Tuesday, July 7, 2009

How much money did Henry VIII spend on foreign policy?

It's very difficult to put a precise figure on it, let alone adjust that figure appropriately for inflation since then; but the general consensus among historians is that Henry VIII spent a large amount of money on warfare and many of England's financial problems at the time were traceable to that.

Henry VIII fought a number of wars during his reign, chiefly against Scotland and France, and several wars he fought became costly wars of attrition with little success. The most precise estimate I was able to find for how much Henry VIII spent on his wars was 2 million pounds, 1.3 million from currency debasement, 430,000 from higher taxes, and 110,000 from forced loans along with 160,000 from existing taxes.

It's very difficult to make a precise inflation adjustment, but the figures I have say that pound fell in value by about a factor of 267 from 1550 to 1997, and then official UK inflation figures say that it fell in value by about a factor of about 1.7 since then; so that's about a factor of 450 over that whole period. So that 2 million pounds would have been about 900 million pounds in today's money, which is still a small fraction of modern UK military spending.

It was, however, a large portion of England's wealth at the time. Henry VIII was not popular by the end of his reign, in large part due to the high taxes and inflation he imposed to pay for his endless wars.

I didn't have room for all the sources I consulted in the usual place, so here they are:
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/tudor-england/henry-viii-and-foreign-policy/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/majesty_menace_01.shtml
http://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/361/361-06.htm
https://militaryhistoryblog.wordpress.com/tag/wars-of-henry-viii/
http://www.markedbyteachers.com/as-and-a-level/history/henry-viii-foreign-policy.html
http://www.freeinfosociety.com/article.php?id=409
https://prezi.com/majolaxdtr9y/henry-viiis-foreign-policy/
http://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/361/361-06.htm

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