Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509), also known asHenry Tudor, wasKing of England andLord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of theHouse of Tudor.[a]
Henry restored power and stability to the English monarchy following the civil war. He is credited with many administrative, economic and diplomatic initiatives. Hissupportive policy toward England's wool industry and his standoff with theLow Countries had long-lasting benefits to the English economy. He paid very close attention to detail, and instead of spending lavishly he concentrated on raising new revenues. He stabilised the government's finances by introducing several new taxes. After his death, a commission found widespread abuses in the tax collection process. Henry reigned for nearly 24 years and was peacefully succeeded by his son,Henry VIII.
The descent of Henry's mother, Margaret, through the legitimisedHouse of Beaufort bolstered Henry's claim to the English throne. She was a great-granddaughter ofJohn of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (fourth son ofEdward III), and his third wifeKatherine Swynford. Swynford was Gaunt's mistress for about 25 years. When they married in 1396 they already had four children, including Henry's great-grandfatherJohn Beaufort. Gaunt's nephewRichard II legitimised Gaunt's children by Swynford byletters patent in 1397. In 1407,Henry IV, 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 anact of Parliament,[which?] but it weakened Henry's claim.[7] Nonetheless, by 1483 Henry was the senior male claimant heir to theHouse of Lancaster remaining after the deaths in battle, by murder or execution ofHenry VI (son of Henry V and Catherine of Valois), his sonEdward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, and the other Beaufort line of descent through Lady Margaret's uncle,Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset.[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.[8] He came from an old, established Anglesey family that claimed descent fromCadwaladr, in legend, the last ancient British king.[9]
On occasion Henry displayed the red dragon.[10] He took it, as well as thestandard of St. George, on his procession through London after the victory at Bosworth.[11] A contemporary writer and Henry's biographer,Bernard André, also made much of Henry's Welsh descent.[9]
In 1456, Henry's father Edmund Tudor was captured while fighting for Henry VI in South Wales against theYorkists. He died shortly afterwards inCarmarthen Castle. 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.[12] WhenEdward IV became King in 1461, Jasper Tudor went into exile abroad. Pembroke Castle, and later theEarldom of Pembroke, were granted to the YorkistWilliam Herbert, who also assumed the guardianship of Margaret Beaufort and the young Henry.[13]
Henry lived in the Herbert household until 1469, whenRichard Neville, Earl of Warwick (the "Kingmaker"), went over to the Lancastrians. Herbert was captured fighting for the Yorkists and executed by Warwick.[14] When Warwick restored Henry VI in 1470, Jasper Tudor returned from exile and brought Henry to court.[14] When the Yorkist Edward IV regained the throne in 1471, Henry fled with other Lancastrians toBrittany. He spent most of the next 14 years under the protection ofFrancis II, Duke of Brittany.[15] In November 1476, Francis fell ill and his principal advisers were more amenable to negotiating with King Edward. Henry was thus handed over to English envoys and escorted to the Breton port ofSaint-Malo. While there, he feigned stomach cramps and delayed his departure long enough to miss the tides. An ally of Henry's, ViscountJean du Quélennec [fr], soon arrived, bringing news that Francis had recovered, and in the confusion Henry was able to flee to a monastery. There he claimed sanctuary until the envoys were forced to depart.[16]
By 1483, Henry's mother was actively promoting him as an alternative toRichard III, despite her being married toLord Stanley, a Yorkist. AtRennes Cathedral on Christmas Day 1483, Henry pledged to marryElizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of Edward IV. She was Edward's heir since the presumed death of her brothers, thePrinces in the Tower, KingEdward V andRichard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York.[17] 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.[18] Now supported by Francis II's prime minister,Pierre Landais, Richard III attempted to extradite Henry from Brittany, but Henry escaped to France.[19] He was welcomed by the French, who readily supplied him with troops and equipment for a second invasion.[citation needed]Henry gained the support of the Woodvilles, in-laws of the late Edward IV, and sailed with a small French and Scottish force, landing at Mill Bay nearDale, Pembrokeshire.[20] He marched toward England accompanied by his uncle Jasper andJohn de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford. Wales was historically a Lancastrian stronghold, and Henry owed the support he gathered to his Welsh birth and ancestry, beingagnatically descended fromRhys ap Gruffydd.[21] He amassed an army of about 5,000–6,000 soldiers.[22]
