A Brief History of the Tudor Age

by Ridley, Jasper

  Benefit of clergy was a privilege won by the Church in the thirteenth century which established that members of the clergy who committed a felony should not be hanged, but suffer some lesser punishment; it was extended to deacons and any person remotely connected with the Church, and to anyone who could read; but it did not apply to women, not even to nuns, as women could not be clerks in holy orders. When literacy became more widespread in the sixteenth century after the introduction of printing, many laymen were able to take advantage of benefit of clergy. After the Bible in English had been printed and widely circulated in Elizabeth I’s reign, the courts adopted the practice of inviting a convicted felon to read the first verse of the 51st Psalm: ‘Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.’ This became known as the ‘neck verse’, because any convicted felon who could read it, or who had been given the useful tip to learn it by heart and could therefore pretend to read it, was able to save his neck and avoid being hanged by claiming benefit of clergy.

  The right of sanctuary and benefit of clergy were repeatedly modified during the Tudor Age, but surprisingly they were not completely abolished, and survived the suppression of the monasteries and the increased severity of the criminal law under Henry VIII. A series of statutes abolished the privileges in the case of the more serious offences. In Henry VII’s reign, Perkin Warbeck was able on two occasions to escape being executed as a traitor by taking sanctuary; but by the end of the Tudor Age, sanctuary and benefit of clergy had been abolished in cases of high treason and all the more serious crimes, and in most of the new felonies created by Acts of Parliament. An Act of 1489 enacted that a layman who claimed benefit of clergy should be branded on the thumb with the letter M in cases of murder and the letter T in cases of theft and other cases, and that he could not claim the privilege for a second offence. This was extended to priests by a statute of 1576.

  The law about sanctuary was extensively altered by an Act of 1540, which was passed after the final suppression of the greater, as well as the lesser, monasteries; but it shows the popularity of the sanctuary system that Henry VIII did not take this opportunity of abolishing sanctuary altogether. Every fugitive in sanctuary was required at the end of forty days to go to the nearest of the eight sanctuary towns which were established in Westminster, Wells, Manchester, Northampton, Norwich, York, Derby and Launceston; but there were never to be more than twenty criminals in any sanctuary town, and if the nearest one was full, the criminal was to be sent on to the next one. If he refused to go there, he was to lose the right to sanctuary. There was to be no sanctuary for anyone accused of murder, rape, burglary, robbery in any house in circumstances which put an inmate of the house in fear of his life; of arson of houses or of barns filled with corn; or of robberies of churches or any hallowed place; and it had already been abolished for high and petty treason.

  A sanctuary man was to lose the right to sanctuary if he committed any felony while residing in the sanctuary, or if he failed to report within three days of being summoned to do so by the Governor of the Sanctuary. He was only allowed to leave the sanctuary during daylight hours with a written licence from the Governor; he was not to wear a sword, knife or any other weapon; and he was to wear on his upper garment a badge, designed by the Governor of the Sanctuary, which was to be 10 inches long and 10 inches wide. If he left the sanctuary at night, or without complying with these conditions, he was to be imprisoned in the sanctuary prison for two days for the first offence, and for six days for the second, and for the third offence he was to lose the right of sanctuary.

  The people of the eight sanctuary towns did not relish having these criminals living amongst them. The two thousand inhabitants of Manchester were sufficiently influential to protest effectively, because they were already beginning to develop a cloth industry and to produce linen and woollen goods which were valued for their quality. They persuaded Parliament that Manchester was a thriving and growing town, to which many people were coming from Ireland and elsewhere to work in the cloth industry, and that the manufacturing process required their linen and wools to be out of doors, night and day, for six months before the linen was ‘whited’ and the wools ‘dressed up’. It was therefore essential that all the inhabitants of Manchester should be honest people, who would resist the temptation to steal the linen and wool. Parliament passed an Act in 1542 which enacted that Manchester should no longer be a sanctuary town, and that Chester should replace it as the nearest sanctuary.

