Between the years 1515 and 1540 Tudor government was completely transformed
The extent to which Henry VIIIs reign saw a complete transformation of government has been debated
consistently, as historians make comparisons and links to current day trends or conventions. Henrys
ministers both brought individual changes to both the structure and running of government- evolving it
from the outdated system it was before to a step into modernity and efficiency. In this essay I will debate
both sides and conclude that there was substantial steps forward, but that the idea of a ‘complete
transformation’ is unfounded, as many systems remained the same- or evolved from previous reforms
introduced by Henry VII.
One way in which Henrys government was reformed is through development in the system of finances.
While there was limited improvements in finances in henrys early reign, with the major change being
Wolsey’s introduction of the subsidy, which proved to be much more successful than fifteenths and tenths.
However, the majority of change was brought forward by Cromwell, and the effects of the reformation.
This saw the departmentalisation of finances and audition, which vastly improved the efficiency of the
crown: the introduction of various courts, for example the Court of Augmentations (controlled the land
once under the control of the Church), Court of First Fruits and Tenths (collected money previously sent to
the Pope) or the Court of Wards (which helped Henry to maximise his money from wardship). This was
compounded by the money bought in by dissolution and break with Rome, in which vast amounts of
extraordinary finance was controlled and managed by the court of first fruits and tenths and court of
augmentation. Alongside this, the household system of finance was removed which ensured better control
over church wealth. Cromwell’s role in creating new financial institutions meant that Henry could better
manage the finances of the crown and organised the various institutions this money would be protected
by, ensuring a bureaucratic system, similar to today- rather than disorganisation and relying on individual
ministers to dictate finances.
However, it can be argued that there was more continuity than radical reform, Cromwell continued with
Henry VII’s approach of managing finances from the Privy Chamber, which meant that the modern system
of head of departments we see today had not been initially implemented under arguable Mary I reign. in
addition Henry VII had already created a Master of the King’s Wards well before Cromwell’s creation of the
Court of Wards, which evidences how a large proportion of governmental reform originated from Henry
VIIs changes.
Another way in which Henry VIIIs government transformed is through privy council reform. A small council
existed at the beginning of the reign, composed of the survivors of the ‘inner ring’ of his father’s council. As
previously, it divided into a council attendant and a council in Star Chamber. Thomas Wolsey’s rise to
power transformed that situation. As lord chancellor from 1515, he re-organized the council about himself
in Star Chamber, which in effect downgraded the council attendant. In the 1526 Eltham Ordinances,
Wolsey produced the blueprint for a renovated council attendant, though its provisions were scarcely
robust, in that they permitted the absence from Court of important officers, stipulating that two councillors
were always to be present ‘except the King’s grace give licence to any of them to the contrary’. It largely
oversaw a reduction in the size of the privy council, serving to streamline government administration. With
Wolsey’s fall in 1529, the council assembling in began to develop, while the council attendant, grappled
with the problem of how to annul Henry’s first marriage. The fact that the king had begun personally to
direct strategy, in his first sustained engagement with state business, powerfully contributed to this
gravitational shift toward the itinerant Court, which paid only fleeting visits to Westminster. The
annulment crisis had seen the rise at Court of an ‘inner ring’ advising Henry. It was this ‘inner ring’ among
councillors’ attendant that Thomas Cromwell joined in 1530. Cromwell produced a Privy Council system of
20 members, ending the medieval way in which England had been governed, where the government of the
country an itinerant court and bureaucracy with no central base. The administration of the country was
performed by personal servants of the monarch. They served the king’s personal needs as well as the
needs of the country, with little difference between the two. Elton asserts that Cromwell transformed the
system of government into one recognisable today. Although the purpose of government was still to
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