Ministers & Politicians

Since the earliest days of human society, there have been politicians and ministers to advise rulers, whether the state be a monarchy, an oligarchy or a republic, and the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were no different from previous ages. What did change in this period, was the growth of a political class of administrators and bureaucrats.

The increasing power of the state as an entity, rather than the personal fiefdom of a monarch, together with expanding populations and trade meant a more structured form of government, less dependent on the monarch and his immediate ministers, grew up.

The other change, in England and Scotland more than in the rest of Europe, was the replacement of senior churchmen as politicians by lawyers and the newly emerging gentry class that produced such men as Thomas Cromwell, the Cecils and Sir William Maitland to replace Cardinal Wolsey and Cardinal Beaton.