This page features a population chart & list of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seals during each Tudor reign; it also explains the duties of those offices.<\/p>\n
1524…..2.3 million
\n1541…..2.7 million
\n1550…..2.9 million
\n1569…..3.2 million
\n1599…..4.0 million
\nin 1520, 6% of the population lived in urban areas (towns of over 4,000 people)
\nin 1520, 3% of the population lived in London<\/p>\n
Throughout English history government was traditionally ‘by the three seals’ – the Great Seal of England (held by the Lord Chancellor), the Privy Seal and the Signet. Under Henry VII<\/a> and his successor Henry VIII<\/a> this tradition continued; but under Edward VI<\/a>, Mary I<\/a> and (most especially) Elizabeth I<\/a>, the tradition declined. Elizabethan England saw the development of government by ministers as a replacement for the medieval government by seals.<\/p>\n What does ‘government by seal’ mean? Under Henry VII and his son all the work of government was handled by the officers of the Keepers of the seals – they authorized all decisions by applying the relevant seals. In other words, they validated decisions by applying the seal. During Elizabeth’s reign, the Lord Chancellor became the principal legal officer of the realm & the keeper of the Privy Seal became secretary-of-state. In other words, the ministers became more important than the seals.<\/p>\n The following is a list of all LORD CHANCELLORS & KEEPERS OF THE GREAT SEAL under the Tudor monarchs<\/a>:<\/p>\n ***note the stability & length of service in Henry VIII & Elizabeth I’s reigns; also note that Elizabeth I<\/strong> had virtually no titled noblemen serve as Lord Chancellor\/Keeper of the Seal<\/p>\n 1485 Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York This page features a population chart & list of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seals during each Tudor reign; it also explains the duties of those offices. Total Population in Tudor England includes England & Wales 1524…..2.3 million 1541…..2.7 million 1550…..2.9 million 1569…..3.2 million 1599…..4.0 million in 1520, 6% of the population […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,33],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4897,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions\/4897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n1485-87 John Alcock, Bishop of Worcester and then Ely
\n1487-1500 John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury
\n1500-02 Henry Deane, Archbishop of Canterbury (Keeper)
\n1502-04 William Warham, Bishop of London and then Archbishop of Canterbury (Keeper of the Seal until he became Chancellor in 1504)
\n1504-15 William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury
\n1515-29 Thomas Wolsey<\/a>, Cardinal Archbishop of York and Papal Legate
\n1529-32 Sir Thomas More<\/a>
\n1532-3 Sir Thomas Audley (Keeper)
\n1533-44 Sir Thomas Audley (created first Lord Audley, 1538)
\n1544-7 Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Lord Wriothesley (created 1st Earl of Southampton, 1547)
\n1547 William Paulet, 1st Lord St John (Keeper)
\n1547-51 Richard Rich, 1st Lord Rich
\n1551-2 Thomas Goodrich, Bishop of Ely (Keeper of the Seal until he became Lord Chancellor in 1552)
\n1552-3 Thomas Goodrich, Bishop of Ely
\n1553-5 Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester
\n1556-8 Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York
\n1558-79 Sir Nicholas Bacon (Lord Keeper)
\n1579-87 Sir Thomas Bromley
\n1587-91 Sir Christopher Hatton
\n1592-6 Sir John Puckering (Lord Keeper)
\n1596-1603 Sir Thomas Egerton (Lord Keeper), created 1st Lord Ellesmere, 1603<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"