Week 1 Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII and the Reformation

The kings of early England relied on Barons and other powerful men for support,
but these men wanted rights, and wanted some control over what the king did. For
this reason, The Magna Carta was produced during the reign of King John.

The Magna Carta set out some fundamental rights which even the King could not
take away. It was signed at Runnymede, in southern England, in 1215.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qj2vpp9Wf4

These included:

No-one is above the law. Even the king must obey it.

People have the right to a fair trial.

Taxpayers should have the right to some representation.

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or

possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way,
nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the
lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to
no one denies or delays right or justice.(Magna Carta, 1215).

It is important to remember that the Magna Carta provided for a fair trial for all
‘Free men’. But the majority of men and women living in England were not free.

They were unfree peasants who lived on the lands of the feudal lords, and had no
rights whatsoever. Having property and land was necessary in order to benefit
from the protection offered by the Magna Carta.

Some of the Magna Carta’s principles were adopted by the US Bill of Rights
(1791)

And the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

But the early Parliament was merely a place where the king could debate with his
barons. It took hundreds of years before Parliament gained independence from the
Monarchy.
In 1265 the Rebel Simon de Montfort called a Parliament of his own. Every town
could send two representatives and each shire or county sent two knights.

Although his rebellion failed, de Montfort had set up the basis of what would
become the House of Commons.
From the time of Edward I on, the king began to summon representatives of the
Common to Parliament. The king summoned the aristocracy – knights, bishops,
barons, members of the clergy, but also notable townspeople – the burgesses. This
assembly contained nearly 400 people, far more than the Great Councils
summoned by earlier kings.

By the 1400s, Parliament began to frame legislation. In particular, King Henry IV

ruled that laws on taxation must come from the House of Commons.

Commons expanded in the 16th Century, when in 1536 the principality of Wales
was absorbed into Westminster, and Parliament could make laws outside of
England for the first time.

Under Henry V, it was accepted that a Bill had to have the consent of both houses,
the House of Lords and of Commons, before it could become law.
Later, the idea of freedom of speech was accepted.

The boundaries of the modern state.

Central to the formation of Empire and Commonwealth was the formation of a

centralized British state, in contrast to the loose collection of alliances which had
been ruled by Britain until the 16th Century.
In this lecture, I want to look at the political and economic changes in Europe
which led to the formation of a centralized British state from the 16th century on,
which was crucial to the0 subsequent position of Britain in the world.
We take it for granted that a country consists of geographically continuous
territory within fixed boundaries. We expect it to have a single administrative
structure with a single set of taxes and without customs barriers between its
different areas.

The monarchies of medieval Europe had few of these elements. They were a mix
of territories which cut across linguistic divisions between peoples and across
geographical boundaries. One had the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation
which ran Bohemia as a kingdom and claimed sovereignty over various territories
in the German speaking lands and in parts of Italy.

The kings of England engaged in a series of wars to try to assert a claim over a
large piece of French-speaking territory.
The kings of France sought to hold territory across the Alps in what is today Italy
but had little control over eastern France, part of the rival Dukedom of Burgundy.
They had little influence in south west France. Normandy was ruled by the
English for a while.

There could be wholesale movement of state boundaries, as marriages and

inheritance gave kings sovereignty over distant lands or war robbed them of local
territories. Usually it would be made up of principalities, duchies, baronies and
independent boroughs, with their own rulers, their own courts, their own laws
their own tax structure, their own customs posts and their own armed men – so
that the allegiance each owned to the monarch could be forgotten if a rival
the monarch made a better offer. Monarchs often did not speak the languages of the
people they ruled and official documents and legal statutes were rarely in the
language of those subject to their laws.
Political changes took place in important parts of Europe towards the end of the
15th century, as Spain was reaching out to conquer Latin America. Charles VII
and Louis XI in France, Henry VII and Henry VIII in England, and the joint
monarchs Isabel and Ferdinand in Spain all succeeded in enhancing their own
power at the expense of the great Feudal lords and in imposing some sort of
statewide order within what are today’s national boundaries.
Chris Harman writes:

