the matchlock musket because the powder was ignited by a
device that touched a slow-burning cord to the powder when a trigger was
pulled with one finger.
After the break with Rome, cooperation among villagers in church
activities largely ceased. The altars and images previously taken care
of by them disappeared and the paintings on the walls were covered with
white or erased, and scripture texts put in their place. People now read
the new Bible, the "Paraphrases" of Erasmus, Foxe's "Book of Martyrs",
and the works of Bishop Jewel. The Book of Martyrs taught the duty and
splendor of rising above all physical danger or suffering. The canon law
of the church was abolished and its study prohibited. Professorships of
the civil law were founded at the two universities. The Inns of Court
grew. Attorneys had more work with the new laws passed to replace the
church canons of the church. They played an important role in town
government and many became wealthy. They acquired town houses in
addition to their rural estates.
Church reforms included abolishing church sanctuaries. Benefit of
clergy was restricted more. Parsons were allowed to marry. Archbishops
were selected by the king without involvement by the pope. Decisions by
archbishops in testamentary, matrimonial, and marriage annulment matters
were appealable to the Court of Chancery instead of to the pope. The
clergy's canons were subject to the King's approval. The control of the
church added to the powers of the Crown to summon and dissolve
Parliament, coin money, create peers [members of the House of Lords who
received individual writs of summons to Parliament], pardon criminals,
order the arrest of dangerous persons without customary process of law
in times of likely insurrection, tax and call men to arms without the
consent of Parliament if the country were threatened with invasion.
About 1550 there began indictments and executions for witchcraftery
which lasted for about a century. One of the reasons for suspecting a
woman to be a witch was that she lived alone, which was very unusual.
Henry ordered all alien Anabaptists, who denied the validity of infant
baptism, to leave the realm.
- The Law -
Offices may not be bought and sold, but only granted by justices of the
royal courts.
The King's proclamations shall be observed and kept as though they were
acts of Parliament. The penalty shall not be more than that stated in
the proclamation, except for heresy.
A person having land in socage or fee simple may will and devise his
land by will or testament in writing.
A person holding land by knight's service may will and devise by his
last will and testament in writing part of his land to his wife and
other parts of his land to his children, as long as 1/3 of entailed land
is left to the King.
Anyone serving the king in war may alienate his lands for the
performance of his will, and if he dies, his feoffees or executors shall
have the wardship of his heir and land.
A person who leases land for a term of years, even if by indenture or
without a writing, may have a court remedy as do tenants of freehold for
any expulsion by the lessor which is contrary to the lease, covenant, or
agreement. These termers, their executors and assigns, shall hold and
enjoy their terms against the lessors, their heirs and assigns. The
lessor shall have a remedy for rents due or waste by a termer after
recovering the land as well as if he had not recovered the land.
A lord may distrain land within his fee for rents, customs, or services
due without naming the tenant, because of the existence of secret
feoffments and leases made by their tenants to unknown persons.
Anyone seised of land to the use or trust of other persons by reason of
a will or conveyance shall be held to have lawful seisin and possession
of the land, because by common law, land is not devisable by will or
testament, yet land has been so conveyed, which has deprived married men
of their courtesy, women of their dower, the king of the lands of
persons attainted, the king of a year's profits from felons' lands, and
lords of their escheats. (This was difficult to enforce.)
A woman may not have both a jointure [promise of husband to wife of
property or income for life after his death] and dower of her husband's
land. (Persons had purchased land to hold jointly with their wives)
A sale of land must be in writing, sealed, and registered in its county
with the clerk of that county. If the land is worth less than 40s. per
year, the clerk is paid 12d. If the land exceeds 40s. yearly, the clerk
is paid 2s.6d.
An adult may lease his lands or tenements only by a writing under his
seal for a term of years or a term of life, because many people who had
taken leases of lands and tenements for a term of years or a term of
lives had to spend a lot for repair and were then evicted by heirs of
their lessors.
A husband may not lease out his wife's land.
No woman-covert, child, idiot, or person of insane memory may devise
land by will or testament.
The land of tenants-in-common may be partitioned by them so that each
holds a certain part.