To what extent did Henry VIII leave Somerset an impossible legacy?

        When Henri II succeeds Francis he sends a fleet of 4000 troops to Scotland and a fleet of gallies. Somerset knew that he had to intervene at that specific moment because England were in danger from a possible attack and does being his assault on the pretext of the Treaty of Greenwich marriage alliance. Guy believes the reason for Somerset’s interference was to build and maintain a group of garrisons at the English- Scottish border. At the Battle of Pinkey the English massacred the Scottish and as a result won control of the border however the army was not strong enough to take control of the rest of Scotland and on the 18th of December 1547 Somerset withdrew troops from Scotland.

To some extent Somerset could be blamed for putting himself in a weaker position by failing to redistribute troops in Scotland in 1549 while allowed popular uprisings such as those in Norfolk and Devon to spiral out of control. However due to Henry’s will stating that the treaty of Greenwich had to be carried out, conflict with Scotland would have been seen to be inevitable.

        Somerset’s economic policy was viewed by J. Guy as his worst policy. In years leading up to 1547 the population was rising dramatically. Wrigley and Schofield believed by 1541 was 2, 774, 000 but by1551 this rose to 3 million. This led to a rise in living costs and as well as this it led to inflation. As the population increased, demand also increased and as a result the prices of goods also went up. Another reason for the increase in inflation was because of the ‘price scissors effect’ which was when wages were overtaken by prices. The solution offered by Thomas Smith (Somerset’s advisor) was that Somerset should restore the level of gold and silver in the coinage. However Somerset had to pay for garrisons, mercenaries and wars so this was not a possibility. He then gave responsibility to Hales who tried to pass a few legislations but only one was passed which was sheep tax. This was putting a tax on tax from wool very high. The reason for this would be to discourage farmers from pastoral to arable farming. Economic policy could not really have been blamed on Somerset because he could not do much about the coinage as he was in a precarious position, and could not affect the population of the country.

        Religion was a dangerous because it was an uncertain area. The Privy Council was made up of reformers and conservatives, but due to the split Somerset knew any religious policy would prove difficult to implement. Guy states ‘moderate concessions were essential if unity were to be preserved’. This shows that Somerset had to be forceful with his religious policy if he were to be successful. The problem was that although the majority of the Privy Council were protestant only a fifth of the population of London and entrenched numbers in Kent, Sussex and Essex were Protestant. Any strong reform would probably receive a negative response from the majority of the country. Guy supports this view by saying they were keen to avoid religious opinion polarising the country. The main argument against reform by the conservatives was that Henry wrote in his will that religious reform would not take place until Edward was 18 years old, although this was ignored and in autumn 1547 a doctrine was produced to discuss the state of doctrine in the country. As a result a few reforms were made but this did not satisfy the reformers who demanded more change. Somerset could be blamed for not taking a stronger stance on religion but was left in a precarious position by Henry as he had split from the Church and also the fact that he allowed Edward to be brought up by protestant when the majority of the country was Catholic. This was always going to cause problems.

        In conclusion although he maybe could have been stronger in certain area such as asserting his authority in Scotland he was largely not to blame as he was left bankrupt by Henry there, was rising population and inflation and as well as this the country was in the middle of religious reform.