Cromwell and Government

The minister who governed by statute

Wolsey had governed as a churchman, through his own household and the courts he sat in. Thomas Cromwell, a lawyer who had never been a priest, governed through Parliament. Between 1532 and 1540 the Parliament he managed passed more statutes of lasting consequence than any before it: the supremacy, the succession, the treason law, the union with Wales, the dissolution of the monasteries. He also counted. In 1535 his commissioners valued every church living in England and Wales, and the figure they reached, about 320,000 pounds a year, was three times the ordinary income of the crown. Within a year he had built a court to collect the share the king would take. The exam asks how Cromwell reformed government and finance, how he used Parliament, and whether the historians who call it a revolution are right. This module gives you the dated evidence and the question shapes.

Five words the examiners use

Each definition ends with a date, because a bare definition earns nothing in a 12-mark answer.

Six years of building, in order

Put these six measures in the order they happened.

• Cromwell becomes Principal Secretary to the king
• The Act of Supremacy declares Henry head of the Church of England and the Treasons Act makes it treason to deny it in words
• The Valor Ecclesiasticus values every church living in England and Wales
• The Court of Augmentations is created to handle the lands of the monasteries
• The Act of Union brings Wales under English law and into the English shires
• The Statute of Proclamations gives royal proclamations the force of law, within limits Parliament sets

Why govern through Parliament?

Wolsey called one Parliament in fourteen years and regretted it. Cromwell kept the Reformation Parliament sitting from 1529 to 1536 and called another in 1539. Which explanation best accounts for the difference?

• The break with Rome had to be made enforceable, and only statute could make denying the supremacy treason, redirect church taxes to the crown and dissolve the monasteries with a title that would hold; and a policy that Parliament had voted for was one the political nation had agreed to, which made rebellion harder to justify.
• Cromwell believed in democracy and wanted Parliament to control the king.
• Henry was too weak to rule without Parliament.
• The Pope required the consent of Parliament for the break with Rome.

Government under Wolsey and under Cromwell

The comparison the examiners like is between the two ministers. Both ran England for the same king; they ran it differently.

Statute as a weapon

Five Acts of the Reformation Parliament. Tap the TWO that made the break with Rome enforceable against individuals, as opposed to changing where money went or who ruled the Church.

• The Act in Restraint of Annates stopped the payments new bishops sent to Rome.
• The Act of Succession of 1534 made the marriage to Anne lawful and required every adult to swear an oath accepting it, with refusal punishable as misprision of treason.
• The Act of Supremacy of November 1534 declared the king Supreme Head of the Church of England.
• The Treasons Act of 1534 made it high treason to deny the title of the king by word, writing or deed, so that More and Fisher could be convicted for what they said and refused to say.
• The Act of First Fruits and Tenths of 1534 redirected to the crown the first year of income of every new church living and a tenth of every one thereafter.

The reform of finance

Select the THREE statements that are true of royal finance under Cromwell.

• The Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535, compiled by commissioners in every diocese, put the income of the Church at about 320,000 pounds a year and gave the crown the figures it needed to tax and to dissolve.
• The Court of Augmentations, set up in 1536, received the lands of the dissolved monasteries, worth on the order of 120,000 to 136,000 pounds a year, and sold or leased them for the crown.
• From 1534 the first fruits and tenths that had gone to Rome went to the crown, and in 1540 a court was set up to collect them.
• Cromwell abolished the Exchequer.
• Cromwell raised the money through a second Amicable Grant.
• The new financial courts were created by royal proclamation without Parliament.

Revolution or reorganisation? The debate for the 16-mark question

In 1953 the historian Geoffrey Elton argued that the 1530s saw a Tudor revolution in government: Cromwell replaced rule by the household of the king with rule by departments and a Privy Council that ran themselves whoever the minister was, and made Parliament the source of all law. The exam does not name Elton, but it asks the question he asked. For revolution: statutes for everything, including the supremacy itself; new departments with their own staff and records, Augmentations in 1536, Wards and First Fruits in 1540; the Privy Council of nineteen by 1540; the union with Wales and the Council of the North; parish registers from 1538 so that the state knew who was born, married and buried. For reorganisation: Wolsey had already used Star Chamber and the subsidy; the household did not disappear; the new courts were folded back into the Exchequer in 1554; the Privy Council may have been shaped by the crisis of the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 rather than by Cromwell; and the Statute of Proclamations shows Parliament limiting the crown as much as serving it. The judgement examiners reward: the changes were real and dated, the word revolution is a claim about their permanence, and the evidence for permanence is mixed.

