Domestic reforms in the period up to 1529 Essay Example for Free

Domestic reforms in the period up to 1529 Essay With what success did Wolsey carry through his domestic reforms in the period up to 1529? Wolsey was a fortunate man and with some success carried through the domestic reforms. He usually had the aim to achieve greater power and more control. In this essay I will study how successful Wolsey actually was and why. Wolsey became Lord Chancellor in 1515, which gained him the most important office of the State. He was also at the very centre of government. Living so close to West Minster and the Royal Courts of Justice gave Wolsey the opportunity to parade around and demonstrate the power he had as Henry VIIIs chief minister and leading chairman. Wolsey managed to retain the kings favour and was therefore with some success able to carry through his own domestic reforms. He certainly didnt want many people influencing the king and so kept and eye on the gentlemen of the Privy Chamber. Henry VIII used the Privy Chamber as Henry VII had done but rather than being alone he liked to be surrounded by gentlemen of his own age. These men were extremely close to the king and could exercise considerable influence. By 1518 Wolsey became concerned by this and so placed his own man, Richard Pace to be gentlemen in audience of the King. After this he seized his chance and expelled many of the minions for bad influence or sent them to do jobs away from the centre of power. Wolsey had managed to keep his power by encouraging the King in his pleasures and therefore had his chance to strike again, this time with the suggestion of reforming the government. Henry interested in this willingly agreed. Wolsey managed to expel the minions with such success that he had no need to carry on reforming. This suggests that Wolsey tried to maintain sole influence over the King. I think that because Henry wasnt a great deal interested, Wolsey had a better chance of success and having had the power to persuade the king also helped him to succeed. In 1526 Wolsey also proposed to reform the royal household, the Eltham Ordinances were introduced. Theses were designed to give Wolsey as much control as possible over those close to the king and reduce the size of the Privy Chamber. Wolsey was successful with this as the amount of people went from 12 down to 6. He managed to remove his chief enemy, William Compton, and replace him with Henry Norris. Wolsey also devised a council attendant on the king but made sure they were always busy elsewhere. Wolsey was successful in reforming the household and this is shown by the things he managed to do. The changes were meant to cut costs but once he had achieved his objectives and removed the people who may influence the king he had no reason to proceed. Wolseys greatest impact was in legal reform. In 1516 he put forward a reforming plan which was intended to end the corruption in the legal system and provide cheap and impartial justice. This reform was a success in that he exposed and punished many individuals. He based the centre of his work with the court of the Star Chamber. Wolsey made this court very popular and the evidence to prove this is that it had 120 cases per year, which was 10 times the annual total Henry VII had in his reign. Wolsey was successful as he put the Earl of Northumberland into prison for corruption of the court and in 1517 he sent a royal chancellor, Sir Robert Sheffield, to the tower for being an accessory to a crime. Respect for Wolsey increased because of this, but enemies were also made. A quote from Wolsey to the King shows how successful he was and how much power he did have to exercise. And for your realm, Our Lord be thanked, it was never in such peace or tranquillity: for all this summer I have neither of riot, felony, nor forcible entry, but that your laws be in every place indifferently (fairly) ministered, without leaning in any manner. The letter goes on to say how successful in reforming the laws in the Star Chamber but also that he had some power over the King as he writes how he is going to deal with the two men rather than asking what he should do. He explains that people will understand the new law of the Star Chamber. Wolsey also had some success with the Court of Chancery as he managed to increase the work. Wolsey has been credited with making a major contribution to English law through his decisions, which created precedents. He managed to establish a permanent judical committee dealing with cases brought by the poor, who he favoured, which created enemies of richer people. Wolsey wanted to see courts available for the poor and weak, since they stood little chance against the rich and strong in common law courts where large sums of money was required to succeed. Yet within these courts many honest people were put on trial. A contemporary source, the Chronicle of Edward Hall dated 1526 explains how Wolsey letting the poor people have a court led to innocent people being punished. The poor people perceived that he punished the rich, then they complained without number, and brought many an honest man to trouble and vexation. Here I think Wolsey achieved his objectives and also achieved successfully reforming the Court of Chancery. Wolsey managed to reform administration and finance with some success. He built up the Kings affinity in each locality by appointing the kings servants or his own to key country positions. In local government he gained his centralising drive with some accomplishment as the local officials responded more rapidly and efficiently to royal instructions. Wolsey wanted to have control in every sector and with the reformations he did manage to achieve his objectives with many successes. It is said that Wolsey made an important contribution to Tudor finance. He managed to develop the tax, which is now known as a subsidiary. Wolsey also changed the inadequate fixed rates and yields for a flexible system based on accurate valuations of taxpayers wealth. This proved very successful as people were only paying what they could afford. Wolsey wasnt able to manage parliament well, which was probably because of his temperament and the impossibility of winning taxation for wars that had already happened. This domestic policy did create enemies and for this reason it was quite unsuccessful in the early 1520s. Wolsey soon lacked humility and lost some ability of being able to persuade, so economic benefit for the crown was little and people became hostile. Wolsey demanded the Amicable Grant. It was a non-parliamentary tax, but it did not prove successful as he had hoped. It led to rebellion in East Anglia and many other places just refused to pay. This was a huge failure for Wolsey as the rebels won and the Amicable Grant was abandoned. Wolsey was also relatively unsuccessful when he tried to change the law about enclosures. He saw them as a moral evil as many Tudor commentators had done. Unfortunately Wolsey saw the enclosures as the landowners being greedy and didnt see them as a long term economic change that was producing inflation. Yet he did still try to be an economic reformer. A letter to Wolsey from the Bishop of Lincoln in September 1528 explains how badly villages have been affected for the worst by the enclosures. Your heart would mourn to see the towns, villages, hamlets, manor places, in ruin and decay, the people gone, the ploughs laid down, the living of many honest husbandmen in one mans hand, ht common in many places taken away from then poor people. The Bishop of Lincoln in the letter also explains how he is supporting the reformation and how the people pray for it. Never saw people so glad as they are now, hoping the King and Wolsey will see reformation made. They pray for the King and your Grace everywhere. With the enclosures I think Wolsey was seeing only what he wanted to see and since he favoured poor people only saw in favour of them, this is why this domestic reform was unsuccessful. Although, he did prove himself to be energetic and well intentioned, even if he did fail. Wolsey did come up with other ways to carry through his domestic reforms. One of the ways was to reform the church. He was the most powerful churchman in England and so in 1519 he said he was going to reform the clergy. He wanted to improve both church and state when he was dealing with political enemies at court in that year. This plan was not very successful as he made plans but nothing really became of them. There were great demands for reforming clerical life and Wolsey knew this, he also knew that the privileged status of the clergy was resented. Wolsey wasnt terribly successful in reforming the church and he said that he may not have paid enough attention to it. He said, If I had served God as diligently as I have done the King This suggests that he didnt pay enough attention it, as he would have liked. However, he did pave the way for what happened in the 1530s, as he was involved in all aspects of the church. Churchmen became used to orders and enquiries from the crown, but the disadvantages of this was that their independence was reduced and therefore it became harder to re assert in time of a crisis. In conclusion, Wolsey did carry through some of his domestic reforms with some success. The only reason some of them werent successful is because of how he reacted in certain situations, for example the enclosures. Wolsey was a very powerful man and knew how to persuade the King, and this was usually how he achieved success, the people that got in the way were his enemies. Even though he did have some failures he did carry on, but usually for his own interest, to gain full power. In certain ways he did improve things for others, he especially tried to improve things for the poor. I think this is because he used to be poor himself and so wanted to make a better life for others. Overall Wolsey did carry through domestic policies with some success, even if he was trying to fulfil his own objectives.

