A man who rewrote history and rebuilt the crown, but who was paranoid, manipulative and suspicious; a dark prince with a wintery reign. 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. Henry VIII was the first English king to be called "Your Majesty.". The dispute eventually paid off for Henry. He was a ruler to be feared, a ruler to be paid. By this marriage, Henry VII hoped to break the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France. 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. That is, suspicious, insecure and crafty but also determined, patient and fiercely proud of his Lancastrian ancestry. 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. Rarely was a father's reign so widely disparaged and disowned on the accession of the son. I'm beginning to wonder if all of the kings beginning with the conquest weren't a little off their rocker in some way. He created the Tudor dynasty. Philip died shortly after the negotiations. If Penn's interpretation can sometimes seem slanted, its exposition would be hard to over-praise. [25][80], Historians have always compared Henry VII with his continental contemporaries, especially Louis XI of France and Ferdinand II of Aragon. Serious disputes involving the use of personal power, or threats to royal authority, were thus dealt with. I couldn't even stay awake reading this. [20] He amassed an army of about 5,0006,000 soldiers. Author Thomas Penn takes an extraordinary journey into the dark and chilling world of the first Tudor King, Henry VII. Their chief task was to see that the laws of the country were obeyed in their area. Stanley placed Richards circlet on Henrys head, he was now King. His history plays depicted the dramatic conflicts of the wars of the roses, which Henry's accession after his victory at Bosworth in 1485 brought to an end. 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. 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. Inadvertently, he provoked a revolution. Much of the ruthless machinery of control was designed to deal with ongoing challenged like pretenders and Yorkist sleepers and expats. 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? 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. Letters to relatives have an affectionate tone not captured by official state business, as evidenced by many written to his mother Margaret. ||Wordpress installation and design by http://www.MadeGlobal.com, FREE Anne Boleyn [9] He took it, as well as the standard of St. George, on his procession through London after the victory at Bosworth. He paid very close attention to detail, and instead of spending lavishly he concentrated on raising new revenues. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Overblown prose trumpeting his reign seemed to be the order of the day. 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. [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. [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. 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. The Merchant Adventurers, the company which enjoyed the monopoly of the Flemish wool trade, relocated from Antwerp to Calais. The usurpation of Richard III (1483), however, split the Yorkist party and gave Henry his opportunity. Local gentry saw the office as one of local influence and prestige and were therefore willing to serve. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Files Welcome Pack of 5 goodies, 28 January 1457 Birth of Henry VII at Pembroke Castle, 30 October 1485 Coronation of Henry VII, Henry VIIIs Enforcer: The Rise and Fall of Thomas Cromwell A Review and Rundown, Henry VII: Winter King A Review and Rundown, 31 May 1533 The Coronation Procession of Queen Anne Boleyn, Why I think Henry VIII was ultimately responsible for Anne Boleyns downfall, 4 March 1522 Anne Boleyn plays Perseverance, The Boleyns of Hever Castle now 99p on Kindle on Amazon UK, YouTube Live 4 March 2023 The Fascinating Background of Henry VIII. Happy 14th Birthday to the Anne Boleyn Files! They did as much to endanger his throne as to secure it. To say the least, Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England is quite an interesting read. I've never read much on the reign of Henry VII - mostly because to really get to grips with his policies, you first have to get to grips with his exhaustively complicated financial policies - but Penn provides a wonderful accessibility through his writing, which provides valuable context to the man who founded England's most famous dynasty. "[73] Further compounding Henry's distress, his older daughter Margaret had previously been betrothed to King James IV of Scotland and within months of her mother's death she had to be escorted to the border by her father: he would never see her again. Henry VIII was spring and Henry VII was winter. 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. [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. [49] The confused, fractious nature of Breton politics undermined his efforts, which finally failed after three sizeable expeditions, at a cost of 24,000. It is a sobering reflection for professional historians that the apparently unpromising territory of Henry's reign has recently produced two memorable books, both of them written outside their ranks: this one, and Ann Wroe's biography of the pretender, Perkin (2003), a longer work on a shorter subject. [57], In 1506, Henry extorted the Treaty of Windsor from Philip the Handsome, Duke of Burgundy. 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. [17] Now supported by Francis II's prime minister, Pierre Landais, Richard III attempted to extradite Henry from Brittany, but Henry escaped to France. 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. 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. The new prince was the embodiment of the red and white rose, he was the Tudor rose incarnate. This battle saw the end of the Wars of the Roses which had brought instability to England. Many influential Yorkists had been dispossessed and disappointed by the change of regime, and there had been so many reversals of fortune within living memory that the decision of Bosworth did not appear necessarily final. Several of Richard's key allies, such as Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, and also Lord Stanley and his brother William, crucially switched sides or left the battlefield. She was a great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (fourth son of Edward III), and his third wife Katherine Swynford. 