5 - The Edwardian readers and beyond

Summary

Though the Statutes of Uses and Wills answered many of the legal controversies surrounding Prerogativa Regis, the text was aired again in the Inns in 1549 and 1551. These readings themselves are limited in what they can tell us, but once again the context is of some interest. The 1540s saw the distribution of ex-monastery lands, most of which were given to be held in chief of the crown, thus potentially creating a new group of feudal landholders. In the abstract, this is an unlikely activity in the mid-sixteenth century, and it raises certain questions about the nature and extent of the feudal bond at the time. The last chapter showed that though the feudal system might well be bastardized by this time, it remained a powerful element in political and economic matters. Though its importance in these areas is clear, the more intangible effects of the feudal bond on the nobility demand some further consideration. As the chief landholders of the kingdom, the nobility bore the greatest burden of the prerogative, though, in theory at least, they were also the greatest beneficiaries of royal generosity. The reciprocal nature of the feudal bond implied both that the lords paid feudal dues and gave service to the king in return for his grants of land to them, and that the lords would alleviate this burden by the imposition of similar requirements on their inferiors.