In 1485, history was about to be changed for ever by a man who was a refugee, a fugitive whod spent half his life on the run and with barely a claim to the throne: Henry Tudor. However, King Henry the VIII was much more self-centered as most of his spending was inappropriate and did not benefit England much. For many he remained a usurper, a false king. The portly Henry VIII, and the ill-fated destinies of most of his six wives, is one of the first historical figures primary-aged pupils are aware of.. Penn went on to show Henry VIIs wax funeral effigy, which I saw on my recent trip to London, and which shows his fine-boned features and his crooked eye, but also a face bearing the signs of stress and illness. Henry VIII had become heir to the throne when his elder brother, Arthur, died in 1502. Henry VIII, (born June 28, 1491, Greenwich, near London, Englanddied January 28, 1547, London), king of England (1509-47) who presided over the beginnings of the English Renaissance and the English Reformation. It's difficult to get a handle on Henry VII. February 7 Sir Francis Bryan loses an eye and Henry VIII has a new love, An interview with historical novelist Sandra Byrd, Henry VIII and His Six Wives event open for registration. This book was way too focused on what happened, but not so much on the why or why it was important. After Wolf Hall, I wanted to find out about Henry VII, the lesser-studied father of Henry VIII, who founded the Tudor Dynasty. This family took a dim view of Henry and it was John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, who instigated the first rebellion against him. Penn explained that the marriage had been one of genuine love and that Henry was shattered by his wifes death. Hed achieved the impossible, hed risen from refugee to King of England. [76] He was succeeded by his second son, Henry VIII (reigned 150947), who would initiate the Protestant Reformation in England. However, with the help of the forces of his step-father, Lord Stanley, he defeated Richard and Richard was killed on the battlefield. The future Henry VIII, in contrast,. After his victory at Bosworth Field, Henry married Edward IV's daughter Elizabeth of York. She was Edward's heir since the presumed death of her brothers, the Princes in the Tower, King Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York. Happy St Davids Day! For many he remained a usurper, a false king. Inadvertently, he provoked a revolution. The insurrections fronted by the pretenders Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck emerged from wide and formidable networks of conspiracy that drew in foreign rulers and leading English magnates, and infiltrated Henry's court. [54], Henry VII was much enriched by trading alum, which was used in the wool and cloth trades as a chemical fixative for dyeing fabrics. Who could have expected that he would rule for 24 years, die in his bed, bequeath the first orderly succession to the throne for nearly a century, and found a famous dynasty? The usual courts and justice system were totally circumvented, and there was no chance of appeal other than purchasing extremely high priced royal pardons. Thus, Henry Tudor had no choice but to gather together an army including mercenary soldiers as well as his own supporters, and he landed in Wales in August, 1485. [75], Henry VII died of tuberculosis at Richmond Palace on 21 April 1509 and was buried in the chapel he commissioned in Westminster Abbey next to his wife, Elizabeth. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Henry VII introduced stability to the financial administration of England by keeping the same financial advisors throughout his reign. Henrys throne, however, was far from secure. [51], Henry VII was one of the first European monarchs to recognise the importance of the newly united Spanish kingdom; he concluded the Treaty of Medina del Campo, by which his son Arthur, Prince of Wales, was married to Catherine of Aragon. All the information is from Thomas Penn. Having secured financial backing from Florentine bankers in London, Cabot was granted carefully phrased letters patent from Henry in March 1496, permitting him to embark on an exploratory voyage westerly. After winning the throne of England, he wed Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of the dead Yorkist king Edward IV. Henry restored power and stability to the English monarchy following the civil war. Henry VII, also called (1457-85) Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond, (born January 28, 1457, Pembroke Castle, Pembrokeshire, Walesdied April 21, 1509, Richmond, Surrey, England), king of England (1485-1509), who succeeded in ending the Wars of the Roses between the houses of Lancaster and York and founded the Tudor dynasty. In 1502 the death of his heir Arthur left the dynasty's prospects with Arthur's 10-year-old brother, Henry. [36] However, he spared Warwick's elder sister Margaret, who survived until 1541 when she was executed by Henry VIII. From his victory over Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth, to his secret death and the succession of his son Henry VIII, the film reveals the ruthless tactics . [59][60][61], He was content to allow the nobles their regional influence if they were loyal to him. At any rate, the Wars of the Roses had ended with a victory by which the winner took all, and regardless of his somewhat dubious Plantagenet ancestry. ||sitemap_index.xml He was crowned on October 30 and secured parliamentary recognition of his title early in November. