Henry VIII's Ecclesiastical Valuation (presented in HD)

In recent weeks, one of TannerRitchie's most popular series has been our recently published edition of the Valor Ecclesiasticus (Ecclesiastical Valuation) of Henry VIII, the huge 'Domesday of the Church' ordered by Henry VIII after his decisive break with Rome in 1534. Put together in six months by untrained commissioners, the Valor has been shown to be a surprisingly accurate summary of the wealth of the church at the Reformation, and an essential source for any historian of the Tudor age.

A Capital 'V' from the Valor Ecclesiasticus, showing Henry VIII and his council.
See full size high definition images at the National Archives website

Coincidentally, today is the 480th anniversary of Henry VIII first demanding that he be recognised as the supreme head of the Church in England. Although the Act of Supremacy, which formally instituted the English Reformation in law did not follow until November 1534, in February 1531 Henry had forced the concession from the Convocation of Canterbury that he was

"their singular protector, only and supreme lord, and, as far as the law of Christ allows, even Supreme Head".(J.R. Tanner, Tudor Constitutional Documents (CUP) p. 17)

This was the opening salvo of the Reformation, whereby Henry used an act of Richard II, the Statute of Praemunire, which denied the jurisdiction of any foreign power in England, explicitly to attack the ability of the church of England the exercise any power independently of royal authority.

While the first motivation for the break with Rome was Henry's wish to annul the 'blighted' marriage to Catherine of Aragon, this early episode also displayed two other elements that were strong motivations: power and money. Across Europe, secular princes had increasingly been demanding unchallenged 'imperial' authority in their lands for many years, while during the fifteenth century the vast accumulation of independent wealth in the hands of the clergy proved an increasingly tempting target for both royalty and nobility, especially in the long period of lower population and lower rents brought about by the Black Death.

The Valor Ecclesiasticus, then, was quite simply a way for Henry VIII to work out how much tax he could gain from his new acquisition - and the answer was 'a lot'. All the taxes that had previously gone to the papacy now came to the crown, along with a new 10% tax. Finally, the Valor Ecclesiasticus was part of the process that ended with the Dissolution of the Monasteries, which would see a simply gargantuan transfer of property and wealth to the crown away from the church. It is still the greatest enforced land transfer to take place in England since the Norman Conquest.

Given the bureaucratic importance of the Valor, it therefore seems slightly  quaint that the surviving manuscripts also happen to provide some of the richest illuminated manuscripts of the reign. Why make a financial statement look pretty? The answer is that a special simplified, illustrated version was made for the king's own use, suitably visually enriched for the purposes of the king. While the king may not have wanted the entire minutiae of the Valor, he was certainly keen personally to understand the full extent of what he had taken into his hands.

Further Reading

• Valor Ecclesiasticus Tempore Henrici VIII
• John Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials relating chiefly to Religion and the Reformation of It and the Emergencies of the Church of England
• Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII