ABSTRACT
A large-scale reassessment of English government during the Yorkist period is badly needed. The most general accounts do suggest that a more realistic picture of the nature of Yorkist government is at last emerging. A study of the crown lands and of parliamentary interest in them under the Plantagenet, Lancastrian and Yorkist kings does not support the older interpretations of the events of 1461–1485, any more than it does the concept of a medieval ‘constitution’. The Lancastrian assemblies were endeavouring to invigorate a weakened monarchy by increasing its endowed revenues. All the Yorkist acts of resumption were intended to improve the king’s finances. An act of resumption affected much besides crown lands, and grants of offices, and many of the exemption provisos were concerned indirectly with the king’s lands and revenues. The administrative changes in the organization of the king’s lands are indicative of wider changes in the financial machinery of government instituted by Edward IV and his advisers.
