Magnate - Magnates in England

Magnates in England

The large number of extremely powerful nobles, many of whom had claims to the throne, led to over 100 years of aristocratic civil war, in the form of the Wars of the Roses.

Eventually intermarriage between the royal family and the higher nobility led to large numbers of claimants to the throne, most of whom tried to attain the throne by usurping their predecessors. In this period, despite laws governing succession, most of the succession was determined not as much by primogeniture as by military victory.

In the Tudor period, after Henry VII defeated Richard III at Bosworth Field, Henry made a point of executing or neutralizing as many magnates as possible. Henry VII would make parliament attaint undesirable nobles and magnates, thereby stripping them of their wealth, protection from torture, and power. Henry VII also used the Court of the Star Chamber to have powerful nobles executed. Henry VIII continued this approach in his reign; he inherited a survivalistic mistrust of nobles from his father. Henry VIII ennobled very few men and the ones he did were all "new men": novi homines, greatly indebted to him and having very limited power.