Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- I THE LAST PHASE OF MEDIEVAL GOVERNMENT
- II THE BUREAUCRAT MINISTER
- III THE REFORM OF THE AGENCIES OF FINANCE
- IV PRIVY SEAL, SIGNET, AND SECRETARY
- V THE PRIVY COUNCIL
- VI THE KING'S HOUSEHOLD
- VII THE ADMINISTRATIVE REVOLUTION
- Appendix I Cromwell and the mastership of the king's wards
- Appendix II Documents
- Index
VII - THE ADMINISTRATIVE REVOLUTION
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- I THE LAST PHASE OF MEDIEVAL GOVERNMENT
- II THE BUREAUCRAT MINISTER
- III THE REFORM OF THE AGENCIES OF FINANCE
- IV PRIVY SEAL, SIGNET, AND SECRETARY
- V THE PRIVY COUNCIL
- VI THE KING'S HOUSEHOLD
- VII THE ADMINISTRATIVE REVOLUTION
- Appendix I Cromwell and the mastership of the king's wards
- Appendix II Documents
- Index
Summary
It will be well to review the conclusions already arrived at. It has been shown that between 1530 and 1542 the management of the finances was revolutionized as the chamber declined and became one of a number of parallel revenue courts, and as new courts were set up; that the place of the privy seal as the centre of administration was taken by the office of principal secretary, while both privy seal and signet declined into a formal routine; that the informal council attendant, an inner ring of leading councillors, was organized into a formal government board, the privy council; and that the king's household was given a more perfect departmental organization. To say it once again: in every sphere of the central government, ‘household’ methods and instruments were replaced by national bureaucratic methods and instruments. The household, driven from the work of administration in which for centuries it had acted as a mainspring and reserve, became a department of state concerned with specialized tasks about the king's person; finance fell to national institutions rather than to the personal servants of the king and those household offices which administered it before 1530; the secretary of state and the privy council stepped out of the household on to the national stage. Every reorganization that took place was in the direction of greater definition, of specialization, of bureaucratic order.
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- Information
- Tudor Revolution in Government , pp. 415 - 427Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1953