Amicable Grant

Henry required additional funds of £800,000 and he needed it fast, so to gain said money Wolsey resorted to the Amicable Grant.

Archbishop Warham reported on 12 April that he found the Kentish clergy 'not inclined to the grant' and that the heads of the religious houses had answered 'that they cannot contribute as required'.

In Essex, Kent, Norfolk, Warwickshire, and Huntingdonshire, the grant provoked reactions ranging from reluctance to outright refusal.

[6] This in part helped to provoke an open rebellion in Suffolk and a taxpayer strike, which spread to the borders of Essex and Cambridgeshire.

An eyewitness reported that the militants only failed because loyal townsmen led by Sir John Spring had removed the clappers from the bells of Lavenham church, which were to have been rung to signal the start of the uprising.

Wolsey led an ostentatious ceremony of reconciliation, begging the king for pardon for his fellow Suffolk men, even supplying them with more than enough cash to cover their time in gold and a piece of silver.

[12] This event (as well as past tax revolts) would likely have played a role in informing King Henry's taxation model in the future.

It is also possible these events influenced the taxation model of the Tudor government as a whole moving forward as rebellions related to tax became less common.

"While tax revolt was a distinctive feature of the early Tudor period, in the late sixteenth century it was an extremely rare event.