POLITICS of the Tudor CourtThis is a featured page



Tudor
Court
Politics

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tudors
The King
Henry's crown season 1 episode 1
Personal Monarchy
Government is the response
to the will of ONE man.


Consequences:

- Royal authority operated in terms of Royal favour
- Executive authority given to the men the King trusted
- A Struggle for power by competing for the King's favour

FACTION in Tudor England was crucial in Tudor Politics. Throughout history faction is the form politics takes when its focus is the will of one man. Factions can be compared to the political parties of today, however ties in Tudor faction were organic, not idealogical. They emerged from the realities of family relationships (good and bad), friendship & antagonism, locality, sponsorship, upbringing.

Some groupings and antagonisms lasted for years, yet because the ultimate concern was to promote objectives in and through individuals, calculations could alter as circumstances changed. Anne Boleyn's fall was a consequence of precisely such a recalculation among some of her supporters.

However, a Monarch should be able to exploit competition for his favour on the "divide & rule" principle (something Elizabeth I would make into an art form). Henry was always in authority; he was nobody's fool; at times he did lead and he could not be taken for granted. But he was also significantly dependant on those around him.

Factions did not always get their way, but on the right issues and in the right emotional circumstances he was vulnerable and men (& some women) calculated accordingly.[E.Ives]

"Courts are strange, mysterious places; those who pretend most to despise them seek to gain admittance within their precincts; those who obtain an entrance there generally lament their fate, and yet somehow or other cannot break their chains.... Intrigues, jealousies, heart-burnings, lies, dissimulation thrive in [courts] as mushrooms in a hot bed. Nevertheless they are necessary evils, and they afford a great school both for the heart and the head. It is utterly impossible, so long as the world exists, that similar societies should not exist also; and one may as well declaim against every other defect attendant upon human institutions and endeavour to extirpate crime from the world as pretend to put down courts and their concomitant evils" Queen Caroline 1838



Court Factions 1529 - 1547



Aragonese Faction
Catholic
Origins go back to Henry VII and also referred to as "the Stafford-Neville" & later "the Neville-Courtenay" connection & would last many centuries

Katherine of Aragon's crown
Princess Mary Tudor


Figureheads
:
Queen Katherine of Aragon & Princess Mary Tudor




Supporters
Shown on the series:
Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham
Sir Thomas More
Princess Margaret Tudor ( in reality Mary Tudor - Henry's sister)
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk (switched from the Boleyn faction when it suited him)
Ambassador Chapuys
Pope Paul III
Charles V
Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (Lady Salisbury)
Lord Darcy
Cardinal Reginald Pole


Not shown on the series:
Sir Nicholas Carewe (one of Anne Boleyn's bitterest enemies) George Neville,
Lord Burgavenny
Sir Edward Neville
Henry Pole, Lord Montague
Bishop Stephan Gardiner Thomas Wriothesley
Henry Courtenay, Earl of Devon
Lord Thomas Hussey
Boleyn Faction Reformers






Anne Boleyn's coronation
Princess Elizabeth
Figureheads: Anne Boleyn & Princess Elizabeth Tudor



Supporters
Shown on the series:
Sir Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire
George Boleyn
Henry Norris
Thomas Wyatt
Mark Smeaton












Not shown on the series:
Richard Page
Frances Weston
William Carey ( Husband of Mary Boleyn)
Sir Thomas Cheney
Seymour Faction
Catholic & later Reformers





Tudor Court Politics - The Tudors Wiki
Tudor Court Politics - The Tudors Wiki







Figureheads: Jane Seymour & Prince Edward Tudor



Supporters
Shown on the series:
John Seymour
Edward Seymour
Thomas Seymour
Catherine Parr
Catherine Brandon nee Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk (surname Brooke in the series)
Francis Bryan ( who had swtiched from the Boleyn faction)










Not shown on the series:
Sir William Cecil
Sir Nicolas Throckmorton William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke
Wild Cards

