The King s Council

Henry transformed the king's council into an efficient executive ally with well-defined powers. This is an important constitutional fact, inasmuch as the council, from the accession of Henry VII to the days of the Long Parliament, was the chief instrument used by the king to govern the kingdom.

In origin, the council the great council of Norman days was simply a body of royal advisers. This body since the fourteenth century had had a varied career, sometimes aiding the king and sometimes thwarting his policy. By the term "council", " is meant the Ordinary Council the whole body of advisers, within which was the Privy Council, a special committee of advice for the king. The functions of the council had been extensive, and largely of an administrative and judicial character. Before the time of Henry VII it had been accustomed to meet in what was called the Star Chamber in the palace and there to do business, in the course of which it was frequently called upon to consider legal cases for which no redress could be obtained in the common law courts. Henry took an important step in 1487, when, after the conspiracy of Lambert Simnel, he caused parliament to pass an act setting apart a special committee of five of the Ordinary Council and two judges to consider such offences of the great nobles as the maintaining of bodies of retainers, intimidating juries, inciting to riot, and the like. This special court did good work, and many a great lord was heavily fined for keeping too large a following about him and attempting to intimidate the lower courts. The earl of Oxford, for example, was fined, in the money of that day, 15,000 for the livery that he incautiously displayed on the occasion of a royal visit.

In 1494, Henry gave definite form to another judicial function of the council and at the same time showed his interest in the middle classes by establishing, without act of parliament, the Court of Requests, or, as it was first called, the Court of Poor Men's Causes, for men too poor to sue in the common law courts. The court concerned itself only with civil, not criminal, matters. The advantage of each of these courts was that procedure in them was simple, honest, and cheap; whereas to win a case in the common law courts required much money and a great length of time. The common law courts were, furthermore, frequently controlled by the landed aristocracy and in them justice was not always easily obtainable.

Thus the king not only curtailed the power of the nobility by enforcing the law against them, but he stood as the protector of the people against the aggressions of the local aristocracy. Such a course was bound to make the king popular with the nation.

Parliament under Henry VII

Henry was rarely opposed by parliament during his reign, and in the main he was able to use that body as a source of supply. This was possible for several reasons. Under the Lancastrians Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI parliament had been strong because the clergy and commons had aided the lords, their natural leaders in parliament, to check the excesses and to limit the powers of the kings. But during the Wars of the Roses the clergy had withdrawn from. political life, the old nobility had been almost exterminated, and the commons were left without guidance and support. From 1460 to 1485 but seven parliaments had been summoned, and owing to the restrictions that had been placed on the right to vote, these had been elected by only one-tenth of the population. Many of the boroughs, too, that sent up members were controlled by the moneyed aristocracy, so that the parliament was not in any sense a representative body even of that tenth. Just as the new aristocracy packed the local juries, so they packed the House of Commons and filled it with members willing to adopt the policy of the king, because he in his turn favored their commercial and trading interests. We may say, in fact, that the king took the place formerly occupied by the feudal lords, as the leader and guide of the commons, and was able to obtain from parliament pretty much what he pleased.

Nevertheless, the Tudors adhered to the letter of the constitution and never violated the prerogatives of parliament. They listened with infinite patience to the expressions of popular will and rarely went counter to them. They were absolute only because the commons suffered them to be so; and they were able to concentrate power in their own hands, because the nation believed that a strong monarch was necessary. England wanted security, prestige, wealth, and influence, and these could not be obtained under the rule of a nobility always quarrelling among themselves or of a parliament always quarrelling with the king. The time had not come for the House of Commons to take the lead. What England needed at this time was a strong executive, and that the Tudors gave her.

Henry summoned parliament but seven times in twenty-four years. His object was generally to obtain money, for parliament controlled the purse strings; but he also presented other important matters for enactment as law which were intended to secure the royal power.