Notizen zu dieser Person
Henry VII (Welsh: Harri Tudur; 28 January 1457 - 21 April 1509) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Henry won the throne when his forces defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of England to win his throne on the field of battle. Henry cemented his claim by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV and niece of Richard III. Henry was successful in restoring the power and stability of the English monarchy after the political upheavals of the civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses. He founded the Tudor dynasty and, after a reign of nearly 24 years, was peacefully succeeded by his son, Henry VIII. Although Henry can be credited with the restoration of political stability in England, and a number of commendable administrative, economic and diplomatic initiatives, the latter part of his reign was characterised by a financial rapacity which stretched the bounds of legality. The capriciousness and lack of due process which indebted many in England were soon ended upon Henry VII's death after a commission revealed widespread abuses.[1] According to the contemporary historian Polydore Vergil, simple "greed" in large part underscored the means by which royal control was over-asserted in Henry's final years.[2] Ancestry and early life Henry VII was born at Pembroke Castle on 28 January 1457 to the 13-year-old Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond. His father, Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, died three months before his birth.[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 Henry V. He rose to become one of the "Squires to the Body to the King" after military service at Agincourt.[4] Owen is said to have secretly married the widow of Henry V, Catherine of Valois. One of their sons was Edmund Tudor, father of Henry VII. Edmund was created Earl of Richmond in 1452, and "formally declared legitimate by Parliament".[5] Henry's main claim to the English throne derived from his mother through the House of Beaufort. Henry's mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, was a great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, fourth son of Edward III, and his third wife Katherine Swynford. Katherine was Gaunt's mistress for about 25 years; when they married in 1396, they already had four children, including Henry's great-grandfather John Beaufort. Thus Henry's claim was somewhat tenuous: it was from a woman, and by illegitimate descent. In theory, the Portuguese and Spanish royal families had a better claim (as far as "legitimacy" is concerned)[citation needed] as descendants of Catherine of Lancaster, the daughter of John of Gaunt and his second wife Constance of Castile. Gaunt's nephew Richard II legitimised Gaunt's children by Katherine Swynford by Letters Patent in 1397. In 1407, Henry IV, who was Gaunt's son by his first wife, issued new Letters Patent confirming the legitimacy of his half-siblings, but also declaring them ineligible for the throne.[6] Henry IV's action was of doubtful legality, as the Beauforts were previously legitimised by an Act of Parliament, but it further weakened Henry's claim. Nonetheless, by 1483 Henry was the senior male Lancastrian claimant remaining, after the deaths in battle or by murder or execution of Henry VI, his son Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, and the other Beaufort line of descent through Lady Margaret's uncle, the 2nd Duke of Somerset. Henry also made some political capital out of his Welsh ancestry, for example in attracting military support and safeguarding his army's passage through Wales on its way to the Battle of Bosworth.[7][8] He came from an old-established Anglesey family which claimed descent from Cadwaladr (in legend, the last ancient British king)[9] and on occasion, Henry displayed the red dragon of Cadwaladr.[7] He took it, as well as the standard of St George, on his procession through London after victory at Bosworth.[10] A contemporary writer and Henry's biographer, Bernard André, also made much of Henry's Welsh descent.[9] In reality, however, his hereditary connections to Welsh aristocracy were not strong. He was descended by the paternal line, through several generations, from Ednyfed Fychan, the seneschal (steward) of Gwynedd and through this seneschal's wife from Rhys ap Tewdwr, the King of Deheubarth in South Wales.[11][12][13] His more immediate ancestor Tudur ap Goronwy had aristocratic land rights, but his sons, who were first cousins to Owain Glyndwr, sided with Owain in his revolt. One son was executed and the family land was forfeited. Another son, Henry's great-grandfather, became a butler to the Bishop of Bangor.[10] Owen Tudor, the son of the butler, like the children of other rebels, was provided for by Henry V, a circumstance which precipitated his access to Queen Catherine of Valois.[14] Notwithstanding this lineage, to the bards of Wales, Henry was a candidate for Y Mab Darogan - "The Son of Prophecy" who would free the Welsh from oppression. In 1456, Henry's father Edmund Tudor was captured while fighting for Henry VI in South Wales against the Yorkists. He died in Carmarthen Castle, three months before Henry was born. Henry's uncle Jasper Tudor, the Earl of Pembroke and Edmund's younger brother, undertook to protect the young widow, who was 13 years old when she gave birth to Henry.