Thomas Cromwell (switched factions as it suited him)




Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (whose downfall was orchestrated by factions at court)




Henry Fitzroy - Henry's illegitimate son had his own faction until his early death




Experts discuss how politics worked in Henry VIII's Tudor England
[source: HistoricRoyalPalacesMay 22, 2009]


LITERATURE:
  1. GR Elton, Reform and reformation
  2. EW Ives, Faction in Tudor England (Historical Association pamphlet)
  3. David Starkey 'The age of the household' in Stephen Medcalf, ed, The later middle ages
  4. JJ Scarisbrick, Henry VIII
  5. David Starkey, The reign of Henry VIII: personalities and politics
  6. GR Elton, The Tudor revolution in government
  7. C Coleman and D Starkey, eds., Revolution reassessed: revisions in the history of Tudor government and administration
  8. D MacCulloch, ed., The reign of Henry VIII. Politics, policy and piety
  9. J Guy ed., The Tudor monarchy
  10. G. W. Bernard, Power and Politics in Tudor England. 2000
  11. John McGurk ed., The Tudor Monarchies, 1485-1603 CUP 1999
  12. GR Elton 'Tudor Government: the points of contact: III The Court', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 1976
  13. M Girouard, Life in the English country house
  14. David Starkey 'Representation through Intimacy' in Joan Lewis, ed, Symbols and sentiments
  15. JA Murphy 'Popinjays or professionals: officers and ministers of the mid-Tudor household', Exeter Studies in History, 1981
  16. Richard Rex, The Tudors, Stroud 2002
  17. G Bernard 'The rise of Sir William Compton, early Tudor courtier' English Historical Review, 96 (1981)
  18. G Bernard, The power of the early Tudor nobility: a study of the fourth and fifth earls of Shrewsbury
  19. GR Elton, 'Politics and the Pilgrimage of Grace' in B Malament, ed, After the Reformation (also in Elton's Studies in Tudor and Stuart politics and government, vol 3)
  20. EW Ives, Letters and Accounts of William Brereton of Malpas, Record society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 116 (1976)
  21. EW Ives, 'Faction at the court of Henry VIII: the fall of Anne Boleyn' History 57 (1972)
  22. JA Guy, The public career of Sir Thomas More
  23. David Starkey 'Igtham Mote: Politics and architecture in early Tudor England' Archaeologia, 107 (1981) -- summarized in History Today 30 (1980)
  24. Narasingha Prosad Sil 'The rise and fall of Sir John Gates' Historical Journal 24 (1981)
  25. David Starkey 'The political structure of early Tudor England' in M Falkus and J Gillingham, eds, Historical Atlas of Great Britain
  26. Diane Willen, John Russell, first earl of Bedford: one of the king's men
  27. David Starkey 'From feud to faction: English politics c.1450- c.1550' History Today 32, (1982)
  28. David Starkey 'Court, council, and nobility in Tudor England', in RG Asch and AM Burke ed., Princes, patronage and the nobility.









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TudorTeacher Howard vs Seymour Faction - Which faction was the most powerful? (page: 1 2) 29 May 26 2009, 7:02 AM EDT by theothertudorgirl
Thread started: Dec 1 2008, 6:06 AM EST  Watch
Which faction was the most influential in Tudor politics in the 1540s? Which faction influenced religious change 1540-47? Who had the biggest impact? Show us your best evidence - let battle commence!
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Imponthenet Royal Court vs The Corporate World 4 Sep 22 2008, 6:53 PM EDT by Imponthenet
Thread started: Sep 22 2008, 4:59 PM EDT  Watch
I've often considered the competitive world of big business to be the modern equiavlent of royal courts in some ways. Granted that there are no physical executions in the corporate world ( as far as anyone knows), much of the same ruthlessness that courtiers used when jockeying for the King's favor are still used by corporate workers now. Any thoughts on this?
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