The Pilgrimage of Grace was the worst uprising of Henry VIII's reign.It was a direct result of the dissolution of the monasteries, a policy which confused and angered most Englishmen.The original rebellion began at Louth in Lincolnshire in early October 1536. Henry might have left it at that but for a third outbreak of rebellion, unrelated to the first two but also in Yorkshire, in January 1537 CE. Some crowds even gathered to prevent the inspectors from doing their work. Brewminate: A Bold Blend of News and Ideas. However, those religious houses that were saved had to pay for their survival. With the example of what had happened to abbots in the north for their disloyal behaviour to the king during the Pilgrimage, many abbots succumbed to royal pressure. Was appearance everything for a ruler in the 16th century? By using this site, you agree we can set and use cookies. Though they kept themselves away from the common man, many of these religious houses relied on the local population to work for them for free. Many nobles were equally content to grab their own bit of Church lands and riches, the king using monastic estates to favour his supporters and gain new ones. Furness Abbey was once the largest and wealthiest monastery in north-west England. Many houses complained about the bullying tactics of Legh and Layton but it seems that Cromwell ignored these complaints. Groups are encouraged to use the Discover the Dissolution resources to locate a local monastery or nunnery that was involved in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1530s. This thesis is a critical examination of the dissolution of the monasteries under the reign of Henry VIII, and the key role the dissolution played in his plan for the Reformation in England. The act also included a rider that there could be no challenges to the validity of the kings title of ownership once a monastery had voluntarily dissolved. There were far fewer monks, friars, and nuns across the country than there had been in the Middle Ages and many monasteries, nunneries, and priories struggled to find enough staff to look after them properly. Other valuable items, such as the metal alter plate, appear to have been disposed of by the monks before speculators arrived. The closing down of monasteries was not new. The Dissolution of the Monasteries. Henry VIII lived an expensive lifestyle. . The wealth of the Abbey was assessed, and its annual income of 805 made it the wealthiest monastery in the region and the second richest Cistercian abbey in England as well as a target for state suppression. Henry VIII could thus present himself the leader of the Church who was putting his house in order for the spiritual and financial good of all. The abbey flourished during the Middle Ages, becoming the centre of religious, social, economic, and political life in the region. Finally, there was the perception that once the monasteries had gone, what would Henrys next target be? In 1534, Henry VIII appointed himself head of the Church in England. A document detailing the process by which Henry VIII dissolved one of Englands wealthiest monasteries has been rediscovered. Prayer Book Owned by Thomas Cromwell, Adviser to Henry VIII, Was Hidden in Plain Sight for Centuries . When he was an old man, Michael Sherbrook remembered the momentous events of his youth: All things of price were either spoiled, plucked away or defaced to the uttermostit seemed that every person bent himself to filch and spoil what he could. jsQueue(()=>{ Was the monastery connected to any rebellions or refusals? 1540; Minstrels at a feast. By handing over expropriated land to. The document also details the physical destruction of the building. Migration & Trade Oct 1536 - Dec 1536 The Pilgrimage of Grace, a popular uprising against religious changes made by Henry VIII of England, marches in the north of England . Take a look inside the $2.86 million house. The heads of the houses were to be offered a pension while those who lived in each religious house were given the choice of transferring to a larger one or going to live in society free of any vows of poverty and obedience but still having to respect their vow of chastity. Catalogue reference: View the record SP 1/95 in the catalogue. }); What was the impact of the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII Henry VIII: Dissolution of the Monasteries Flashcards | Quizlet Now, the financial and moral assessments carried out by Cromwell were made to show that despite a vast income, the Church, and especially the monasteries, were giving back to their communities only a very tiny fraction of this wealth (typically only 5% of a monasterys income went to the poor). This is a new service give us your feedback to help improve it. Monasteries had been an integral part of local communities for centuries. Dissolution of the monasteries 1536-1540 - The National Archives What Became of the Monks and Nuns at the Dissolution? How did the Dissolution change my local area? Was Henrys decision to destroy monastic culture in this country a tyrannical act of grand larceny or the pious destruction of a corrupt institution? The last monastery to close was Waltham Abbey in Essex in March 1540 CE. Around 7,000 monks, friars, nuns, and other residents of the monasteries were obliged to find alternative work and homes while the blow on morale within