“These changes were important because they constituted the first moves from the
feudal to the modern setup. The transition was still far from complete. The most
powerful of the ‘new’ monarchies, that of Spain, still had separate administrative
structures for its Catalan, Valencian, Aragonese and Castilian components, while
its monarch waged wars for another century and a half to try to keep possession of
lands in Italy and in the Low Countries. The French kings had to endure a series
of wars and civil wars before they forced the territorial lords to submit to
‘absolutist’ rule – and even then, internal customs posts and local legal systems
remained in place. Even in England, where the Norman Conquest of 1066 had
created a more unified feudal state than elsewhere, the northern earls still retained
considerable power and the monarchs still had not abandoned their claims in
‘France’.”

Nevertheless, there was a tendency for kings and queens to accumulate power and
wealth at the expense of other powerful social groups. This had important
consequences for society, and gave rise to the term “Absolutism”, referring to the
type of power that emerged.

Absolutism means a form of monarchical power that stands above other

institutions, such as churches, legislatures, or social elites

Key elements are:

The end of feudal partitioning of kingdoms and a move to unify a territory under
one powerful centralized ruler.
The consolidation of the Crown’s power.
The emergence of a state having power over the kingdom,
unification of the state,
a decline in the influence of nobility.
Absolute monarchs are also associated with:
the rise of professional standing armies,
professional bureaucracies,
the codification of state laws, and
the rise of ideologies that justify the absolutist monarchy.
Absolutist monarchs typically were considered to have the divine right of kings as
a cornerstone of the philosophy that justified their power.

Absolute monarchs spent considerable sums on extravagant palaces for

themselves and their nobles. In an absolutist state, monarchs often required nobles
to live in the royal palace, while state officials ruled the noble lands in their
absence. This was designed to reduce the power of the nobility by making nobles
dependent on the monarch for their livelihoods.

Nevertheless, the ‘new monarchies’ and absolutisms’ which later developed out of
them in France and Spain represented something different to the old feudal order.

They were states which rested on feudalism but in which the monarchs had
learned to use new forces connected with the market system and the growth of the
towns as a counterbalance to the power of the feudal lords. The policies were still
partly directed towards the classic feudal goals of acquiring land by means of
force or marriage alliances. But another goal was of increasing importance –
building trade and locally based production. So Isabel and Ferdinand conquered
the Moorish kingdom of Granada and fought wars over territory in Italy, but they
also financed Columbus and his successors in the hope of expanding trade.

Henry VIII used marriage to establish dynastic links with other monarchs, but he
also encouraged the growth of the English Wool industry and the navy.
This certainly does not mean these monarchies were any less brutal than their
forebears. They were prepared to use any means to cement their power against
one another and against their subjects. Intrigue, murder, kidnapping, torture were
regularly used.

A good example of the philosophy is to be found in the writing of the Florentine

civil servant Machiavelli. He wished to see Italy unified in a single state.
His book, The Prince, is a set of guidelines by which a ‘prince’ was to achieve this
goal.
Machiavelli did not succeed, but his writings specify a list of techniques which
could have come straight from the Spanish Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, or
King Henry VIII in England. (Source: Harman, A People’s History of the World.
London, Bookmarks Publishers, 1999).

The Reformation:
25 years after Spanish troops took Grenada and Columbus landed in the West
Indies, the friar Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in
Wittemberg, Southern Germany. Luther wanted to protest against the corruption
of the Catholic Church and specifically attacked the sale of “indulgences” by the
church. People could buy forgiveness for their sins by paying money to the
church. Often the poorest people had to pay when they were accused of sinning by
the church’s agents, the pardoners, whose greed was denounced by Chaucer in his
poem The Canterbury Tales (written at the end of the 14th century). Here the
pardoner speaks in a cynical way about his profession:
“What! Do you think as long as I can preach
And get their silver for the things I teach,
That I will live in poverty from choice?
That’s not the counsel of my inner voice!
No! Let me preach and beg from kirk to kirk (church)
And never do an honest job of work
No, nor make baskets, like St Paul, to gain,
A livelihood. I do not preach in vain
There’s no apostle I would counterfeit,
I mean to have money, wool and cheese and wheat
Though it were given me by the poorest lad
Or poorest village widow, though she had
A string of starving children, all agape.
No, let me drink the liquor of the grape
And keep a jolly wench in every town.”