  The right of sanctuary and benefit of clergy survived the Tudor Age. In one respect benefit of clergy was extended, for an Act of Edward VI’s Parliament in 1547 granted it automatically to all peers. Sanctuary was virtually abolished in 1623, but was not finally eliminated until 1647; and benefit of clergy, after being extended to women in the seventeenth century, was removed from more and more crimes, but survived in theory until 1841.

  6

  THE HOUSES

  HOUSES AND BUILDINGS are one of the greatest glories of the Tudor Age. Many Tudor houses, unlike those of earlier periods, still stand today, although very few buildings erected before 1450 still survive, apart from the stone castles, cathedrals and churches. Most of the houses built before the middle of the fifteenth century were of wood. Many of them were burned down after being set alight by an unattended candle or a burning faggot which had fallen out of the fireplace. Many more were not sufficiently sturdy to survive for more than a hundred years, even if they had lasted so long without catching fire. Many others were demolished in the Tudor Age to make room for new Tudor houses; for the idea of preserving old buildings of historical interest had not occurred to anyone before the nineteenth century.

  By the reign of Henry VII, even some of the houses of the middle and lower classes were being built of stone or red brick. Stone was most usual in the north and west of England; but in the south-east, which in building as in all other respects was historically in advance of the rest of England, red brick became increasingly common.

  In earlier periods, the cottages of the common people often consisted of only one room, on the ground floor, open to the rafters with a hole in the roof for the smoke from the fire to escape, and an attic under the roof which could only be reached by a ladder. There were holes or slits in the walls to let in the light, but no glass windows and if the shutters over the windows were closed to keep the house warm, this involved sacrificing the light. At the end of the fifteenth century, any prosperous tradesman, craftsman or farmer who valued his social position wished to live in a house which had a ‘solar’, and perhaps also a parlour. The solar was the private room of the master of the house, where he lived, at least in the summer, though in winter he might move into the communal room in order to keep warm. The solar and the other rooms often had a small glass window.

  While the ambition of the rising craftsman and yeoman was to have a house with a solar, the great nobleman was eager to build a magnificent mansion which was bigger, more modern, and more impressive than the mansions of other noblemen. Some of the most powerful lords did not wish to have a new house, but preferred to continue living in the medieval castles of their ancestors or predecessors. In this case, the old castle was usually modernized. Henry VII, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were often in residence at Windsor Castle, which had been built for Edward III in the fourteenth century; and in the city of London, Baynards Castle and the palace of Bridewell, as well as the Tower, were medieval buildings. But Henry VII made important additions at Windsor, and completely rebuilt Baynards Castle. Henry VIII restored the White Tower at the Tower of London, and he also rebuilt Bridewell Palace in 1515.

  The royal palace at Greenwich had also been a royal residence in the fourteenth century, but it had been greatly enlarged, and very largely rebuilt, by Edward IV. It was enlarged still further by Henry VIII, who was born there and resided there more often than at any of his other palaces. His daughters Mary and Elizabeth were also born at Green
wich, and Edward VI died there. Greenwich Palace continued to be a royal residence until it was pulled down by Charles II, and the royal hospital was built on the site.

  In the North, there was a royal residence at Sheriffhutton, twelve miles north of York. Richard III had lived there as Duke of Gloucester when he governed the North of England for his brother Edward IV; and when he was King, he imprisoned Elizabeth of York there, where she remained until Henry VII freed her and married her. In 1525 Henry VIII appointed his six-year-old illegitimate son by Elizabeth Blount, Henry Duke of Richmond, to be the nominal President of the Council of the North which governed the North of England, and sent him to reside at Sheriffhutton. But he did not modernize the building, which remained a medieval castle. One corner of the castle wall still stands today in a farmyard in the village of Sheriffhutton.

