Dissolution of the monasteries facts for kids

The dissolution of the monasteries, occasionally referred to as the suppression of the monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents, and friaries in England, Wales, and Ireland, expropriated their income, disposed of their assets, and provided for their former personnel and functions. Although the policy was originally envisaged as increasing the regular income of the Crown, much former monastic property was sold off to fund Henry's military campaigns in the 1540s. He was given the authority to do this in England and Wales by the Act of Supremacy, passed by Parliament in 1534, which made him Supreme Head of the Church in England, thus separating England from papal authority, and by the First Suppression Act (1535) and the Second Suppression Act (1539). While Thomas Cromwell, Vicar-general and Vice-regent of England, is often considered the leader of the Dissolutions, he merely oversaw the project, one he had hoped to use for reform of monasteries, not closure or seizure. The Dissolution project was created by England's Lord Chancellor Thomas Audley, and Court of Augmentations head Richard Rich.

Professor George W. Bernard argues that:

The dissolution of the monasteries in the late 1530s was one of the most revolutionary events in English history. There were nearly 900 religious houses in England, around 260 for monks, 300 for regular canons, 142 nunneries and 183 friaries; some 12,000 people in total, 4,000 monks, 3,000 canons, 3,000 friars and 2,000 nuns. If the adult male population was 500,000, that meant that one adult man in fifty was in religious orders.

Images for kids

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  Henry VIII c. 1537 by Hans Holbein the Younger. Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid.

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  Desiderius Erasmus by Holbein; Renaissance humanist and influential critic of religious orders. Louvre, Paris.

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  Thomas Cromwell by Hans Holbein: Chief Minister for Henry VIII and Vicegerent in Spirituals; created the administrative machinery for the Dissolution

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  Stogursey Priory in Somerset. An alien priory dissolved in 1414 and granted to Eton College

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  St Radegund's Priory, Cambridge; dissolved in 1496 and converted into Jesus College, Cambridge

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  A portion of the ruins of St Mary's Abbey, York, founded in 1155 and destroyed circa 1539

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  Altarpiece fragments (late 1300 – early 1400) destroyed during the dissolution, mid-16th century.

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  Dorchester Abbey in Oxfordshire; a smaller house with a net income below £200-year, dissolved in 1536 and purchased for a parish church

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  Furness Abbey in Cumbria; dissolved in 1537 and the first of the larger houses to be dissolved by voluntary surrender

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  The suppression of St John's Abbey, Colchester, with the execution of the abbot shown in the background

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  Selby Abbey in Yorkshire, Benedictine abbey, purchased by the town as a parish church

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  Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire, an Augustinian nunnery converted into an aristocratic mansion and country estate

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  Bolton Abbey in Yorkshire, surviving parochial nave and ruined monastic choir

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  Quin Abbey, a Franciscan Friary built in the 15th century and suppressed in 1541

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  Ballintubber Abbey, An Augustinian priory founded in the 13th century, suppressed in 1603 and burned in 1653; but continually re-occupied and used for Catholic services, and re-roofed in the 20th century

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  Ruins of Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire

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  Richard Rich, first chancellor of the Court of Augmentations, established to manage the endowments of former monasteries and pay pensions

See also

In Spanish: Disolución de los monasterios para niños