One of the most shocking changes that Henry VIII made to religion in England was the Dissolutions
of the Monasteries.
He and Thomas Cromwell changed the face of English worship forever as the King sought
to divorce his first wife Catherine of Aragon and then marry Anne Boleyn.
He split from the Pope as he would not grant him his divorce, and during the Dissolution
thousands of monks and nuns were made homeless, and lost their ways of life.
The religious houses were all closed and the riches of the monasteries and abbeys were
seized by the King and were taken by the Crown to fund Henry VIII’s European wars.
But in the North of England, there was a significant protest against The King and his dissolution,
and there were calls for him to revert his changes.
But during this time period there were a huge degree of executions especially of those men
and women who refused to conform to the changes.
One of those men who suffered greatly was the Abbot of Woburn Abbey, Robert Hobbes who
was brutally executed on the orders of the infamous Tudor King.
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Robert Hobbes was born around 1480, and little is known about his early life and childhood.
But he became the Abbot of Woburn Abbey in 1524, after he would have been voted for by
other monks.
Inside of these Abbeys the monks were very pious and they followed strictly the teachings
of the monastery, and usually Abbots were considered the most devoted.
The Abbots role was to run the abbey and the monastery, and Robert Hobbes was in charge
of making sure that at Woburn the religious orders rules were kept, and that good routine
was established adhering to the teachings and rules of the church.
On the 27th January 1530, after being there for 6 years, Hobbes received a royal license
for the Cistercian Woburn Abbey, and he was then allowed to hold 2 yearly fairs in the
town.
These were the highlights of the year in the local area, and it brought the people of the
monastery closer to the locals.
But on the 6th April 1532, Robert Hobbes was also asked by Henry VIII to allow inspections
of his order within Monastery, and at this time Henry VIII was growing rather tired of
his first wife Catherine of Aragon.
Their marriage was around 20 years in length, and it had not produced a son that Henry VIII
greatly craved and wanted.
His eye had been captured by Anne Boleyn, a younger woman at court who Henry greatly
wanted to sleep with.
But Anne refused to take to the King’s bed without the problem of his first marriage
being solved, and ultimately Anne wanted to be the Queen of England in her own right.
Because she refused to engage in relations with Henry VIII, the King and he then petitioned
to the Pope to let him annul or divorce Catherine of Aragon.
The Pope refused to do this and was rather obstinate against this issue, and because
of this Henry VIII was convinced to declare himself the Supreme Head of the Church of
England and outlaw the Pope’s authority in England.
Henry could now do whatever he wanted in terms of religion, and he said the Pope had no power
or rule in England, and he then in November 1534 passed the Act of Supremacy.
With this all prominent members of the clergy had to accept Henry’s new position turning
their back on the Pope.
Henry also made changes to the treason laws in England, and with this he categorised a
large number of crimes in which someone could be executed for treason for.
At one point it was even treason to criticise the King and also his heirs, and many accused
the King of great heresy because of his changes to the Church.
Many across England accepted the changes wisely, and regarded the King as the ultimate authority
over the church.
But there were a number who could not do this, for example Bishop John Fisher and Sir Thomas
More who were ultimately executed for their refusal to support Henry VIII in his changes.
Thomas More was the King’s own chancellor, and a man considered a close friend of the
King, but his refusal to accept the King as the Supreme Head of the Church and also Anne
Boleyn’s marriage to the King led to him being sentenced to death.
More was executed on Tower Hill and was then beheaded, but Henry did regret this killing.
More was very outspoken about the King, and said that he could not deny the Pope’s power,
and if he did his soul would be damned to hell.
Robert Hobbes the Abbot of Woburn Abbey actually sided with the King which was strange, considering
a number of Abbots including the Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey were harder to convince.
This was initially smart, as Henry VIII took brutal action against those who did not accept
the changes to the church.
In June 1534, the Friars of Richmond refused to accept Henry as the Head of the Church,
and with this the King ordered 2 carts full of friars to be hanged drawn and quartered.