Henry devised a plan to seize the throne by engaging Richard quickly because Richard had reinforcements inNottingham andLeicester. Though outnumbered, Henry's Lancastrian forces decisively defeated Richard's Yorkist army at theBattle of Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485. Several of Richard's key allies, such asHenry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, and also Lord Stanley and his brotherWilliam, crucially switched sides or left the battlefield. Richard III's death at Bosworth Field effectively ended the Wars of the Roses.[citation needed]
Reign
To secure his hold on the throne, Henry declared himself king byright of conquest retroactively from 21 August 1485, the day before Bosworth Field.[23] Thus, anyone who had fought for Richard against him would be guilty oftreason and Henry could legally confiscate the lands and property of Richard III, while restoring his own. Henry spared Richard's nephew and designated heir,John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, and made the Yorkist heiressMargaret Plantagenet Countess of Salisburysuo jure. He took care not to address thebaronage or summonParliament until after his coronation, which took place inWestminster Abbey on 30 October 1485.[24] After his coronation Henry issued an edict that any gentleman who swore fealty to him would, notwithstanding any previous attainder, be secure in his property and person.[citation needed]
Queen Elizabeth, Henry's wifeKing Henry VII's Coat of Arms
Henry honoured his pledge of December 1483 to marry Elizabeth of York and the wedding took place in 1486 at Westminster Abbey.[25][18][26] He was 29 years old, she was 20. They were third cousins, as both were great-great-grandchildren ofJohn of Gaunt.[27] Henry married Elizabeth of York with the hope of uniting the Yorkist and Lancastrian sides of the Plantagenet dynastic disputes, and he was largely successful. However, such a level of paranoia persisted that anyone (John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, for example)[28] with blood ties to the Plantagenets was suspected of coveting the throne.[29]
Henry had Parliament repealTitulus Regius, the statute that declared Edward IV's marriage invalid and his children illegitimate, thus legitimising his wife. Amateur historiansBertram Fields andSir Clements Markham have claimed that he may have been involved in the murder of the Princes in the Tower, as the repeal ofTitulus Regius gave the Princes a stronger claim to the throne than his own.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.[30] 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 againstlivery 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.[citation needed]
Next, in 1487, Yorkists led by Lincoln rebelled in support ofLambert Simnel, a boy they claimed to be Edward of Warwick (who was actually a prisoner in the Tower). The rebellion began in Ireland, where the historically Yorkist nobility, headed by the powerfulGerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, proclaimed Simnel king and provided troops for his invasion of England. The rebellion was defeated and Lincoln killed at theBattle of Stoke. Henry showed remarkable clemency to the surviving rebels: he pardoned Kildare and the other Irish nobles, and he made the boy, Simnel, a servant in the royal kitchen where he was in charge of roasting meats on a spit.[33]
In 1490, a youngFleming,Perkin Warbeck, appeared and claimed to beRichard of Shrewsbury, the younger of the "Princes in the Tower". Warbeck won the support of Edward IV's sisterMargaret, Duchess of Burgundy. He led attempted invasions of Ireland in 1491 and England in 1495, and persuadedJames IV of Scotland to invade England in 1496. In 1497 Warbeck landed inCornwall with a few thousand troops, but was soon captured and executed.[34]
When the King's agents searched the property of William Stanley (Chamberlain of the Household, with direct access to Henry VII) they found a bag of coins amounting to around £10,000 and a collar of livery with Yorkist garnishings. Stanley was accused of supporting Warbeck's cause, arrested and later executed. In response to this threat within his own household, the King instituted more rigid security for access to his person.[35] In 1499, Henry had the Earl of Warwick executed.[36] However, he spared Warwick's elder sister Margaret, who survived until 1541 when she was executed by Henry VIII.[37]