In the shoes of the Secretary

Four decisions Cromwell faced between 1534 and 1539. Choose as he chose, and notice what each choice bought and what it cost.

• 1534. The king is head of the Church by Act of Parliament, and a great many of his subjects do not believe it. How do you make them?
• 1535. The king wants money from the Church and the Church says it has none to spare. What do you do first?
• 1536. The smaller monasteries are being dissolved and their lands, rents and plate are coming to the crown faster than the Exchequer can record them. What do you do?
• 1539. The king wants his proclamations to have the force of law so that he need not wait for Parliament. You are managing the bill through the Commons. What comes out?

From cause to consequence

Because Rome would recognise nothing done in England, the supremacy had to be made by _____, and the Reformation Parliament sat until 1536. Because words could not be punished under the old law, the Treasons Act of _____ made denying the title of the king a capital crime. Because nobody can tax what has not been counted, the _____ of 1535 came before the dissolution. Because the lands of the monasteries needed managing, the Court of _____ was built in 1536 with its own officers. And because the Commons would not hand the king the power to legislate alone, the Statute of _____ of 1539 came back from Parliament with limits.

Why the Church was worth taxing

In 1535 the Valor Ecclesiasticus, the survey Cromwell organised, put the yearly income of the Church in England and Wales at about 320,000 pounds. The yearly income of the crown was about 100,000 pounds. How many times larger was the income of the Church, to the nearest whole number?

The 4-mark question

Question (a) might read: Describe two features of the reform of royal finance under Cromwell. It is marked feature plus supporting detail, twice. Which answer scores all four marks?

• One feature was the valuation of the Church: the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 recorded the income of every living and religious house and put the total at about 320,000 pounds a year. Another was the creation of new financial courts, such as the Court of Augmentations set up by statute in 1536 to receive and sell the lands of the monasteries.
• The Valor. Augmentations.
• Cromwell made the king much richer by taking money from the Church in lots of clever ways.
• Cromwell reformed finance because the king needed money for war and the Church was the richest institution in England after the crown.

A 12-mark paragraph, marked

Question (b): Explain why Parliament became more important in the years 1529 to 1540. One reason Parliament became more important was that Cromwell needed statute to make the break with Rome hold. A royal proclamation could declare the king head of the Church, but only an Act of Parliament could make denying it a crime, redirect the taxes that had gone to Rome, or give the crown a title to monastic land that a purchaser would trust. So the Reformation Parliament, first called in 1529, was kept in being until 1536 and passed the Act of Succession and the Treasons Act, the Act of Supremacy and the Act of First Fruits and Tenths in 1534, and the Act dissolving the smaller monasteries in 1536. This meant that the most important changes of the reign were made by the king in Parliament rather than by the king alone, and a body that Wolsey had summoned once in fourteen years sat almost every year of the 1530s. Parliament grew in importance because the supremacy could not stand without it. What earned the marks: a cause named in the first sentence; specific support (the five Acts with their dates, the contrast with Wolsey); the link phrase this meant that; and a closing sentence that returns to the question. Two more paragraphs, on finance and on the union with Wales, and the answer reaches the top level.

Write the 12-mark answer

Explain why Cromwell reformed royal finance in the years 1534 to 1540. You may use the following in your answer: the Valor Ecclesiasticus; the Court of Augmentations. You must also use information of your own.

• Support that counts: a date, an Act, a court or a figure
• Causes of your own: the break with Rome and the first fruits, the needs of the king, or the lesson of the Amicable Grant

The 16-mark judgement

Question (c) might read: "The reforms of Cromwell amounted to a revolution in government." How far do you agree? A student has written the case FOR. Which is the strongest point to set AGAINST it?

• Much of it was not new and not permanent: Wolsey had already governed through Star Chamber and the subsidy, the household did not disappear, the Privy Council may owe as much to the crisis of 1536 as to Cromwell, and the courts of Augmentations and First Fruits were folded back into the Exchequer in 1554, so that what looks like a revolution in 1540 looks like a reorganisation by 1560.
• Cromwell was executed in 1540.
• Henry remained a Catholic in doctrine.
• Wales was brought into the English shires in 1536.