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. [16] With money and supplies borrowed from his host, Francis II of Brittany, Henry tried to land in England, but his conspiracy unravelled resulting in the execution of his primary co-conspirator, Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. They were third cousins, as both were great-great-grandchildren of John of Gaunt. He had brought the country to the brink of dynastic ambition, but not quite, so his closest advisers kept his death secret until St Georges Day, the annual meeting of the Order of the Garter. Henry was thus handed over to English envoys and escorted to the Breton port of Saint-Malo. Henry Tudors claim to the throne was, therefore, weak and of no importance until the deaths in 1471 of Henry VIs only son, Edward, of his own two remaining kinsmen of the Beaufort line, and of Henry VI himself, which suddenly made Henry Tudor the sole surviving male with any ancestral claim to the house of Lancaster. Then in 1491 appeared a still more serious menace: Perkin Warbeck, coached by Margaret to impersonate Richard, the younger son of Edward IV. [citation needed] Nonetheless, by 1483 Henry was the senior male Lancastrian claimant remaining after the deaths in battle, by murder or execution of Henry VI (son of Henry V and Catherine of Valois), his son Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, and the other Beaufort line of descent through Lady Margaret's uncle, Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset. The king's own death seven years later had to be kept secret until his nervous entourage had ensured the succession. He was, said Penn, a man who never knew a moments peace during his reign. Author Thomas Penn takes an extraordinary journey into the dark and chilling world of the first Tudor King, Henry VII. He had finished his palace of Richmond, he was controlling his allies and keeping an eye on his enemies, and now was the time to finalise the marriage agreement between England and Spain. Yet Henry's techniques of power went beyond the needs of surveillance and survival. For instance, the Stanley family had control of Lancashire and Cheshire, upholding the peace on the condition that they stayed within the law. Celebrating the release of The Colour of Bone A London Charnel House. [3] Henry's paternal grandfather, Owen Tudor, originally from the Tudors of Penmynydd, Isle of Anglesey in Wales, had been a page in the court of King Henry V. He rose to become one of the "Squires to the Body to the King" after military service at the Battle of Agincourt. To strengthen his position, however, he subsidised shipbuilding, so strengthening the navy (he commissioned Europe's first ever and the world's oldest surviving dry dock at Portsmouth in 1495) and improving trading opportunities. Henry VII shut himself away in Richmond Palace from January 1509 and at 11pm on Saturday 21st April 1509 he died. [46] In 1506 he resumed the construction of King's College Chapel, Cambridge, started under Henry VI, guaranteeing finances which would continue even after his death. I've never read much on the reign of Henry VII - mostly because to really get to grips with his policies, you first have to get to grips with his exhaustively complicated financial policies - but Penn provides a wonderful accessibility through his writing, which provides valuable context to the man who founded England's most famous dynasty. There he claimed sanctuary until the envoys were forced to depart. Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England by Thomas Penn - review To unite the opponents of Richard III, Henry had promised to marry Elizabeth of York, eldest daughter of Edward IV; and the coalition of Yorkists and Lancastrians continued, helped by French support, since Richard III talked of invading France. A man who rewrote history and rebuilt the crown, but who was paranoid, manipulative and suspicious; a dark prince with a wintery reign. This meant that Henry had been the rightful King in the battle and that Richard had been the usurper, and those who supported him had been traitors. The dispute eventually paid off for Henry. Soon after his fathers burial on 10 May, Henry suddenly declared that he would indeed marry Catherine, leaving unresolved several issues concerning the papal dispensation and a missing part of the marriage portion. He became paranoid and made the decision that if his people couldnt love him then they should fear him. He had unified the kingdom, accrued immense wealth and created the most notorious dynasty in English history: the Tudors. