14 quotes
Henry’s primary concern was to enforce orthodoxy, since late medieval heresy was never far away from political rebellion in the eyes of the crown.
Henry VII (2007)
Without enforcement, respect for the law would be eroded.
Henry VII (2007)
Henry’s legal system was perhaps the first to benefit extensively from a boom in the printing of legal textbooks.
Henry VII (2007)
This neatly sums up the difficulty faced by modern historians in trying to untangle possible bias and half-truth from history based on historical literature or memoir.
Henry VII (2007)
His own ill health in the specter of dynastic failure made Henry’s final years an unpleasant exercise in the retention of power.
Henry VII (2007)
In the ruthless search for dynastic security, it is possible that Henry also strove for something more personal – the stability his life had always lacked.
Henry VII (2007)
The king’s role was also to provide an idea of just law.
Henry VII (2007)
What is clear was that once he had won the crown, Henry did everything in his power to hold onto it. After a century of noble squabbling over the authority of the crown, this was perhaps a wholly reasonable attitude to hold.
Henry VII (2007)
Henry VII’s reign now occupies an inconvenient position in the chronology of English rulers and their contribution to the development of the modern nation. Even if we disregard that, Henry has always been a difficult king to make glamorous.
Henry VII (2007)
Through the various legal agencies at his command, Henry also demonstrated that the law stemmed from him alone. Evidence exists of manipulation of the legal process by the crown that tarnishes Henry’s increasingly outdated reputation as a promoter of impartial justice.
Henry VII (2007)
Fundamentally, Henry’s command of wealth dominated the resources that could be brought to challenge his dynasty. He knew that financial power gave him the capacity to ruin his enemies, and control of the nation’s assets gave him a greater chance of passing the crown to his heir.
Henry VII (2007)
Henry began to select those men that shared royal rule at the centre of things primarily for their ability, flexibility, and loyalty.
Rank and prestige no longer ensured a natural right to be close to the king or to share his responsibilities within the body politic.
Henry VII (2007)
Henry restructured the functions of the council to ensure that his natural aristocratic councillors (in their capacity as powerful local lords) were monitored by a smaller team of specialist officials accountable to the king directly.
Henry VII (2007)
Their personal knowledge of the law stemmed chiefly from the pressing need to defend the titles to their estates from predators. These concerns and the complex nature of late medieval land law provided many landholding gentleman with enough legal experience for them to be classed as skilled amateur lawyers.
Henry VII (2007)