The author does a good job drawing on his sources and bringing the characters to life while staying true to the history, but the subject matter is just not inherently as sexy as Henry VIIIs or Elizabeth Is reigns. The significant role played by bitcoin for businesses! https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-VII-king-of-England, Spartacus Educational - Biography of Henry VII, English Monarchs - Biography of Henry VII, Henry VII - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Henry VII - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). [32], Next, in 1487, Yorkists led by Lincoln rebelled in support of Lambert Simnel, a boy they claimed to be Edward of Warwick (who was actually a prisoner in the Tower). Hidden under the floor in St George's Chapel in Windsor, England where thousands of people walk every day, a forgotten tomb lies. [5], The descent of Henry's mother, Margaret, through the legitimised House of Beaufort bolstered Henry's claim to the English throne. The first rising, that of Lord Lovell, Richard IIIs chamberlain, in 1486 was ill-prepared and unimportant, but in 1487 came the much more serious revolt of Lambert Simnel. For instance, the Stanley family had control of Lancashire and Cheshire, upholding the peace on the condition that they stayed within the law. Stanley placed Richards circlet on Henrys head, he was now King. His dynasty was hanging by a thread and all his hopes had to rest on his youngest son, Henry, and Elizabeth of York producing another son, a spare. At Rennes Cathedral on Christmas Day 1483, Henry pledged to marry Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of Edward IV. Since we are in the middle of winter, Ive been thinking of a volume on my shelves on Henry VII, who could be called the Winter King. Henry VII is usually treated as a charmless and thrifty prelude to the big reign of Henry VIII, with the inevitable marriage of Henry and Catherine of Aragon, and the reversal of his father's bully policies for a golden age of chivalry and, you know, all the crazy shit Henry VIII was about to do. When they married in 1396 they already had four children, including Henry's great-grandfather John Beaufort. Herbert was captured fighting for the Yorkists and executed by Warwick. The money so extracted added to the King's personal fortune rather than being used for the stated purpose. Henry VII was king of England from 1485 to 1509. The Treaty of Redon was signed in February 1489 between Henry and representatives of Brittany. Luther gained support for his ideas and Europe became . Royal Collection Trust At the summit, even dinnerware testified to its owner's status. His supportive policy toward England's wool industry and his standoff with the Low Countries had long-lasting benefit to the English economy. Yet Henry's techniques of power went beyond the needs of surveillance and survival. Its goals, relentlessly pursued until Henry's death in 1509, were the establishment of a royal house, the elimination of opposition, and the steady accumulation of power and wealth. In response to this threat within his own household, the King instituted more rigid security for access to his person. With the assistance of the Italian merchant banker Lodovico della Fava and the Italian banker Girolamo 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. [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. Henry VII shut himself away in Richmond Palace from January 1509 and at 11pm on Saturday 21st April 1509 he died. After Wolf Hall, I wanted to find out about Henry VII, the lesser-studied father of Henry VIII, who founded the Tudor Dynasty. They were appointed for every shire and served for a year at a time. Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufort, was a descendant of the Lancastrian branch of the House of Plantagenet. [citation needed], Henry honoured his pledge of December 1483 to marry Elizabeth of York and the wedding took place in 1486 at Westminster Abbey. [24][17][25] He was 29 years old, she was 20. Penn pointed out that for over half a century no king had passed on the crown without turmoil and Henry knew that what had happened to Richard could happen to him. The wedding was a triumph but in April 1502 a messenger brought the King the news that his eldest son had died of sweating sickness. They were also in charge of various administrative duties, such as the checking of weights and measures. Henry VII, grown rich from Morton's Fork and other squeezes, was far from a bumpkin trying to break into the royal circles of western Europe--he was being courted, and he knew very well to play Castile (Hapsburg) and Aragon off against one another after Isabella died (and Catherine might very well have been packed off home to marry someone else, it was common). Reasonably interesting overview of the reign of Henry VII of England. Henry, recognizing that Simnel had been a mere dupe, employed him in the royal kitchens. Omissions? Elizabeth had died in childbirth, so Henry had the dispensation also permit him to marry Catherine himself. The purpose of the agreement was to prevent France from annexing Brittany. [75], Henry VII died of tuberculosis at Richmond Palace on 21 April 1509 and was buried in the chapel he commissioned in Westminster Abbey next to his wife, Elizabeth. He rewrote history by backdating his reign to 21st August 1485, the day before the Battle of Bosworth Field. Well written and really interesting about an often ignored king. The nobility was forced into bonds, legal agreements that they would act as the King wanted or be fined. [citation needed], After 1503, records show the Tower of London was never again used as a royal residence by Henry VII, and all royal births under Henry VIII took place in palaces. Henry spared Richard's nephew and designated heir, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, and made the Yorkist heiress Margaret Plantagenet Countess of Salisbury suo jure. [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 VIII was spring and Henry VII was winter. In that, he was quite successful, but he was neither loved nor admired. 