But that's not really what I wanted from a book about Henry VII. Henry VII is actually a less familiar figure, despite being the same person. Henry VII: Winter King was aired last night on BBC2 and was the latest programme in BBC2s Tudor Court Season. A man who rewrote history and rebuilt the crown, but who was paranoid, manipulative and suspicious; a dark prince with a wintery reign. ), The Reign of Henry VII. Historians debate the extent of Henry's rapacity. [81], Henry VII and Elizabeth had seven children:[b]. I have to admit to being a history geek. [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 the eighth was a renaissance King. 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. 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. He spent most of the next 14 years under the protection of Francis II, Duke of Brittany. But, his enemies didnt agree. 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. I'm not giving this a star rating because I suspect it's me at fault not the book. 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. I don't read a lot of NF because I usually find it to be tedious, but The Winter King certainly wasn't that. 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. Dydd Gyl Dewi Hapus! His account of Henry's government is more contentious than he lets on. 1517. Penn showed a genealogical roll that had belonged to the de la Pole family which showed Henry VI being the end of the Lancastrian line and the Yorkist line continuing on to Richard III. 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. So Henry was a valuable bargaining tool, whose fate always depended on what relations were between England and France, always tainted by the recent Hundred Years War, and how Brittany sought to ward off threats to its own independence. In 1485 Henry landed at Milford Haven in Wales and advanced toward London. Both were survivors and as united in death as in life, as their tomb in Westminster Abbey illustrates. This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers. Luther made a protest against the Catholic practice of Indulgences. Yorkist malcontents had strength in the north of England and in Ireland and had a powerful ally in Richard IIIs sister Margaret, dowager duchess of Burgundy. [52] He also concluded the Treaty of Perpetual Peace with Scotland (the first treaty between England and Scotland for almost two centuries), which betrothed his daughter Margaret Tudor to King James IV of Scotland. In 1622 Francis Bacon published his History of the Reign of King Henry VII. (We certainly can, and do, decide what sort of king Henry was based on what he had his government get up to, however.). Years of instability, factionalism and his predecessors' penchant for war had seen royal finances severely battered. [13] When the Yorkist Edward IV regained the throne in 1471, Henry fled with other Lancastrians to Brittany. [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. Pembroke Castle, birthplace of Henry VII [ JKMMX ] [ CC BY-SA 3.0 ]. He became paranoid and made the decision that if his people couldnt love him then they should fear him. He had unified the kingdom, accrued immense wealth and created the most notorious dynasty in English history: the Tudors. Henry responded to this threat by embedding spies into households. 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. Please check your email to confirm your subscription. 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. Hed achieved the impossible, hed risen from refugee to King of England. Shakespeare later turned to Henry's son and successor Henry VIII, whose rule brought marital sensation, renaissance spectacle and the reformation. [11] When Edward IV became King in 1461, Jasper Tudor went into exile abroad. 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. 24th April 2023 - courses open for registrations. But he leaves us wondering how Henry got away with it. Henry VII, also called (1457-85) Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond, (born January 28, 1457, Pembroke Castle, Pembrokeshire, Walesdied April 21, 1509, Richmond, Surrey, England), king of England (1485-1509), who succeeded in ending the Wars of the Roses between the houses of Lancaster and York and founded the Tudor dynasty. [12], Henry lived in the Herbert household until 1469, when Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (the "Kingmaker"), went over to the Lancastrians. [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. Story's register still exists and, according to the 19th-century historian W.R.W. He was probably baptised at St Mary's Church, Pembroke,[1] though no documentation of the event exists. People saw him as being like a traditional king and hoped that his reign would bring positive change. For many he remained a usurper, a false king. Thomas Penns Winter King in a brilliant mash-up of gothic horror and political biography. 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. 1509. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. [14] In November 1476, Francis fell ill and his principal advisers were more amenable to negotiating with King Edward. These laws were used shrewdly in levying fines upon those that he perceived as threats. Though outnumbered, Henry's Lancastrian forces decisively defeated Richard's Yorkist army at the Battle of Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485. Why was Henry VII called the Winter King? [30] Before departing for London, Henry sent Robert Willoughby to Sheriff Hutton in Yorkshire, to arrest Warwick and take him to the Tower of London. Henry VII was the founder of the Tudor dynasty and father of Henry VIII and Ive been doing a bit of digging on this lesser known Tudor. Henry VII was king of England from 1485 to 1509. Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufort, was a descendant of the Lancastrian branch of the House of Plantagenet. We know that Henry attended the wedding celebrations of Arthur and his bride . : (April 25, 1883. This family took a dim view of Henry and it was John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, who instigated the first rebellion against him. This battle saw the end of the Wars of the Roses which had brought instability to England. It was 1501. But Henry had a crucial asset: his queen and their children, the living embodiment of his hoped-for dynasty. The significant role played by bitcoin for businesses! In the late 20th century a model of European state formation was prominent in which Henry less resembles Louis and Ferdinand. 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. There he claimed sanctuary until the envoys were forced to depart. 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. When they married in 1396 they already had four children, including Henry's great-grandfather John Beaufort. I really enjoyed it. 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? Henry VII ruled - as Machiavelli, just after his reign, was to advise usurpers to do - through fear rather than love. [citation needed], By 1509, justices of the peace were key enforcers of law and order for Henry VII. 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. His host was Francis, the Duke of Brittany, who saw Henry Tudor as a pawn in the game between Edward VI and the King of France. 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. Henry VII was king of England from 1485 to 1509. Hidden under the floor in St George's Chapel in Windsor, England where thousands of people walk every day, a forgotten tomb lies. [citation needed], However, his principal weapon was the Court of Star Chamber. He also enacted laws against livery 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. 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. Henry needed an heir to secure his reign and fortunately an heir came quickly. To unite the opponents of Richard III, Henry had promised to marry Elizabeth of York, eldest daughter of Edward IV; and the coalition of Yorkists and Lancastrians continued, helped by French support, since Richard III talked of invading France. 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. After winning the throne of England, he wed Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of the dead Yorkist king Edward IV. The usurpation of Richard III (1483), however, split the Yorkist party and gave Henry his opportunity. 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. The portly Henry VIII, and the ill-fated destinies of most of his six wives, is one of the first historical figures primary-aged pupils are aware of.. Gaunt's nephew Richard II legitimised Gaunt's children by Swynford by Letters Patent in 1397. [50] Henry had pressured the French by laying siege to Boulogne in October 1492. Wow, it was like being battered by facts without remission for good intentions. [20] He amassed an army of about 5,0006,000 soldiers. Two themes of his book preside: the permanent vulnerability of Henry's regime, and his ruthless methods of rule. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. 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. [23] 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. [24][17][25] He was 29 years old, she was 20. 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. However, as France was becoming more concerned with the Italian Wars, the French were happy to agree to the Treaty of Etaples. However, such a level of paranoia persisted that anyone (John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, for example)[27] with blood ties to the Plantagenets was suspected of coveting the throne. 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.