Chapter 12, part I

In the Tudor period there were many changes in life. But the most important change were the ideas, which spread slowly to the northwest, but it all began in England.

Tudor parliaments The Tudors disliked the governing through the parliament, Henry VII used the parliament for lawmaking. Henry VIII used it to get money to play his game(war!) The only thing that mattered for the Tudors was the money that they got through the parliament. In 1566, Elizabeth told the French ambassador that 3 parliaments were enough and that she wouldnt build another one. She didnt use it much after her reformation settlement of 1559. Later the power moved from the house of Lords, to the house of commons. The rules were the same. However during the sixteenth century, the size of the house of commons, doubled. Now the people increased. The parliament chose a speaker, this was a person that controls discussions in parliament. Until the end of the Tudor period Parliament was supposed to do three things: agree with taxes; make laws which the crown selected and advise the crown. The tudor monarchs realised by asking money to the parliament, that the were giving away power. So they tried to get money in another way. Elizabeth found stupid ways to raise money, she sold monopolies which gave a person total control over trade. Elizabeths reign complained about this, so she used other methods. One of them was by selling office positions in government. In their old ages, Elizabeth and lord Burghley were more careless and slower at taking dicisions. Elizabeth avoided open discussions which had to do with money with the parliament. No one knew how powerfull the parliament was, who should decide what parliament shoukd discuss At the end of the sixteenth century, the parliament was starting to show confidence. In the seventeenth century the parliament was so strong that the challenged the crown which resulted in war! Rich and poor in town and country tn he sixteenth century the beginning of a disaster started. The population increase, the unused land was cleared for sheep, and large areas of forests were cut down to provide wood for the growing shipbuilding industry. England was getting social and economical problems they ever had before. The price of food increased. The governement tried to deel with the problem of rising costs by making coins which contained 50% less precious metal. Because of this the problem even became bigger. Because with less value in the coins the prices rose.