Henry VIII treated the Nobility rather differently, the first thing he did was to imprison and order the death of Empson and Dudley, two figures hated by the nobility in order to show he was on the nobilities side and so that he would hopefully gain support from them. Through Henry VII’s time he never seemed to do anything which benefited the Nobility and Henry VIII wanted to clean the slate and begin new relations with the important and possibly useful people during his reign.
Henry VII introduced the Acts of Attainder during his reign, a means of money and land confiscation without legal means and courts, during his reign there were 138 Acts of attainder, however this number was greatly reduced when Henry VIII became King.
Both Henry VII and his son wanted control over the Nobility, they achieved this in different ways, Henry VII did this through bullying them and policing them to do the right thing, Henry VIII had a less tough stance on them, and especially during the beginning of his reign as he understood how important they were to him, so he made sure they were treated right and in return he could rely on their support.
During Henry VII’s reign he only used Parliament for War and taxes, they met only a handful of times, this tradition was kept up by Henry VIII, the parliament met twice between 1509 and 1514.
In 1510 the parliament met to grant customs duties to the king for life and also to pass a law to demonstrate a change from his father, called the Commission on Oyer and Terminer which was set up to investigate abuses under Henry VII set up in July 1509, showing his new style of kingship and his zero tolerance policy to gain support and confidence in his reign, it closed in November 1509 as It hadn’t found anything.
The second time parliament met was in 1512, when England wanted to go to War with France, the tax of 15th’s and 10th’s was set up. The council learned in law was also abolished.
Both Kings had similar attitudes towards Parliament, they only used it when they wanted something out of it, and it was used very little.
Henry VIII inherited the Councilors of his fathers reign, the main members were; Archbishop Warham the chancellor, Bishop Richard Fox Lord Privy Seal. Bishop John Fisher, Thomas Howard, Earl of surrey and Thomas Lovell. There was no difference regarding the councilors of Henry VII and his son, however later in his reign new councilors were elected. At the time Henry VIII came to the throne, he was just a young man aged 17 and needed close councilors to advise him in his decisions, after all he was not even educated in the ways of ruling the country, it was only after his brother Arthur’s early death, that Henry was to become king, therefore he was very inexperienced and having experienced councilors was important. Henrys Government regarding his councilors differed very little from that of his Father.
Although on the surface the council looked much alike during both Kings, I’m sure Henry VII would have listened to his councilors more than his son, who at the time he became king, wanted to do things completely different to his father for example war, and although Henry VIII’s advisors told him not to go to war, he eventually did. Therefore there were some differences in the way the council was used.
Henry VII signed the treaty of Medina del campo in 1489 which stated that peace between England and Spain, but more importantly a marriage uniting Henry VII’s Son, Arthur with Catherine of Aragon. From this we can see Henry VII saw Spain as a county which you want on your side, rather than as an enemy.
However when Arthur died young, Henry VII hesitated in the betrothal of his son to Catherine, even though this could have risked relations between England and Spain, he waited to see if any better proposals came along.
In June 1509 the 17 year old Henry VIII marries Catherine of Aragon, during the period of his fathers mourning. Henry VIII was different from his father regarding Spain, as he got married to Catherine, while Henry VII never pushed for that marriage to take place. In November 1511 England joined the Holy League in which Spain was also a member. Both Kings treated Spain the same, they did their best to avoid war and keep peace with them. If anything was different to their treatment of France I would say that Henry VIII brought the countries closer than before.
Henry VII’s financial stability was fundamental to his government therefore
Henry VIII inherited a stable realm with monarch’s finances in healthy surplus and on his accession; Parliament had not been summoned for supplies for five years.
Henry’s varied interests and lack of application to government business and administration increased the influence of his advisors, this was a very different policy than that of his fathers. Henry VII was said to have acted like an accountant regarding his finances and kept a close check on them to make sure everything remained in the black.
For years Henry VII had been imposing heavy taxes on the English people. One of the first things Henry VIII did when he became king was to order the execution of the two men his father had employed to organise this taxation, however unlike what was expected of Henry VIII by the execution of the two men, he still kept most of the bonds and only cancelled a few.
Henry received a healthy balance from his father; however his expenditure was higher than of his fathers, also at the beginning of his reign he was on a lower income, this is because the revenues for crown lands go down as he gave land away and returned lands taken by his father and while war is on with France trade dips, reducing his Customs income. Henry VII never made these mistakes, which was why he didn’t want to go to war and also give land away.
The two kings both used the same methods of raising funds through Parliament; however both had different policies regarding finance
And obviously a middle aged king would be more interested in money than a 17 year old young man.
Henry VII’s foreign policy towards France was different to that of his sons.
He wanted to avoid war at all costs as he new the expense which this would incur. However in 1492 he made a show of strength, offensive and defensive aims and he asserted Henry V’s claim to the French Crown. He invaded northern France with 26,000 men. Charles VIII’s eyes were turning to Italy, and his aim was to make a quick treaty. The Treaty of Etaples was signed by which Charles VIII agreed to drop his support for Perkin Warbeck and other rebels, to indemnify the costs of Henry’s interventions in Brittany, and to reimburse the arrears of Edward IV’s pension due by the 1475 treaty.
Henry didn’t want a full scale war; he just had some aims which he wished to achieve during his invasion of France. This was much different to Henry VIII’s attitude when he became King. He wanted to show everyone his power and attack England’s long term enemies, France. Unlike his Fathers invasion of France, his plan wasn’t thought through and he didn’t have a real reason for invading France apart from the fact that he could.
In June 1512 War began when the English army of 12,000 men set sail for Gascony, this was not a success. However in June 1513 Henry VIII landed in France at the head of his army, the towns of Theruanne and Tournai were captured and In 1514 Peace was agreed. The two kings had a different policy towards France, The old king doing his best to avoid war while the young king doing exactly the opposite. However they both were alike in the fact that they both ended up engaging in contact with the French and Henry VIII did eventually sign a peace treaty with France.
Henry VIII began and ended his reign with a series of ruinous military campaigns in France and Scotland. The court was infused by martial and chivalric values which were one of principal’s mainsprings of aristocracy.
It is hard to compare the different policies of the two kings regarding their treatment of France. Henry VIII did go to war with Scotland, but this war was started by the Scottish while Henry VIII was away fighting France.
I think in the same circumstances although Henry VII didn’t like war he would have acted the same, rather than accepting an attack from Scotland he would also have fought back. However Henry VIII didn’t make any effort for peace an avenue which Henry VII probably would have tried first.
I would say they both acted the same way regarding Scotland although like nearly other difference between the two kings, it has come from Henry VIII’s haste.
Lord Elton said Henry VIII was ‘Exceptionally Impetuous’ and most of the different decisions in government between Henry and his Father would have come from this attitude of Henry VIII’s. I think both kings had very different style of doing things but their policies weren’t as different as I first thought they would be.
