Conciliar politics and administration in the reign of Henry VII
Abstract
Since Elton's commentary on the absence of critical study of the early Tudor
council in 1964, some progress has been made towards a wider, fuller, more detailed
understanding of Henry VII's council and where it fits-or does not-into the
development of council under the Tudors. However, the early Tudor council remains
something of an enigma. Added to that is recent interest by late medieval historians
in just how much power Henry VII exercised in the operation of his councils. Was
Henry ruling, or were his bureaucratic counsellors ruling him? A re-examination of the
various Elizabethan/Jacobean council extracts, as well as the examination of data
contained in a wide variety of primary documents, such as the chamber account
books, petitions, privy seal warrants and view books, provides evidence with which to
suggest a more precisely defined and better organized council than that previously
established for the first Tudor monarch, and also to demonstrate that Henry VII was
actively involved in the business of the protean forms of that council, at Westminster
or away. This thesis hopefully advances the picture of the conciliar and administrative
matrix which was governing under Henry VII, its component parts, including an
embryonic privy council, the personnel of that council, the systems through which
conciliar business was developed, and the king's position at the head of that council in
the most literal sense.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
Collections
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