[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. 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. He was probably baptised at St Mary's Church, Pembroke,[1] though no documentation of the event exists. Henry VII was born on 28 January 1457 at Pembroke Castle, in the English-speaking portion of Pembrokeshire known as Little England beyond Wales. Inadvertently, he provoked a revolution. 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. 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. In other cases, he brought his over-powerful subjects to heel by decree. He had gone from a refugee landing on an isolated beach in Wales to being a great king. Henry VII introduced stability to the financial administration of England by keeping the same financial advisors throughout his reign. [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. They were unpaid, which, in comparison with modern standards, meant a smaller tax bill for law enforcement. In many ways, it highlights that Henry VIII was a feckless inheritor of the tools of Machiavellian power, but had no idea to what productive end to put them. Castles of . The reigns of his three predecessors were interrupted or foreshortened. ||Wordpress installation and design by http://www.MadeGlobal.com, FREE Anne Boleyn [citation needed], Henry honoured his pledge of December 1483 to marry Elizabeth of York and the wedding took place in 1486 at Westminster Abbey. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. [57], In 1506, Henry extorted the Treaty of Windsor from Philip the Handsome, Duke of Burgundy. [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 reign Edward Story was Bishop of Chichester. After obtaining the dispensation, Henry had second thoughts about the marriage of his son and Catherine. This was excellent. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. This book is a nonfiction look at King Henry the VII. Loyalty was ensured, and the nobility was effectively neuteredand Henry became the richest monarch in Europe. They were also in charge of various administrative duties, such as the checking of weights and measures. He was a ruler to be feared, a ruler to be paid. [67], Henry made half-hearted plans to remarry and beget more heirs, but these never came to anything. As his mother was only 14 when he was born and soon married again, Henry was brought up by his uncle Jasper Tudor, earl of Pembroke. Elizabeth of York (11 February 1466 11 February 1503) was Queen of England from her marriage to King Henry VII on 18 January 1486 until her death. 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. Before taking the throne, he was known as Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond. 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? 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. 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. 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. 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. [62], Henry VII used justices of the peace on a large, nationwide scale. 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. I don't read a lot of NF because I usually find it to be tedious, but The Winter King certainly wasn't that. [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. Henry VII was king of England from 1485 to 1509. Thomas More hailed the end of "slavery" and the return of "liberty", "the end of sadness, the beginning of joy". 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"). Still, as Penn observes, the national sense of relief in 1509 was palpable. His father, Henry VII, was a cold, calculating man (he wasn't called "the Winter King" for nothing), a greedy monarch who during his last years on the throne had squeezed every last drop. Both parties realised they were mutually disadvantaged by the reduction in commerce. Its restoration by the Magnus Intercursus was very much to England's benefit in removing taxation for English merchants and significantly increasing England's wealth. I thought the book was well written, even though a bit dry is spots. Detailed Information. He created the sovereign coin to spread the message that he was King. 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. Elizabeth married Henry after his victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field, which marked the end of the Wars of the Roses. 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 near Dale, Pembrokeshire. 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. The father's government was an exercise in discoloration. [50] Henry had pressured the French by laying siege to Boulogne in October 1492. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. By the way, dont forget that Ian Mortimers Time Travellers Guide to Elizabethan England is on tonight on BBC2 at 9pm. Prince Arthur was born just eight months after his parents marriage, at Winchester, the seat of King Arthurs Camelot. Having seen it pop up in a lot of papers' Books of the Year lists, I think I was expecting something altogether more gripping and dramatic, but in the end I thought the story of Henry VII and the Tudor succession was just not an especially thrilling tale. Henry VII: The Winter King. Penn explained how Henry reworked recent events to suit him. An easy read? 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. [49] The confused, fractious nature of Breton politics undermined his efforts, which finally failed after three sizeable expeditions, at a cost of 24,000. [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. Henry VII: The Winter King (95) 59min 2013 PG. It took Henry, who in any case needed to marry her if the expected issue was to solve the succession problem, some six years to achieve their joint purpose. Early life 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. But, his enemies didnt agree. 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. He was, said Penn, a man who never knew a moments peace during his reign. Through this, he found that his Lord Chamberlain, Sir William Stanley, was involved in the plot. The Lancastrians triumphed under the leadership of a 28-year-old exile named Henry Tudor. 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. [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. 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. He was the last king of England to win his throne on the field of battle. 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.. 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. All the information is from Thomas Penn. Categories: Monarchy, NewsTags: birth of Tudor dynasty, Henry Tudor, Henry VII, Thomas Penn, Tudor dynasty, Winter King, Copyright 2023 The Anne Boleyn Files Why was Henry VII called the Winter King? Happy 14th Birthday to the Anne Boleyn Files! He had enough of that getting himself to the throne. He had, Bacon added, much to be suspicious about, "his times" being "full of secret conspiracies and troubles". Please check your email to confirm your subscription. Both were survivors and as united in death as in life, as their tomb in Westminster Abbey illustrates. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. 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. Reasonably interesting overview of the reign of Henry VII of England. One of their sons was Edmund, Henry's father. [18] He was welcomed by the French, who readily supplied him with troops and equipment for a second invasion. Claire is going live on YouTube on 11 February! [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. [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. 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. A King from upstart usurper to renaissance monarch to Machiavellian schemer. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.[a]. 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. The money so extracted added to the King's personal fortune rather than being used for the stated purpose. Overspending by Henry VIII to pay for his lavish lifestyle and to fund foreign wars with France and Scotland are cited as . [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. France, Burgundy, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain and the Hanseatic League all rejected the treaty, which was never in force. Together, they had seven children. Penn ended the programme by visiting the tombs of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York in Henrys chapel at Westminster Abbey, a chapel that remains at the heart of political life. ), The Reign of Henry VII. The devastated King became so ill that he was close to death, but then he recovered and Penn explains that when he took control once more, he was remorseless. [43] According to the contemporary historian Polydore Vergil, simple "greed" underscored the means by which royal control was over-asserted in Henry's final years. [citation needed], Henry began taking precautions against rebellion while still in Leicester after Bosworth Field. But now, sensitivity readers are pushing back . He was the first Tudor king after defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in August 1485. 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. Even if the king outfaced his enemies in his lifetime, would they not forestall a Tudor succession? Warbeck was finally captured in 1497 and executed. Consultant editor for the. Next month find out more on someone known as The Winter Queen!