why was henry vii called the winter king

Henry then cemented his claim to the throne and his dynastic ambitions by marrying Elizabeth of York and bringing the Houses of Lancaster and York together; the red rose and white rose combined to become the Tudor rose. The expressive and evocative power of his writing, and the union of scholarship with artistry, are rare in modern historical writing. After his victory at Bosworth Field, Henry married Edward IV's daughter Elizabeth of York. One interesting thing about him is his early youth and the fourteen years he spent in exile in France Brittany to be precise and those, I believe, made him the man he was eventually to become. Henry VII ruled from 1485-1509 and had a dubious claim on the throne, spending most of his time before the famous Battle of Bosworth Field in exile and gaining credibility from his marriage to Elizabeth of York. Henry VII comes across as a talented micromanager and financier. Thank you for subscribing. The 17 year-old Prince Henry became King Henry VIII and started a different era. [citation needed] Henry had been under the financial and physical protection of the French throne or its vassals for most of his life before becoming king. [75], Henry VII died of tuberculosis at Richmond Palace on 21 April 1509 and was buried in the chapel he commissioned in Westminster Abbey next to his wife, Elizabeth. [citation needed] John Cabot, originally from Genoa and Venice, had heard that ships from Bristol had discovered uncharted new found territory far west of Ireland. [81], Henry VII and Elizabeth had seven children:[b]. Bacon wanted the future Charles I to learn from Henry's reign, but the financial methods that would provoke fatal opposition to Charles look pale beside the exactions levied by Henry from often innocent subjects, who were denied legal process or threatened with trumped-up prosecutions and had to buy their freedom (though at moments of apparently impending death the king would repent of his methods and have the jails cleared and pardons issued). He is credited with many administrative, economic and diplomatic initiatives. Inadvertently, he provoked a revolution. He was the first Tudor king after defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in August 1485. Watch for $0.00 with Prime. Henry showed remarkable clemency to the surviving rebels: he pardoned Kildare and the other Irish nobles, and he made the boy, Simnel, a servant in the royal kitchen where he was in charge of roasting meats on a spit. When he met Richard III at Bosworth Field, Henry found that his army of dissidents and mercenaries was completely outnumbered. When Henry VII became king, the royal exchequer was effectively bankrupt. [citation needed] Following the example of Edward IV, Henry VII created a Council of Wales and the Marches for his son Arthur, which was intended to govern Wales and the Marches, Cheshire and Cornwall. [65] Henry VII was shattered by the loss of Elizabeth, and her death impacted him severely. Edward, Earl of Warwick, the ten-year-old son of Edward IV's brother George, Duke of Clarence, was the senior surviving male of the House of York. [28], Henry had Parliament repeal Titulus Regius, the statute that declared Edward IV's marriage invalid and his children illegitimate, thus legitimising his wife. The father's government was an exercise in discoloration. For many he remained a usurper, a false king. Richard III's death at Bosworth Field effectively ended the Wars of the Roses. Elizabeth of York was Queen consort of England as spouse of King Henry VII from 1486 until her death on February 11th, 1503. Stanleys betrayal led to a complete security overhaul and his privy chamber going into lockdown. It seems that Henry was skilful at extracting money from his subjects on many pretexts, including that of war with France or war with Scotland. During his 23-year reign, Henry had only two Lord High Treasurers, and this continuity helped provide stability. For instance, except for the first few months of the reign, the Baron Dynham and the Earl of Surrey were the only Lord High Treasurers throughout his reign. Henry VII is usually treated as a charmless and thrifty prelude to the big reign of Henry VIII, with the inevitable marriage of Henry and Catherine of Aragon, and the reversal of his father's bully policies for a golden age of chivalry and, you know, all the crazy shit Henry VIII was about to do. This was accomplished through the targeted imposition of fines and bonds through extrajudicial councils. Iain Hollingshead reviews Henry VII: Winter King, a BBC Two documentary which examines how the first Tudor monarch came to power and went on to have a 23-year reign. [70] Henry VII falls among the