(The Pardoner’s Tale, Prologue, from The Canterbury Tales, Penguin Classics,
1982 p; 262).

Often the pardoner accused people of committing sins, and obliged them to pay or
else face eternal damnation. From his revolt against the sale of indulgences,
Luther went on to question the entire church hierarchy, and proposed a new form
of Christian religion, Protestantism, which would be part and parcel of the
modernization of Europe and the emergence of Capitalism.

Parliament played an important role in bringing the Reformation to England

during the rule of king Henry VIII.

The Reformation Parliament sat from 1532 to 1534, and made King Henry VIII’s
break with the Roman Catholic Church legal.
It questioned many of the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church in England, and
voted in favour of a Protestant Monarch and a Protestant religion for England.
Henry VIII was born in 1491 and was king of England from 1509 until he died in
1547. We can say that the first part of the 16th Century was dominated by his rule.

During that time, England underwent important changes that have influenced the
way people live up until the present day. This was due to the changes taking place
in Europe and in England mentioned above – Absolutism and the Reformation.
But in England, things were accelerated by the man who was to engineer the
country’s break with the Catholic Church:
Thomas Cromwell.

The 1530s saw Cromwell rise to power from his lowly origins as a blacksmith’s
son in Putney, London, to become the king’s advisor. Cromwell had run away
from home at a young age and fought in the many wars taking place on the
continent, learning different languages like French and Flemish, which were to
help him later, back in England. He came back to England around 1516 after
gaining a wide experience in business in Europe. It was later said that he was a
moneylender, and he certainly learned much about banking and money in Europe.

He obtained employment in the household of Cardinal Wolsey, who was the

Chancellor of the Exchequer (Minister of Finance) and one of Henry VIII’s most
trusted advisors. While in the service of the Cardinal, Cromwell learned about the
workings of law and government, while he also made a reputation as a humanist
scholar and a reformer. Cromwell always showed reverence for the power and
authority of the monarchy. He believed it should be the dominant partner in
any political agreement and should try to reform the commonwealth with the
aristocracy and the religious authorities. He believed the king ought to head a
unitary commonwealth (meaning the nation, or the common good).

Cromwell thought that many noblemen and church prelates were wasteful and
extravagant, and put their own ambitions of wealth and aggrandizement ahead of
the good of the community.
He argued that their power should be reduced in favour of giving the king more
centralized authority. This was a first step towards the achievement of a united
Commonwealth.

We can see how his criticism of the aristocracy led him to similar conclusions as
those who supported absolutism, and church reform, in Europe.
Cromwell was to bring about a revolution in the way England was governed. The
events that allowed him to do this were the following:
Henry VIII was married to Catherine of Aragon. But she had not given him a male
heir, only a daughter, Mary (The Princess Mary), and he had fallen in love with
Anne Boleyn, newly returned from the French court. Anne’s sister Mary had been
Henry’s mistress, but Anne wanted to be queen.

Catherine of Aragon had been the wife of Arthur, Henry’s elder brother, who died
in 1502. Henry now decided that his marriage to Catherine was not valid. But the
pope would not annul the marriage, on account of Catherine’s relationship to the
Spanish kings (she was the daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon) who were the most
powerful on the continent at the time. Her nephew, Charles V, was at the head of
the Holy Roman Empire.

