Henry VIII's first adviser was Wolsey, and here are his financial policies.

1. Wolsey's financial
policies
ELLIOT MACKNESS
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2. Before Wolsey…
Before Wolsey became the
chief adviser to the king, the
financial state of England
was in a precarious position:
Henry VIII had given away
most of Henry VII’s land,
with income from crown
lands dropping from
£400,000, to just £25,000
The current way of collecting
large scales of money, was
from parliamentary grants,
which were based off of a
tenth's and fifteenth’s.
This had settled to a fixed
sum, as the value of
property was not being
constantly evaluated. This
meant that it was unlikely to
rise any time soon.
However, Wolsey sought to
end this method, as it was
inefficient and provided less
income, especially when
Henry wanted to invade
France for the fourth time
(1st – Aquitaine, 2nd – Calais,
3rd – Charles, 4th – not
enough money).

3. Subsidies?
Wolsey chose to replace
the tenths and fifteenths
grants with another form
of parliamentary tax,
which would leverage
more income…
This was a parliamentary
subsidy. The subsidy was
based off of up-to date
evaluations of wealth.
Unlike the tenths and
fifteenths, this subsidy was
based on peoples property
value and income, and
Wolsey made it law that
every tax-payers had to
provide information on
their income and their
property value, so the tax-
payers could be more
easily squeezed of their
money.
Even though the new
system brought in
considerably more income
than the previous one, it
was still not enough to
finance the wars Henry
wanted to. In 1523, Henry
had wanted to invade to
take Paris, however,
Wolsey would need to
collect more if he was to
finance this campaign

4. Amicable Grant!
Wolsey need more money
to finance the campaign,
however, to begin with, he
simply requested 4
shillings to a pound as the
subsidy… This was a
massive amount, totalling
£800,000 in income,
however, the subsidy was
met with outcry, as two
previous loans were still
being payed off to the
clergy
When this came to head,
he was only able to raise
£300,000. In 1525, Wolsey
needed a new plan, this
was the amicable grant. It
was a non-parliamentary
tax, and was more like
telling people to ‘help’ the
king.
However, the timing for
this grant was poorly
timed; the two forced
loans of 1522-3 were still
being payed back, and the
subsidy was still being
collected. Henry’s foreign
policy of war was bringing
little gain, so when so
much was being
demanded off of people,
they were not very pleased
– Wolsey backed down.

5. The Amicable Grant uprising! (and crown
lands)
Although Wolsey had backed
down, the east Anglican
region was now full of
unrest.
First 4000 aggrieved cloth
workers made rebellion a
likely possibility, and unrest
soon spread, until in
Lavenham, 10,000 men rose
in support of the Duke of
Norfolk and Suffolk.
Demanding an end to the
grant.
Although not led by
nobles, the two dukes
proved instrumental, and
eventually took their
complaints to Henry, who
caved in under pressure,
blaming Wolsey for the
grant; ending the planned
invasion, and pardoning all
the rebels.
Much of the crown lands
were given away in
patronage to nobles, to
ensure that they remain
loyal to the king. Wolsey
instated an Act of
Resumption, bringing back
some crown lands, but not
all. It did not manage to
cover for the shortfall in
crown revenue.
Wolsey was able to collect £322,000 from
subsidies, £240,000 from clerical taxation
and £260,000 from forced loans…
Expenditure was still £1.7 million

6. Successes and Failures
Successes:
• Wolsey was able to raise large sums of
money, to help finance different campaigns
• Wolsey was able to change the old
parliamentary tax system to one based on
income, which raised much more money.
Failures:
• Wolsey used unpopular methods to raise
revenue, which made unrest a certainty
• He caused an economic rebellion by trying
to use the ‘Amicable grant’.
• He harmed the kings reputation and his
own – part of his removal.
• Wolsey was never able to make up income
for the expenditure of war.