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. [14] In November 1476, Francis fell ill and his principal advisers were more amenable to negotiating with King Edward. [44] Following Henry VII's death, Henry VIII executed Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley, his two most hated tax collectors, on trumped-up charges of treason. He had gone from a refugee landing on an isolated beach in Wales to being a great king. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Henry VII declared himself king by just title of inheritance and by the judgment of God in battle, after slaying Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. Henry was also worried by the treason of Edmund de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, the eldest surviving son of Edward IVs sister Elizabeth, who fled to the Netherlands (1499) and was supported by Maximilian. His claim to the throne was precarious and he wanted to portray Richard . I really enjoyed it. Why was Henry VII called the Winter King? If Penn's interpretation can sometimes seem slanted, its exposition would be hard to over-praise. BBC Two - Henry VII: The Winter King, Backdating Henry's Reign Henry VII | Biography & Facts | Britannica (1): (April 24, 1883. Alison Weir points out that the Rennes ceremony, two years earlier, was plausible only if Henry and his supporters were certain that the Princes were already dead. [citation needed], In 1502, Henry VII's life took a difficult and personal turn in which many people he was close to died in quick succession. The devastated King became so ill that he was close to death, but then he recovered and Penn explains that when he took control once more, he was remorseless. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.[a]. I found this really interesting, but Im a history nut. [32], Next, in 1487, Yorkists led by Lincoln rebelled in support of Lambert Simnel, a boy they claimed to be Edward of Warwick (who was actually a prisoner in the Tower). When he met Richard III at Bosworth Field, Henry found that his army of dissidents and mercenaries was completely outnumbered. In 1501, England had been ravaged for decades by conspiracy, coups . The first rising, that of Lord Lovell, Richard IIIs chamberlain, in 1486 was ill-prepared and unimportant, but in 1487 came the much more serious revolt of Lambert Simnel. Shakespeare, drawn to the colour on either side of the reign, skipped it. A fresh look at the endlessly fascinating Tudorsthe dramatic and overlooked story of Henry VII and his founding of the Tudor Dynastyfilled with spies, plots, counterplots, and an uneasy royal succession to Henry VIII. In 1621 Francis Bacon's history of. There were some sections I had to skim because I didn't feel they were relevant to the storyline, but mostly I was hooked into this very complex King. Henry VII Facts, Information & Biography - Tudor Monarchs - English History Two themes of his book preside: the permanent vulnerability of Henry's regime, and his ruthless methods of rule. The usurpation of Richard III (1483), however, split the Yorkist party and gave Henry his opportunity. Through this, he found that his Lord Chamberlain, Sir William Stanley, was involved in the plot. This battle saw the end of the Wars of the Roses which had brought instability to England. Detailed Information. Henry VII - History Learning Site With the English economy heavily invested in wool production, Henry VII became involved in the alum trade in 1486. [20] He amassed an army of about 5,0006,000 soldiers. It was really very well researched and painstakingly written. The 6 Main Achievements of Henry VII | History Hit While there, he feigned stomach cramps and delayed his departure long enough to miss the tides. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. For Henry VII, it was all about the money and stability. Henry VII (28 January 1457 - 21 April 1509) was King of England from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. Scapegoats were needed for Henry VIIs reign, people to blame for the old regime, so Edmund Dudley was imprisoned and executed on trumped up charges. Blair Worden's The English Civil Wars is published by Phoenix. This is why he named the book the Winter King. [48], Henry later concluded a treaty with France at Etaples that brought money into the coffers of England, and ensured the French would not support pretenders to the English throne, such as Perkin Warbeck. Stanleys betrayal led to a complete security overhaul and his privy chamber going into lockdown. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Henry VII was the King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 to his death.