Worksheet by RJ Tarr and RB Charlesworth at www.activehistory.co.

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A TUDOR REVOLUTION IN GOVERNMENT?

THE DEBATE
• Prof. Elton's "revolution" consisted of the transformation
of government from a medieval to a modern form.
(medieval: relying on monarch in person, revolving
around royal Household; modern: employing government
departments/bureaucracy to take care of the everyday
admin. of government).

• For Elton, bureaucratic innovations between the fall of

Wolsey and the execution of Cromwell were "crowded
together so thickly and deliberately" that "only the term
'revolution' can describe what happened". Thomas
Cromwell deliberately brought about this revolution to
increase the efficiency of government and make the
monarchy more powerful. He was a great statesman who
transformed the office of Secretary, rather than an
unscrupulous and self-serving schemer.

• Elton also argued that this revolution was brought about by a profound change in the nation's
self-perception. The prefacing of statute with such memorable phrases as "this realm of England
is an empire" reflected more than the break with Rome. In the 1530's a confident, nationalistic
Tudor polity, capable of rivaling any in continental Europe, emerged.

• Elton has faced major criticism, notably from his former students. Consequently, he has
undertaken a fighting retreat although the significance of the changes and the primacy of
Cromwell remain in place. What follows will attempt to show how Elton has been challenged.

1. The 15th C. background.

• Elton's view of the 1530's as a revolutionary era depends on seeing the 15th c. as medieval /
unreformed.
• However, important government reforms were undertaken by Edward IV and HVII:
a. Revenue basis of Crown transformed - "Chamber finance" of Edward IV.
b. Revenue reforms resulted from reforming ideas about monarchy, efficient government (HVII's
idea that political control was enhanced by economic strength). These ideas could be debated
in parliament.
c. The language of politics changed - "common weal" started to feature under Edward IV.
"Yorkist England was not simply an age where there were reforms; it was an age in which the
need for reform was widely recognised and was justified in language that prefigured the 16th c.
usage' (Starkey).

2. The Court
• The continuing contribution of the royal Court to government has been neglected by Elton. The
Court was a place, and a group of people. Within this group of people was the Household. The
Household was divided into two sections: the upstairs (the Chamber, headed by the Lord
Chamberlain) and the downstairs (headed by the Lord Steward). In the Middle Ages the
Chamber had assumed major political importance because of the status and proximity of its
members to the King.
• Under Henry VIIthere were radical changes in Chamber organisation - the Privy Chamber was
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separated from the two other parts of the Chamber (Guard Chamber and Presence Chamber).
The Privy Chamber was a vital political power centre -in it, Henry VIIwas totally secluded except
for 6 grooms. The Groom of the Stole was becoming the King's real secretary.
• Under the Chamber finance of Edward IV and Henry VII much of the King's money was kept in
the Privy Chamber.

• Under Henry VIII the Privy Chamber assumes greater

importance at Court and in government. By 1515 there
was a group at Court called the King's Minions. They
came from the ranks of the upper gentry, became very
intimate with Henry and became regular members of the
Privy Chamber. In 1518 Henry made them Gentlemen of
the Chamber, alarming Wolsey and producing conflict:
Privy Chamber v. chief minister.
• The decline in the political importance of the Chamber as
a whole by 1547 is inarguable.
• Elton's argument that this was due to structural changes
in the theory / practice of government or to the transfer of
work to bureaucrats/departments cannot be sustained.
• The eclipse of the Chamber was more due to the rise of
the Privy Chamber whose governmental activity was still Figure 3: Henry VII
flourishing in 1547.

3. The Privy Council (meets at Court).

• Elton claimed that Cromwell had created the Privy Council "'between 1534 and 1536 as a
conscious act of administrative reform designed to modernise the existing King's Council as
inherited from Wolsey's regime". The Privy Council was supposedly a formalised, bureaucratic,
administrative apparatus; the old Council had been large, unwieldy and informal.
• Elton went on to argue that the Privy Council relegated the royal Household to merely "a
department of state concerned with specialised tasks about the King's person" (for a repudiation
of this see above and below).
• Elton also claimed that the Privy Council was relieved of judicial work by the invention of
specialist courts - Star Chamber and Requests.
• The counter-argument is that the Privy Council was not created by Cromwell but gradually
evolved. In 1526, as part of the Eltham Ordinances, Wolsey planned to reduce the Council to 20
executives meeting daily at 10am and 2pm.
• Wolsey, not Cromwell, was the real developer of the Courts of Star Chamber and Requests.
The venue, business and procedures of these courts did not change in the 1530's. Under
Cromwell the Privy Council was often subsumed within Court - it "lived and moved" at Court
(Guy) - and members of the royal Household continued to play essential administrative roles.
Guy suggests that it is even possible that the Privy Council was set up in a formal way in 1536
to limit Cromwell's powers. Both in 1536 and at the time of Cromwell's fall the Privy Council was
dominated by his opponents. So much for Cromwellian statecraft!