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. When the Lancastrian cause crashed to disaster at the Battle of Tewkesbury (May 1471), Jasper took the boy out of the country and sought refuge in the duchy of Brittany. It was presented by historian Thomas Penn, author of Winter King and was an excellent examination of the King who, as Penn pointed out, tend to be eclipsed by Richard III, the glamour and notoriety of Henry VIII and the charisma of Elizabeth I. Why was Henry VII called the Winter King? Many of the entries show a man who loosened his purse strings generously for his wife and children, and not just on necessities: in spring 1491 he spent a great amount of gold on a lute for his daughter Mary; the following year he spent money on a lion for Elizabeth's menagerie. These laws were used shrewdly in levying fines upon those that he perceived as threats. Who could have expected that he would rule for 24 years, die in his bed, bequeath the first orderly succession to the throne for nearly a century, and found a famous dynasty? Doubtless the plotters were encouraged by the deaths of Henrys sons in 1500 and 1502 and of his wife in 1503. 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. He was the last king of England to win . [10] A contemporary writer and Henry's biographer, Bernard Andr, also made much of Henry's Welsh descent. Sometimes when reading nonfiction of this type, I never know if it is going to be dry and dull or not. Yet in the hands of a narrator as accomplished as Penn, the reign acquires its own, troubling fascination. Henry VII was king of England from 1485 to 1509. [36] However, he spared Warwick's elder sister Margaret, who survived until 1541 when she was executed by Henry VIII. Soon after his fathers burial on 10 May, Henry suddenly declared that he would indeed marry Catherine, leaving unresolved several issues concerning the papal dispensation and a missing part of the marriage portion. Watch with Prime Henry VII was king of England from 1485 to 1509. All the powers of Europe doubted Henrys ability to survive, and most were willing to shelter claimants against him. Henry then cemented his claim to the throne and his dynastic ambitions by marrying Elizabeth of York and bringing the Houses of Lancaster and York together; the red rose and white rose combined to become the Tudor rose. Rarely was a father's reign so widely disparaged and disowned on the accession of the son. He was a ruler to be feared, a ruler to be paid. Elizabeth of York was Queen consort of England as spouse of King Henry VII from 1486 until her death on February 11th, 1503. In 1497 Warbeck landed in Cornwall with a few thousand troops, but was soon captured and executed. [7] He came from an old, established Anglesey family that claimed descent from Cadwaladr, in legend, the last ancient British king,[8] and on occasion Henry displayed the red dragon of Cadwaladr. That is, suspicious, insecure and crafty but also determined, patient and fiercely proud of his Lancastrian ancestry. Penn notes something else about the paeans on the son's accession: later in the Tudor period, apologists for the regime would remember Henry VII as the restorer of national peace and unity, but in 1509 it was the king's death, not his rule, that was held to have ended a long era of dark instability. The expressive and evocative power of his writing, and the union of scholarship with artistry, are rare in modern historical writing. 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. Their powers and numbers steadily increased during the time of the Tudors, never more so than under Henry's reign. (1): (April 24, 1883. [74] 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. Life at court was merry under Henry 8th, a fresh new beginning likened to springtime. 1845. - and that was only about 50% of the book, it was only about 50% interesting to me. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. 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. Edmund was created Earl of Richmond in 1452, and "formally declared legitimate by Parliament". [25][80], Historians have always compared Henry VII with his continental contemporaries, especially Louis XI of France and Ferdinand II of Aragon. Thomas More hailed the end of "slavery" and the return of "liberty", "the end of sadness, the beginning of joy". Happy St Davids Day! Henry VIII had become heir to the throne when his elder brother, Arthur, died in 1502. He explained how Henry VII had achieved what he set out to do, he had passed on the crown successfully. The dispute eventually paid off for Henry. Scapegoats were needed for Henry VIIs reign, people to blame for the old regime, so Edmund Dudley was imprisoned and executed on trumped up charges. 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. [20] He amassed an army of about 5,0006,000 soldiers. 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. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Henry VII can look a dull king, so dull that Thomas Penn's title omits his name. Pembroke Castle, birthplace of Henry VII [ JKMMX ] [ CC BY-SA 3.0 ]. ), 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. 