[15] When Edward IV became King in 1461, Jasper Tudor went into exile abroad. Pembroke Castle, and later the Earldom of Pembroke, were granted to the Yorkist William Herbert, who also assumed the guardianship of Margaret Beaufort and the young Henry.[16] Henry lived in the Herbert household until 1469, when Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (the "Kingmaker"), went over to the Lancastrians. Herbert was captured fighting for the Yorkists and executed by Warwick.[17] When Warwick restored Henry VI in 1470, Jasper Tudor returned from exile and brought Henry to court.[17] When the Yorkist Edward IV regained the throne in 1471, Henry fled with other Lancastrians to Brittany, where he spent most of the next 14 years. Rise to the throne By 1483, his mother, despite being married to a Yorkist (Lord Stanley), was actively promoting Henry as an alternative to Richard III. At Rennes Cathedral on Christmas Day 1483, Henry pledged to marry Edward IV's eldest daughter, Elizabeth of York, who was also Edward's heir since the presumed death of her brothers, the Princes in the Tower (King Edward V and his brother Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York).[18] Henry then received the homage of his supporters. With money and supplies borrowed from his host Francis II, Duke of Brittany, Henry tried to land in England, but his conspiracy unravelled, resulting in the execution of his primary co-conspirator, the Duke of Buckingham.[19] Now supported by Francis II's prime-minister Pierre Landais, Richard III attempted to extradite Henry from Brittany, but Henry escaped to France.[20] He was welcomed by the French, who readily supplied him with troops and equipment for a second invasion. Having gained the support of the Woodvilles, in-laws of the late Edward IV, he sailed with a small French and Scottish force. Henry landed in Mill Bay, Pembrokeshire, close to his birthplace. He marched towards England accompanied by his uncle Jasper and the Earl of Oxford. Wales was traditionally a Lancastrian stronghold, and Henry owed the support he gathered to his Welsh birth and ancestry, being directly descended, through his father, from Rhys ap Gruffydd.[21] He amassed an army of around 5,000 soldiers.[22][23] Henry was aware that his best chance to seize the throne was to engage Richard quickly and defeat him immediately, as Richard had reinforcements in Nottingham and Leicester. Richard only needed to avoid being killed in order to keep his throne. Though outnumbered, Henry's Lancastrian forces decisively defeated Richard's Yorkist army at the Battle of Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485. Several of Richard's key allies, such as the Earl of Northumberland and William and Thomas Stanley, crucially switched sides or left the battlefield. Richard III's death at Bosworth Field effectively ended the Wars of the Roses, although it was not the last battle Henry had to fight. Reign The first concern Henry had was to secure his hold on the throne. He honoured his pledge of December 1483 to marry Elizabeth of York.[19][24] They were third cousins, as both were great-great-grandchildren of John of Gaunt.[25] The marriage took place on 18 January 1486 at Westminster. The marriage unified the warring houses and gave his children a strong claim to the throne. The unification of the houses of York and Lancaster by this marriage is symbolised by the heraldic emblem of the Tudor rose, a combination of the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster. It also ended future discussion as to whether the descendants of the fourth son of Edward III, Edmund, Duke of York, through marriage to Philippa, heiress of the second son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence, had a superior or inferior claim to those of the third son John of Gaunt, who had held the throne for three generations. In addition, Henry had Parliament repeal Titulus Regius, the statute that declared Edward IV's marriage invalid and his children illegitimate, thus legitimising his wife. Amateur historians Bertram Fields and Sir Clements Markham have claimed that he may have been involved in the murder of the Princes in the Tower, as the repeal of Titulus Regius gave the Princes a stronger claim to the throne than his own. Alison Weir, however, points out that the Rennes ceremony, two years earlier, was possible only if Henry and his supporters were certain that the Princes were already dead.[26] Henry's second action was to declare himself king retroactively from August 21, 1485, the day before Bosworth Field.[27] This meant that anyone who had fought for Richard against him would be guilty of treason. Thus, Henry could legally confiscate the lands and property of Richard III while restoring his own. However, he spared Richard's nephew and designated heir, the Earl of Lincoln. He also created Margaret Plantagenet, a Yorkist heiress, Countess of Salisbury sui juris. He took great care not to address the baronage, or summon Parliament, until after his coronation, which took place in Westminster Abbey on 30 October 1485.