Later the Carthusian monks were also killed for the same offence, but Robert Hobbes was
worried about the persecutions that were taking place across England, and he found these upsetting.
The persecutions of prominent Catholics continued, and many leaders of religious houses were
brutally executed.
Thomas Cromwell became the Vicar General, and he was appointed as the King’s number
2 in the church.
He outlawed the power of all the bishops and then ordered inspections of monastic houses
and abbeys.
Cromwell then sent out a number of his investigators to look at different religious houses and
buildings, and they had 86 questions designed to trick monks and abbots.
If they stumbled on one question, then Cromwell would seize the abbey and the wealth and shut
it down.
The Act for the Dissolutions of the Monasteries gave Cromwell the authority to shut down any
religious house in England that initially had an annual income less than £200.
The King and Cromwell would then take all the money from the shutting down of the house,
and would often sell the land cheap to raise money for Henry VIII’s European wars which
cost a large sum of money.
The monasteries were sound as very wealthy, and Cromwell did find that some houses did
contain poor behaviour.
One abbot for example it was claimed was found in bed with a woman at 11 o clock in the morning,
when he was supposed to be celibate.
One Abbot was also found guilty of selling the valuables of the abbey and pocketing the
profits for himself, and also another was described as the drunkest knave in England.
Cromwell then took possession of the houses and the orders, kicked out the monks and nuns,
and then sold of the land cheaply to merchants of nobles.
The Dissolutions of the Monasteries was one of the most savage and largest land grabs
in English history, and it made the King incredibly rich again.
But it ruined the lives of many people, with monks and nuns left homeless.
Some were given a measly pension to look after themselves, but as inflation hit the country
this meant they were incredibly poor.
Those who refused to give over the Abbey were often met with harsher punishment, but the
story of Robert Hobbes the Abbot of Woburn Abbey was rather different.
He was safe as he sided with the King, but as time went on he became more hostile towards
Henry VIII, especially with his treatment of others.
Cromwell then in 1537 sent out his investigators again to the abbey, and they asked local people
about the Abbot.
One man, a former friar named William Sherborne accused Robert Hobbes of being a supporter
of the rebels who were protesting against Henry VIII.
Hobbes was then brought in for interview and he was asked to apologise to the King.
It was said during his interrogation that, ‘‘Hobbes held firm although in some places
it is difficult to establish an exact meaning from the long and rambling depositions of
a man physically ill from strangury, and to disentangle apologies for bluntness of speech
from repentance on points of principle.
It is certain, however that to the very end he remained opposed to the suppression of
the monasteries, the distribution of wretched heretic books by Cromwell and the royal divorce,
all sufficient to make his conviction a formality.
Indeed he confessed his offences and offered no defence.’
So Hobbes was considered ill, and its clear his opinion on the dissolution of the monasteries
and Henry VIII changed.
But because of this, Robert Hobbes was sentenced to death for treason and was hanged drawn
and quartered.
This was incredibly brutal, and then Hobbes was dragged through the streets on a hurdle
in a local town in front of a large crowd.
Many of the onlookers had respect for him, and and he would then have been taken to a
Scaffold where he was to be hanged until almost dead, before he would be cut down.
To add insult to injury for Robert Hobbes, he was taken outside of his Abbey, Woburn
and was then taken to an oak tree at the Abbey’s gate.
He was then hanged from this tree until almost dead and was then cut down.
He was then disembowelled and his entrails and insides were cut out and burned in a fire
next to a scaffold, before he was then beheaded and cut into four pieces.
His remains were sent to four different towns, and his head was probably placed above Woburn
Abbey his former house.
After this the King seized control of the Abbey and all the lands.
But Robert Hobbes is the forgotten abbot of the Dissolutions of the Monasteries who suffered
greatly despite being initially in favour of the King’s changes.
But Henry VIII continued over the following years, and many people were being executed
in England up until the day that he died.
There’s a reason why Henry VIII is known for his executions, and Robert Hobbes was
one of his sorrowful victims.
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