Henry VII: The Winter King - Amazon Prime Video Musings on History - Henry VII - Learn for Pleasure Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Penn's picture of a reign of terror carries disturbing echoes of the Roman historian Tacitus's account of the emperor Tiberius, another ruler whose abridgements of liberty followed an era of civil strife. [39] Despite this, during his reign he became a fiscally prudent monarch who restored the fortunes of an effectively bankrupt exchequer. [58], Henry's principal problem was to restore royal authority in a realm recovering from the Wars of the Roses. Interesting look at the founder of the Tudor dynesty. There's a (relatively) brief explanation of Henry's rather tumultuous childhood and his rise to the throne, before Penn really gets into the nitty gritty details during the second half of Henry's reign, focusing on his intricate foreign policy, his increasing use of finance as a means of control over his subjects and, most entertaining to me, the various plots and conspiracies of Henry's enemies. All the powers of Europe doubted Henrys ability to survive, and most were willing to shelter claimants against him. Henrys throne, however, was far from secure. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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. The Winter King is also the title of a book by Thomas Penn, and a useful read. [68] In 1505 he was sufficiently interested in a potential marriage to Joanna of Naples that he sent ambassadors to Naples to report on the 27-year-old Joanna's physical suitability. Both were survivors and as united in death as in life, as their tomb in Westminster Abbey illustrates. [a] Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufort, was a descendant of the Lancastrian branch of the House of Plantagenet. Claire is going live on YouTube on 11 February! I had an idea Henry VII was a force for stability; in fact he was a terrifying kleptocrat, abusing the law with arbitrary fines and imprisonment, scheming to effectively steal entire estates and wring every penny out of subjects as well as impose political control through financial means. [8], In 1456, Henry's father Edmund Tudor was captured while fighting for Henry VI in South Wales against the Yorkists. 1517. Story's register still exists and, according to the 19th-century historian W.R.W. You can find out more on the conflicts between England and France, the Wars of the Roses and also the Tudors in our history courses. 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. The baby died and Elizabeth, herself, died on 11th February 1503, her 37th birthday. The King, normally a reserved man who rarely showed much emotion in public unless angry, surprised his courtiers by his intense grief and sobbing at his son's death, while his concern for the Queen is evidence that the marriage was a happy one, as is his reaction to Queen Elizabeth's death the following year, when he shut himself away for several days, refusing to speak to anyone. His spies and informers were everywhere. Since he was the second son, and not expected to become king, we know little of his childhood until the death of his older brother Arthur, Prince of Wales. [22] Thus, anyone who had fought for Richard against him would be guilty of treason and Henry could legally confiscate the lands and property of Richard III, while restoring his own. Hed achieved the impossible, hed risen from refugee to King of England. Elizabeth of York was Queen consort of England as spouse of King Henry VII from 1486 until her death on February 11th, 1503. After his death, a commission found widespread abuses in the tax collection process. ||Wordpress installation and design by http://www.MadeGlobal.com, FREE Anne Boleyn The Great Debasement (1544-1551) was a currency debasement policy introduced in 1544 England under the order of Henry VIII which saw the amount of precious metal in gold and silver coins reduced and in some cases replaced entirely with cheaper base metals such as copper. [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. Thank you for subscribing. After his victory at Bosworth Field, Henry married Edward IVs daughter Elizabeth of York. 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. Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England by Thomas Penn - review [41] Henry also increased wealth by acquiring land through the act of resumption of 1486 which had been delayed as he focused on defence of the Church, his person and his realm. Their powers and numbers steadily increased during the time of the Tudors, never more so than under Henry's reign. What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! Raised in France, admiring of Italian-trained lawyers (and reaping the reward of the return of a whole generation of educated English commoners who sat out the War of the Roses abroad), with good taste in Renaissance art and advised by his gracious wife and steely mother, Henry VII is a major figure, not a prequel. In 1621 Francis Bacon's history of. Henry VII The Winter King is also the title of a book by Thomas Penn, and a useful read. 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. [citation needed], Henry also made some political capital out of his Welsh ancestry in attracting military support and safeguarding his army's passage through Wales on its way to the Battle of Bosworth. Why did the nobility accept the curtailment of the military power it had wielded in the wars of the roses and swallow the elevation of upstarts at Henry's court? Corrections? In my never-ending quest to read possibly every single published book on the Tudor monarchy, I spied this little gem a few weeks ago and picked it up. Henry was the only child of Edmund Tudor , Earl of Richmond , and Margaret Beaufort . The reigns of his three predecessors were interrupted or foreshortened. On the debit side, he may have looked a little delicate as he suffered from poor health. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Henry VII, also called (145785) Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond, (born January 28, 1457, Pembroke Castle, Pembrokeshire, Walesdied April 21, 1509, Richmond, Surrey, England), king of England (14851509), who succeeded in ending the Wars of the Roses between the houses of Lancaster and York and founded the Tudor dynasty. One of their sons was Edmund, Henry's father. Fittingly he dressed in expensive black. But, his enemies didnt agree. Henry decided to keep Brittany out of French hands, signed an alliance with Spain to that end, and sent 6,000 troops to France. [59][60][61], He was content to allow the nobles their regional influence if they were loyal to him. [72] Immediately afterwards, Henry became very sick and nearly died himself, allowing only his mother Margaret Beaufort near him: "privily departed to a solitary place, and would that no man should resort unto him. Henry needed an heir to secure his reign and fortunately an heir came quickly. This book is a nonfiction look at King Henry the VII. If he trusted anyone, it would be his queen and why not, since both had so much in common both being familiar with being in sanctuary, and pawns in the game of power? Doubtless the plotters were encouraged by the deaths of Henrys sons in 1500 and 1502 and of his wife in 1503. His younger brother, Jasper Tudor, the Earl of Pembroke, undertook to protect Edmund's widow Margaret, who was 13 years old when she gave birth to Henry. Henry VII: The Winter King. Then in 1491 appeared a still more serious menace: Perkin Warbeck, coached by Margaret to impersonate Richard, the younger son of Edward IV. Wow, it was like being battered by facts without remission for good intentions. During his 23-year reign, Henry had only two Lord High Treasurers, and this continuity helped provide stability. Together, they had seven children. [52] 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 Tudor to King James IV of Scotland. Their main aim was money. In the late 20th century a model of European state formation was prominent in which Henry less resembles Louis and Ferdinand. However, with the help of the forces of his step-father, Lord Stanley, he defeated Richard and Richard was killed on the battlefield. [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. He created the Tudor dynasty. For example, they could replace suspect jurors in accordance with the 1495 act preventing the corruption of juries. In 1497 Warbeck landed in Cornwall with a few thousand troops, but was soon captured and executed. Stanley was accused of supporting Warbeck's cause, arrested and later executed. The usurpation of Richard III (1483), however, split the Yorkist party and gave Henry his opportunity. Henry VIII and the Break with Rome Timeline - History Penn then moved on to how Henry became King. He had unified the kingdom, accrued immense wealth and created the most notorious dynasty in English history: the Tudors. They did as much to endanger his throne as to secure it. The king's own death seven years later had to be kept secret until his nervous entourage had ensured the succession. For him, it was never about glory and battle. He entertained thoughts of remarriage to renew the alliance with Spain Joanna, Dowager Queen of Naples (a niece of Queen Isabella of Castile), Queen Joanna of Castile, and Margaret, Dowager Duchess of Savoy (sister-in-law of Joanna of Castile), were all considered. Stanleys betrayal led to a complete security overhaul and his privy chamber going into lockdown. Pembroke Castle, birthplace of Henry VII [ JKMMX ] [ CC BY-SA 3.0 ]. [49] The confused, fractious nature of Breton politics undermined his efforts, which finally failed after three sizeable expeditions, at a cost of 24,000. 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. Penn showed a genealogical roll that had belonged to the de la Pole family which showed Henry VI being the end of the Lancastrian line and the Yorkist line continuing on to Richard III. Henry VIII was spring and Henry VII was winter. On 7th August 1485, he dropped anchor at Mill Bay, Milford Haven, and when he reached the beach he prayed Judge me, O Lord, and favour my cause. The odds were stacked against him in his quest to take the throne of England. : (April 25, 1883. He spent most of the next 14 years under the protection of Francis II, Duke of Brittany. This definitely was not that. [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. He spent his entire reign fixated on eliminating or disarming his enemies, and stabilizing England after the bloody, seemingly endless War of the Roses. He attained the throne when his forces, supported by France, Scotland, and Wales, defeated Edward IV's brother Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the culmination of the Wars of the Roses. How did a precariously enthroned ruler, lacking a police force or a standing army, manage to run roughshod over the law? Most often asked questions related to bitcoin. 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. Henry VII shut himself away in Richmond Palace from January 1509 and at 11pm on Saturday 21st April 1509 he died. For many he remained a usurper, a false king. Henry VII died on 21 April 1509, and the 17-year-old Henry succeeded him as 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.. [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. 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"). Shakespeare later turned to Henry's son and successor Henry VIII, whose rule brought marital sensation, renaissance spectacle and the reformation. Henry VII ruled from 1485-1509 and had a dubious claim on the throne, spending most of his time before the famous Battle of Bosworth Field in exile and gaining credibility from his marriage to Elizabeth of York. 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. Herbert was captured fighting for the Yorkists and executed by Warwick. This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers. Sophia Money-Coutts: Sensitivity readers don't want Henry VIII to be [citation needed], To secure his hold on the throne, Henry declared himself king by right of conquest retroactively from 21 August 1485, the day before Bosworth Field. 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. ), Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henry_VII_of_England&oldid=1141813382, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from September 2021, Articles incorporating a citation from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia with Wikisource reference, Articles incorporating text from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia with Wikisource reference, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the ODNB, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from August 2021, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2020, Articles needing additional references from October 2020, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Katherine (2 February 1503 10 February 1503), This page was last edited on 26 February 2023, at 23:16.