[28] Almost immediately afterwards, he issued an edict that any gentleman who swore fealty to him would, notwithstanding any previous attainder, be secure in his property and person. Henry secured his crown principally by dividing and undermining the power of the nobility, especially through the aggressive use of bonds and recognisances to secure loyalty. He also enacted laws against livery and maintenance, the great lords' practice of having large numbers of "retainers" who wore their lord's badge or uniform and formed a potential private army. While he was still in Leicester after the battle of Bosworth Field Henry was already taking precautions to avoid any rebellions against his reign. Before leaving Leicester to go to London, Henry dispatched Robert Willoughby to Sheriff Hutton in Yorkshire, to have the fifteen year old Edward, Earl of Warwick, arrested and taken to the Tower of London.[29] Edward was the son of George, duke of Clarence, and as such he presented a threat as a potential rival to the new King Henry VII for the throne of England. However, Henry was threatened by several active rebellions over the next few years. The first was the Rebellion of the Stafford brothers and Viscount Lovell of 1486, which collapsed without fighting.[30] In 1487, Yorkists led by Lincoln rebelled in support of Lambert Simnel, a boy who was claimed to be the Earl of Warwick,[31] son of Edward IV's brother Clarence (who had last been seen as a prisoner in the Tower). The rebellion was defeated and Lincoln killed at the Battle of Stoke. Henry made the boy, Simnel, a servant in the royal kitchen.[32] In 1490, a young Fleming, Perkin Warbeck, appeared and claimed to be Richard, the younger of the "Princes in the Tower". Warbeck won the support of Edward IV's sister Margaret of Burgundy. He led attempted invasions of Ireland in 1491 and England in 1495, and persuaded James IV of Scotland to invade England in 1496. In 1497 Warbeck landed in Cornwall with a few thousand troops, but was soon captured and executed.[33] In 1499, Henry had the Earl of Warwick executed. However, he spared Warwick's elder sister Margaret. She survived until 1541, when she was executed by Henry VIII. Henry married Elizabeth of York with the hope of uniting the Yorkist and Lancastrian sides of the Plantagenet dynastic disputes. In this, he was largely successful. However, such a level of paranoia persisted that anyone (John de la Pole, Earl of Richmond,[34] is an example) with blood ties to the Plantagenets was suspected of coveting the throne.[35] Economics During his reign Henry VII was a fiscally prudent monarch who restored the fortunes of an effectively bankrupt exchequer by introducing ruthlessly efficient mechanisms of taxation. In this he was supported by his chancellor, Archbishop John Morton, whose "Morton's Fork" was a catch-22 method of ensuring that nobles paid increased taxes. Royal government was also reformed with the introduction of the King's Council that kept the nobility in check. Foreign policy Henry VII's policy was both to maintain peace and to create economic prosperity. Up to a point, he succeeded. He was not a military man and had no interest in trying to regain French territories lost during the reigns of his predecessors; he was therefore ready to conclude 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. However, this treaty came at a slight price, as Henry mounted a minor invasion of Brittany in November 1492. Henry decided to keep Brittany out of French hands, signed an alliance with Spain to that end, and sent seven thousand troops to France. However, the confused, fractious nature of Breton politics undermined his efforts, which finally failed after three sizeable expeditions, at a cost of £24,000. However, as France was becoming more concerned with the Italian Wars, the French were happy to agree to the Treaty of Etaples.[36] Henry had been under the financial and physical protection of the French throne or its vassals for most of his life, prior to his ascending the throne of England. 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. By the time of his death, he had amassed a personal fortune of £1.25 million (£949 million as of 2013).[37][38] Henry VII was one of the first European monarchs to recognise the importance of the newly united Spanish kingdom and concluded the Treaty of Medina del Campo (1489), by which his son, Arthur Tudor, was married to Catherine of Aragon. He also concluded the Treaty of Perpetual Peace with Scotland (the first treaty between England and Scotland for almost two centuries), which betrothed his daughter Margaret to King James IV of Scotland. By means of this marriage, Henry VII hoped to break the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France. Though this was not achieved during his reign, the marriage eventually led to the union of the English and Scottish crowns under Margaret's great-grandson, James VI and I following the death of Henry's granddaughter Elizabeth I. He also formed an alliance with Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (1493-1519) and persuaded Pope Innocent VIII to issue a Papal bull of Excommunication against all pretenders to Henry's throne. Trade agreements Henry's most successful diplomatic achievement as regards the economy was the Magnus Intercursus ("great agreement") of 1496. In 1494, Henry embargoed trade (mainly in wool) with the Netherlands as retaliation for Margaret of Burgundy's support of Perkin Warbeck. The Merchant Adventurers, the company which enjoyed the monopoly of the Flemish wool trade, relocated from Antwerp to Calais. At the same time, Flemish merchants were ejected from England. The stand-off eventually paid off for Henry. Both parties realised they were mutually disadvantaged by the reduction in commerce. Its restoration by the Magnus Intercursus was very much to England's benefit in removing taxation for English merchants and significantly increasing England's wealth. In turn, Antwerp became an extremely important trade entrepot, through which, for example, goods from the Baltic, spices from the east and Italian silks were exchanged for English cloth.