the Church was immeasurable although tangible in the great reduction in those now seeking an ecclesiastical career. Select: all / none. The other buildings were stripped of their lead roofs and the stones were taken away for other structures. Cromwells assessors travelling about the kingdom did not go unnoticed and rumours began to fly around of what exactly they were up to. Accounts say that he was hung on Glastonbury Tor, and then his body was removed to hang from his beloved abbey walls. We place some essential cookies on your device to make this website work. This information will help us make improvements to the website. By 1540, over 800 monasteries had been dissolved. The classroom is worth 3 in building materials. Henry VIII - Dissolution of the Monasteries. Those larger rural religious houses, such as at Tintern in Gloucester, were referred to as abbeys. Dissolution by Gender: https://bit.ly/2pmV6DL. Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid. This and later acts gave the Crown the authority to disband monasteries in England, Wales and Ireland, appropriate their income and dispossess them of their assets. From any point of view the destruction of the English monasteries by Henry VIII must be regarded as one of the great events of the sixteenth century . Before we start this lesson, lets see what you can remember from this topic. Cromwell, now Henrys vicegerent responsible for the day-to-day running of the Church, ordered that all religious houses should be visited by one of his representatives. A description of the process by which Henry VIII dissolved England's monasteries. Indeed, Henrys then chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey(l. c. 1473-1530 CE) had already shut down 29 monastic houses during the early 1530s CE. He would use the monasteries to persuade people to support the Church of England. Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including Oxford University. Beginning in Lincolnshire and then breaking out again in York and elsewhere in the north of England, some 40,000 protestors marched, taking control of York and Pontefract Castle. The findings would be listed in the comprehensive catalogue of riches known as the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 CE. var timelineTypesChecked = []; Starting small. Henry VIII. 1540; Henry VIII's Psalter. The list is by no means exhaustive, since over 800 religious houses existed before the Reformation, and virtually every town, of any size, had at least one abbey, priory, convent or friary in it. Please note that some of these recommendations are listed under our old name, Ancient History Encyclopedia. Henry VIII's Great Bible - The British Library - The British Library The Dissolution of the Monasteries changed the religious and political landscape of Henry VIIIs Kingdom dramatically in the 16th Century. World History Encyclopedia on Twitter: "The Dissolution of the They were rich and powerful institutions loyal to the Pope. The monastic estates remained impressive, though, and entailed some 20% of all the cultivated land in Henrys kingdom. As part of the dissolution of the monasteries, many dissolved houses were broken up or repurposed as secular lodgings. The plan was designed as a lucrative element of his Reformation of the Church. Match. He would increase his income by selling their land and taking their riches. The one area where this did not happen speedily was in the North, where the local population did not support what was going on. Smaller churches such as at Bath and Tewkesbury were sometimes bought by their community collectively to take on the role of the parish church. You could answer this question with specific details about your chosen monastery or a general view of monasteries around the country. Those who resisted were executed. Flashcards. From 1536, when an Act of Parliament was passed to allow Henry VIII to close the monasteries, to 1540, shrines to saints were destroyed, libraries were burned, and many precious relics were lost. The Abbot of Glastonbury led what was a very wealthy monastery, one of the wealthiest in England. Learn. PDF The Dissolution of the English Monasteries: A Quantitative - LSE Home The ornaments and relics for the saint were dispersed, and the brightly coloured walls of the cathedral were whitewashed. What happened to the women who were forced to leave? In the century after Henrys death the faith of the nation shifted from Protestant to Catholic and back again. This Bible with its coloured title page was very probably Henry VIII's personal copy. } Why Did Henry VIII Dissolve the Monasteries in England? G. W. BERNARD, . Some religious houses were charged with helping the rebels in the Pilgrimage of Grace. Match. Canterbury Cathedral pawelkowalczyk - stock.adobe.com When he closed them, Wolsey used the money raised from them for charitable purposes, including the building of a new grammar school in Ipswich. The land passed to the king. If the king then transferred ownership of titles, these too could not be contested in a court. Research a key figure of the Dissolution and create a report or presentation on their life. The first stage of what was obviously a carefully prepared and premeditated strategywas to assess exactly what wealth was available where. They wereplaces held in awe by many as the home of those who dedicated their