Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Life

by Diarmaid MacCulloch

The Tudor kings nevertheless remained resentfully conscious of the constraints on their ability to raise revenue from their subjects. They were constantly hobbled by the fact that England had become a centralized polity much earlier than other European kingdoms, and so its tax system, sophisticated by fourteenth-century standards, was now creaky and incapable of doing justice to the riches represented by England’s farms and fisheries. Customary lay taxation was also dependent on the consent of meetings of commons, nobility and leading clergy in Parliament, together with agreement to taxation on churchmen by two clerical assemblies which met in parallel to Parliamentary sessions, called Convocations.* Both Tudor Henrys spent much of their energy finding ways round these obstacles, and it was to be a major theme of the reign of Henry VIII, particularly since he much enjoyed spending money in spectacular ways – on palaces, castles, soldiers, ships, works of art and even books and manuscripts.