Henry VII consolidation of power

• Henry VII became king following his victory over Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth


  22nd August 1485
• Henry VII terminated Plantagenet rule in England and saw the establishment of the Tudor dynasty
• Henry VII's grasp on power

  • Insecure
  • No discernable claim to the throne
  • Descended through the female line of his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort
  • Came through John of Gaunt's third wife; their son John Beaufort was a bastard
  • Had lived abroad since he was 14
• Henry proclaimed King of England on the battlefield by Lord Stanley

  22nd August 1485
• Henry went to London to meet the lord mayor of the city

  3rd September 1485
• Richard III had been an object of suspicion because of the disappearance of the princes in the Tower
• The London public therefore welcomed Henry's kingship
• Henry VII's character and aims

  • From 1485 his main purpose was to keep the throne, mindful that the 4 monarchs previous to him met untimely ends
• Consolidation of power

  1. Dated his reign from 21st August 1485 ensuring that anyone who had fought on the Yorkist side could be designated a traitor

  2. Publicly rewarded many of his key supporters e.g. conferring 11 knighthoods

  3. Arranged supporters to detain the Earl of Warwick who had a stronger claim to the throne

  4. Made key appointments to his Council and household e.g. making Sir Reginald Bray Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Sir William Stanley Chamberlain of the Household

  5. Arranged his coronation to take place on 30 October before the meeting of his first Parliament on 7 November thereby demonstrating his right to the throne was by hereditary right, not because parliament had sanctioned

  6. Parliamentary Acts of Attainder against Yorkists who had fought at Bosworth ensured their property was forfeit to the Crown thereby increasing royal income

  7. Further enhanced when Parliament granted Henry the customs revenues of tonnage and poundage for life
• Henry married Elizabeth of York, the daughter of King Edward IV


  January 1486
• Birth of Prince Arthur


  September 1486
• Viscount Lovell and the Staffords, Easter 1486 - Key supporter of Richard III, Lovell tried to raise rebellion in the North Riding of Yorkshire, Stafford tried to in the Midlands, Stafford was captured and executed
• Later rebellions promoted by Margaret of Burgundy were problematic
• Lambert Simnel and the rebellion of the Earl of Lincoln

  1. Needed a figurehead who could claim to be a Yorkist prince

  2. Lambert Simnel passed off as the Earl of Warwick, who had been imprisoned by Henry

  3. Crowned King Edward in Ireland by the Earl of Kildare in May 1487

  4. Conspiracy put together by John de la Pole, the Earl of Lincoln

  5. Henry exhibited the real Earl of Warwick in London

  6. Lincoln fled Henry's court and joined the failed plotter Lord Lovell at the court of Margaret of Burgundy in the Netherlands

  7. They persuaded Margaret to support Simnel's claim and to pay for a force of mercenaries to invade England

  8. Henry took the gamble of reinstating the untrustworthy Earl of Northumberland who led a major portion of Richard III's army at the Battle of Bosworth to power in the North

  9. Reinforced coastal defences in East Anglia

  10. Rebels landed on the northwest coast of England in Cumberland and crossed the Pennines to drum up support in Richard III's heartland the North Riding of Yorkshire

  11. Battle of Stoke Field 1487 - Henry's army led effectively by the Earl of Oxford held firm and the Earl of Lincoln was killed in the battle having crucially been unable to add sufficient followers to the army of mercenaries with which he had landed in England
• Perkin Warbeck


  Cloth trader from Tournai, Flanders who claimed to be Richard, Duke of York for 8 years
• Perkin Warbeck imposture


  1. Fled from the court of Charles VIII of France to the court of Margaret of Burgundy where he was trained as a potential Yorkist prince

  2. First attempt to land in England 1495 - Henry was informed by his royal agent Sir Robert Clifford, Warbeck quickly defeated and fled to the court of James IV of Scotland

  3. 1496 a small Scottish force crossed the border on Warbeck's behalf but quickly retreated

  4. Warbeck's interests soon sacrificed when James gave in to Henry's offer of marriage to his daughter Margaret

  5. Final attempt to seek the English throne by exploiting the uncertainties created by the Cornish Rebellion in 1497, but his forces were crushed and Warbeck eventually surrendered
• The Earl of Warwick - Warbeck's final attempt at conspiracy enabled Henry to get rid of Warwick, the most obvious Yorkist claimant to the throne, having been accused of plotting with Warbeck he was beheaded in 1499
• Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk and Richard de la Pole, 'The White Rose'


  1. Suffolk had fled to Flanders in 1498, he was persuaded to return after a short exile but once again fled in 1501, seeking refuge at the court of the Emperor Maximilian

  2. The Treaty of Windsor in 1506 restored friendly relations meaning Maximilian agreed to give up Suffolk, who was duly imprisoned in the Tower of London

  3. Henry had Suffolk executed for treason in 1513

  4. Richard de la Pole was still at large during his time in exile, but he was killed fighting for the French forces at the Battle of Pavia in 1525