For most of Henry VII's reignEdward Story wasBishop of Chichester. Story's register still exists and, according to the 19th-century historian W.R.W. Stephens, "affords some illustrations of the avaricious and parsimonious character of the king". 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. The money so extracted added to the King's personal fortune rather than being used for the stated purpose.[38]
Unlike his predecessors, Henry VII came to the throne without personal experience in estate management or financial administration.[39] Despite this, during his reign he became a fiscally prudent monarch who restored the fortunes of an effectively bankruptexchequer. Henry VII introduced stability to the financial administration of England by keeping the same financial advisors throughout his reign. For instance, except for the first few months of the reign, theBaron Dynham and theEarl of Surrey were the onlyLord High Treasurers throughout his reign.[40]
Henry VII improved tax collection in the realm by introducing ruthlessly efficient mechanisms of taxation. He was supported in this effort by his chancellor,Archbishop John Morton, whose "Morton's Fork" was acatch-22 method of ensuring that nobles paid increased taxes: those nobles who spent little must have saved much, and thus could afford the increased taxes; in contrast, those nobles who spent much obviously had the means to pay the increased taxes.[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.[42]
The capriciousness and lack of due process that indebted many would tarnish his legacy and were soon ended upon Henry VII's death, after a commission revealed widespread abuses.[43] According to the contemporary historianPolydore Vergil, simple "greed" underscored the means by which royal control was over-asserted in Henry's final years.[44] Following Henry VII's death, Henry VIII executedRichard Empson andEdmund Dudley, his two most hated tax collectors, on trumped-up charges of treason.[45]
Henry VII's policy was to maintain peace and to create economic prosperity. Up to a point, he succeeded. TheTreaty of Redon was signed in February 1489 between Henry and representatives of Brittany. Based on the terms of the accord, Henry sent 6,000 troops to fight (at the expense of Brittany) under the command of Lord Daubeney. The purpose of the agreement was to prevent France from annexing Brittany. According to John M. Currin, the treaty redefined Anglo-Breton relations. Henry started a new policy to recover Guyenne and other lost Plantagenet claims in France. The treaty marks a shift from neutrality over the French invasion of Brittany to active intervention against it.[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. However, this treaty came at a 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 6,000 troops to France.[49] 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 theItalian Wars, the French were happy to agree to thePeace of Étaples.[50] Henry had pressured the French bylaying siege to Boulogne in October 1492. Henry had been under the financial and physical protection of the French throne or its vassals for most of his life before becoming king. To strengthen his position, however, he subsidised shipbuilding, so strengthening thenavy (he commissioned Europe's first ever – and the world's oldest surviving –dry dock atPortsmouth in 1495) and improving trading opportunities.John Cabot, originally from Genoa and Venice, had heard that ships from Bristol had discovered uncharted newfound territory far west of Ireland. Having secured financial backing from Florentine bankers in London, Cabot was granted carefully phrasedletters patent from Henry in March 1496, permitting him to embark on an exploratory voyage westerly. It is not known precisely where Cabot landed, but he was eventually rewarded with a pension from the king; it is presumed that Cabot perished at sea after a later unsuccessful expedition.[51]
In 1506, Grand Master of the Knights HospitallerEmery d'Amboise asked Henry VII to become the protector and patron of the Order, as he had an interest in thecrusade.[53] Later on, Henry had exchanged letters withPope Julius II in 1507, in which he encouraged him to establish peace among Christian realms, and to organise an expedition against the Turks of theOttoman Empire.[54]
Trade agreements
Henry VII was much enriched by tradingalum, which was used in the wool and cloth trades as achemicalfixative fordyeing fabrics.[55] Since alum was mined in only one area in Europe (Tolfa, Italy), it was a scarce commodity and therefore especially valuable to its landholder, the Pope. With the English economy heavily invested in wool production, Henry VII became involved in the alum trade in 1486. With the assistance of the Italian merchant banker Lodovico della Fava and the Italian bankerGirolamo Frescobaldi, Henry VII became deeply involved in the trade by licensing ships, obtaining alum from the Ottoman Empire, and selling it to the Low Countries and in England.[56] This trade made an expensive commodity cheaper, which raised opposition from Pope Julius II, since the Tolfa mine was a part of papal territory and had given the Pope monopoly control over alum.[citation needed]
