Mid Tudor Crisis Essay

How true it to say there was a mid-Tudor crisis?
(25 Marks)

There has been some debate as to whether it is true to say that during the reigns of the ‘mid-Tudor’ monarchs there was a crisis. For both Edward and Mary there were various factors that did pose problematic for them such as the threats to the Tudor dynasty through rebellions and neither having a strong heir to the throne after their deaths. Moreover, there were also factors such as finance and foreign policy that also made the crown slightly unstable as inflation continued to rise and England lost possession over French towns. However, although there is evidence to show that there was a mid-Tudor crisis, the stronger argument is that there was, in fact no crisis but a time where
Many religious people were unhappy with the current state of the church as there were less people leaving money in their wills for the Church – only 32% of people during Edwards reign. This upset was also portrayed through the western rebellion which was defiance against the 1547 Act of Uniformity, conveying how discontent the nation were with the religion change that was continued on by Edward II. However, the rebellion didn’t amount to anything so had little achievements and was suppressed easily. Although under Edwards’s reign people were discontent, there also was a strong feeling of anticlericalism of which meant that there was an increasing amount of people in favour of the change than there had been in previous times. The fact that people were practising Protestantism conveys how there was not actually a mid-Tudor crisis due to the fact that some were content with the new religion and were happy to follow it. When Mary came to power the change back to Catholicism can be argued to have made the nation discontent due to the lack of consistency within the crown, however most were willing to embrace the religion and it was apparent that Henry received a much larger revolt a few years prior. The Wyatt rebellion started due to the disapproval of the marriage with the Catholic Prince
To begin with, there were strong ties between France and Scotland of which Somerset – Edwards’s protector – could not overcome, this consequently meant that cross border raids continued which had the potential for both countries to turn against England. Moreover, England was bankrupt, on account of Henry VIII, and thus Edward could not afford all the foreign policies he wished to, which meant that there was a potential for a crisis if he could not afford to form alliances or relationships with other countries if need be. Edwards’s loss of Boulogne was seen as a humiliating defeat and his small amount of influence was lost after he could not maintain the French town. Northumberland was able to negotiate an alliance between England and France which had a strong potential for peace between the two countries after years of feuds. However, not long after, Mary’s husband pressured her to have involvement with France again of which proves costly and created further debt and strain on the English economy. Moreover, similarly to Edward Mary’s loss of Calais was seen as a humiliating defeat and meant that some of her prestige was lost amongst European affairs. However, as a result of her alliance with Spain, it significantly improved the standard of the English army and meant that England was strengthened and prepared for the future – conveying how although there may be some short-term disadvantages