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 rest, as we say, is history; Richard III was defeated at the Battle of Bosworth and Henry Tudor had arrived out of nowhere and avenged the death of the little princes in the tower, although there is some debate as to who was actually responsible for their murder. This was accomplished through the targeted imposition of fines and bonds through extrajudicial councils. His bouts of grave illness brought the question repeatedly to the fore. Before Henry VIII, English kings were addressed as "Your Grace" or "Your Highness.". They were also in charge of various administrative duties, such as the checking of weights and measures. This is why he named the book the "Winter King". The insurrections fronted by the pretenders Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck emerged from wide and formidable networks of conspiracy that drew in foreign rulers and leading English magnates, and infiltrated Henry's court. Henry Tudors claim to the throne was, therefore, weak and of no importance until the deaths in 1471 of Henry VIs only son, Edward, of his own two remaining kinsmen of the Beaufort line, and of Henry VI himself, which suddenly made Henry Tudor the sole surviving male with any ancestral claim to the house of Lancaster. After winning the throne of England, he wed Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of the dead Yorkist king Edward IV. The King was heavily guarded. Years of instability, factionalism and his predecessors' penchant for war had seen royal finances severely battered. But Henry had a crucial asset: his queen and their children, the living embodiment of his hoped-for dynasty. [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. 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. He led attempted invasions of Ireland in 1491 and England in 1495, and persuaded James IV of Scotland to invade England in 1496. Henry VII: The Winter King (95) 59min 2013 PG. 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. 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. Poor Henry VII. Henry was devastated. Henry reigned for nearly 24 years and was peacefully succeeded by his son, Henry VIII. However, King Henry the VIII was much more self-centered as most of his spending was inappropriate and did not benefit England much. During Henry's early years, his uncle Henry VI was fighting against Edward IV, a member of the Yorkist Plantagenet branch. 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. 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. King Henry the VII and King Henry the VIII both feared being invaded by foreign countries. We know that Henry attended the wedding celebrations of Arthur and his bride . [citation needed], Henry's most successful diplomatic achievement as regards the economy was the Magnus Intercursus ("great agreement") of 1496. Henry VII introduced stability to the financial administration of England by keeping the same financial advisors throughout his reign. Thomas More hailed the end of "slavery" and the return of "liberty", "the end of sadness, the beginning of joy". His spies and informers were everywhere. The union was both symbolic and necessary. 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. Henry was also worried by the treason of Edmund de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, the eldest surviving son of Edward IVs sister Elizabeth, who fled to the Netherlands (1499) and was supported by Maximilian. They were third cousins, as both were great-great-grandchildren of John of Gaunt. 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. [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. Backdating Henry's Reign. [citation needed] Henry also formed an alliance with Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (14931519) and persuaded Pope Innocent VIII to issue a papal bull of excommunication against all pretenders to Henry's throne. Corrections? But, his enemies didnt agree. Thank you for subscribing. : (April 25, 1883. Henry Tudor, named after his father, Henry VII, was born by Elizabeth of York June 28, 1491 in Greenwich Palace. Life at court was merry under Henry 8th, a fresh new beginning likened to springtime. The parts on how he abused his position and the law to enrich himself while an entire nation watched helplessly are, frankly, pretty relevant to now. 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. Henry was a remarkable man. 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. Henry attained the throne when his forces defeated King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the culmination of the Wars of the Roses. More than a biography of Henry VII, this book is really a highly detailed history of the last ten years of his reign, and how he meticulously and ruthlessly turned England into a police state ruled by what amounted to an organized crime syndicate. After his death, a commission found widespread abuses in the tax collection process. 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. 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. 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 . 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. 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). Henry was the only child of Edmund Tudor , Earl of Richmond , and Margaret Beaufort . Updates? 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. He made huge gobs of money binding his subjects to him with loyalty bonds. Henry VII was born in Pembroke Castle , Wales, on January 28 th, 1457. In 1837 Henry VIII's tomb was eventually marked in the chapel with a commemorative marble slab. I don't read a lot of NF because I usually find it to be tedious, but The Winter King certainly wasn't that. (We certainly can, and do, decide what sort of king Henry was based on what he had his government get up to, however.). [citation needed], However, his principal weapon was the Court of Star Chamber. [64] This made Henry VII's second son, Henry, Duke of York, heir apparent to the throne. As we know, Henry VII was true to his word, married Elizabeth and they founded the Tudor dynasty between them. 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. [10] A contemporary writer and Henry's biographer, Bernard Andr, also made much of Henry's Welsh descent. In 1497 Warbeck landed in Cornwall with a few thousand troops, but was soon captured and executed. [79], Amiable and high-spirited, Henry was friendly if dignified in manner, and it was clear that he was extremely intelligent. Shakespeare later turned to Henry's son and successor Henry VIII, whose rule brought marital sensation, renaissance spectacle and the reformation. However, this treaty came at a price, as Henry mounted a minor invasion of Brittany in November 1492. Shakespeare, drawn to the colour on either side of the reign, skipped it. 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. It's difficult to get a handle on Henry VII. [citation needed] The first was the 1486 rebellion of the Stafford brothers, abetted by Viscount Lovell, which collapsed without fighting. 