Henry VII (England) (1457–1509; Ruled 1485–1509)

HENRY VII (ENGLAND) (1457–1509; ruled 1485–1509)

HENRY VII (ENGLAND) (1457–1509; ruled 1485–1509), king of England. Henry Tudor, later earl of Richmond, was born in Pembroke Castle, Wales, on 28 January 1457, the son of Edmund Tudor and Margaret Beaufort. He was directly related to the Lancastrian royal family through both his mother and his father and, as such, became a key figure in the dynastic struggles of the Wars of the Roses. In 1471, with his uncle Jasper, he was forced to flee to the Continent when the Yorkist Edward IV (ruled 1461–1470; 1471–1483) recaptured the throne from Henry VI (ruled 1422–1461; 1470–1471). The next fourteen years of his life were spent in exile, first in Brittany, then in France, before he set sail at the head of a small band of English exiles and French mercenaries in August 1485 to capture the English throne. On 22 August he defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field and was crowned king of England.

On 18 January 1486 Henry married Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, to fulfill a promise made in exile to unite the warring houses of York and Lancaster. Despite this, Henry still faced challenges to his rule from disaffected Yorkists. The first serious rebellion came in 1487 when Lambert Simnel, claiming to be the Yorkist earl of Warwick, was crowned king of England in Dublin. Henry defeated Simnel and his followers at the Battle of Stoke in June. A more serious challenge came in the person of Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be Edward IV's youngest son, Richard. Aided by Margaret, dowager duchess of Burgundy, and the Scottish king, James IV (ruled 1488–1513), Warbeck attempted invasions of England in 1495 and 1497 but was eventually captured and imprisoned in the Tower. The Tudor succession was, however, further threatened in April 1502 by the death of Henry's eldest son, Arthur (born 19 September 1486), and by a continuation of Yorkist claims in the person of Edmund de la Pole, earl of Suffolk. Most of the diplomatic efforts of the latter part of Henry's reign were designed to secure the succession: first, by ensuring that foreign princes did not support his dynastic opponents, and second, by arranging a marriage between his second son, Henry, and Arthur's widow, Catherine of Aragon.

Traditionally, the reign of Henry VII has been seen as the end of the Middle Ages in England and the beginning of the "New Monarchy" of the Tudors. In three ways the monarchy of Henry VII was seen to be significantly new. First, Henry was alleged to have broken the power of the "overmighty" nobility, largely responsible for the Wars of the Roses. Second, he introduced "modern" bureaucratic methods of government, rescuing the crown from the financial crisis of the mid-fifteenth century and putting the monarchy on a secure fiscal base. Finally, Henry rejected the traditional bellicosity of English kings and sought to strengthen England's position in Europe through diplomatic and trading alliances. More recent accounts, however, have stressed the continuity of Henry's reign, especially with his Yorkist predecessor, Edward IV. His continued reliance on his nobility as the essential link between the crown and the localities has been stressed, while the novelty of his financial policies has been downplayed. Moreover, by invading France in 1492 and waging war with Scotland in 1496, Henry could be seen to be continuing the traditional policies of English medieval kings.

Nevertheless, Henry's policies represented, in some respects, a significant break from the past. He used the crown's landed patrimony, augmented through forfeitures and dynastic accident in the fifteenth century, to build up the crown's military and political strength in the localities, at times riding roughshod over local sensibilities. Henry's willingness to tax his subjects led to rebellion in 1489 and 1497, and his use of suspended financial penalties ensured that most of the nobility and much of the wider political nation were bound to the king by the early 1500s. At his death Henry had amassed a fortune, probably in excess of one million pounds. While these policies may have caused resentment and unrest in certain parts of the realm, there were no significant plots or rebellions within England after 1499.

Henry died on 22 April 1509, although his death was kept secret while his unpopular ministers, Empson and Dudley, were deposed in a palace coup. A measure of his success in establishing a new dynasty on the English throne must be that he was the first English king since Henry V (ruled 1413–1422) to pass the throne undisputed to his son and heir, who was to reign as Henry VIII (ruled 1509–1547).

See also Henry VIII (England) ; Tudor Dynasty (England) .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carpenter, Christine. "Henry VII and the End of the Wars." In The Wars of the Roses: Politics and the Constitution c. 1437–1509, edited by Christine Carpenter. Cambridge, U.K., and New York, 1997. Hostile analysis of Henry's reign.

Chrimes, S. B. Henry VII. New Haven and London, 1999. Standard biography of Henry, strong on administration but lacking in analysis of politics.

Condon, Margaret. "Ruling Elites in the Reign of Henry VII." In The Tudor Monarchy, edited by John Guy. London, 1997.

Cunningham, S. "Henry VII and Rebellion in North-Eastern England, 1485–1492: Bonds of Allegiance and the Establishment of Tudor Authority." Northern History 32 (1996): 42–74.

Grummitt, David. "'For the Surety of the Towne and Marches': Early Tudor Policy towards Calais 1485–1509." Nottingham Medieval Studies 44 (2000): 184–203.

——. "Henry VII, 'Chamber Finance and the New Monarchy': Some New Evidence." Historical Research 72 (1999): 229–243.

Gunn, S. J. "The Accession of Henry VIII." Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 64 (1991): 278–288.

——. "The Courtiers of Henry VII." English Historical Review 108 (1993): 23–49; reprinted in The Tudor Monarchy, edited by John Guy (1997).

——. "Sir Thomas Lovell (c. 1449–1524): A New Man in a New Monarchy?" In The End of the Middle Ages, edited by John L. Watts, pp. 117–153. Stroud, U.K., 1998.

Jones, M. K., and M. G. Underwood. The King's Mother: Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby. Cambridge, U.K., and New York, 1992. Biography of Henry's mother and analysis of her important role in the formation of the Tudor regime.

Luckett, D. A. "Crown Office and Licensed Retinues in the Reign of Henry VII." In Rulers and Ruled in Late Medieval England, edited by Rowena Archer and Simon Walker, pp. 223–238. London, 1995.

——. "Crown Patronage and Political Morality in Early Tudor England: The Case of Giles, Lord Daubeney." English Historical Review 110 (1995): 578–595.

Pugh, T. B. "Henry VII and the English Nobility." In The Tudor Nobility, edited by G. W. Bernard, pp. 49–101. Manchester, 1992.

Thompson, B., ed. The Reign of Henry VII. Stamford, 1995. Especially the introduction and the contributions of Christine Carpenter, Dominic Luckett, and John Watts.

David Grummitt