lives to Christ and saying prayers for the souls of both the living and dead. The pieces of her destroyed shrine were collected throughout the years and were re-established in the north choir. Henry began his Reformation of the Church in England and break from Catholic Rome largely because he wanted to divorce his first wife Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn (c. 1501-1536 CE). Perhaps more than religious considerations, though, Henry was really motivated in acquiring a cash injection after the state coffers had been alarmingly inadequate ever since the war with France of 1522-3 CE. Ely once sat in the middle of a Benedictine monastery. If so, when? A. Ryrie sees Henry VIII as ransacking the 'temptingly wealthy' monasteries but admits that 'greed is not quite enough' to explain the dissolution (A. Ryrie, The Age of Reformation: The Tudor and Stewart Realms 1485-1603 (Harlow, 2008), pp. Anne Boleyn, and played a major role in the dissolution of the monasteries during the . 136-7; for L. Wooding, 'in part Henry's motives here were purely acquisitive'; more than most scholars . The protestors asked for a return to friendly relations with the Papacy, to restore Princess Mary as a legitimate heir, and to dismiss the architects of the Reformation like Archbishop Cranmer. The Tudors: Henry VIII - Dissolution of the Monasteries - Episode 24 Chester began life as a fortress built by the Romans. The abbot himself was charged with secretly hoarding gold and other parcels of plate, which the abbot had hid secretly from all such commissioners. Philosophy & Religion The whole approach to religious houses changed in 1535. Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, people and events that have shaped our world. With this act, Parliament declared Henry VIII the Supreme Head of the Church of England, formally rejecting the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Henry VIII of England and Thomas Cromwell push a bill through Parliament which begins the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England and Wales. Between 1536 and 1540 he took over 800 monasteries, abbeys, nunneries and friaries, some of which were extremely wealthy. This and later acts gave the Crown the authority to disband monasteries in England, Wales and Ireland, appropriate their income and dispossess them of their assets. Henry VIII - Dissolution of the Monasteries Flashcards | Quizlet In this new interactive work of art, titled Walking through the town I followed a pattern on the pavement that became the, Stories from the world of archaeology, art, and museums, Archaeologists working at the Moche site of Paamarca, which is in western Peru, have uncovered intriguing depictions of a two-faced figure among the murals, Strands of human hair from the Bronze Age burial and cult-cave of Es Crritx in Menorca have been analysed, providing the first direct evidence, A Dutch-Italian team has discovered a new tomb at Saqqara, belonging to a man named Panehsy who was associated with the Temple of Amun, Integrating art and archaeology: Eastbourne, East Sussex. How did state and people respond to religious change? So this would have earned the king about 13,500 though it is thought that another 10 religious houses fell into this category but their records have been lost. The Pilgrimage of Grace 1536 Summary & Information - The Tudors, Lord gabriella_watson20. This was a full-scale undertaking to examine just how much property was owned by the Church in England and Wales. Dont worry if you get a question wrong! The Dissolution of the Monasteries was a policy introduced in 1536 CE by Henry VIII of England (r. #History #Bede #DissolutionoftheMonasteries #HenryVIIIofEngland 25 Jun 2023 12:31:05 Here the Deaneries of East and West (Wivelshire) in Cornwall were recorded, with each individual signing the renunciation. Valor Ecclesiasticus illuminated initial, 1535. The Act of Supremacy of 28 November 1534 CEformally made the English king head of the Church of England. Chertsey Abbey had surrendered to the Crown in July 1537 in anticipation that the house would be re-founded at Bisham Abbey (a former house of Augustine Canons, which had itself been dissolved in July 1537). While what happened to them is termed the Dissolution of the Monasteries, this is, in fact, a misleading term as few of these establishments were known as monasteries. Henry VIII now had no higher authority than God himself. Dissolution by Value: https://bit.ly/35vVmAV We contribute a share of our revenue to remove carbon from the atmosphere and we offset our team's carbon footprint. The governments commissioners went about their task with great energy. The bill was passed, the first step of what would turn out to be a rocky and far from straightforward road to making England a Protestant state. Cities & Buildings This was a dangerous serpent indeed for a monarch to have in his backyard and Henry was determined to cut off its head before it grew into more monstrous proportions. Historical themes, events and key individuals from Akhenaten to Xenophon. Give the Pope 10% of the monasteries income. The monasteries had been home to over 10,000 monks, nuns, friars and canons. Bolton came out of the Dissolution of the Monasteries as both a ruin and as an ongoing religious establishment. Discover the Dissolution - The National Archives Submit your