King Henry VII
-Chrissie
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Henry VII was a descendant of King Edward III by way of his mother, Margaret Beaufort, who was descended from Edward’s third son, John of Gaunt and Gaunt’s mistress-turned-third wife, Katherine Swynford. When Gaunt and Swinford married, their existing children, who had the name “Beaufort,” were legitimized, but were specifically excluded from the succession. By the time Henry was born, the claims of the Beauforts to the throne were not terribly relevant. Henry Tudor was born into the title of Earl of Richmond, which he inherited from his father who died shortly before his birth. He and his family had no reason to believe he would ever move beyond that position. The Lancastrians, the legitimate heirs of John of Gaunt, via Henry IV, held the throne and the claim of the family of York came long before that of the descendants of the Gaunt’s later, and artificially legitimized, family. Those Yorkist claims were made real when Edward IV took the throne from Henry VI, making Tudor’s claim even less relevant. For the brief period during which Henry VI was returned to the throne, Henry Tudor was brought to Court by his uncle, Jasper. When Edward IV returned to the throne, accompanying the deaths of Henry VI and his son, the Tudors and many of those left from the Lancastrian faction fled to Brittany, where they were protected by Duke Francis II for the next fourteen years.
At the death of Edward IV and the accession of Richard III, Henry Tudor became the central figure for those in opposition to Richard. His tenuous claim was less important than his Lancastrian blood. His mother, Margaret Beaufort, was in part responsible for this, as she was actively promoting her son as an alternative to the increasingly unpopular Richard. A failed rebellion led by Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, in 1483 allowed Henry Tudor the opportunity to pull together support, particularly from the French and from the Woodville family. The latter was gained first because it was widely believed that Richard had killed the sons of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville and also via Henry Tudor’s promise to marry the eldest surviving daughter of Edward IV, Elizabeth of York. Since the deaths of her brothers, she was the heir to the English throne, but could not claim it in her own right. A marriage between Elizabeth and Henry brought to her an opportunity for power and to him additional legitimacy.
Henry Tudor invaded England in August of 1485, meeting Richard’s forces on 22 August at Bosworth. Henry won the day. Richard was killed on the field, allowing Henry to claim the throne not only by bloodline but by right of conquest. Henry was coronated on 30 October 1485. Only after his position was secured did he call Parliament. On his order, they repealed the act that had made Edward IV’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville illegitimate. This served to return his fiancée to her royal position and, perhaps more importantly, indicated that he was not concerned that her brothers (whose claim was improved by the repeal) were able to challenge his position. They were married on 18 January 1486, thereby uniting the two parts of the Plantagenet family who had subjected England to civil war for over a generation. Elizabeth quickly produced the needed male heir to secure the Tudor dynasty. She and Henry reached into English history and myth for their eldest son’s name: Arthur. The name was intended to remind Britons not only of the great stories and deeds of his namesake but also the credit that king was given in uniting England under one ruler.
A deeply symbolic name for the heir apparent was not enough to prevent the rebellions which Henry faced in his first years as king. The best-known of these is the one led by Perkin Warbeck, who took advantage of the questions surrounding the fate of the princes in the tower to claim that he was Richard of Shrewsbury, the younger son of Edward IV. He gained a great deal of support, including backing from Margaret of Burgundy, sister of Edward IV and Perkin’s erstwhile aunt, and King James IV of Scotland. Warbeck and James invaded England in 1496 and were defeated. Warbeck was captured, made to confess his lie, then executed.
Henry’s focus for the entirety of his reign was to secure the Tudor dynasty through peace in England and with countries abroad. He recentralized the government on London but was untroubled by people who held loyalties to a local lord, so long as that lord was unquestionably loyal to the king. Though his tax policies were sometimes seen as vicious, he did redeem the nearly bankrupt exchequer. He arranged a treaty with France that (amongst other points) guaranteed they would not support any pretenders to the throne. He made a firm alliance with Scotland through marriage between his daughter, Margaret, and James IV. And he connected with the newly united Spain by contracting a marriage for Prince Arthur with the youngest daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, Catherine of Aragon. Arthur was not destined to succeed his father, however. He died of a respiratory infection in April 1502, only a few months after his marriage to Catherine. The succession, and the widow, was now left to Arthur’s younger brother.
Within less than a year, Henry also lost his youngest daughter, who lived only a few days, and then his wife, of a post-partum infection from the birth of that child. He was, by all accounts, devastated by these losses, particularly painful so soon after the loss of his eldest son. Though he toyed with the idea of remarrying, he never did, despite the fact that this left the dynasty in a tenuous position with only one heir. He died on 21 April 1509 of tuberculosis, and was succeeded by his 17-year-old son, Henry VIII.