How far do the sources suggest that there was considerable resistance to the Amicable Grant of 1525?

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Joshua Painter                                                                                                                                                                   15/11/13                                                             Amicable Grant Essay

‘How far do the sources suggest that there was considerable resistance to the Amicable Grant of 1525?’

Source 1 and 3 both strongly suggest that there was a considerable amount of resistance to the Amicable Grant of 1525. Source 2 does also suggest this, however there are other elements that do not suggest this. The sources all suggest that there an unrest towards the grant and that the Dukes were worried of the consequences of it.

Source 1 is from a letter written by the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Warham, to Cardinal Wolsey on 5th April 1525. Warham acted as a commissioner in Kent for the Amicable Grant. This source does strongly suggest that there was a considerable resistance to the Amicable Grant. Firstly in the source it says ‘It will hard to raise the money, especially as other parliamentary grants are still to be paid.’ This infers that there were already too many other grants which the people were finding hard to keep up with. By bringing in another grant the people would be outraged and would therefore resist against the Amicable Grant. Secondly it says ‘Reports, for the secret ear of the Cardinal, show the dissatisfaction prevailing.’ This again shows that the people were not happy with the Amicable Grant and that the people were becoming more and more frustrated with Wolsey. As it says that it for ‘the secret ear of the Cardinal’ you can infer that William was concerned about the amount of people who were dissatisfied with the Amicable Grant and that if others found out there would have been a riot. Next the source says ‘Some of the commissioners only announce the King’s command without pressing it further through fear of the people.’ This shows us that the people were causing such a considerable resistance to the Amicable Grant that the commissioners were too scared to enforce it as they feared what the people would end up doing. Source three links to this source as it says ‘In some places people arose up in arms against the commissioners’ which supports the point made that the commissioners were too scared to enforce the Amicable Grant as they feared the people and what they would do. This link also shows us that there was a considerable resistance against the Amicable Grant as people were arising in arms against the commissioners to stop it from happening. Source 1 was written by William Warham who was acted as a commissioner in Kent for the Amicable Grant. This makes the source reliable as the commissioner’s job was to enforce the Amicable Grant and so wouldn’t have spoken badly of it unless there was really a problem. However William may have been influenced by his fear of the people as he was worried about the consequences that would ensue if he enforced the Amicable Grant and so this reduces the reliability of the source.

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Source 2 is from a letter written by the Duke of Suffolk to Wolsey, on 11th April 1525. The Duke supported Henry over the Amicable Grant. This source has many elements which suggest there was a considerable amount of resistance to the Amicable Grant, however there is also evidence that there was not considerable resistance to the Amicable Grant. Firstly the source says ‘through all Suffolk, expect Ipswich, the people now conform to the King’s request’. This suggests that there was not a considerable amount of resistance to the amicable grant as the only place that was going against it was ...

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