The Sadness of Poverty in Frank McCourts Angela’s Ashes Essay

The Sadness of Poverty in Frank McCourt's Angela’s Ashes â€Å"It is not the rich man you should properly call happy, but him who knows how to use with wisdom the blessings of the gods, to endure hard poverty, and who fears dishonor worse than death, and is not afraid to die for cherished friends or fatherland.† In the novel Angela's Ashes, (1996) by Frank McCourt, a life of poverty is the only life this family knows. It is a memoir about a young boy born in New York City. Frank, born ten months prior to his brother Malachy, was raised in a small apartment with his parents, Angela and Malachy McCourt. A dark haired boy with fair skin, little Frankie was forced to wear the same clothes day after day and be happy that he even had anything. The family's breakfast consisted of tea and sometimes bread. Dinner was usually a piece of fried bread dipped in more tea and supper was bread and tea and jam and sometimes mashed potatoes with butter and salt. Born to a father who became an alcoholic at a early age, Frank was used to those long waits on Friday nights, payday. The day when all the other fathers came home and gave the money to their families and then took some for themselves to go out and drink. Malachy McCourt was different, he took all his money, spent it on the drink and came home singing songs from his days in Ireland. He would stumble in the door and get the two young boys up and make them promise to die for Ireland. He would teach them his favorite song and they would all sing until Malachy passed out. "Up the narrow street he stepped Smiling and proud and young About the hemp-rope on his neck The golden ringlets clung, There's never a tear in the blue eyes Both glad and bright are they, As Roddy McCorley goes ... ...ey had. The doctors advised his mom to feed him eggs and beef but all she was able to feed him was some beef broth for a couple days. It takes a very skilled writer to relate his life to the world, especially such a painful one. Angela's Ashes portrays a life of starvation and lack of money. Living every day one at a time and when they so much as received an extra shilling or two, blowing it on the movies or a piece of candy. In those days, it was useless to save up unless you knew you or someone close to you was in definite need of it. When a simple story about a boy growing up in Ireland can make a person cry, that is the best way of touching a reader's heart. A good writer knows exactly how to do that and an even greater writer is brave enough to admit that this sad story. . . is theirs. Work Cited McCourt, Frank. Angela's Ashes: A Memoir. Scribner 1996.

