Great Chain of Being - Term Paper Example

Great Chain of Being Introduction The early English community was well organized. Although a strictly monastic society, there were well defined classes to which every individual belonged. These classes were commonly referred to as the Great Chain of Being. These classes were so well respected such that it was hard for an individual to enjoy the same benefits as the ones enjoyed by members of other classes. For many years, various regimes tried as much as possible to maintain these social classifications by putting in place strategies that helped in safeguarding the rights and privileges of each class. However, the passage of time saw this trend slowly fade away and the classes that were hitherto much respected soon lost significance. A good example of this can be seen from the Tudor Dynasty which tried as hard as it could to maintain the existence of the classes but at the same time developed policies that weakened the chain further. Explaining the Great Chain of Being According to Bucholz and Key (87), the Great Chain of Being was a system of governance that classified the English people by class, age and sex. From the divisions, it was able to differentiate who was and was not a knight, an esquire, or a gentleman (Bucholz and Key 11). The first of this class was the royalty and gentlemen who were the rulers of the community. This was the followed by the gentlemen and even among the gentlemen, there were still classes where the first and principal were the king, dukes, among others while next to these were knights, esquires, and simple gentlemen. Despite the strong social hierarchy, the passage of time saw this chain becoming weaker and weaker with the climax coming during the Tudor Dynasty. However, the Tudor Dynasty struggled to maintain the chain but at the same time carried out policies and actions that only led to weaken the Great Chain of Being further (Key and Bucholz 17). Examples of How the Tudor Dynasty Weakened the Great Chain of Being In the beginning of the 15th century, the England went through a series of wars that affected both the economy and leadership of the nation. Following the war that was going on in the West Country, the king together with his advisers chose Richard, the then duke of York to be the protector of the Realm. By 1461, the duke of Yolk rebelled against the Lancastrian monarchy that he had sworn to serve loyally. Soon after Richard had taken the throne, he was killed in cold blood by his own son Edward who took power in 1461. However, the Lancastrians went on making rival claims based on origin as well as formal vows of loyalty and this led to widespread violence in the entire country. During the 1460’s and 70s, Edward IV tried as much as he could to bring this disorder to an end. In this particular example, he tried to put a stop on local bullying by those who belonged to a higher class in the Great Chain of Being. Although this was meant to bring social order in the country, it had the reverse effect in that the subjects stopped regarding the higher class with the respect of the past years (Bucholz and Key 68). Soon after assuming the throne, Edward IV had been advised by his ruling council to hang Robert Hamson and his colleagues for excesses and misgovernment. The hanging of Hamson and his colleagues nonetheless reduced the number of thefts something that helped in pacifying the subjects. Before this, the members of the royal family were protected against any kind of harm by the government of the day but Edwards’s decision to punish them for wrongdoing changed the people’s perceptions about royalty. Although Edward was concerned about the plight of his people, he was mostly scared that if the people continued to be discontent, they would end up seeking another leader to replace him. Another sign of failure by King Edward can be seen from his decisions on land. Having seen other kingdoms fall, Edward had decided to repossess all the land that had been granted to members of the royal family by his predecessors thus making him the sole owner of all the land in England. In the following years, he also put in place measures that made him the owner of all the merchant ships. He also appointed custom officials who were supposed to collect taxes from the merchants. By doing this, Edward controlled all the business in the land and as such succeeded in abolishing the status that the merchants had been accorded before. While the wealth in the past regimes had been spread among members of the higher class, Edward would often punish any person regardless of his/her social class who tried to create wealth without following the set channels. This made even the members of the royal class to dislike him (Bucholz and Key 117). In the traditional royal setting, the king was supposed to consult parliament before he could raise any taxes. However, King Edward did not want to degenerate his authority by consulting parliament. In order to generate more wealth, he would trick the people that he was planning on attacking France or Scotland. Since the English people had great dislike for these nations, they would give their money willingly but then the king would pay the army in advance then disband the mission. By doing this, King Edward not only