The Tudors: Henry VIII - Dissolution of the Monasteries - Episode 24

This is I Am Sark and in this video we are looking at the dissolution of the monasteries. So once Henry VIII was made the head of a church, there were questions over what he would do with the accompanying church institutions. And one of the church institutions were the 825 monasteries, convents or other religious houses in both England and Wales. And these had risen to prominence in the medieval ages where they had been treated with respect whilst playing a major part in local life. However by the 16th century, some monasteries only housed less than 12 monks, they often had servants to carry out chores and they had accumulated a lot of wealth from renting out their lands. Now the seizure of the monasteries would therefore give the crown more land which could be given to the nobility and the gentry at a potentially difficult time. The monks were also reminders of the Catholic church and were potential resistors to the royal supremacy. And the critics of the church who wanted genuine reform said that the monasteries were irrelevant as their role was to play for the salvation of souls which wasn't a Protestant doctrine. So these were the reasons for the dissolution. So the next thing to look at is the actual process of the dissolution. And in 1534, the act of supremacy gave Henry the authority to reform all of the religious establishments in England. And in 1535, Cromwell sent out commissioners to survey the value of ecclesiastical lands, which is the church lands, whilst also sending out commissioners to investigate the standard of monasteries. Now in this national survey, Cromwell revealed that there were many abuses within the church. And this gave both Henry and Cromwell a reason for closing the monasteries. Now Cromwell also commissioned the survey of the monasteries' value and this revealed that the monasteries had the potential of doubling the crown's income. So in 1536, based on this report, Parliament passed an act for the dissolution of smaller monasteries. Now this closed all religious houses with lands valued at £200 a year. Now closures continued throughout 1537-1538, with the exception to monasteries which bribed officials to overlook them. So this was a very corrupt process. Now in 1539, finally, Parliament passed the Act for Dissolution of the Larger Monasteries. Now this extended the closures to all religious houses, except for chanteries, which were private chapels where prayers were said for the dead. Now in 1540, the Court of Augmentations was established and headed by Richard Rich, it handled property and income for the dissolved monasteries. So the main beneficiaries from the dissolution were the king and the nobility. Now the dissolution brought the king great wealth, which meant that he was able to finance an ambitious foreign policy. And in the years 1533-47, Henry sold off the monastic land to finance campaigns in Scotland and France. Now Protestants also benefited from the dissolution as it lessened the chance of a Catholic revival. Now the main losers, however, were the inhabitants of the monasteries, as although they received some compensation, they still lost both their work and their accommodation. The monasteries also offered locals many facilities and services, such as things like education and a great supply of books. Now many of these were taken by private collectors, or they were burnt. Now this linked to the fear that the North would become impoverished, while the monastic land fell into the hands of the Southerners. And this was one of the causes of the Pilgrimages of Great, which took place at the end of 1536, and we'll look at this in our next video. Thank you for watching and see you soon. Bye.