How Electrical and Neurochemical Activity of the Brain Is Related to Behaviour Essay

In order for the brain to function correctly in an effective and efficient way it relies on the support from nerve cells that are responsible for the relay of vital information to and from the brain. This information is required to help us know how to feel, behave and perform depending on the different situations. Therefore the circuit of neurons or nerve cells develop a system where they process the information from cell to cell via the synapse eventually leading to the brain which controls how we behave and feel. This system is based on electrical and neurochemical activity performed by the brain. Presynaptic cells release chemicals known as neurotransmitters into synapses, which allow an electrical or chemical signal to pass to another cell. These signals eventually travel their way to the brain via the central nervous system, where in turn the brain releases a message that directs the body on how to deal or cope with the stimulus. There are many known diseases that can influence this process causing neurological problems, amongst drug abuse, alcoholism and brain damage is illnesses that are degenerative diseases that cause damage to the nerve cells which in turn leads to behavioural and psychiatric problems, one of these being Alzheimer’s disease (Alzheimer 1907). Alzheimer’s is the result of decreased brain size which occurs when a huge portion of nerve cells die and the tissue in the brain reduces in size. The detoriation and reduced levels of the nerve cells means that nerves are not able to respond as well as they should be able too. This in turn causes chemical disruption which then slows down the transmission of chemical impulses. Alzheimer’s affects the different areas of the brain. It causes the cortex to shrivel up which damages areas required for thinking, planning and remembering. It causes the hippocampus to also shrink which is required to help build new memories. The disease also makes the ventricles (fluid filled spaces in the brain) to grow larger than normal. Scientists have discovered that patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s tend to have fewer nerve cells and synapses in the brain. The brain holds abnormal clusters of proteins (plaques) which tend to build up between the nerve cells which make it harder for the synapses to perform their job of transferring messages to another cell. This means the nerve ells eventually die and develop tangles which are twisted strands of protein. These tangles destroy the cell transport system by preventing nutrients and other essential supplies travelling too other cells, therefore these cells eventually die. Due to the cells dying the brain begins to shrink therefore sacrificing areas of the brain that is required for everyday life, this than leads onto behavioural problems caused by insufficient neural activity. An Alzheimer suffer will show repetitive behaviour where they constantly ask the same question or perform the same action continuously; this is due to the damage of the brain. They will also become restless and suffer with sleep deprivation which can lead to agitation and frustration. This is all the result of change in neural activity and despite drugs being prescribed the patient will still experience anxiety and depression which leads to violent and abusive outbursts. A common behavioural symptom is also experiencing hallucinations and delusions that are frustrating for both the sufferer and their support network. These symptoms and effects of Alzheimer’s are all due to the disruption in neural activity which is caused by the shrinking of the brain due to inadequate functioning of nerve cells. The effect of different areas of the brain shrinking means that they are not able to perform their job as well as a healthy brain can.

Machiavellis The Prince Essay - 1225 Words

â€Å"The state is the highest achievement of man, a progressive and elaborate creation of his free will. The individual, the leader, the people, cooperate in maintaining it.† This idea of state was put forth by Niccolo Machiavelli in The Prince, which was in essence a ruler’s handbook to governing and maintaining his land. Machiavelli conjured his theories for government by basing his ideas in his belief that men, especially men in power, tend to follow the same directions, and therefore by looking at past leaders and their follies we can better determine how to run a state. â€Å"Men are always the same and are animated by the same passions that lead them fatally to the same decisions, acts, an results†¦. That one can foresee the course of†¦show more content†¦That was the case even up to the early and mid-twentieth with commanders-in-chief such as Theodore Roosevelt, a cavalry commander and navy man, or even Dwight D. Eisenhower, a supreme commander of the Allied forces in World War II. These men, as Machiavelli described, knew the art of war first hand, but as the years passed and our nation become more industrious and powerful, the idea of having war as you’re first and foremost area of knowledge and interest slowly drifted into the background. And while quite a few of former twentieth and twenty-first century presidents had served in the armed forces in some capacity, they were and continue to be far from Machiavelli’s ideas of a solely war driven leader, in our country. Even though our leaders today are not necessarily war-driven men, they do still hold to the fact that military strength and power are important. This is shown in many different areas, first men and women are being constantly trained and recruited to our armed forces; whether it be army, navy, marines or some other division, these people make-up the strong military that backs our president and country. 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