Henry's most successful diplomatic achievement as regards the economy was theMagnus Intercursus ("great agreement") of 1496. In 1494, Henry embargoed trade (mainly in wool) with theBurgundian Netherlands in retaliation for Margaret of Burgundy's support for Perkin Warbeck. TheMerchant Adventurers, the company which enjoyed the monopoly of the Flemish wool trade, relocated fromAntwerp toCalais. At the same time, Flemish merchants were ejected from England. The dispute eventually paid off for Henry. Both parties realised they were mutually disadvantaged by the reduction in commerce. Its restoration by theMagnus 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 tradeentrepôt (transhipment port), through which, for example, goods from the Baltic, spices from the east and Italian silks were exchanged for English cloth.[57]
In 1506, Henry extorted the Treaty of Windsor fromPhilip the Handsome, Duke 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 theMalus Intercursus ("evil agreement"). France, Burgundy, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain and theHanseatic League all rejected the treaty, which was never in force. Philip died shortly after the negotiations.[58]
Law enforcement and justices of the 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-calledbastard feudalism, each had what amounted to private armies of indentured retainers (mercenaries masquerading as servants).[59] Following the example of Edward IV, Henry VII created aCouncil of Wales and the Marches for his son Arthur, which was intended to governWales and theMarches, Cheshire andCornwall.[60][61][62]
Late 16th-century copy of a portrait of Henry VII
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.[citation needed]
However, his principal weapon was theCourt of Star Chamber. This revived an earlier practice of using a small (and trusted) group of thePrivy 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.[63]
Henry VII usedjustices 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.[64] 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.[citation needed]
All Acts of Parliament were overseen by the justices of the peace. For example, they 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.[65]
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 smaller tax bill for law enforcement. 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 theMiddle Ages.[citation needed]
Later years and death
Scene at the deathbed of Henry VII atRichmond Palace (1509) drawn contemporaneously from witness accounts by the courtier Sir Thomas Wriothesley (d.1534) who wrote an account of the proceedings.British Library, Add.MS 45131, f.54Tomb effigies of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, byPietro Torrigiano,Westminster AbbeyPosthumous portrait bust byPietro Torrigiano made using Henry'sdeath mask
In 1502, Henry VII's life took a difficult and personal turn in which many people he was close to died in quick succession. His first son and heir apparent, Arthur, Prince of Wales, died suddenly atLudlow Castle, very likely from a viral respiratory illness known at the time as the "English sweating sickness".[66] This made Henry VII's second son,Henry, Duke of York, heir apparent to the throne. The King, normally a reserved man who rarely showed much emotion in public unless angry, surprised his courtiers with his intense grief and sobbing at his son's death. 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.[67] Henry VII was shattered by the loss of Elizabeth, and her death affected him severely.[68]
Henry wanted to maintain the Spanish alliance. Accordingly, he arranged apapal 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 Church. After obtaining the dispensation, Henry had second thoughts about the marriage of his son and Catherine. Catherine's motherIsabella I of Castile had died and Catherine's sisterJoanna 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. Otherwise, at the time of his father's arranging of the marriage to Catherine of Aragon, the future Henry VIII was too young to contract the marriage according to Canon Law and would be ineligible until age fourteen.[69]
Henry made half-hearted plans to remarry and beget more heirs, but these never came to anything. 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, andMargaret, Dowager Duchess of Savoy (sister-in-law of Joanna of Castile) were all considered.[70] 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.[71] The wedding never took place.