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. He was crowned on October 30 and secured parliamentary recognition of his title early in November. [3] Henry's paternal grandfather, Owen Tudor, originally from the Tudors of Penmynydd, Isle of Anglesey in Wales, had been a page in the court of King Henry V. He rose to become one of the "Squires to the Body to the King" after military service at the Battle of Agincourt. He spent his entire reign fixated on eliminating or disarming his enemies, and stabilizing England after the bloody, seemingly endless War of the Roses. Martin Luther 95 thesis. Having secured financial backing from Florentine bankers in London, Cabot was granted carefully phrased letters patent from Henry in March 1496, permitting him to embark on an exploratory voyage westerly. It was really very well researched and painstakingly written. 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. Most often asked questions related to bitcoin. And yet this time removed was summer's time, The teeming autumn, big with rich increase, Bearing the wanton burden of the prime, Like widow'd wombs after their lords . For me, history is alive and energizing - not something static and remote. If you are new the era, this wouldn't the first book I would pick up because it does flip flop around a bit in the beginning-but if you want to understand the players that ultimately have a significant impact on Henry VIII, this is the book for you. He is credited with many administrative, economic and diplomatic initiatives. To strengthen his position, however, he subsidised shipbuilding, so strengthening the navy (he commissioned Europe's first ever and the world's oldest surviving dry dock at Portsmouth in 1495) and improving trading opportunities. However, as France was becoming more concerned with the Italian Wars, the French were happy to agree to the Treaty of Etaples. Penn graphically describes a huge financial racket run by the king and his profiteering advisers. In turn, Antwerp became an extremely important trade entrept (transshipment port), through which, for example, goods from the Baltic, spices from the east and Italian silks were exchanged for English cloth. Thus, Henry Tudor had no choice but to gather together an army including mercenary soldiers as well as his own supporters, and he landed in Wales in August, 1485. Henry VII comes across as a talented micromanager and financier. The rebellion was defeated and Lincoln killed at the Battle of Stoke. 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? Claiming to be Edward, earl of Warwick, the son of Richard IIIs elder brother, George, duke of Clarence, he had the formidable support of John de la Pole, earl of Lincoln, Richard IIIs heir designate, of many Irish chieftains, and of 2,000 German mercenaries paid for by Margaret of Burgundy. [45], Henry VII established the pound avoirdupois as a standard of weight; it later became part of the Imperial[46] and customary systems of units. He spent money lavishly, held big parties. Happy 14th Birthday to the Anne Boleyn Files! After obtaining the dispensation, Henry had second thoughts about the marriage of his son and Catherine. Penn went on to show Henry VIIs wax funeral effigy, which I saw on my recent trip to London, and which shows his fine-boned features and his crooked eye, but also a face bearing the signs of stress and illness. Though this was not achieved during his reign, the marriage eventually led to the union of the English and Scottish crowns under Margaret's great-grandson, James VI and I, following the death of Henry's granddaughter Elizabeth I. Based on the terms of the accord, Henry sent 6000 troops to fight (at the expense of Brittany) under the command of Lord Daubeney. 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. His claim to the throne was precarious and was from an illegitimate line, a family who had been banned from taking the throne, so Henry needed to make the people believe that he was their rightful King and to do that he had to start behaving like one. 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. [18] He was welcomed by the French, who readily supplied him with troops and equipment for a second invasion. 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. Henry responded to this threat by embedding spies into households. 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. He took care not to address the baronage or summon Parliament until after his coronation, which took place in Westminster Abbey on 30 October 1485. The father's government was an exercise in discoloration. Stanley was accused of supporting Warbeck's cause, arrested and later executed. Henry the eighth was a renaissance King. Shakespeare later turned to Henry's son and successor Henry VIII, whose rule brought marital sensation, renaissance spectacle and the reformation. [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. Both were survivors and as united in death as in life, as their tomb in Westminster Abbey illustrates. [16] 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. The country was in a perpetual state of emergency and Henrys subjects were scared and resentful. 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. 