The Tudor Dynasty (1485-1603) : generalities concerning the political system

Résumé du document

In England the government operated through the monarch and Parliament. First the executive, or royal power, was the instrument of law, order, security and prosperity. There was a compact binding of kings and subjects in return for protection, the subjects owed their kings obedience and support. The king was not the sole figure as he was helped by the Council, where in the councillors were appointed by the monarch himself and whose major task was to advise the king and carry out the King's orders. Apart from this official body the king also had a few personal advisers who made up his own private council which was called as the Privy Council. Contrary to many European countries at the time in England and especially under the Tudors the king was not an absolute monarch as his powers were limited as he was bound by the laws and customs of the land: he was constrained by the solemn Coronation Oath to rule according to the ?laws and customs of the realm'.

Extraits

[...] [ ] It is easy to appreciate that, by 1527, the king was sincerely beset by a dynastic problem. The point is that his attempt to solve it was dangerously unsuccessful for ten years, and not notably happy thereafter. A reign which accomplished an evident political integration of the kingdom at the same time saw the nation acquire a religious discord of a kind which it had not known before and which would soon become bitter and complex, sending fissures down English society to its lowest strata and setting neighbour against neighbour, father against son in a disunity from which that society has not yet fully recovered. [...]

[...] Source : John Aylmer, An Harborowe for faithful and true subjects against the late blowne blast concerning the government of women in G. R. Elton The Tudor Constitution: Documents and Commentary, 2nd Ed., C.U.P p 12- Elizabeth and Parliament On her throne, Elizabeth was the Virgin Queen; towards the Church she was a mother, with her nobles she was an aunt, to her councillors a nagging wife, and to her courtiers a seductress. But what was the appropriate female role for the Queen in Parliament, when she met her ruling class ranged as Lords and Commons? [...]

[...] This concern led him several times to have potential rivals executed as traitors. Such sentence resulted in the confiscation of the property of the victims and thus contributed to increase the wealth of the crown. After securing for himself the crown of England, one of Henry Tudor's main concerns was to ensure the Tudor succession to the throne. He married Elizabeth of York, thus uniting the so far rival branches of York and Lancaster; she gave him four children, Arthur, Margaret, Henry, and Mary. [...]

[...] He became so paranoid that he asked for the execution of his brother. Seymour was also a supporter of the Reformation and as such he allowed Protestants to preach their religious message freely and priests to marry. The Henrician Six Articles were repealed and perhaps to avenge themselves of the years of fear people started pillaging and destroying churches, breaking statues and stealing religious objects, a behaviour that is called ‘iconoclasm'. However no religious line was set. The government feared a civil war, so Cranmer published a Book of Homilies in 1547 (text 8). [...]

[...] ] followed of concord, agreement and unity in opinions, as also the manifold perils, dangers and inconveniences which have heretofore in many places and regions [ . ] arisen of the diversities of [ . ] opinions, especially of matters of Christian religion; and therefore desiring that such an unity might [ . ] be charitably established in all things [ . ] concerning the same [ . Hath therefore [ . ] commanded this his most High Court of Parliament [ . [...]