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? Henry VII was king of England from 1485 to 1509. 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"). [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 VIII had become heir to the throne when his elder brother, Arthur, died in 1502. Henry marries Catherine of Aragon. 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. I found this really interesting, but Im a history nut. 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 . He would learn better as the new reign unfolded. Prince Arthur was born just eight months after his parents marriage, at Winchester, the seat of King Arthurs Camelot. Claire is going live on YouTube on 11 February! ), The Reign of Henry VII. [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. The 17 year-old Prince Henry became King Henry VIII and started a different era. [67], Henry made half-hearted plans to remarry and beget more heirs, but these never came to anything. of course, a large proportion of my opinion is probably due to the fact that i knew a lot about henry vii already, and Penn tried to create quite a thrilling/mysterious feel, which is all well and good if you don't already know how everything plays out. Henry responded to this threat by embedding spies into households. He married his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon. In 1501, England had been ravaged for decades by conspiracy, coups . How like a winter hath my absence been From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. He was crowned on October 30 and secured parliamentary recognition of his title early in November. He stabilised the government's finances by introducing several new taxes. But Henry had a crucial asset: his queen and their children, the living embodiment of his hoped-for dynasty. His claim to the throne was tenuous and permanently contested. 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. Elizabeth did get pregnant, but then went into premature labour. Penn is not one to understate a case. What are the differences between Henry VII and Henry VIII? [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. On one side of the coin, instead of a profile of his face, there was a full length depiction of Henry sat on his throne with his crown and sceptre. Henry VII died on 21 April 1509, and the 17-year-old Henry succeeded him as king. Henry VIII Books Exploring the Best Books on Englands Most Infamous King, 18 February 1516 The birth of Queen Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. [5], The descent of Henry's mother, Margaret, through the legitimised House of Beaufort bolstered Henry's claim to the English throne. An ally of Henry's, Viscount Jean du Qulennec[fr], soon arrived, bringing news that Francis had recovered, and in the confusion Henry was able to flee to a monastery. For him, it was never about glory and battle. He spent most of the next 14 years under the protection of Francis II, Duke of Brittany. Reasonably interesting overview of the reign of Henry VII of England. [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. Henry IV had confirmed Richard IIs legitimation (1397) of the children of this union but had specifically excluded the Beauforts from any claim to the throne (1407). 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] For Henry VII, it was all about the money and stability. Henry Tudor is a familiar name to students of English history, especially the military side of it. This is why he named the book the Winter King. While there, he feigned stomach cramps and delayed his departure long enough to miss the tides. Henry VII ruled as Machiavelli, just after his reign, was to advise usurpers to do through fear rather than love. 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. At Rennes Cathedral on Christmas Day 1483, Henry pledged to marry Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of Edward IV. The significant role played by bitcoin for businesses! His second son, also called Henry, inherited the throne and became . Quite ambitious in nature, Thomas Penn attempts to write a portrait of Henry VII and his reign. The rebels were defeated (June 1487) in a hard-fought battle at Stoke (East Stoke, near Newark in Nottinghamshire), where the doubtful loyalty of some of the royal troops was reminiscent of Richard IIIs difficulties at Bosworth. Shakespeare, drawn to the colour on either side of the reign, skipped it. "King Henry VII" redirects here. 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. 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. [18] He was welcomed by the French, who readily supplied him with troops and equipment for a second invasion. There he claimed sanctuary until the envoys were forced to depart. He was the only child of Lady Margaret Beaufort and Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond. [citation needed] Henry had been under the financial and physical protection of the French throne or its vassals for most of his life before becoming king. 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. His spies and informers were everywhere. 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. [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. 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. [11] When Edward IV became King in 1461, Jasper Tudor went into exile abroad. 1517. [citation needed], In 1506, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller Emery d'Amboise asked Henry VII to become the protector and patron of the Order, as he had an interest in the crusade. Pembroke Castle, and later the Earldom of Pembroke, were granted to the Yorkist William Herbert, who also assumed the guardianship of Margaret Beaufort and the young Henry. Up to a point, he succeeded. They were appointed for every shire and served for a year at a time. He had finished his palace of Richmond, he was controlling his allies and keeping an eye on his enemies, and now was the time to finalise the marriage agreement between England and Spain. [12], Henry lived in the Herbert household until 1469, when Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (the "Kingmaker"), went over to the Lancastrians. Henry VII's reign has yielded an evocative study, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, ILLUSTRATION: CLIFFORD HARPER/AGRAPHIA.CO.UK. He became paranoid and made the decision that if his people couldnt love him then they should fear him. [28], Henry had Parliament repeal Titulus Regius, the statute that declared Edward IV's marriage invalid and his children illegitimate, thus legitimising his wife. Henry was thus handed over to English envoys and escorted to the Breton port of Saint-Malo. In 1485 Henry landed at Milford Haven in Wales and advanced toward London.