Following the Lancastrian victory at Bosworth Field, Henry’s first action was to secure his hold on the Crown. Henry’s claim to the kingship was that he was the last reasonably legitimate male descendant of Edward III.
The Early Reign of Henry VII
Henry also honoured the pledge he had made in December, 1483, when he promised to marry Elizabeth of York. Henry and Elizabeth were married on January 18, 1486 in Westminster Abbey. The marriage of Henry and Elizabeth served to unify the House of York and the House of Lancaster and gave Henry’s children a strong claim to the crown. However, there was still much paranoia and suspicion following the end of the War of the Roses and any nobles descended from the House of Plantagenet were regarded with suspicion and accused of having designs on the throne. The unification of the House of York and the House of Lancaster also put to rest the question of whether or not the children of the Duke of York or the Duke of Lancaster had a stronger claim to the English throne. At the same time, Henry repealed the Tituslus Regulus that had been passed by Parliament, legitimizing the children of Edward IV. Some historians claim that Henry had been involved in the murder of Edward V and the Duke of York, the so-called Princes in the Tower. It has been argued that the repeal of the Titulus Reguls would have given Edward V a stronger claim to the Crown than Henry’s and that Henry had Edward killed as a result. However, there is little evidence to support this theory. Additionally, it has been argued that Henry could not have made his pledge to marry Elizabeth of York, unless he believed that Edward V was already dead.
The second action Henry took to secure his hold on the Crown was to retroactively declare himself King of England, the day before the Battle of Bosworth Field. In doing so, Henry ensured that anyone who had fought for Richard III could be charged with treason. This allowed Henry to confiscate the estates of Richard III, while restoring his own. At the same time, Henry also spared the life of Richard’s heir, the Earl of Lincoln and made Margaret Plantagent, a Yorkist sympathizer, the Countess of Salisbury. Henry also made a point of not addressing the barons or Parliament until after his coronation. Henry also issued a royal edict stating that any noble who swore loyalty to Henry would be allowed to keep their lands and titles, regardless of their previous political affiliations.
Henry was able to secure his hold on the throne mainly by undermining the nobility through the use of bonds and recognizance. He also issued royal decrees against livery and maintenance. This restricted the number of male servants that could be employed by the nobility and prevented them from wearing their lord’s badge or uniform. By issuing these decrees, Henry hoped to prevent the nobles from forming their own private armies.
Uprisings During the Reign of Henry VII
During the first few years of his reign, Henry’s rule was threatened by a number of rebellions and uprisings. Among them was the Stafford and Lovell Rebellion, which collapsed without bloodshed in 1486.
The following year, the Earl of Lincoln led a Yorkist uprising in support of Lambert Simnel, who claimed to be the Earl of Warwick, the son of the Duke of Clarence. Henry put down the rebellion at the Battle of Stoke. The Earl of Lincoln was killed during the battle and Simnel became a servant in the royal kitchen. In 1490, another pretender emerged, named Perkin Warbeck. Warbeck claimed to be the Duke of York; the brother of Edward V. Warbeck quickly won the support of Margaret of Burgundy, Edward’s sister. With Margaret’s backing, Warbeck invaded Ireland in 1491. In 1495, he attempted an invasion of England. A year later, Warbeck was able to persuade James IV, the King of Scotland to launch a second invasion of England. In 1497, Warbeck landed in Cornwall with several thousand troops. However, not long after he came ashore, Warbeck was captured and put to death. In 1499, Henry had Lambert Simmel executed. In an act of clemency, Henry spared his sister, who survived until 1541 when she was executed by Henry VIII.
Henry VII is generally accepted as having been a financially prudent monarch who restored the stability of the virtually bankrupt English economy. He did this by introducing ruthlessly efficient methods of taxation. Henry was supported in this endeavour by his Royal Chancellor, Archbishop John Morton, who introduced a catch-22 method of taxation that became known as Morton’s Fork, for ensuring that the English nobility paid its taxes. The royal administration was also reformed which resulted in the introduction of the King’s Council which was intended to keep the nobility in line.
The goal of Henry’s policies was to restore political and economic stability to England and to an extent Henry is regarded as having been successful in achieving this goal. Henry was not a soldier and had little interest in trying to regain the territories that had been lost by his predecessors in foreign adventures. Instead Henry signed the Treaty of Etaples which stipulated that the King of France was to pay Henry a yearly tribute and that the French would not support pretenders or usurpers of the English throne.
English Foreign Relations During the R eign of Henry VII
In 1489, Henry VII signed the Treaty of Medina del Campo, becoming one of the first European monarchs to recognize the recently unified Kingdom of Spain. One of the terms of the treaty was the marriage of Henry’s oldest son, Arthur, the Prince of Wales to Catherine of Aragon. Henry also signed the Treaty of Perpetual Peace with Scotland. The Treaty of Perpetual Peace was the first peace treaty to be signed by the Kings of England and Scotland since the reign of Edward Longshanks, more than 200 years earlier. As with the Treaty of Medina del Campo, the Treaty of Perpetual Peace called for the marriage of Henry’s daughter, Margaret Tudor to James IV, the King of Scotland. Henry hoped that the marriage would break the so-call Auld Alliance between Scotland and France. Although Henry was not successful in achieving this aim, the marriage eventually led to the union of the English and Scottish thrones under the reign of Margaret’s great-grandson, James I. During the same period Henry formed an alliance with Maximilian I, the Holy Roman Emperor and succeeded in convincing Pope Innocent VIII to issue a Papal Bull calling for the excommunication of all pretenders to Henry’s crown.
In 1496, Henry signed the Magnus Intercursus, or the Great Agreement. In 1494, Henry had imposed an embargo on the wool trade with the Netherlands in retaliation for Burgundian support of the English pretender Perkin Warbeck. At the same time the Flemish merchants were expelled from England. The stand-off eventually paid off for Henry when all the parties involved in the dispute realized that they were at a mutual disadvantage because of the trade embargo. Lifting the embargo proved to be a benefit for the English economy. The removal of the embargo eased the rate of taxation for English merchants. At the same time, Amsterdam became one of Europe’s most important trading centres. Fish from the Baltic, spices from Asia and silk from Italy were all traded in Amsterdam for English cloth.
In 1506, Henry forced Philip the Handsome, the Duke of Burgundy, into signing the Treaty of Windsor. The Duke of Burgundy had been shipwrecked off the coast of England and Henry bullied him into signing the treaty, which unfairly favoured England. The Treaty of Windsor was called the Malus Intercursus, or the Evil Agreement, and proved to be unenforceable as it was opposed by France, Burgundy, the Holy Roman Empire and the Hanseatic League.
Sources
Ashley, Mike. British Kings and Queens. Robinson: London.1998.
Terry Long - I hold degrees in history and journalism. In addition to my contributions to Suite 101, I have also written for the Brampton Bulletin, the ...
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