'Henry VII deliberately exploited the rights of the crown in order to make it once again rich and powerful.' Illustrate the truth of this statement and assess the extent to which the king was successful

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'Henry VII deliberately exploited the rights of the crown in order to make it once again rich and powerful.' Illustrate the truth of this statement and assess the extent to which the king was successful.

'The people considered they were suffering not on account of their own sins but on account of the greed of their monarch.' (Polydor Virgil). This quote seems to support the view in the title, that Henry did exploit the rights of the crown. Although, what were these rights?

As king, Henry was entitled to rights of income that could be separated into ordinary and extraordinary. Ordinary income included such rights of income as royal estates, feudal dues, customs duties and profits of justice. Extraordinary income included parliamentary grants, loans, clerical taxes, pensions from other powers, feudal obligations and bonds and recognisances. Although did Henry exploit these rights?

The Collins English dictionary describes exploiting as 'to make use of selfishly or unethically.' Therefore, in order to 'exploit' these rights, Henry must use these rights of the crown to 'selfishly and unethically' increase his income.

In answer to the question, there were a few areas in which Henry did