[39] In 1506, Henry extorted the Treaty of Windsor from Philip the Handsome of Burgundy. Philip had been shipwrecked on the English coast, and while Henry's guest, was bullied into an agreement so favourable to England at the expense of the Netherlands that it was dubbed the Malus Intercursus ("evil agreement"). France, Burgundy, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain and the Hanseatic League all rejected the treaty, which was never in force. Philip died shortly after the negotiations.[40] Henry VII was also enriched by trading alum which was used in the wool and cloth trades for dyeing fabric.[41] Since Europe had only one area where it was mined (Tolfa, Italy), it was a scarce commodity and therefore valuable . Starting in 1486, Henry VII became involved in the alum trade. With the assistance of the Italian merchant-banker, Lodovico della Fava and the Italian banker, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Henry VII became deeply involved in the alum trade by licensing ships, obtaining alum from the Ottoman Empire, and selling it to the Low Countries and England.[42] This trade made an expensive commodity cheaper which raised opposition with Pope Julius II since the Tolfa, Italy alum mine was a part of papal territory thereby giving the Pope monopoly control over alum. Law Enforcement and Justices of Peace Henry's principal problem was to restore royal authority in a realm recovering from the Wars of the Roses. There were too many powerful noblemen and, as a consequence of the system of so-called bastard feudalism, each had what amounted to private armies of indentured retainers (mercenaries masquerading as servants). He was content to allow the nobles their regional influence if they were loyal to him. For instance, the Stanley family had control of Lancashire and Cheshire, upholding the peace on the condition that they stayed within the law. In other cases, he brought his over-powerful subjects to heel by decree. He passed laws against "livery" (the upper classes' flaunting of their adherents by giving them badges and emblems) and "maintenance" (the keeping of too many male "servants"). These laws were used shrewdly in levying fines upon those that he perceived as threats. However, his principal weapon was the Court of Star Chamber. This revived an earlier practice of using a small (and trusted) group of the Privy Council as a personal or Prerogative Court, able to cut through the cumbersome legal system and act swiftly. Serious disputes involving the use of personal power, or threats to royal authority, were thus dealt with.[43] Henry VII used Justices of the Peace on a large, nationwide scale. They were appointed for every shire and served for a year at a time. Their chief task was to see that the laws of the country were obeyed in their area. Their powers and numbers steadily increased during the time of the Tudors, never more so than under Henry’s reign.[44] Despite this, Henry was keen to constrain their power and influence, applying the same principles to the Justices of the Peace as he did to the nobility: a similar system of bonds and recognisances to that which applied to both the gentry and the nobles who tried to exert their elevated influence over these local officials. All Acts of Parliament were overseen by the Justices of the Peace. For example, Justices of the Peace could replace suspect jurors in accordance with the 1495 act preventing the corruption of juries. They were also in charge of various administrative duties, such as the checking of weights and measures. By 1509, Justices of the Peace were key enforcers of law and order for Henry VII. They were unpaid, which, in comparison with modern standards, meant a lesser tax bill to pay for a police force. Local gentry saw the office as one of local influence and prestige and were therefore willing to serve. Overall, this was a successful area of policy for Henry, both in terms of efficiency and as a method of reducing the corruption endemic within the nobility of the Middle Ages. Later years and death In 1502, Henry VII's first son and heir-apparent, Arthur Tudor, died suddenly at Ludlow Castle, very likely from a viral respiratory illness known, at the time, as the "English sweating sickness".[45] This made Henry, Duke of York (Henry VIII) heir-apparent to the throne. The King, normally a reserved man, surprised his courtiers by his intense grief at his son's death, while his concern for the Queen is evidence that the marriage was a happy one.[46] Henry VII wanted to maintain the Spanish alliance. He therefore arranged a papal dispensation from Pope Julius II for Prince Henry to marry his brother's widow Catherine, a relationship that would have otherwise precluded marriage in the Roman Catholic Church. In 1503, Queen Elizabeth died in childbirth, so King Henry had the dispensation also permit him to marry Catherine himself. After obtaining the dispensation, Henry had second thoughts about the marriage of his son and Catherine. Catherine's mother Isabella I of Castile had died and Catherine's sister Joanna had succeeded her; Catherine was therefore daughter of only one reigning monarch and so less desirable as a spouse for Henry VII's heir-apparent. The marriage did not take place during his lifetime. Henry made half-hearted plans to remarry and beget more heirs, but these never came to anything. In 1505 he was sufficiently interested in a potential marriage to Joan, the recently widowed Queen of Naples, that he sent ambassadors to Naples to report on the 27-year old's physical suitability.[47] Despite his efforts at remarriage, there is little doubt that Henry felt genuine grief for his wife; on her death he "privily departed to a solitary place, and would that no man should resort unto him."[48] Henry VII died at Richmond Palace on 21 April 1509 of tuberculosis and was buried at Westminster Abbey.[49] He was succeeded by his second son, Henry VIII (reign 1509-47). Legacy and memory Historians have always compared Henry VII with his continental contemporaries, especially Louis XI of France and Ferdinand II of Aragon. By 1600 historians emphasised Henry's wisdom in drawing lessons in statecraft from other monarchs. By 1900 the "New Monarchy" interpretation stressed the common factors that in each country led to the revival of monarchical power. This approach raised puzzling questions about similarities and differences in the development of national states. In the late 20th century a model of European state formation was prominent in which Henry less resembles Louis and Ferdinand.[50] Issue Henry and Elizabeth's children are: Arthur, Prince of Wales (September 20, 1486 - April 2, 1502). Margaret Tudor (November 28, 1489 - October 18, 1541). Henry VIII of England (June 28, 1491 - January 28, 1547). Elizabeth Tudor (July 2, 1492 - September 14, 1495). Mary Tudor (March 18, 1496 - June 25, 1533). Edmund Tudor, Duke of Somerset (February 21, 1499 - June 19, 1500). Edward Tudor. He may not have actually existed. Unknown dates of birth and death. Suspected to be a mistaken name for Edmund Tudor, Duke of Somerset. However, this name is listed in official records as a child of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Edward is also mentioned in Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy by Alison Weir as having died young. She assumes the child to have been buried with his family in Westminster Abbey. Katherine Tudor (February 2, 1503 - February 2, 1503); Elizabeth died giving birth to Katherine. Further descendants Henry VII's elder surviving daughter Margaret was married first to James IV of Scotland (reigned 1488-1513). Their son became James V of Scotland (reigned 1513-42), whose daughter became Mary, Queen of Scots (reigned 1542-67). Margaret Tudor's second marriage was to Archibald Douglas; their grandson, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley married Mary, Queen of Scots. Their son, James VI of Scotland (reigned 1567-1625), inherited the throne of England as James I (reigned 1603-25) after the death of Henry's granddaughter, Elizabeth I (reigned 1558-1603). After divorcing Douglas, her third and final marriage was to Henry Stewart, with whom she had another daughter, Dorothea Stewart. Henry VII's other surviving daughter, Mary first married King Louis XII of France (reigned 1498-1515), who died after only about three months of marriage. She then married the Duke of Suffolk without the permission of her brother, now King Henry VIII. Their daughter Frances married Henry Grey, and her children included Lady Jane Grey, in whose name her parents and in-laws tried to seize the throne after Edward VI of England (reigned 1547-53) died. The current monarch of the United Kingdom, Elizabeth II, is a direct descendant of Henry VII. The daughter of Henry's double-great-great grandson James I/VI, Elizabeth Stuart, was the mother of Sophia of Hanover whose descendants were the monarchs of the House of Hanover and the succeeding House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha/Windsor. Notes Jump up ^ Thomas Penn. Winter King - Henry VII and The Dawn of Tudor England. p. 371. Simon & Schuster, 2011. ISBN 978-1-4391-9156-9 Jump up ^ Guy, John (1988). "The Tudor Age (1485-1603)". The Oxford History of Britain. pp. 272-273 Jump up ^ Caroline Rogers and Roger Turvey, Henry VII, London: Hodder Murray, 2005 Jump up ^ Kendall, Paul Murray. Richard the Third. p. 13. Jump up ^ Williams, Neville. The Life and Times of Henry VII. p. 17. Jump up ^ Kendall, Paul Murray. Richard the Third. p. 156. ^ Jump up to: a b Chrimes, S.B. Henry VII. p. 3. Jump up ^ Davies, Norman. The Isles - A History. pp. 337-379. ^ Jump up to: a b Mackie, J.D. The Earlier Tudors 1485-1558. p. 47. ^ Jump up to: a b Mackie, J.D. The Earlier Tudors 1485-1558. p. 54. Jump