Henry VII, also known as Henry Tudor, was born at Pembroke Castle on January 28th, 1457. He was the first king of the Tudor dynasty, and was also responsible for ending the line of Plantagenet kings that had ruled England for over 300 years.
He ended the Wars of the Roses that had raged on between the Houses of Lancaster and York and began a dynasty that would change the course of British history forever. While Henry did have royal blood that gave him a claim to the English crown, it was somewhat weak – his paternal grandparents were Owen Tudor, a Welsh squire, and Catherine of Valois, widow of Henry V. This meant he was a descendant of John of Gaunt, Edward III’s third son, on his mother’s side.
Henry began a dynasty that changed everything. His son and grandchildren are well remembered for their deeds in British royal history, which often leave him overshadowed, but Henry is just as important, if not more fascinating, than the afore-mentioned individuals.
Early Life
Henry was the son of Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, and Margaret Beaufort, great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt. However, in 1407 King Henry IV had excluded any Beaufort’s from a claim to the throne, therefore making Henry Tudor’s claim very tenuous, but when Henry VI and his son Edward of Westminster died, it left Henry as the sole male survivor of the ancestral line of Lancaster.
Henry’s father died three months before he was born, making his mother a 14-year-old widow. She soon married again, and Henry was left under the care of his uncle, Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke. In 1461, Edward IV of York took the throne and Jasper Tudor fled into exile; Pembroke Castle and the Earldom of Pembroke were passed over to a Yorkist loyalist who also took Henry and his mother under his care.
By 1470, Henry VI had been restored to the throne, allowing Jasper Tudor and other Lancastrian exiles to return to England. However, Edward IV had reclaimed the English crown by 1471, and his enemies once again fled, this time to Brittany. With Henry being the only legitimate Lancaster with a claim to the throne he was often used for the political gain of others, and was sometimes in danger of being handed over to the Yorkists – it certainly looked as if Henry would spend the rest of his life in exile under the protection of others.
Battle of Bosworth
Edward IV died in April 1483, and his son became Edward V of England. He was never officially crowned, and the majority of his short reign was influenced by his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester and Lord Protector – the man who would later become King Richard III. Edward V and his brother Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, disappeared after being sent to the royal lodgings at the Tower of London; they were never seen again and they most likely died there. Richard III has often been associated with their deaths, but there is no concrete evidence or proper contemporary sources to support this.
When the Princes in the Tower disappeared, the Duke of Gloucester took the throne and became King Richard III. This split the Yorkist party as well as the Lancastrians who soon rallied to Henry, hoping his ancestry would help them take the English crown back. Henry also pledged to marry Elizabeth of York, who was the eldest daughter of Edward IV, hoping that this would reunite the Houses of Lancaster and York.
Richard III attempted to extradite Henry from Brittany, but he managed to escape to France, where he was welcomed and supplied with troops and equipment for an invasion of England. Henry also won the support of the Woodville’s’, the previous in-laws of Edward IV, as well as a force of French, Scottish, and Welsh troops – his army consisted of around 6,000 troops.
Henry, accompanied by his army, marched towards London, and he met Richard III and his Yorkist forces at Bosworth in Leicestershire on August 22nd, 1485. Henry’s army was quite outnumbered, but they secured a decisive victory that day – Richard III was slain on the battlefield, and Henry was effectively made King Henry VII, taking the throne by weak inheritance and right of conquest.
Crown and Children
Henry was officially crowned on October 30th, 1485, and Parliament recognised his title as King by November. In January 1486, he kept his promise and married Elizabeth of York, officially uniting the broken bonds of the Houses of Lancaster and York – this created the Tudor Rose, which combined the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster.
Henry’s marriage produced eight children, of whom only four survived: Arthur, Henry, Margaret, and Mary. Arthur was heir to the throne, and Henry made sure he was prepared for this, teaching him the skills he needed for when he would eventually become king.
In 1501, Arthur married Catherine of Aragon, further strengthening England’s alliance with Spain, but he later died in 1502 of the sweating sickness, leaving Henry distraught. The king now didn’t have an heir he could rely on, and he was worried England would look weak, especially considering the realm’s recent history of competing for the throne.
Eventually, Henry decided his dynasty would continue with his second son Henry, who would later become the infamous Henry VIII, and also marry his dead brother’s widow on his accession.
Early Reign
Henry had done what he had set out to do and became king of England. However, his throne wasn’t as secure as he would have hoped, and he faced many uprisings at the beginning of his reign. To begin with, many of them were unimportant and easily beaten, but the real trouble came in 1487 when a man named Lambert Simnel led a revolt against the king.