amassed more power for himself but also destroyed the existing traditional sharing of power between him and parliament. In 1487, John de la Pole, the son of Richard 111 sister and who was the heir apparent after the king’s own son died and as per tradition, the lords and other members of the council sought to look for his replacement as per tradition. When the council meeting was called, the king however claimed that no member of the council was supposed to speak except only the people whom the king chose to do so. While this council traditionally had numerous power to make arbitrations in different areas, this power had been diluted and they were now subjected to the laws that had initially been meant to judge the commoners. By doing this, the king had succeeded in destroying the existing social class and instead concentrated power on a single individual (Key and Bucholz 77). Upon assuming power, King Henry Tudor sought to make changes from the ones that the other regimes had set in place. To begin with, Tudor discredited King Edward IV by branding him a murderer. He also went ahead to restore the lands that had wrongly been snatched from the royal families. Despite the numerous changes that Tudor sought to make to the throne, he still came up with policies that discredited any achievements that he had made in trying to reinstate the Great Chain of Being. For many years, the Catholic Church was instrumental in the society and their opinion mattered a lot in the day to day lives (Key and Bucholz 89). By the time that King Henry came into the throne, his wife had not managed to give birth to any children. In an effort to ensure he got an heir, Henry resulted in divorcing his wife and decided to marry the wife of his brother. However, the church was opposed to this arrangement and this saw a fierce and protracted battle to reform the church. In the years that followed, King Henry oversaw wide transformation in various areas of the Catholic Church, and this led to the detachment of England from the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the formation of the Church of England. Despite the changes, King Henry did not in effect seek to establish a new order but he instead only made changes on the institution of marriage since this was his main area of contention. Despite the weak laws that did not seem to have an effect in the church, the reformation saw people who had been less influential being placed in key positions within the church (Bucholz and Key 146). As can be expected, by splitting the powers of the church, Henry VIII’s reformation unconsciously encouraged and made it possible for ordinary folk to make their religious beliefs known. This was totally negative from what the king had expected. Having succeeded in destroying papal authority in England, he wanted to uphold a church that was more-or-les s traditional both in theology and ritual. In order to slow the reformation that he had set in motion, King Henry went ahead and executed individuals who were seen as radicals within the church. In a way, this was akin to what king Edward had begun by executing the dissent voices in his administration. As a result of this, King Henry succeeded in creating a society where his opinion was the only one that was tolerated. This was different from the previous social class where certain individuals (not an individual) were tasked with deliberating on church matters. Upon the death of Henry VIII, his son Edward VI just like his father sought to maintain the Great Chain of Being but he too failed to achieve this objective. Immediately after ascending to the throne, he had tried to introduce changes on the prayer book that had been used during church services. However, the nobility wanted to retain the traditional holy decrees, which the King believed had their origin in the papacy and hence wicked. However, the nobility failed to listen to these pleas and instead of doing away with the prayer book, Edward VI sought for ways to vanquish the nobility something that saw them being replaced by individuals of low nobility but who were loyal to the king. Conclusion The traditional society in England was classified according to social classes. These classes that were referred to as the Great Chain of Being were placed each man according to the class to which he belonged. For many years, these classes defined the society but were greatly eroded in the 15th century during the Tudor Dynasty. Although this dynasty took great actions that were meant to maintain the chain, they at the same time carried out policies and actions that only served to weaken the chain further. Some of these actions were in denying the nobility the power to rule during the reign of King Edward V and placing people who were traditionally of low class in the reformed Church of England. Although most of these changes were unconscious, they nonetheless changed the traditional constitution of the Great Chain of Being. Works Cited Bucholz, Robert, and Newton Key. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, U.K: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Print. Key, Newton, and Robert Bucholz. Sources and Debates in English History 1485-1714. Chichester, U.K: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Print. Read More