The Tudors and the Monopolization of Violence

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The Tudors and the Monopolization of Violence
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Nature of Violence in Tudor England I

• Tudor Equilibrium
• Strong Leadership
• Long Periods of Peace Abroad
• Financial Solvency
• Adults as Successors

Henry VII, 1485-1509
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Edward VI, 1547-53
Henry VIII, 1509-47
Elizabeth, 1558-1603
Mary, 1553-58
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Nature of Violence II

• Forces of Instability
• Nobles and Retainers
• Nobles and Recruitment
• Nobles and Moral Code
• Nobles and Castles

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Sources of Nobles Misbehavior

• Education and Social Systems
• Acute Indigestion
• Short Knives
• Unrestricted Behavior
• Selective Justice

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Overview of Key Transformation

• Nobles Lost Coercive Power, 15th-18th Centuries
• Fortified Castles
• Nobles Retainers
• Tudors Monopolized Violence
• End of Overmighty Subjects

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Decline of Livery and Maintenance, I

• Crowns Need for Private Armies
• Shift to Trained Bands

Queen Elizabeth
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Recruitment of Army
Medieval England Tudor England
Recruiter Peer Lord Lieutenant
Role in Society Private Public
Source of Soldiers Retinues Trained Bands
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Decline of Livery and Maintenance, II

• Gentrys Increasing Avoidance of Service as
  Retainers
• Queen Elizabeths Role
• Changing Educational Habits
• New Gentry Outlook

The Gentry Dining
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Demise of Castle and Private Armories

• Magnates Lost Incentive for Building Fortified
  Castles
• Duke of Buckingham
• Earl of Leicester

Thornbury Castle, Gloucestershire
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Kenilworth Castle
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Tudor Methods of Suppressing Violence

• Key Shift Private Violence Replaced by Public
  Litigation
• Historical Evidence
• Court Cases
• Legal Training
• Earl of Salisbury

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Explosion of Court Cases, 1550-1625
Increase
Court of Common Pleas 6 Times
Court of Kings Bench Doubled
Court of Star Chamber 10 Times
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Tudor Foreign Policy

• Fewer Opportunities to Gain Military Experience
• 1576
• Early 1600s
• 1642

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Hatfield House (Hertfordshire), Home of the Earl
of Salisbury
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Technological Change Altered Nature of Violence

• Medieval Weapon Heavy Broad Sword

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• Late Tudor England Rapier
• Code of the Duel
• Participants
• Rules of Fair Play

The Rapier
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• Impact of the Shift from the Heavy Broad Sword to
  Sharp Rapier
• Government Intervention

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Conclusion

• Decline of Private Violence
• Peers and Physical Assaults
• Impact
• English Civil War, 1642
• Cromwells New Model Army

Cromwells New Model Army