How did Henry VII control the Nobility?

The nobility was a very delicate issue for Henry. He needed to decrease their power without alienating them and reducing their role completely. Henry sought to control the nobility in two key ways:  by offering inducements (rewards in return for action) and by issuing threats.

This was known as the carrot and stick policy.

The carrots

Patronage:

If Henry was to remain secure, he had to be able to win over nobles to his cause. PATRONAGE (the giving of positions of power; titles and land etc.) was one way, traditionally used by medieval kings, of buying loyalty,Henry VIII however, turned this relationship around by making it clear that patronage came as a result of (and not in the hope of ) good and loyal service. Furthermore, these rewards applied to the nobility and gentry alike. First to be rewarded were those who had given Henry loyal support at and before the Battle of Bosworth.

Bosworth:

• The Earl of Oxford (John de Vere) became the major landowner in East Anglia.
• Jasper Tudor was made Duke of Bedford and was restored to his Welsh estates and rewarded extra land.
• Thomas, Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby, retained control of Lancashire and Chesire. 

Others were rewarded on the basis of good service:

• Sir Reginald Bray, was helped to accumulate land throughout eighteen counties, worth well over £1,000 per annum by the time he died.
• Edmund Dudley, was a lawyer who became one of Henry's right hand men and in his own words used his title of King's Councillor as proudly as any peerage. Clearly this was a society in which was truly valued because such reward was not bestowed lightly.

Patronage thus encouraged and ensure loyalty. However, Henry was not as generous as his predecessors in the use of patronage. He did not want to make himself weaker at the expensive of his own wealth and security.

Order of the Garter:

This was a significant honour reserved for the King's closest servants. Henry created 37 knights of the Garter. More than half of these were his closest associates in war and government. Examples are the Earl of Oxford and Reginald Bray. The Garter was the ultimate mark of honour favoured by Henry VII. It was effective for Henry because it gave prestige but not power of land.

King's council:

A position as King's Councillor was a sign of the King's confidence. The emphasis was on loyalty to trusted servants. Two Chancellors retained their positions for long periods: John Morton (1486-1500) and William Warham (1504-09). Henry's five key Councillors had all aligned themselves with Henry before Bosworth. They were Reginald Bray, Giles Daubeney and Richard Guildford (all of whom had been involved in the Buckingham conspiracy), and Thomas Lovell and John Riselly (who had joined Henry when he was in exile).

 

Great council:

These were meetings of noblemen, called together by the King to discuss high matters of state, usually in moments of emergency when the calling of parliament would have taken too long. They were also a useful form of control for the King as they were a way of gaining the agreement and support of his most important subjects for a potentially controversial policy. If the nobles had been included in, and had agreed to,a major decision they could hardly then turn around and criticise. Henry for the policy. There were five meetings of the Great council.

1485: for the calling of Parliament and the announcement of Henry's marriage

1487: In response to Lambert Simnel's threat

1488: To authorise a subsidy for the campaign in Brittany

1491: to authorise war against France

1496: to grant a loan of £120,000 for war in Scotland

Acts of attainder:

These were acts that led to a family losing the right to possess its land as well as right to inherit its land. The loss of such land spelt economic and social ruin for any family. Importantly, attainders were reversible and were thus used by Henry VII as a sanction for good behavior. In this way, attainders could be both stick and carrot- an Act was passed first as a punishment, but good behaviour could then lead to a reversal of the attainder. The classic example is Thomas Howard, the Earl of Surrey. He and his father (John Howard, Duke of Norfolk) had fought for Richard III as Bosworth. However, rather than execute Surrey (his father was killed in action), Henry attained his lands and imprisoned him. By taking an oath of allegiance to the King in 1489 the process of reversing the attainder was started and his title as they Earl of Surrey was restored. That same year he quelled a rising in Yorkshire for Henry and was rewarded by the return of the Howard estates. Nevertheless, in spite of Howard's return to favour, Henry VII never reinstated him as Duke of Norfolk. 

Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset, had never been trusted by Henry since his apparent support for Richard in 1485. Thurs, in 1492 he was required to transfer all of his land to trustees, give a recognisance for £1,000 and find others who would give recognisances worth £10,000 on his behalf. By 1499 Dorset had proved his loyalty to Henry (by, for example, helping to put down the Cornish rebellion) and these agreements were cancelled. The bonds and recognisances had served their purpose.

Number of Attainders passed and reversed

Edward IV: 

140 passed and 42 reversed

Henry VII:

138 passed and 46 reversed

 

The sticks

Feudal Dues:

Henry was keen to emphasise his own power as King by asserting his feudal right s over the nobility. Feudal Dues were effectively collected to aid Henry financially and also help re-establish the monarch as a feudal lord)

Wardships: Where the King took control of the estates of minors (those who were too young to be held responsible for their inheritance) until they became of age.  In the meantime, the King would take most of the profits from their estates.

Marriage: Where the King could profit from the arranged marriages of heirs and heiresses.He also controlled marriages meaning he would not have to content with power blocs forming.

Livery: Where the King was paid in order for someone to recover land from wardship.

Relief: Where the King received money money as land was inherited- a form of inheritance tax.

e.g; Katherine, Dowager Duchess of Buckingham, was fined around £7,000 in 1496 for marrying without the King's license. Her son, Edward, Duke of Buckingham, was fined about £7,000 for entering his inheritance in 1498 without license before he was 21. The extent of Henry's increased control can be seen in the increase in proceeds from wardship and marriage: from £350 in 1487 to £6,000 in 1507.

Retaining: 

Retaining was the long-held noble practice of recruiting gentry followers. Lords would recruit those of low social status to fight for them if necessary. Retaining served the King's purpose as it could help him gather a sizable army, if needed, at short notice. However, there was a chance that nobleman (or group) could become more powerful than the King as a result of retaining. They had played an important role in the Wars of the Roses and were thus viewed by Henry as a threat to his own power as King. Henry was not prepared to tolerate this and passed laws in 1487 and 1504 restricting retaining. While Henry took clear steps to limit retaining, however, it is evident that he never intended to do away with retaining altogether.

Henry tried to attack retaining on two main occasions: 1585 and 1504. The Lords and Commons had to swear in the 1485 Parliament that they would not retain illegally. Then in 1504 proclamations ensured that nobles had to obtain licenses to retain. They had to be obtained from the King in person and are another indication of how Henry's policies relied on his personal input. This system was again supported by the threat of financial ruin- the 1504 Act had a penalty of £5 per month per illegal retainer. This was applied in 1506 to Lord Burgavenny with a fine of £70,550. So, while Henry did not stamp out illegal retaining, it seems clear that nobility was at least much more cautious about the practice.

Bonds and Recognisances:

Henry was keen to use other traditional sticks as a means of guaranteeing good behavior.  Henry VII's bonds were written agreements in which people promised to pay a sum of money if they failed to carry out their promises. Recognisances were a formal acknowledgement of a debt or an obligation that already existed, with the understanding to pay money if this obligation was not met. Between 1485 and 1509, 36 out of 62 noble families gave bonds and/or recognisances to Henry. This compares to only one peer during Yorkist rule. Bonds disabled Henry VII's nobility: 62 peerage families were alive during Henry's reign- 46 were at the King's mercy, 7 were under attainder, 36 were bound by obligations and recognisances, 5 were heavily fined, 3 under constraint which meant that only 16 families were left alone. Like Henry's use of attainders this system became more severe as his reign went on.

 Crown Lands:

 Perhaps a more subtle stick was Henry's policy to bring back as much land as possible into the hands of the Crown. Land was power: the more land Henry possessed, the more power he was seen to wield. Estimates suggest this amount of Crown lands was 5 times larger by the later years of Henry VII's reign than in Henry VI's reign (1450s). In 1486 Parliament passed the Acts of resumption, which recovered for the crown all properties granted away since 1455 (before the Wars of the Roses). Where possible, Henry rewarded loyal supporters with land not from Crown estates, but from the forfeited lands of opponents.