  The thirteenth-century palace of Sheen in Surrey was rebuilt by Edward III, and rebuilt again by Henry V. It was one of Henry VII’s residences until it was burned down in an accidental fire in 1498. Henry VII then built a new and larger palace on the same site in a modern Italian style. He named it Richmond Palace, after his father’s title of Earl of Richmond which he himself had borne before he became King and which referred to the village of Richmond in Yorkshire; and the name of the Surrey village around the palace was changed from Sheen to Richmond. Richmond Palace was much used as a royal residence by all the Tudor sovereigns, and Henry VII in 1509, and Elizabeth I nearly a hundred years later, both died there.

  Henry VII had other modern residences. The royal palace at Eltham near Blackheath had been built for Edward IV in 1479, and Henry VII often stayed there. Henry VIII spent much of his childhood at Eltham, but rarely visited it as King, though he carried out building works at the palace. There had been a royal residence at Woodstock in Oxfordshire since the twelfth century or earlier, but the palace was rebuilt between 1495 and 1501. Henry VIII often went there on his summer progresses. Elizabeth I was imprisoned there for a year in Mary’s reign after her release from the Tower, and also occasionally went there on her progresses as Queen. The palace was badly damaged during the Civil War in the seventeenth century, and the ruins were finally demolished at the beginning of the eighteenth century when Vanbrugh built Blenheim Palace on the site for the Duke of Marlborough.

  The palace of Oatlands near Weybridge in Surrey was rebuilt and greatly enlarged for Henry VIII on the site of an older house, but like Woodstock was destroyed during the Civil War. Nothing remains today of Henry’s manor house at Newhall in Essex, where he carried out many modern improvements; of his house at Easthampstead in Berkshire; or of the royal manor house at Ampthill in Bedfordshire, where Catherine of Aragon lived for a time after her separation from Henry. Only the outer wall still stands today of the manor house at Grafton in Northamptonshire – now called Grafton Regis – where Henry VIII stayed regularly on his progresses, and where he had his last meeting with Wolsey a few weeks before the Cardinal’s fall.

  When Henry VIII became King, the first nobleman in his kingdom was Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, the High Constable of England. He owned land in twenty-four counties, a house in London, another in Calais, and a fourteenth-century house at Penshurst in Kent, which he modernized; but his principal residence was at Thornbury in Gloucestershire. He built a great stone castle there in the medieval style but with sixteenth-century embellishments and decorations. It was unwise to build a great medieval castle which was obviously capable of being defended as a fortress against an enemy and against the King, and may well have been one of the factors which caused Henry VIII and Wolsey to have him arrested and executed as a traitor in 1521, though the building of Thornbury Castle was not referred to at his trial for high treason. The Duke of Suffolk was satisfied to live in more modest manor houses at Westhorp in Suffolk and at Grimsthorp in Lincolnshire; and though the Duke of Norfolk lived in a medieval castle at Framlingham in Suffolk, he could not be accused of building or enlarging it.

  Thomas Wolsey, the son of an Ipswich butcher, was the most striking example of how building was used as a status symbol in the sixteenth century. After becoming a priest and entering the service of Henry VII, he had risen by 1514 to be Archbishop of York and Henry VIII’s chief minister. It was in 1514 – the year before he became a Cardinal and Lord Chancellor of England – that he took a long lease of land on the north bank of the Thames in the parish of Hampton, and began to build the palace of Hampton Court, having first ensured that the house would have an adequate water supply by bringing the water from Coombe Hill in Surrey, three miles away, in lead pipes through the village of Surbiton and under the Hagsmill river and the Thames.