research here: https://arcg.is/1y4KKy 1539; Henry VIII's Great Bible. English Reformation - Wikipedia English Reformation King Henry VIII, pioneer of the English Reformation, the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church and the conversion to Anglican Protestantism. . In 1539 an act was passed in Parliament that stated that any religious house that had surrendered its property voluntarily to the Crown was part of a legal act as would be any future surrender of property. The conclusion of Cromwells endeavours was that the Church had an annual income of up to 360,000 pounds (over 150 million pounds today). The justification for the closures of priories and smaller monasteries and nunneries was in the preamble of the act: the low morals of many monks and nunsand their corrupt use of the monasterys resources. This information will help us make improvements to the website. He had done this with the full blessing of the Pope as some of the religious houses in England had decayed the lack of people in them had stopped them being effective. E344/22 f.2, Suitable for: Key stage 2, Key stage 3, Key stage 4, Key stage 5, Curriculum topics: Changing power of monarchs, Local Histories, Political and social reform, Renaissance and Reformation, Tudors. = pound, s = shilling, d = pence. The Pope would not annul Henrys first marriage, and so a series of events orchestrated by Henrys chancellor Thomas Cromwell (l. c. 1485-1540 CE) led to the king declaring himself head of his own church so that he could, in effect, grant himself his own divorce. What order was the religion that it followed? Originally published by the Ancient History Encyclopedia, 05.13.2020, under a Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. The 16th-century dissolution of English monasteries was one of the policies that resulted from Henry VIII's split from the Church of Rome. In October 1536 CE nobles, minor gentry, monks, clergy, and commoners all combined to show their protest at the closures. Download programmes from the huge In Our Time archive. Henry VIII was now head of the Church in England and could use the assets which had belonged to the "Bishop of Rome". }); Dissolution of the Monasteries - Britain Express Friends of The National The abbots of Glastonbury, Colchester, Reading, and Woburn all resisted and all were hanged. if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[580,400],'historylearningsite_co_uk-medrectangle-3','ezslot_14',129,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-historylearningsite_co_uk-medrectangle-3-0'); The dissolution of the monasteries was one of the key features of the reign of Henry VIII. Look after the poor, the sick and the old. Others were taken over and became churches, such as Durham Cathedral. But whole monastic libraries were destroyed, countless music manuscripts lost, and England's rural landscape changed forever. Catalogue reference: View the record E 36/64 in the catalogue. In the aftermath of Henry VIIIs decision to break from the Roman Catholic Church, his chief minister Thomas Cromwell commissioned a large-scale visitation of all the religious foundations in the country, to assess their spiritual wellbeing. The process had taken just about four years. 1539 The document also reveals how much money was to be made out of the suppression, with several speculators listed as descending on the monastery from the south, keen to sell off its valuables. Dissolution by Rule: https://arcg.is/1TGTD0 Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Carried out between 1536 and 1541, the dissolution of the monasteries saw agents of King Henry VIII and his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, shutting down more than 800 of England's religious houses and confiscating their possessions. However, even with the monks no longer in residence, the cathedral continued to have a bishop and a dean. As it turned out, this was remarkably easy to do as the protestors were promised reforms and full pardons. In addition to these purely fiscal reports, another group of Cromwells men mostly pro-Reformist clergy also compiled a list of transgressions and abuses involving members of monastic institutions. Henry VIII's commissioners had the shrine destroyed and the relics of the saint scattered. In this way, some religious orders grew spectacularly rich. The destruction of English monasteries under Henry VIII transformed the power structures of English society. Dissolution of the Monasteries - English History Research the different types of religious order to find out more. The Act of Supremacy in 1534 declared Henry VIII the Supreme Head of the Church of England, separating England from papal authority. How would Henry benefit from closing the monasteries? Subscribe now for regular news, updates and priority booking for events.Sign up, All content is available under the Open Government Licence Discover as much as you can about what daily life would have been like for a member of your monastic house. Did you know that exercise helps your concentration and ability to learn? after the monarch incited the dissolution of monasteries in England . Catalogue reference: View the record E 101/459/22 in the catalogue. However, it was known by the government that little of the monasteries wealth left England and Wales for the Vatican and that they were, in fact,very wealthy.