The Role of the Executive

Abstract

Methods of government frequently get out of phase with the changing needs of society. The Tudors, by a remarkable mixttire of princely authority, Prerogative Courts, Parliamentary participation, and the delegation of local power to the gentry, created a flexible and effective system of government that enabled them to maintain power during a religious and social revolution of considerable complexity. By early Stuart times these social and religious revolutions had become increasingly difficult to control by the methods of the Tudors. Subject to constant attack, partially destroyed between 1641 and 1642, and submerged by the Commonwealth, the Tudor system nevertheless re-emerged at the Restoration, crippled but alive. Even though the Prerogative Courts had been abolished, the supremacy of the Crown in executive matters had been reaffirmed; the judicature, too, remained under royal control. The monarchy might have been bullied and battered, yet it emerged victorious in 1660, its powers undefined. By 1661, the Church and its bishops were re-established in their old authority.