Expert: Mark Smith - 5/6/2007

Question
What was the court of augmentation and how was it used to dissolve the monasteries? thanks.

Answer
Hello Leyla.
The Court of Augmentations was established in April 1536 by Thomas Cromwell to manage ex-monastic lands and administer their revenues. It had many regional officials who valued the land and property of the dissolved religious houses and delivered their valuations to the Court. The Court then disposed of the land and property either through sale or gift. It soon became the major revenue collecting body in the country raising over £250,000 in 1544. But it began to decline after the death of the King in 1547 and in 1554 it was abolished.
Mark