Foreign Policy

• Brittany and France

  • France tries to invade the fiefdom, Brittany, in 1487
  • henry worried about potential invasion and loyal to brittany since it was where he stayed whilst exiled
  • breton crisis, france is winning! henry acquires 100k extraordinary revenue to finance a small army, gains support from emporer maximillian who has a proxy marriage w the Duchess of Anne
  • Treaty of Redon, Henry invades France in 1489 as Anne pays for 12000 men
  • 1491, Anne marries the french king Charles VIII
  • 1492, Treaty of Etaples, Henry stops invading france for the French Pension and France stops supporting Warbeck
• spain pt 2

  • Isabella dies in 1504 and henry decides to support her daughter Juana of Aragon and husband Philip of burgundy in the succession struggle
  • Burgundy then dies in 1506, and ferdinand takes castille
  • spain is neither enemy nor ally by the end of the reign
• Spain


  • a loose federation between kingdoms Castille, owned by Queen Isabella, and Aragon owned by King Ferdinand (theyre married)
  • 1489- treaty medina del campo, support each other if attacked, no allying with france, no harbouring rebels and Arthur and Catherine's marriage
  • marriage stuggled because of warbeck, the dowry, and papal dispensation. its then cut short by arthur's death in 1502

• Scotland

  • enemy in the past, shares a border and wants to be fully independent
  • 1486, 3 year truce with James III who then dies in 1488
  • ames IV harbours warbeck, gives him and pension and marriage
  • encouraged warbeck to invade but they cant garner support in northumberland
  • Henry invades in retaliation causing the cornish rebellion
  • truce of ayton 1497 -> James expels warbeck 1498 -> treaty of perpetual peace in 1502, henrys daughter Margeret marries James in 1503
• Ireland

  • England only controls The Pale, a small part of Ireland
  • Lord Deputy Kildare is the main governing force/ruler, hes been in power since 1477
  • he has pretender sympathies, crowning Simnel and supporting Warbeck
  • Henry appoints his son as Lieutenant with Poynings as deputy who uses threats and bribes to establish royal authority
  • Poyning's Law 1495, law in Ireland has to be approved by the crown
  • by the following year, that's too expensive so Kildare is reinstated
  • Kildare becomes loyal after Warbeck's executed, meaning by 1500s Ireland poses no major threat
• Burgundy and the Holy Roman Empire

  • exports go through Antwerp in Burgundy
  • MoB takes over and is hospitable to Warbeck, leading to a trade embargo 1493
  • after Warbeck leaves, the Intercusus Magnus is signed in 1496, resecuring trade
  • the earl of suffolk plot leads to worsened relations w philip
  • 1504, Isabella of Catille dies and Henry supports Juana of Aragon, and by proxy, Phillip of Burgundy in the power struggle
  • 1506 they shipwreck on england and create the treaty of windsow with a new trade agreement, Intercursus Malus. which is later scrapped for being too harsh on Burgundy
• aims


  • national security from invasion and pretenders
  • recognition of the tudor dynasty
  • defence of english trade
• henry didnt plan to establish english power in europe, he was defensive since england was not a very big or powerful country , was also cautious isnce the hundred years war was in recent cultural memory ending in 1453
• securing succession


  henry has four children who survived childhood, henry, arthur, mary and margeret. arthur, as the eldest boy, was set up to be heir
• securing succession


  arthur died in 1502 while married to catherine of aragon, henry becomes heir but is still a child and that was a problem considering the princes in the tower were in recent cultural memory, there was a genuine threat. the dynasty depended on 7s survival while 8 grew up. 7 was also unable to negotiate a marriage between 8 and catherine
• securing succession


  elizabeth of york, henrys wife, died in childbirth in 1503
• succession- marriage alliance


  • a part of international diplomacy, monarchs sought marriage alliances to enhance their power and influence
  • henry sought appropriate marriage alliances to bring about dynastic security
  • chatherine and arthur, then tried henry and catherine but they didnt marry until after his death
  • margaret married james iv
  • mary would marry the king of france louis xii under henry viii
  • henry attempted to remarry himself after his wife's death but nothing came of it
• succession- uncertainty


  • a growing split between officials in the council learned (empson and dudley) and not (richard fox, thomas lovell) who were looking to bagsy positions through the transition
  • fears about suffolk and richard de la pole
  • potential threat from the duke of buckingham who had a good claim to the throne (8 excecuted him)
• when henry died 21st april 1509, no announcement was immediately made. his mother margaret beaufort, and other advisors like bishop richard fox sought to manipulate the succession to their advantage, empson and dudley were excluded.

  his death was announced on 23rd april and on 24th the rouding up of trouble makers began, notably e + d