Henry VII falls among the minority of British monarchs that never had any known mistresses and, for the times, it is unusual that he did not remarry. His son Henry was the only male heir left after the death of his wife; the death of Arthur therefore created a precarious political position for the House of Tudor.
During Henry VII's lifetime the nobility often criticised him for re-centralising power in London and, later, the 16th-century historianFrancis Bacon was ruthlessly critical of the methods by which he enforced tax law. It is equally true that Henry VII was diligent about keeping detailed records of his personal finances, down to the last halfpenny;[72] these and one account book detailing the expenses of his queen survive in the British National Archives, as do courtiers' accounts and many of the king's own letters. From these accounting books, the evidence is clear that, until the death of his wife, 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. Letters to relatives have an affectionate tone not captured by official state business, as evidenced by many written to his mother Margaret. Many of the entries show a man who loosened his purse strings generously for his wife and children – and not just for necessities. After Elizabeth's death, the possibilities for such family indulgences greatly diminished.[73] Henry became very sick and nearly died, allowing only his mother Margaret Beaufort near him: "privily departed to a solitary place, and would that no man should resort unto him."[74] Further compounding Henry's distress, within months of her mother's death, his older daughter Margaret, who had previously been betrothed to King James IV of Scotland, had to be escorted to the border by her father: he would never see her again.[75] Margaret Tudor wrote letters to her father declaring her homesickness, but Henry could do nothing but mourn the loss of his family and honour the terms of the peace treaty he had agreed to with the King of Scotland.[76]
Amiable and high-spirited, Henry was friendly if dignified in manner, and it was clear that he was extremely intelligent. His biographer, Professor Stanley Chrimes, credits him – even before he had become king – with "a high degree of personal magnetism, ability to inspire confidence, and a growing reputation for shrewd decisiveness". On the debit side, he may have looked a little delicate as he suffered from poor health.[26][81]
Comparison with contemporaries
Historians have compared Henry VII with his continental contemporaries, especiallyLouis XI of France andFerdinand II of Aragon. By 1600 historians emphasised Henry's wisdom in drawing lessons in statecraft from other monarchs. In 1622 Francis Bacon published hisHistory of the Reign of King Henry VII. 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.[82]
^Roland de Velville (or Veleville), who wasknighted in 1497 and was Constable ofBeaumaris Castle, is sometimes presented as theillegitimate son of Henry VII of England by "aBreton lady whose name is not known". The possibility this was Henry's illegitimate son is baseless.[83]
^ab"pound avoirdupois". Sizes, Inc. 17 April 2012. Retrieved13 September 2016.1497–1558 – Henry VII authorizes standard. & A unit of mass = 453.592 37 grams (now, technically, theinternational pound), now used chiefly in the United States, but since the 16th century the most commonly encountered unit of mass throughout the English-speaking world. The magnitude of the pound avoirdupois has varied less than 1% since the middle of the 14th century.
^Currin, John M. (1996). "Henry VII and the Treaty of Redon (1489): Plantagenet Ambitions and Early Tudor Foreign Policy".History.81 (263). Curry:343–358.doi:10.1111/1468-229X.00015.JSTOR24423267.
^Hicks, Michael (2000). "Bastard Feudalism, Overmighty Subjects and Idols of the Multitude during the Wars of the Roses".History.85 (279):386–403.doi:10.1111/1468-229X.00153.
^Schwarz, Arthur L. (2009). "Henry's Father Searches for a New Wife".VIVAT REX! An Exhibition Commemorating the 500th Anniversary of the Accession of Henry VIII. The Grolier Club. p. 58.ISBN978-1605830179.
1 Briefly joined the Lancastrians.2 Briefly joined the Yorkists.3 Defected from the Yorkist to the Lancastrian cause.4 Initially a Yorkist who later supported the Tudor claim.5 Initially a Lancastrian who later supported the Tudor claim.
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