up ^ Chrimes, S.B. Henry VII. p. 4. Jump up ^ Ashley, Mike. The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens. p. 331. Jump up ^ Garmon Jones, W. Welsh Nationalism and Henry Tudor. p. 30. Jump up ^ Chrimes, S.B. Henry VII. pp. 4-5. Jump up ^ Starkey, David. Monarchy: From the Middle Ages to Modernity. p. 4. Jump up ^ Marilee Mongello. "Tudor Monarchs - Henry VII, one". Englishhistory.net. Retrieved 2013-02-07. ^ Jump up to: a b Williams, Neville. The Life and Times of Henry VII. p. 19. Jump up ^ S. B. Chrimes, Henry VII (New Haven, Connecticutt: Yale University Press, 1977) p. 65. ^ Jump up to: a b Williams, Neville. The Life and Times of Henry VII. p. 25. Jump up ^ Kendall, Paul Murray. Richard the Third. p. 297. Jump up ^ Henry's return to Wales was regarded by some as the fulfilment of a Messianic prophecy. Rees, David (1985). The Son of Prophecy: Henry Tudor's Road to Bosworth. London: Black Raven Press. ISBN 0-85159-005-5. Jump up ^ Kendall, Paul Murray. Richard the Third. p. 361. Jump up ^ Estimates of the size of Henry's army at Bosworth vary. Williams, Neville. The Life and Times of Henry VII. p. 31., gives a figure of 'perhaps' 6,000. Jump up ^ S. B. Chrimes, Henry VII, p. 53. Jump up ^ Genealogical tables in Morgan, Kenneth O. The Oxford History of Britain. p. 709. Jump up ^ Weir, Alison (1995). The Princes in the Tower. New York: Ballantine. p. 190. ISBN 0-345-39178-0. Jump up ^ S.. Chrimes, Henry VII, p. 50. Jump up ^ "Westminster Abbey website: Coronations, Henry VII and Elizabeth of York". Retrieved 4 March 2013. Jump up ^ S. B. Chrimes, Henry VII, p. 51. Jump up ^ S. B. Chrimes, Henry VII, p. 69. Jump up ^ S. B. Chrimes, Henry VII, p. 72. Jump up ^ Williams, Neville. The Life and Times of Henry VII. p. 62. Jump up ^ S. B. Chrimes, Henry VII, pp. 69-70. Jump up ^ S. B. Chrimes, p. 72. Jump up ^ Penn 2011, pp. 22-23. Jump up ^ John M. Currin, "'The King's Army into the Partes of Bretaigne': Henry VII and the Breton Wars, 1489-1491," War in History, Nov 2000, Vol. 7 Issue 4, p379-412 Jump up ^ UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Gregory Clark (2013), "What Were the British Earnings and Prices Then? (New Series)" MeasuringWorth. Jump up ^ Weir, Alison. Henry VIII: King and Court. p. 13. Jump up ^ Williams, Neville. The Life and Times of Henry VII. pp. 167-168. Jump up ^ Williams, Neville. The Life and Times of Henry VII. pp. 198-201. Jump up ^ Penn 2011, p. 201 Jump up ^ Penn 2011, p. 203-204. Jump up ^ Williams, Neville. The Life and Times of Henry VII. p. 178. Jump up ^ MacCulloch, Diarmaid (1996). "The Consolidation of England 1485-1603". The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor and Stuart Britain. pp. 39-42 Jump up ^ Penn 2011, p. 70. Jump up ^ Chrimes Henry VII pp.302-4 Jump up ^ Schwarz, Arthur L., VIVAT REX! An Exhibition Commemorating the 500th Anniversary of the Accession of Henry VIII (The Grolier Club, 2009), p. 58 "Henry's Father Searches for a New Wife". Jump up ^ Chrimes Henry VII p.304 Jump up ^ S.B. Chrimes, Henry VII, 313, 314 n5 Jump up ^ Steven Gunn, "Politic history, New Monarchy and state formation: Henry VII in European perspective," Historical Research, Aug 2009, Vol. 82 Issue 217, pp 380-392 Jump up ^ "About Henry VII TUDOR (King of England)". Tudorplace.com.ar. Retrieved 2013-02-07. References Ashley, Mike (2002). British Kings & Queens. Carroll & Graf. pp. 280-286. ISBN 0-7867-1104-3. Chrimes, Stanley B. (1972). Henry VII. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-02266-1. Cunningham, Sean (2007). Henry VII. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-26620-3. Currin, John M. "'The King's Army into the Partes of Bretaigne': Henry VII and the Breton Wars, 1489-1491," War in History, Nov 2000, Vol. 7, Issue 4 Gunn, Steven. "Politic history, New Monarchy and state formation: Henry VII in European perspective," Historical Research, Aug 2009, Vol. 82 Issue 217, pp 380-392 Guy, John (1988). "The Tudor Age (1485-1603)". In Morgan, Kenneth O. The Oxford History of Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-285202-7 Kendall, Paul Murray (1973). Richard the Third. Sphere Books. ISBN 0-351-17095-2. MacCulloch, Diarmaid (1996). "The Consolidation of England 1485-1603". In Morrill, John. The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor and Stuart Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-289327-0 Morgan, Kenneth O. (1988). The Oxford History of Britain. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-285202-7. Morrill, John (1996). The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor and Stuart Britain. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press. Penn, Thomas (2011.). Winter King - Henry VII and The Dawn of Tudor England. London: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4391-9156-9 Rogers, Caroline; Turvey, Roger (2000). Henry VII. London: Hodder & Stoughton Educational. ISBN 0-340-75381-1. Starkey, David (2006). Monarchy: From the Middle Ages to Modernity. New York, NY: Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-00-724766-4. Towle, Carolyn; Hunt, Jocelyn (1998). Henry VII. New York: Longman. ISBN 0-582-29691-9. Weir, Alison (2002). Henry VIII: King and Court. London: Pimlico. ISBN 0-7126-6451-3. Weir, Alison (1995). The Princes in the Tower. New York: Ballantine. ISBN 0-345-39178-0. Williams, Neville (1973). The Life and Times of Henry VII. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-76517-5. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Another version: Henry VII, also called (1457-85) Henry Tudor, Earl Of Richmond, 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. Henry, son of Edmund Tudor, earl of Richmond, and Margaret Beaufort, was born nearly three months after his father's death. His father was the son of Owen Tudor, a Welsh squire, and Catherine of France, the widow of King Henry V. His mother was the great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, whose children by Catherine Swynford were born before he married her. Henry IV had confirmed Richard II's legitimation (1397) of the children of this union but had specifically excluded the Beauforts from any claim to the throne (1407). Henry Tudor's claim to the throne was, therefore, weak and of no importance until the deaths in 1471 of Henry VI's 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. As his mother was only 14 when he was born and soon married again, Henry was brought up by his uncle Jasper Tudor, earl of Pembroke. When the Lancastrian cause crashed to disaster at the Battle of Tewkesbury (May 1471), Jasper took the boy out of the country and sought refuge in the duchy of Brittany. The House of York then appeared so firmly established that Henry seemed likely to remain in exile for the rest of his life. The usurpation of Richard III (1483), however, split the Yorkist party and gave Henry his opportunity. His first chance came in 1483 when his aid was sought to rally Lancastrians in support of the rebellion of Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham, but that revolt was defeated before Henry could land in England. 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. In 1485 Henry landed at Milford Haven in Wales and advanced toward London. Thanks largely to the desertion of his stepfather, Lord Stanley, to him, he defeated and slew Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth on Aug. 22, 1485. Claiming the throne by just title of inheritance and by the judgment of God in battle, he was crowned on October 30 and secured parliamentary recognition of his title early in November. Having established his claim to be king in his own right, he married Elizabeth of York on Jan. 18, 1486. Henry's throne, however, was far from secure. Many influential Yorkists had been dispossessed and disappointed by the change of regime, and there had been so many reversals of fortune within living memory that the decision of Bosworth did not appear necessarily final. Yorkist malcontents had strength in the north of England and in Ireland and had a powerful ally in Richard III's sister Margaret, dowager duchess of Burgundy. All the powers of Europe doubted Henry's ability to survive, and most were willing to shelter claimants against him. Hence, the King was plagued with conspiracies until nearly the end of his reign. The first rising, that of Lord Lovell, Richard III's chamberlain, in 1486 was ill prepared and unimportant; but in 1487 came the much more serious revolt of Lambert Simnel. Claiming to be Edward, earl of Warwick, the son of Richard III's elder brother, George, duke of Clarence, he had the formidable support of John de la Pole, earl of Lincoln, Richard III's heir designate, of many Irish chieftains, and of 2,000 German mercenaries paid for by Margaret of Burgundy. The rebels were defeated (June 1487) in a hard-fought battle at Stoke (East Stoke, near Newark in Nottinghamshire), where the doubtful loyalty of some of the royal troops was reminiscent of Richard III's difficulties at Bosworth. Henry, recognizing that Simnel had been a mere dupe, employed him in the royal kitchens. Then in 1491 appeared a still more serious menace: Perkin Warbeck, coached by Margaret to impersonate Richard, the younger son of Edward IV. Supported at one time or another by France, by Maximilian I of Austria, regent of the Netherlands (Holy Roman emperor from 1493), by James IV of Scotland, and by powerful men in both Ireland and England, Perkin three times invaded England before he was captured at Beaulieu in Hampshire in 1497. Henry was also worried by the treason of Edmund de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, the eldest surviving son of Edward IV's sister Elizabeth, who fled to the Netherlands (1499) and was supported by Maximilian. Doubtless the plotters were encouraged by the deaths of Henry's sons in 1500 and 1502, and of his wife in 1503. It was not until 1506, when he imprisoned Suffolk in the Tower of London, that Henry could at last feel safe. When he died, his only surviving son, Henry VIII, succeeded him without a breath of opposition. In the early years of his reign, in a vain attempt to prevent the incorporation of the duchy of Brittany into France, Henry found himself drawn along with Spain and the Holy Roman emperor into a war against France. But he realized that war was a hazardous activity for one whose crown was both impoverished and insecure, and in 1492 he made peace with France on terms that brought him recognition of his dynasty and a handsome pension. Thereafter, French preoccupation with adventures in Italy made