Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/365

 1922 THE COUNCIL UNDER THE TUDOR8 357 that Henry VII did from this multitude of counsellors select a smaller number who were appointed for life, sat with some regularity, were admitted on oath to an organized council, and were paid a regular councillor's fee, which in Henry VIII's as in Henry VI's reign was 100. x In 1498-9, for instance, we find that no fewer than eight peers admissi sunt in con- silium domini regis et jurati? We have six full lists of atten- dance, four relating to the first year of the reign, one to the tenth, and one to the nineteenth. The first four give from 22 to 34 names, the fifth 40, and the sixth 41. The sixth list is identical with a more authoritative list on the patent roll, dealing with the same meeting of 26 November 1503. 3 There is naturally a considerable difference between the councillors of 1503 and those of 1494 when only about ten of the forty in 1494 appear among the 41 of 1503 ; but eighteen of the 26 councillors present at the first meeting in 1485-6 are also present at the second, and fourteen of those present in 1494 had been present at one or other of the four meetings in 1485-6. There was clearly some con- tinuity but a good deal of elasticity about Henry VII 's council. The fuller records which begin with Henry VIII's reign do not enable us to l^e more precise. The inference from them is that he had little more than half a dozen really important counsellors, Warham, Foxe, Surrey, Shrewsbury, Ruthal, Lovell, Herbert, and Poynings, of whom Foxe was the chief, until Wolsey overshadowed them all. There is no real list of the council known before 1520, when a list of councillors includes forty-one peers and prelates as well as ' all knights and others of the king's council '. 4 Henry VIII had clearly as large and varied an assortment of counsellors as his father. Apart from his various provincial and local councils, and from the councillors in the star chamber and the white hall, he had his counsel learned in the law, 5 his spiritual counsel (who must not be confused with 1 Flemming, England under the Lancastrians, p. 175 ; Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, n. i. 2736, xv. 436 [56]. 2 It must be remembered that we have only later versions which are notes from, rather than transcripts of, the Liber Intracionum ; the transcriber has read his own ideas into the original, and they colour his transcripts, sometimes leading to phraseo- logy which is misleading and was almost certainly not in the original. This entry has only the year date, and the eight peers were probably not admitted all at once. 3 Scofield, pp. 22-3 ; Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1495-1509, pp. 388-9. Some shorter lists for 1507 are given in Spanish Calendar, 1485-1509, nos. 564-74. 4 Cotton MS. Titus B. i. 123 ; Letters and Papers, iii. 703. This list was drawn up in Ruthal's hand with a view to selecting those who were to accompany Henry to the Field of Cloth of Gold and those who were to remain as a council in England (cf. ibid. 873). The council in 1509 is said to have consisted of eleven persons (State Papers, i. 507) ; but this editorial note gives no authority, and many names could be added from references in the Letters and Papers. 5 Ellis, Original Letters, i. ii. 36, 51, n. ii. 121 (where seven are mentioned by name) ; Letters and Papers, v. 397, vi. 661, 737 [15].