In the context of the years 1485 to 1603 to what extent was the government of England dysfunctional in the mid-Tudor period?
During the Tudor Dynasty it is easily thought that the years between 1547 and 1558 were ones of crisis. With the succession of a child and the first woman within England, people have assumed that the years between Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were an unproductive interlude. The mid Tudor period is seen as negative years within the Tudor Dynasty. It is regarded that Henry VIII and Elizabeth I’s reputations were a factor in why historians such as A.F Pollard and S T Bindoff supported the ‘Mid Tudor Crisis’ . The ‘two little Tudors’, referring to Edward and Mary, seemed colourless in comparison to their surrounding…show more content… Therefore Henry VIII weakened the government for his sons reign which could have created a crisis, this supports that the mid-Tudor period was highly influenced by previous successors allowing any dysfunction to be partially blamed outside the years 1547-1558.
So when the death of Henry VIII occurred, the throne was left to his child Edward VI in 1547 with England’s financial stability and foreign relation being left in a poor condition with uncertainty on whether it will recover. As Edward was a minor, his two Lord Protectors, firstly the Duke of Somerset and later Northumberland advised Edward with his decisions. Somerset’s administration was faced with rebellions and uprisings in 1549. The rebellions were part of a mixture of religious and social upheaval. Kett’s rebellion in Norfolk, suffered particularly seriously from the enclosure laws . They were not, however, a threat to the ruling dynasty in the way the Pretenders were to Henry VII.
With Lord Somerset ruling at the beginning of Edwards reign, England yet again was at war with Scotland; however this time was without royal approval. Somerset funded his efforts against Scotland with money from the debased coinage. It is possible to say that Somerset allowed the foreign policy to dominate over other royal problems, especially the king’s finances, which he lost all control of . The economy within England suffered from inflation after the debasement
