Overview

The reign of Edward IV is perhaps best described as a return to ‘normality’ after the tortuous final years of Henry VI. Convocations met regularly, if not quite annually, during this period, and a substantial portion of the records has survived, especially in the southern province, where Henry Bourgchier was archbishop for the whole of the reign. In general terms, church business became less significant whilst the granting of subsidies remained constant, giving the latter relatively greater preponderance in the acts. But it would be too much to claim from this that Edward IV subordinated the convocations to his own purposes. They retained the independence which they had acquired, and exercised it when necessary, especially in the north, where Edward IV s reign was unusually productive in terms of new canons. In addition, the tendency of York to escape serious taxation went unchecked, so much so that by the end of the reign tax evasion had become a serious problem for the government in both provinces, since the Canterbury clergy would not pay until the arrears of their York brethren had been settled. From the available evidence, it seems that, as often as not, royal writs were simply ignored, and that if a northern convocation was actually held, a grant by no means necessarily resulted from it.

The ‘readeption’ of Henry VI in 1470-1 meant that the 1470 sessions were either not held or else amounted to nothing, and that the sanctions imposed on Henry's supporters afterwards inevitably touched the clergy to some extent, but otherwise it made little difference, and things soon returned to normal as far as the convocations were concerned.

The convocation of 1462

Canterbury

A royal writ was issued on 4 June 1462 for a convocation, which the archbishop then proceeded to summon on 21 July. It stayed in session until 2 August when it granted the king a subsidy of a half-tenth. The biggest problem it faced was the huge number of absentees, all of whom were listed in the royal writ issued for the collection of the subsidy. Though it was not specifically stated, the probability is that most stayed away because of the unsettled political situation; some would have been sympathetic to Henry VI, who was still at large in the country, and others may have taken advantage of the uncertainty to try to avoid unnecessary trouble.