  Only a very small part of Wolsey’s palace at Hampton Court still exists today, for it was rebuilt by Henry VIII, William III and George II. When the French ambassador visited Wolsey there in 1527 he was enormously impressed by the size and grandeur of Hampton Court, and wrote that there were 280 rooms in the house; so it is clear that by far the greater part of Wolsey’s palace must have been demolished to make way for the later buildings which were added in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

  At the same time that Hampton Court was being built, Wolsey was enlarging another house in Westminster on the banks of the Thames between Charing Cross and the palace and abbey of Westminster. It was known in Wolsey’s time as York Place, but the name was changed to Whitehall after his downfall. Wolsey had two large mansions in Hertfordshire – his house of The Moor near Rickmansworth and another house at Tyttenhanger. He also had his houses as Archbishop of York in his diocese at Cawood near York and at Scrooby and Southwell in Nottinghamshire; but he never went there for sixteen years after he became Archbishop, until he visited his diocese for the first time after his fall from power in 1530.

  In 1525 Wolsey gave Hampton Court to the King. On many occasions, particularly in later years, Henry VIII virtually forced his nobles, counsellors and bishops to make an exchange of houses with him which was greatly to his advantage and to their disadvantage. But Wolsey’s transaction with Henry about Hampton Court was quite favourable from his point of view, for in exchange for giving Henry Hampton Court, Henry granted Wolsey the occupation of part of Richmond Palace as well as a suite of rooms in Hampton Court and in all the other royal palaces. It was another matter with York Place. When Wolsey was dismissed from his office of Lord Chancellor in 1529 he was forced to give York Place, The Moor and Tyttenhanger to Henry in return for a pardon for the offences that he was alleged to have committed against the King; and after being allowed to spend the winter in houses at Esher and at Richmond, he was ordered to reside in his diocese of York.

  Wolsey travelled north and, crossing Trent, entered his province and diocese; but having travelled three miles further to his house at Southwell, he remained there and went no further. It was the nearest he could be to London and the King’s court while complying with the order to live in his diocese. While he was at Southwell in the summer of 1530 he carried out repairs and improvements to the house to turn it into a magnificent mansion. This created a bad impression at court, for Wolsey’s enemies interpreted it as a sign that he was as ambitious as ever and would soon be plotting a return to power.

  Wolsey’s agent, Thomas Cromwell, who had served him for some years and had remained loyal to him, was lobbying influential people at court in Wolsey’s favour, and he warned Wolsey of the effect at court of the building projects at Southwell. He wrote to Wolsey:

  Sir, some there be that doth allege that Your Grace doth keep too great a house and family, and that ye are continually building. For the love of God therefore, I . . . most heartily beseech Your Grace to have respect to everything, and considering the time, to refrain yourself, for a season, from all manner buildings, more than mere necessity requireth, which I assure Your Grace shall cease and put to silence some persons that much speaketh of the same.

  The building work at Southwell may have been one of the reasons why Henry became convinced that Wolsey was a menace to his
royal authority and had better be finally got rid of. In the autumn of 1530 Wolsey travelled to York for his belated enthronement as Archbishop; but before he got there he was arrested at Cawood on a charge of high treason. His health gave way, and he died at Leicester Abbey while he was being taken south as a prisoner.

  When Wolsey was at the height of his power and wealth – Lord Chancellor, Papal Legate, Archbishop of York, Bishop of Durham and Abbot of St Albans – he decided to found a new college in his old university of Oxford and a school in his native town of Ipswich. It was a period of great expansion in the university. Wolsey’s own college of Magdalen had been founded in 1458, but the buildings were not finished until thirty years later, at the beginning of the Tudor Age. The great bell tower, which was added immediately afterwards, was being built when Wolsey was Bursar of the college in 1498 and 1499, and it was finished in 1505. In 1500, extensive work was being carried out at Bernard College, the residence of the Cistercian monks who were scholars at the university, which was afterwards converted into St John’s College. During the next twenty years Corpus Christi College and Brasenose College were founded and built. In Cambridge, Jesus College, where Cranmer was a student and teacher, Christ’s College, St John’s College and Buckingham College were built between 1496 and 1519. The name of Buckingham College was changed to Magdalene College after Buckingham’s execution for high treason. At King’s Hall, the great gate was built, and other work carried out, between 1518 and 1535; the college was later incorporated into Trinity College.