Henry was not especially religious-minded and had even written a book attacking
the radical protestant Martin Luther, in 1521, and was named ‘Defender of the
Faith’ by the pope. But he turned to religious reform when he wanted to break
with the traditions of the church. To bring about this reform he turned to the men
he had appointed to govern for him: firstly, Cardinal Wolsey.
Cardinal Wolsey, the son of an Ipswich butcher, became chancellor of the
Exchequer in 1515. Wolsey had become immensely powerful and wealthy under
Henry’s rule, and built the luxurious Hampton Court palace, even more luxurious
than anything the king possessed. Henry had appointed him Cardinal in order to
bypass the authority of the traditional head of the church, the Archbishop of
Canterbury.
Hampton Court Palace, which was taken from Wolsey to become Henry VIII’s
possession.

https://www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/history-and-stories/thestory-of-
hampton-court-palace/#gs.g6s7fu
The life of Thomas Cromwell was successfully dramatized by BBC television in
the series Wolf Hall.
Cromwell is the lowly son of a blacksmith. He arrives back from the continent
and gets a position with Cardinal Wolsey. But the problem of Henry VIII and his
desire to have a legitimate male heir is on the horizon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE0jqwttxn8
Wolf Hall Episode I. Thomas Cromwell meets the Duke of Norfolk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIZASVOcKoo
Anne Boleyn meets Thomas Cromwell. She treats him as a social inferior and
shows him no respect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyGMYn-rE9g
In 1531, Cromwell meets Queen Catherine of Aragon and her daughter, the
Princess Mary. Cromwell is writing the bill declaring Henry VIII to be head of
the Church. This marks a rupture with the Catholic Church and the Pope in Rome,
who is the head of the Catholic Church worldwide.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghEu0hlPBjw
Though Cromwell ensures that Parliament supports the king and draws up the
bills of law that allow his divorce and all that follows from it, Anne does not
recognize his endeavor and treats him with contempt, as we can see from the
following extract from Wolf Hall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIlEPAmiOMo
Here, Anne begins to exert her power.
Cromwell solved the king’s problem by finding a legal solution. He had the
English parliament enact a law declaring the Church of England a sovereign
institution free from any oversight or interference from Rome. The Church of
England was to become independent of Rome and the King, as its head, could do
as he pleased. While Cardinal Wolsey had died in disgrace, and Thomas More had
been executed for failing to agree to the solution, Cromwell was quickly promoted
by Henry after obtaining parliament’s support for the divorce. He became more
influential and powerful than any other government minister in the 16th Century
(source, Canny, 1987).

Parliament, at Cromwell’s instigation, passed a series of bills culminating in the

Act of 1534 which declared King Henry ‘the Supreme Head of the Church of
England.’
Cromwell also obtained from the Parliament a declaration that the royal marriage
between Henry and Catherine was invalid. The king could now marry Anne
Boleyn.
Any clergy or churchmen who disagreed were prosecuted and found themselves in
prison.

The next step Thomas Cromwell took was to close the monasteries, which had too
much wealth and property, in his opinion. The huge landed estates owned by the
monasteries were taken over by the Crown and sold to supporters who were thus
closely tied to Henry. The liquid assets – gold, silver, tapestries and textiles, were
also taken. Both the Crown and its supporters among the aristocracy became
richer at the expense of the church.
But Henry and Cromwell were careful not to adopt any of the radical principles of
Martin Luther, or to alter the mass and religious ceremonies in any great way. The
church ceremonies were still close to those of the Catholic church, but that church
had been made subservient to the king and to the state. The Church was now a
State Church with no ties to any other power outside the country.
Cromwell introduced more efficient procedures for the collection of state
revenues and taxes.

The aristocracy’s political power was also weakened when Henry introduced
commoners to the small privy council that advised the king on policy.
The King of England appointed ministers, who decided on policies. The finance
and implementation of these policies depended on the support of the two Houses
of Parliament, The House of Lords, where the Bishops and Aristocrats sat, and the
House of Commons, which was made up of the landowning gentry in the Shires
and the burghers from the towns. Since the time of the Magna Carta, the power of
Kings and Queens had been somewhat limited by what the aristocracy, and also
the urban burghers were willing to accept. The king’s revenues came from taxes,
which were voted by the House of Commons.
The State was much more centralized after Thomas Cromwell’s passage. But
England still did not have a standing army, or a national police structure, and a
very basic civil service, which could not offer employment to the sons of the
aristocracy.
The local aristocracy and lower landowners, the gentry, had a lot of real power.
They administered the law, imposed punishments on the poor and laboring
classes, made sure taxes were collected, and raised troops if the king went to war.