peaceful relations possible, but the support that Maximilian and James IV gave to Warbeck led to sharp quarrels with the Netherlands and Scotland. The economic importance of England for the Netherlands enabled Henry to induce Maximilian and the Netherlands to abandon the pretender in 1496 and to conclude a treaty of peace and freer trade (the Intercursus Magnus). With Scotland the long tradition of hostility was harder to overcome; but Henry eventually succeeded in concluding in 1499 a treaty of peace, followed in 1502 by a treaty for the marriage of James IV to Henry's daughter Margaret. James's consent to the match may have been fostered by the arrival in England of Catherine of Aragon for her marriage with Prince Arthur in 1501. Spain had recently sprung into the first rank of European powers, so a marriage alliance with Spain enhanced the prestige of the Tudor dynasty, and the fact that in 1501 the Spanish monarchs allowed the marriage to take place is a tribute to the growing strength of the Tudor regime in the eyes of the European powers. After Arthur's death in 1502, Henry was in a strong position to insist on the marriage of Catherine to his surviving son, Henry (later King Henry VIII), since he had possession both of Catherine's person and of half her dowry, and Spain needed English support against France. Indeed, in these last years of his reign, Henry had gained such confidence in his position that he indulged in some wild schemes of matrimonial diplomacy. But the caution of a lifetime kept him from involvement in war, and his foreign policy as a whole must not be judged by such late aberrations. He had used his diplomacy not only to safeguard the dynasty but to enrich his country, using every opportunity to promote English trade by making commercial treaties. He made his country so prosperous and powerful that he was able to betroth his daughter Mary to the archduke Charles (afterward Emperor Charles V), the greatest match of the age. In home affairs Henry achieved striking results largely by traditional methods. Like Edward IV, Henry saw that the crown must be able to display both splendour and power when occasion required. This necessitated wealth, which would also free the king from embarrassing dependence on Parliament and creditors. Solvency could be sought by economy in expenditure, such as avoidance of war and promotion of efficiency in administration, and by increasing the revenue. To increase his income from customs dues, Henry tried to encourage exports, protect home industries, help English shipping by the time-honoured method of a navigation act to ensure that English goods were carried in English ships, and find new markets by assisting John Cabot and his sons in their voyages of discovery. More fruitful was the vigorous assertion of royal fiscal rights, such as legal fees, fines and amercements, and feudal dues. This was largely achieved by continuing Yorkist methods in ordering most of the royal revenue to be paid into the chamber of the household, administered by able and energetic servants and supervised by the king himself, instead of into the royal exchequer, hidebound by tradition. So efficient and ruthless were Henry's financial methods that he left a fortune to his successor and a legacy of hatred for some of his financial ministers. In restoring order after the civil wars, Henry used more traditional methods than was once thought. Like the Yorkist kings, he made use of a large council, presided over by himself, in which lawyers, clerics, and lesser gentry were active members. Sitting as the Court of Star Chamber, the council dealt with judicial matters, but less than was formerly thought. Nearly all the heavy fines levied for the illegal retaining of armed men toward the end of his reign were imposed in the Court of King's Bench and by the justices of assize. Special arrangements were made for hearing poor men's causes in the council and for trying to promote better order in Wales and the North by setting up special councils there; and more powers were entrusted to the justices of the peace. The King, moreover, could not destroy the institution of retainers since he depended on them for much of his army and society regarded them as natural adjuncts of rank. So Henry's government was conservative, as it was in its relations with Parliament and with the church. The whole of Henry's youth had been spent in conditions of adversity, often in danger of betrayal and death, and usually in a state of poverty. These experiences, together with the uncertainties of his reign, taught him to be secretive and wary, to subordinate his passions and affections to calculation and policy, to be always patient and vigilant. There is evidence that he was interested in scholarship, that he could be affable and gracious, and that he disliked bloodshed and severity; but all these emotions had to give way to the needs of survival. The extant portraits and descriptions suggest a tired and anxious-looking man, with small blue eyes, bad teeth, and thin white hair. His experiences and needs had also made him acquisitive, a trait that increased with age and success, and one that was opportune for both the crown and the realm. Encyclopædia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite.
William B.
