Henry VIII: Wolsey - Domestic Policies & Parliament (AQA A Level History: Component 1: Breadth study): Revision Note

Summary

• Wolsey's domestic policies focused on three areas: enclosure and the poor, law and order and financial administration

• His enclosure commissions (1517–1518) were his most ambitious domestic initiative, investigating illegal enclosures in England, though enforcement was limited and ultimately incomplete

• The Eltham Ordinances (1526) attempted to reform the royal household and reduce expenditure, but were largely ineffective in practice

• Wolsey's relationship with Parliament was consistently difficult

  • He preferred to govern without it, viewed it as a constraint and his attempt to bypass it with the Amicable Grant (1525) ended in humiliating failure

• Historians are divided on Wolsey's effectiveness

  • Some see him as a genuinely great administrator who built central authority

  • Others argue his years were characterised by mere stability rather than meaningful reform

Wolsey's Domestic & Economic Policies: Enclosure & the Poor

The problem of enclosure

• Enclosure (the conversion of common arable land into private sheep pasture by fencing it off) was one of the most significant social and economic grievances of early Tudor England

• As the cloth trade boomed, landowners found it more profitable to farm sheep than to employ agricultural labourers

• This could displace rural communities, reduce arable production and in some cases contribute to depopulation

• It was a source of widespread popular anger and a direct threat to social order

Wolsey's enclosure commissions, 1517–1518

• In 1517, Wolsey launched the most ambitious investigation into illegal enclosure that England had yet seen

• He appointed commissioners across the country to identify land that had been illegally enclosed since 1489 (the date of the first parliamentary statute against enclosure) and to report on the extent of depopulation

• How did it work?

  • Commissioners gathered evidence from across England; tens of thousands of acres of illegally enclosed land were identified

  • Wolsey used the Star Chamber to prosecute the most prominent offenders, including some noblemen and wealthy gentry

  • A further commission followed in 1518, specifically targeting those who had failed to comply with the findings of the first

  • Wolsey also proposed a sheep tax in 1523 to penalise those profiting from large-scale sheep farming, though it was never implemented

How effective were the enclosure commissions?

• The commissions were ambitious in scope, but limited in effect:

The Eltham Ordinances, 1526

• In 1526, Wolsey drew up the Eltham Ordinances, a set of regulations aimed at reforming the royal household, reducing its size and cost, and improving its efficiency

• He proposed cutting the number of Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber from 12 to 6

  • This would have reduced the direct access that powerful courtiers had to the king

• The Eltham Ordinances had a clear political dimension

  • By reducing access to the Privy Chamber, Wolsey was attempting to consolidate his own position as the principal conduit between the king and the court

• Limitations:

  • The household soon reverted to its previous size and the ordinances left little lasting mark

Wolsey & Parliament: Why was their relationship so difficult?

• Wolsey's relationship with Parliament was one of mutual hostility and suspicion

• He preferred to govern without it wherever possible, regarding it as an obstacle to efficient administration rather than a necessary partner in government

• This attitude created lasting tensions that contributed to both his political vulnerability and the eventual crisis of the Amicable Grant

Why did Wolsey avoid Parliament?

• Control and speed:

  • Parliament was slow, unpredictable and capable of attaching conditions to grants of taxation

  • Wolsey preferred to act without such constraints

• Vulnerability to criticism:

  • Parliament provided a forum for members to voice grievances about Wolsey's conduct, his monopoly of power and his use of legal and financial instruments

• Preference for prerogative power:

  • Wolsey believed strong government was best exercised through royal prerogative (the king's inherent authority) rather than parliamentary statute

• Personal style:

  • Wolsey was autocratic by temperament and genuinely uncomfortable with the messiness and unpredictability of parliamentary debate

Parliament under Wolsey – Key events

How effectively did Wolsey Govern England?

• The question of how effectively Wolsey governed sits at the heart of this sub-topic and draws on evidence from all Wolsey revision notes

• Use the specific evidence below to build and support your own argument

Evidence that Wolsey governed effectively

• The subsidy raised around £300,000 between 1513 and 1523, far more than the old fifteenth and tenth system

  • It became the standard form of parliamentary taxation for the rest of the Tudor period

• The expansion of Star Chamber under Wolsey prosecuted powerful enclosers, including members of the nobility

  • These groups had previously been beyond the reach of ordinary courts

• The Court of Chancery heard dramatically more cases under Wolsey, providing flexible equity-based remedies unavailable in common law courts

• The 1517–1518 enclosure commissions were the most systematic investigation into illegal enclosure England had seen

  • Commissioners surveyed tens of thousands of acres of illegally enclosed land

• England remained stable and largely prosperous for over a decade under Wolsey's direction

  • No major domestic rebellion occurred during his period of dominance

• The Eltham Ordinances (1526) demonstrated a genuine attempt to reform royal household administration and reduce expenditure

Key historians:

Evidence that Wolsey's governance was flawed

• In the 1523 Parliament, Wolsey demanded £800,000 but received only around £150,000

  • Less than a fifth of what he asked, even after attending the Commons in person to make his case

• The Amicable Grant (1525) provoked around 10,000 people in Suffolk alone to refuse payment

  • It had to be abandoned entirely and was a public constitutional humiliation

• Wolsey himself enclosed land on his own estates

  • This directly contradicted his enclosure commissions and exposed the gap between his rhetoric and his conduct

• He dissolved 29 monasteries ostensibly for reform, but the revenue went to fund his own educational projects (Cardinal College Oxford and Ipswich school), not broader Church reform

• Parliament was not summoned between 1523 and 1529

  • This six-year gap stored up constitutional resentment

  • It left the Crown without a functioning mechanism for raising extraordinary revenue

• His ultimate failure to secure Henry's annulment from Catherine of Aragon defined his final years

  • It brought about his fall in 1529 and undid much of his legacy

Key historians: