Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [13] When Warwick restored Henry VI in 1470, Jasper Tudor returned from exile and brought Henry to court. 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. Alternate titles: Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond, Professor of Medieval History, University of Liverpool, 196780. Detailed Information. He invited artists, musicians and scholars to live at his court. Some of them have more to say than Penn about the constructive sides of the reign, which developed the state-building methods of his Yorkist predecessors. By 1900 the "New Monarchy" interpretation stressed the common factors that in each country led to the revival of monarchical power. For instance, except for the first few months of the reign, the Baron Dynham and the Earl of Surrey were the only Lord High Treasurers throughout his reign. While most of us are familiar with Henry VIII and Elizabeth I and we probably have a sense of the Wars of the Roses in England, but how many of us are familiar with Henry VII. Hed achieved the impossible, hed risen from refugee to King of England. I couldn't even stay awake reading this. 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. We know that Henry attended the wedding celebrations of Arthur and his bride . Categories: Monarchy, NewsTags: birth of Tudor dynasty, Henry Tudor, Henry VII, Thomas Penn, Tudor dynasty, Winter King, Copyright 2023 The Anne Boleyn Files 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. Indeed he was born in winter, on January 28th 1457, in Pembroke Castle, in Wales and that is one of the reasons why the Welsh dragon always formed part of his insignia. 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. Henry VII is known for successfully ending the War of the Roses between the houses of Lancaster and York and for founding the Tudor dynasty. Prince Arthur was born just eight months after his parents marriage, at Winchester, the seat of King Arthurs Camelot. Next month find out more on someone known as The Winter Queen! Henry VII is also known as Henry Tudor. Yorkist malcontents had strength in the north of England and in Ireland and had a powerful ally in Richard IIIs sister Margaret, dowager duchess of Burgundy. Stephens, "affords some illustrations of the avaricious and parsimonious character of the king". Updates? [15], By 1483, Henry's mother was actively promoting him as an alternative to Richard III, despite her being married to Lord Stanley, a Yorkist. Henrys Chamber Accounts show payment to strangers and people across the sea, who appear to have been part of a network of spies and informers who kept an eye on potential troublemakers and alerted the King. Elizabeth of York (11 February 1466 11 February 1503) was Queen of England from her marriage to King Henry VII on 18 January 1486 until her death. [29] 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. But he leaves us wondering how Henry got away with it. For me, history is alive and energizing - not something static and remote. [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. [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. I really enjoyed it. Edmund was created Earl of Richmond in 1452, and "formally declared legitimate by Parliament". In 1494, Henry embargoed trade (mainly in wool) with the Burgundian Netherlands in retaliation for Margaret of Burgundy's support for Perkin Warbeck. [39] Despite this, during his reign he became a fiscally prudent monarch who restored the fortunes of an effectively bankrupt exchequer. He cemented his claim by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of King Edward IV. When he died, his only surviving son, Henry VIII, succeeded him without a breath of opposition. [77][78] His mother died two months later on 29 June 1509. Annoyingly, much of the most interesting stuff concerns his son, and whenever Penn comments intelligently on how the events here affected the future Henry VIII's reign I found myself perking up such as the suggestion that Henry VII's marriage to Elizabeth was the kind of marriage that their second son, Prince Henry, would spend his whole life trying to find. The expressive and evocative power of his writing, and the union of scholarship with artistry, are rare in modern historical writing. This was accomplished through the targeted imposition of fines and bonds through extrajudicial councils. [38], Unlike his predecessors, Henry VII came to the throne without personal experience in estate management or financial administration. Corrections? Letters to relatives have an affectionate tone not captured by official state business, as evidenced by many written to his mother Margaret. He spent his entire reign fixated on eliminating or disarming his enemies, and stabilizing England after the bloody, seemingly endless War of the Roses. [59][60][61], He was content to allow the nobles their regional influence if they were loyal to him. Happy St Davids Day! 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. Though outnumbered, Henry's Lancastrian forces decisively defeated Richard's Yorkist army at the Battle of Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485. [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. Historians debate the extent of Henry's rapacity. 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. Iain Hollingshead reviews Henry VII: Winter King, a BBC Two documentary which examines how the first Tudor monarch came to power and went on to have a 23-year reign. 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. 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. 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. Sometimes, Penn explained, charges against people were fabricated so that they would have to pay a fine, for example, a man who was charged with murdering a child and who was found guilty because the jury was rigged. 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? At the same time, Flemish merchants were ejected from England. [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. The king's own death seven years later had to be kept secret until his nervous entourage had ensured the succession. 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. I wasn't disappointed because, as usual, he did a great job with the narration. Henry Tudor is a familiar name to students of English history, especially the military side of it. So Henry was a valuable bargaining tool, whose fate always depended on what relations were between England and France, always tainted by the recent Hundred Years War, and how Brittany sought to ward off threats to its own independence. [70] Henry VII falls among the minority of British monarchs that never had any known mistresses, and for the times, it is very unusual that he did not remarry: his son Henry was the only male heir left after the death of his wife, thus the death of Arthur created a precarious political position for the House of Tudor. Henry the older was lean and shriveled, rigid with prudence, empty of any hunger other than a desire to secure his throne through the acquisition of cash. They overrode all the usual legal processed and acted with complete impunity. One of the councils prominent members was Edmund Dudley, a man who helped Henry by enforcing the Kings legal rights, finding old laws to use against people and stretching the law to its limits. For inheriting an unstable throne, holding it for 25 year and leaving England relatively stable, Henry VII deserves his own biography and a lot more credit. Until the death of his wife, the evidence is clear from these accounting books that Henry was a more doting father and husband than was widely known and there is evidence that his outwardly austere personality belied a devotion to his family. If you missed the programme then here is the YouTube video for you enjoy! Why is this ambitious? With Elizabeth's death, the possibilities for such family indulgences greatly diminished. Fittingly he dressed in expensive black. This book was way too focused on what happened, but not so much on the why or why it was important. [31] Despite such precautions, Henry faced several rebellions over the next twelve years. 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. Penn is not one to understate a case. Through this, he found that his Lord Chamberlain, Sir William Stanley, was involved in the plot. Get help and learn more about the design. 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. One interesting thing about him is his early youth and the fourteen years he spent in exile in France Brittany to be precise and those, I believe, made him the man he was eventually to become. It seems that Henry was skilful at extracting money from his subjects on many pretexts, including that of war with France or war with Scotland. There are an awful lot of books written about the Tudor era, both fiction and non-fiction, so you have to ask whether this book adds anything new. The marriage between Arthur, Prince of Wales, and Catherine of Aragon would be the culmination of everything that Henry VII had fought for at the Battle of Bosworth, so in 1501 there was a fortnight of marriage celebrations and London was in a carnival mood. 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. [6] Henry IV's action was of doubtful legality, as the Beauforts were previously legitimised by an Act of Parliament, but it weakened Henry's claim.