Simnel claimed to be Edward, Earl of Warwick, who was actually Richard III’s nephew. He gained support from the Earl of Lincoln, Margaret of Burgundy (Richard III’s sister), and Irish and German mercenaries paid for by Margaret. The king met the rebel forces at the Battle of Stoke Field and claimed victory, killing the Earl of Lincoln and recognising that Simnel was not who he said he was. This fight is often considered the last battle of the Wars of the Roses.
Nevertheless, Henry still faced opposition, and in 1491 a man named Perkin Warbeck was used by Yorkist forces to try and depose Henry VII. He was convinced to impersonate Richard, Duke of York, one of the Princes in the Tower, to try and reclaim the throne for York. Warbeck was supported by Margaret of Burgundy, as well as the French, Maximilian I of Austria, James IV of Scotland, and powerful allies in England and Ireland. Despite all of his support, he was captured in 1497 and imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he was later hanged for trying to escape.
Warbeck wasn’t the only threat that Henry faced. Richard and Edmund de la Pole were two noble Yorkists with a claim to the throne bestowed upon their family by Richard III when he died childless. In 1499, they fled to the Netherlands to try and garner the support of Maximilian I of Austria, who was now also the Holy Roman Emperor, but in the end he himself sided with Henry on dropping the Yorkist claim to the throne.
Edmund was captured and accused of treason in 1504 and handed over to the English in 1506, where he was imprisoned in the Tower of London on the condition his life be spared. However, he was executed in 1513 by King Henry VIII of England. Richard de la Pole had luckily escaped and travelled Europe, making a name for himself in France and Hungary. He came into the service of Francis I of France, who he later accompanied to war and died, finally ending the Yorkist threat to the Tudors.
Foreign Affairs and Domestic Government
During the beginning of his reign, Henry found himself dragged into a war against France alongside Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor. However, he was aware that his crown was already insecure with the Yorkist threat and had made peace with France in 1492, the French in return recognised the Tudor dynasty as legitimate and offered Henry a generous pension.
However, Scotland and the Netherlands were also at odds with England, especially since they had allied themselves with Perkin Warbeck and the Yorkists. Eventually, Henry gained the support of the Netherlands in 1496 and convinced them to cut ties with York, then proceeded to create a peace treaty and trade deal that would greatly benefit England.
England and Scotland have a long history of hostility, which made it more difficult for Henry to make peace. However, a peace treaty was agreed in 1499, and in 1502 Margaret Tudor, Henry’s daughter, married James IV of Scotland – Henry was well on his way to establishing the Tudor dynasty, favouring diplomacy over warfare and doing his absolute best to succeed when it came to foreign affairs.
When it came to English politics, Henry also gained results at home. He wanted to ensure that the kingdom was wealthy and prosperous without relying on Parliament or borrowing of any other form. To do this, he supported the use of exports, protected English industries, insisted on English goods being transported on English ships, and promoted the discovery of new foreign markets for trade.
Henry also insisted on royal revenue being paid to the chamber of the household rather than the exchequer, which was the more traditional method. Nevertheless, his methods made England a giant of wealth, leaving a fortune behind for his family in the process.
Henry also established the Court of Star Chamber, which was a large council made up of lawyers, clerics, knights, and noblemen, of which he himself was the head. The council generally dealt with judicial matters that couldn’t be solved in regular courts, as well as trying to keep peace in Wales and the North of England and maintaining a healthy relationship with Parliament and the Church.
Death and Legacy
Henry VII died on April 21st, 1509, and he was buried at Westminster Abbey in the Lady Chapel he himself had commissioned. He was succeeded by his son, Henry VIII. Henry’s reign is often eclipsed by his successors, most notably Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, but he did incredible things for England, such as ending the Wars of the Roses and bringing the country into a period of recovery after decades of civil war.
He made peace with France and used the marriages of his children to further strengthen his alliances in Europe, as well as promoting trade which made England wealthy, prosperous, and powerful, ensuring the continuation of the Tudor dynasty.
While Henry had spent most of his youth in exile, he proved that these experiences wouldn’t bring him down when he was king. While the beginning of his reign was tumultuous, it made him wary and gave way to patience and vigilance, ensuring that he remained on the English throne.
The Tudors have a lasting impact on British history, and Henry VII is responsible. Had he lost to Richard III at Bosworth in 1485, history could have been very, very different.
References
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-VII-king-of-England
https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/henry-vii-in-seven-facts/
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Henry-VII/
https://www.britroyals.com/kings.asp?id=henry7