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 the Middle Ages. Next month find out more on someone known as The Winter Queen! No. "King Henry VII" redirects here. For him, it was never about glory and battle. Warbeck was finally captured in 1497 and executed. Elizabeth married Henry after his victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field, which marked the end of the Wars of the Roses. [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. [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. Henry VII introduced stability to the financial administration of England by keeping the same financial advisors throughout his reign. Anyone perceived to have any potential political power or social capital was rendered deeply indebted to the crown and at risk of complete financial ruin upon the whim of the king and his councillors. [8], In 1456, Henry's father Edmund Tudor was captured while fighting for Henry VI in South Wales against the Yorkists. The Merchant Adventurers, the company which enjoyed the monopoly of the Flemish wool trade, relocated from Antwerp to Calais. How like a winter hath my absence been From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! There's a lot of cloak-and-dagger stuff here, something Henry and certain of his counselors seemed especially skilled at, and it was those parts that I particularly enjoyed. Seriously, got nudged by my partner when I'd nodded off. 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. Through luck, guile, and ruthlessness, Henry VII, the first of the Tudor kings, emerged as rulerbut as a fugitive with a flimsy claim to England's throne, he remained a usurper and false king to many, and his hold on power was precarious. The treaty marks a shift from neutrality over the French invasion of Brittany to active intervention against it. [38], Unlike his predecessors, Henry VII came to the throne without personal experience in estate management or financial administration. Penn then moved on to how Henry became King. The Winter King is also the title of a book by Thomas Penn, and a useful read. 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. There he claimed sanctuary until the envoys were forced to depart. I don't read a lot of NF because I usually find it to be tedious, but The Winter King certainly wasn't that. They were unpaid, which, in comparison with modern standards, meant a smaller tax bill for law enforcement. [53] Later on, Henry had exchanged letters with Pope Julius II in 1507, in which he encouraged him to establish peace among Christian realms, and to organise an expedition against the Turks of the Ottoman Empire. Henry Tudor is a familiar name to students of English history, especially the military side of it. 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"). [59][60][61], He was content to allow the nobles their regional influence if they were loyal to him. Henry himself was clearly a distant figure who governed through his ministers, but this means that it's quite hard to get much of a sense of his character from the few sources available. Through luck, guile and ruthlessness, Henry VII, the first of the Tudor kings, had clambered to the top of the heap--a fugitive with a flimsy claim to England's throne. Loyalty was ensured, and the nobility was effectively neuteredand Henry became the richest monarch in Europe. [35] In 1499, Henry had the Earl of Warwick executed. Henry VII was the King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 to his death. The reigns of his three predecessors were interrupted or foreshortened. My obsession is European history from the 12th through 17th centuries - especially British history - so of course, when I was offered the chance to review this book, my interest was piqued immediately. For other uses, see, Henry holding a rose and wearing the collar of the, Law enforcement and justices of the peace, the 1486 rebellion of the Stafford brothers, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Cultural depictions of Henry VII of England, "Tudor Pembroke | Ymddiriedolaeth Harri Tudur | Henry Tudor Trust", "BBC Wales History Themes Pembroke The Main Street", "Westminster Abbey website: Coronations, Henry VII and Elizabeth of York", "Calendar of State Papers, Spain: Supplement To Volumes 1 and 2, Queen Katherine; Intended Marriage of King Henry VII To Queen Juana", "Domestic and foreign policy of Henry VII", "Queen Margaret's Arch | York Civic Trust", "Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond", The Reign of Henry VII. So 4 stars. 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. This book was way too focused on what happened, but not so much on the why or why it was important. When Henry VII became king, the royal exchequer was effectively bankrupt. 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. Henry reigned for nearly 24 years and was peacefully succeeded by his son, Henry VIII. Lincoln was killed in battle and Henry was victorious. The house of York then appeared so firmly established that Henry seemed likely to remain in exile for the rest of his life. Here is a rundown of the programme for those who missed it. [40], Henry VII improved tax collection in the realm by introducing ruthlessly efficient mechanisms of taxation. His spies and informers were everywhere. Through luck, guile and ruthlessness, Henry VII, the first of the Tudor kings, had clambered to the top of the heap--a fugitive with a flimsy claim to England's throne. [49] The confused, fractious nature of Breton politics undermined his efforts, which finally failed after three sizeable expeditions, at a cost of 24,000. The Field of Cloth of Gold: Royal Revelry. Moneywise, King Henry the VII was frugal and careful with money. 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. Shakespeare, drawn to the colour on either side of the reign, skipped it. 4. [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.