Henry VII

• Henry Tudor's mother was actively promoting Henry as an alternative to the throne using his claim as a distant relative of the House of Lancaster


  1483
• Battle of Bosworth, Richard III, the last king of the House of York and the last Plantagenet, was killed


  22nd August 1485
• Henry Tudor was Crowned Henry VII
• Henry married Elizabeth of York (Daughter of Edward IV) after his coronation uniting the Houses of Lancaster and York
• Henry's main claim to the English throne

  Derived from his mother through the House of Beaufort (Lancaster)
• Henry's mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, was a great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt
• Margaret's grandfather, John Beaufort, was a bastard of John of Gaunt
• The Beaufort's were barred from succession to the throne by Henry IV
• Henry's father, Edmund Tudor (half-brother of Henry VI), had no claim to the English Throne at all; he was the son of Catherine, the widow of Henry V, who had remarried a Welsh gentlemen, Owen Tudor
• Deposed and murdered English monarchs

  • Edward II (1307-27)
  • Edward III (1327-77)
  • Richard II (1377-99)
  • Henry IV (1399-1413)
  • Henry V (1413-22)
  • Henry VI (1422-61)
  • Edward IV (1461-70)
  • Henry VI (1470-71)
  • Edward IV (1471-83)
  • Edward V (1483)
  • Richard III (1483-85)
• For 178 years the English Throne had become increasingly unstable, with only occasional periods of stability
• Feudalism


  The system of political and social organisation in medieval Europe, in which society was organised into a strict hierarchy with the monarch at the top, and where land was held in exchange for military service
• Bastard Feudalism


  The move from Feudalism, where "middle ranking" figures gave services (military, legal, etc) for money or influence rather than land
• Feudal Levy


  1. Replaced with royal payment in return for military service

  2. Instead of the Lord's Vassals giving military service, they paid a portion of their income into the lord's treasury

  3. The Lord would supplement the owed military service with hired retainers, (a sort of private army in full-time service to the Lord)
• As a result these figures saw themselves as their Lords men rather than the King's men
• This in-turn allowed Lords to build up an "affinity" (a following of men) which gave them wide influence in both politics and society
• Lacking a Royal Standing Army (one that was kept under arms), Kings had to rely on their Lords arms
• This meant that Lords would sometimes start Feuds amongst themselves over land, power, etc. which would cause conflict
• Under a weak King, this allowed Lords to disobey, control, rebel or even overthrow a King
• Henry's victory at Bosworth didn't mean Henry was supported by the nation
• Henry couldn't count on the support of Lord Thomas Stanley (his mother's husband) or his brother Sir William Stanley who had promised to use their 3,000 troops on Henry's side during the battle
• Richard III's unpopularity led powerful nobles like the Earl of Northumberland to hang back, but few were willing to give unequivocal support to Henry
• Henry himself was a pretender to the throne – he was an obscure nobleman with a questionable claim
• His victory at Bosworth only encouraged others, such as Simnel, Warbeck and their backers, to attempt the same
• Henry was a new King in a country he knew little about
• Some of Richard III's supporters remained at large – Lord Lovell and the Staffords staged a rebellion within months of Henry's victory
• Henry replaced Richard III who had been widely disliked (although he had more popularity in the North) and the belief he had murdered his nephews split the Yorkist cause (Anti Ricardian Yorkists such as the Woodvilles)
• His predecessor, Richard III, was dead, rather than having just been deposed and left alive to attract rebellions
• The noble house which gained most from Henry's accession were the Stanleys
• Less than a quarter of the English nobility had fought for Richard at Bosworth
• Some of the most powerful supporters of Richard III had been killed at Bosworth – E.g. Duke of Norfolk and Sir Richard Ratcliffe
• Henry had to deal with disgruntled protests against high taxes
• He was also having to deal with dangerous pretenders or rival claimants to the throne
• He was aware that what he had done to Richard III could be done to him - he could not afford to ignore or treat lightly any protests or rebellions
• The Pretenders of Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck presented a dangerous challenge to the throne
• They had gained the support of some powerful English nobles
• They had support from other European states
• Their challenges lasted for a considerable amount of time (1487-99)
• The Princes in the Tower - Edward V, King of England and his brother Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York (Sons of Edward IV)
• Lambert Simnel, thought to be the son of an organ maker, at the age of 10 was used by his patron Richard Symonds (a priest) and the Yorkists, to impersonate Richard of York