Historian Robert Hutchinson described it as the ‘greatest single piece of privatisation in the history of governance’. 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, appropriated their income, disposed of their assets, and provided for their former personnel and functions. From 1535 to 1539, more than 15,000 nuns and monks were displaced and more than 500 monasteries supressed.
Although corruption allegations were made against the Catholic Church, it could not be denied that monasteries helped to feed the poor, took care of the sick, and provided education to boys in the local community. Therefore, although the Dissolution of the Monasteries doubled Henry VIII’s income and provided the finance required to fund his war against France, as
