Henery realised that after weary decades of and confusion, England needed first a strong Government would bring peace and order.

And to establish a strong Government the feudal Lords and the Church, which limited of the crown, were to be suppressed. Leaving Church dealt with by his son, he turned his attention first to sup the feudal Lords.

1. Suppression of the Feudal Lords:

During the Middle Ages, the feudal lords, rolling in plenty, became unruly and recalcitrant. Very often they challenged the authority of the crown and reduced the royal authority to impotence.

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They also became a menace to the peace and tranquility of the state. Henry VII, being a man of brains and resolution, could hardly tolerate them growing mighty and unruly. The wars of and the rest remained to be destroyed by Henery VII. He took many effective steps to cripple them.

The strength of the feudal Lords lay in the retainers who were hired by them to act as their professional soldiers. Those retainers wore the badges of he lords and enjoyed their protection.

They were mostly found among the discharged soldiers, who had grown fierce and turbulent. Further the age- old practices of Livery and Maintenance made the Lords very powerful. Livery was the practice by which the retires, wearing livery or ‘badge of their respective Lords fought for them.

Maintenance was the practice bys which the Lords gave support and protection to their supporters in lieu of their Very often this protection was extended to the livery-wearers Law Courts.

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A lord with hit bands of liveried retainers used to frighter or put pressure on the law courts when a case of his supporter was tried by the Jury Thus the people got no justice because it was intimidated Hence in 1497, Henry passed a statute against Livery and Maintenance forbidding the Lords to keep their liveried retainers and prohibiting them to follow the practice of maintenance by which the Lords used influence the Jury.

Further, it was enacted that the lords violating or showing disrespect to the statute of livery and maintenance would be heavily fined. But Henery found it difficult to enforce the law by means of ordinary courts. So he instituted a special court to try such cases.

Its sessions were held in a star-sheped chamber, for which it came to be known as the court of Star Chamber. All the powers of this court for all practical purposes lay with the king who was the foundation of justice. The Chancellor of Exechquer the privy seal and such other top-ranking persons sereed as the judges of this court.

They were vested with special powers to try the cases of Lords or the barons for having violated the statute of livery and maintenance. This court stood for the weak and poor against the powerful and rich lords. Further it served a useful purpose in reducing the military strength of the Lords.

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Thus the Lords were completely emasculated and throughly crippled. Consequent full upon the lords, the power of the crown increased considerably.

2. Administrative Measures:

After suppressing the feudal Lords, Henery turned to day to-day administration of England. The feudal Lords, who held the administrative posts, were ousted and in their place Henery appointed person from educated middle class who were eagear to participate in the Governmental affairs and help the new king with whole-hearted support.

They worked unpaid. He selected the members of the Privy Council from this class. Through them the royal edicts were translated into practice; the law and order were maintained, the wrongdoers and trouble-mongers were punished. Further he created ‘Justices of peace’ who became the most important men in the Privy Council. They were there to deal with the law-breakers and supervise the whole business of Local Government within their areas.

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Henery summoned Parliament frequently. Between 1485 and 1497, ten sessions of Parliament were convened with an average duration of six weeks. And all these Parliaments helped him in buttressing his regime.

Thus, Henery ‘preserved the old medieval institutions like Privy Council, Parliament, and common law, Justices of peace and Jurymen and instilled into them a new life. Under him those institutions instead of acting as checks on the Government, worked as instruments of royal power.

3. Financial Measures:

Endowed with the greatest quality of farsightedness Henery VII knew that in finance lay the strength and security of his power. But to his great misfortune, he found his treasury bankrupt at the time of his accession. Hence he wanted to resort to certain methods for -extracting money. To achieve this end, he appointed Arch Mishap Morton as his financial counseller; Empson and Dudley as financial agents.

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The ingenious brain of Morton deviled a method of extracting money from the people both rich and Poor and this came to be known as Morton’s Fork. Persons of affluence were told that as they were obviously wealthy, they could afford to assist the king, while those who were poor were to help him, because they must be saving a good deal of money.

Both the sides of Morton’s Fork covered so wide a field that they reaped rich harvests. Besides that his financial agent Empson and Dudley employed several other methods to collect money.

They revived the practice of raising ‘benevolences’ which were supposed to be free gifts by wealthy subject to a needy king as a token of their good will -or benevolence towards him.

In theory, these were free gifts, but if practice those were the forced loans. Further, the convicts and guilty persons were forled to buy indulgences which were previously issued by the pot, granting remission of the punishment due for the sins they committed They also collected customs duties known as “Tonnage and Poundage” Yielding Henry enormous income which grew more and more with commercial expansion. Trade and commerce also fetched a lot of money for him and it made him stand in good stead.

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Thus he filled the royal coffers by taking all these finan­cial measures. She depleted treasury at the time of Henery VII’s accession became full to its brim when she died. He left an amount of four and half million pounds to his son.

4. Commercial Policy:

After ensuring peace, Henery wanted prosperity and with this end in view, he made substantial addition to the code of commerce. Till the time of Henery VII, England carried on her trade in the ships owned by other countries. Consequently enormous English wealth flowed out of England.

So Henery passed a Navigation Act which said that in future the French wire to England and the English wool to Europe were to be carried in English ships, manned by Englishmen, Further, to implement the Act he-gave substantial subsidies to encourage ship-building industry.

It was he who founded the merchant navy of England. This navy, growing stronger under his son, could defeat the Spanish Armada during the time of his grand daughter, Elizabeth.

5. Geographical Discoveries:

Further, Henery Patronised the English adventures to undertake long voyages to distant lands. The Bristal Merchants, John Cabbot and his son Sebastian Cabbot, captained by two merchants of venice sailed to discover new lands for England Their attempt resulted in the discovery of Labrador and New Found land which led to the beginning of English settle­ments in North America, Prof. Ramsay Muir, therefore, remarks, “This is an illustration of Henery’s keen and intelli-gent interest in the development of English trade and shipping.”

Thus, the domestic policy of Henery VII helped him in laying the firm foundation of a strong monarchy which attained its culmination-under his son, Henery VIII, and grand-daughter Elizabeth summing up the results of his domestic policy Prof. Ramsay Muir has remarked, “He (Henry VII) laid very solidly the foundations of Tudor power and restored to the Country the priceless boons of peace, order and firm government.”