4. Finance.
• Elton argued that Cromwell set up specialist courts to handle government admin, especially
finance e.g. Court of Augmentations - handled revenue from Dissolution, Court of First Fruits
and Tenths. Finance "fell to national institutions rather than to the personal servants of the King
and those household offices which administered it before 1530”.
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• It is important to place these courts in context. The Court of the
Duchy of Lancaster was a model for the new courts, and the
courts were necessary to handle the vast amounts of church
wealth now at the Crown1s disposal. The structure of financial
management may have changed, but the Reformation rather
than any Cromwellian grand design was responsible.
• Most historians flow believe that the management of finance
evolved gradually, from the Chamber finance of Edward IV to
the 1553-4 reforms which channelled royal revenues into the
Exchequer, resulting in the end of Household finance controlled
by the monarch and the start of departmental finance managed
by the Council.
• Secondly, the new courts were too bureaucratised,
necessitating a shift to something simpler 1553-4. An associated
angle here is that Cromwell, far from sounding the death knell of
personal authority, could and did short circuit the official
machinery and use personal methods
Figure 4: King Edward IV
5. National Sovereignty and Independence - "the essential
ingredient of the Tudor revolution” (Elton).
• For Elton the exclusion of papal authority and the bringing together of temporal and spiritual
jurisdiction in the person of Henry VIII allowed Cromwell to enhance the power of the monarchy
and heighten the sense of national self-consciousness.
• Certainly Cromwell extended royal authority to the fringes of the State. However, there is
debate about how much of a revolution the Reformation was: "by the early 16th c. a breach with
papal jurisdiction was not a task of any great political difficulty or danger" (G.L. Harriss).
• Papal control of the pre-Reformation Church had been waning (praemunire), but the loss of
papal control over doctrine was a new development. The symbolic gains for the monarchy were
huge, and there were practical benefits (e.g. no repeat of divorce dilemma 1527-33).
• As for perceptions of England as separate, superior etc. the impact of the Reformation was
minimal in the short term. The long struggle with France probably did more. Undeniably the
Church was greatly weakened and it subjugation to the State was more complete and explicit. It
lost wealth, independence and although its doctrine and ceremony were little changed the
Protestant impetus had begun.

6. Elton on Parliament in the 1530's.

• Cromwell increased the use of Parliament enormously. Elton argued that this was due to
Cromwell's conviction that rule via Parliament would produce better government. Previously the
scope of what Parliament could do was limited by the idea that Parliament was supposed to
‘discover’ (clarify) the existing law and not to ‘make’ the law afresh.
• In the 1530's Cromwell consciously had Parliament producing a wider range of statutes than
the mere discovery idea permitted, a much more modern role which enhanced the status of
Parliament, and which began the transition to a constitutional monarchy.
• Critics accuse Elton of overstating the significance of the 1530's. Parliament made progress
both before and after Cromwell, but in a haphazard way (e.g. under Elizabeth Parliament
declined). C.S.L. Davies argues that Parliament helped Henry to create a despotism not a
constitutional monarchy. Henry VIII was greatly strengthened by Parliament: it made him
fabulously rich, it approved his control of the Church, it gave him the Treasons Act, it even
passed an Act of Attainder to get rid of Cromwell.
• It is worth considering if Cromwell was more interested in strong government than
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constitutionalism. Elton makes him sound like a principled altruist. Henry VIII wanted Parliament
to consolidate his power, and there is no evidence that Cromwell's motives were different.

7. Social reform.
• Elton saw Cromwell as a far-sighted social reformer
who had many plans for commonwealth reforms e.g.
creating new dioceses, building schools. The
evidence here is the many memos which survive
among his papers. For Guy, however, Cromwell has
to be placed in context alongside a host of 16th c.
administrators throughout Europe who believed that
the State could orchestrate progress. More
fundamentally, many of Cromwell's commonwealth
reforms never had any hope of reaching the statute
book. The memos reflect vague Cromwellian ideas
and are not a blueprint for change.

8. Local government. Figure 5: Cromwell in later life

• Perhaps Cromwell's greatest contribution was in the
reconstruction of local government in the 1530’s
("asserting the imperial authority of the English Crown on a uniform basis throughout all its
territories" - A.G.R. Smith). Government, whilst still relying on traditional agents like the JP's in
the localities, unquestionably became more centralised:
a. Union of England and Wales 1536 - reflected Cromwell's vision of a unitary state subject to
same laws drafted by parliament.
b. Abolition of Palatinate of Durham 1536.
c. 1536 Act attacking liberties and franchises - Crown made inroads into feudal jurisdiction.
d. Revival of Council of 1.1537.
e. Establishment of Council of the West 1539 - short-lived.

Conclusion
• There was no revolution, only continuities and
changes (which were important). Cromwell did not
mastermind a new form of government, rather he
made changes in response to events (esp. break
with Rome). He had no coherent plan of reform,
just lots of ideas. He was not as dominant in
government as Elton believed, but was only one of
several influential people.
• Above all Cromwell was subordinate to the King.
Like Wolsey, he depended on Henry's favour for
continuing in office. He was equally dependent on
the vagaries of Court faction (see Starkey), as
proved by the events of his downfall.
Figure 6: Henry VIII in his heyday