Why Was The Term Tudor Revolution In Government?

The term ‘Tudor revolution in government’ was coined by Sir Geoffrey Elton in 1953, and describes the belief that administrative reform in Tudor England in the 1530s was so momentous, that it amounted to revolutionary reforms. Elton claimed that, during the Henrician era, government evolved from that of a medieval one, to a bureaucratic modern one and that the main motivation behind this was national sovereignty. In Elton’s proposal of this concept, he placed prominence on Thomas Cromwell’s role, stating it was he who personally pioneered this revolution through three main ways: the emergence of the Privy Council, his innovations of royal finance and the development of royal supremacy; John Guy challenges this, claiming that it was Wolsey’s conciliar plans that anticipated later developments; Cromwell inherited these.
The replacement of the King’s chamber with the Privy Council was a revolutionary change. There was a reduction to 19 members - all of which had to work within the government prior to holding a position in the council. Therefore, in theory, it excluded a majority of the nobility who wished to serve their own interests. Elton believes that the creation of the
A major cause of the reorganisation of Tudor finance was the dissolution of the monasteries and the subsequent need to survey, evaluate their worth, document and redistribute their estates. It made necessary the creation of the Court of Augmentations, and other offices that dealt with administration, an expanded bureaucracy and new methods. Over the following decade, the crown’s average income trebled. A greater level of bureaucratic and diplomatic activity, higher attention to preserving the record of judicial processes and new taxation assessments also fed this expansion of government. By 1558, all financial departments had bureaucratic elements; thus revolution in finance is