minority of British monarchs that never had any known mistresses, and for the times, it is very unusual that he did not remarry: his son Henry was the only male heir left after the death of his wife, thus the death of Arthur created a precarious political position for the House of Tudor. Claiming the throne by just title of inheritance and by the judgment of God in battle, he was crowned on October 30 and secured parliamentary recognition of his title early in November. It was no easy feat. In 1485 Henry landed at Milford Haven in Wales and advanced toward London. His younger brother, Jasper Tudor, the Earl of Pembroke, undertook to protect Edmund's widow Margaret, who was 13 years old when she gave birth to Henry. I couldn't even stay awake reading this. [38], Unlike his predecessors, Henry VII came to the throne without personal experience in estate management or financial administration. Henry VII ruled as Machiavelli, just after his reign, was to advise usurpers to do through fear rather than love. The money so extracted added to the King's personal fortune rather than being used for the stated purpose. The portly Henry VIII, and the ill-fated destinies of most of his six wives, is one of the first historical figures primary-aged pupils are aware of.. Otherwise, at the time of his father's arranging of the marriage to Catherine of Aragon, the future Henry VIII was too young to contract the marriage according to Canon Law and would be ineligible until age fourteen. Both were survivors and as united in death as in life, as their tomb in Westminster Abbey illustrates. Scapegoats were needed for Henry VIIs reign, people to blame for the old regime, so Edmund Dudley was imprisoned and executed on trumped up charges. In turn, Antwerp became an extremely important trade entrept (transshipment port), through which, for example, goods from the Baltic, spices from the east and Italian silks were exchanged for English cloth. Stanley placed Richards circlet on Henrys head, he was now King. Serious disputes involving the use of personal power, or threats to royal authority, were thus dealt with. To strengthen his position, however, he subsidised shipbuilding, so strengthening the navy (he commissioned Europe's first ever and the world's oldest surviving dry dock at Portsmouth in 1495) and improving trading opportunities. When Richard III became King, Henrys strategy, planned by Margaret Beaufort, the mother whom he had not seen for years, was to declare in public, in Brittanys Rennes Cathedral, that he would marry Edward IVs daughter Elizabeth, then in sanctuary with her mother, and thus bury the enmity between Lancaster and York by making her his queen. Henry VII was the founder of the Tudor dynasty and father of Henry VIII and Ive been doing a bit of digging on this lesser known Tudor. - and that was only about 50% of the book, it was only about 50% interesting to me. Having secured financial backing from Florentine bankers in London, Cabot was granted carefully phrased letters patent from Henry in March 1496, permitting him to embark on an exploratory voyage westerly. His father, Henry VII, was a cold, calculating man (he wasn't called "the Winter King" for nothing), a greedy monarch who during his last years on the throne had squeezed every last drop. Its inhabitant was once one of England's most exuberant kings, yet his resting place was only re-discovered in 1813. He was probably baptised at St Mary's Church, Pembroke,[1] though no documentation of the event exists. England had been ravaged for decades by conspiracy, violence, murders, coups and countercoups. Happy 14th Birthday to the Anne Boleyn Files! Thomas Penn's Winter King is not really a biography of Henry VII, and more a study of what he was directing his government to do in his name. Moneywise, King Henry the VII was frugal and careful with money. In many ways, it highlights that Henry VIII was a feckless inheritor of the tools of Machiavellian power, but had no idea to what productive end to put them. Present were exiles from Richards court, friends of Edward IVths queen, but King Richard was able to bribe the ageing Duke of Brittany to relinquish Henry in return for funds to fight an increasingly hostile French king, whereupon Henry Tudor flew to the French court for sanctuary. [54], Henry VII was much enriched by trading alum, which was used in the wool and cloth trades as a chemical fixative for dyeing fabrics. Having seen it pop up in a lot of papers' Books of the Year lists, I think I was expecting something altogether more gripping and dramatic, but in the end I thought the story of Henry VII and the Tudor succession was just not an especially thrilling tale. [76] He was succeeded by his second son, Henry VIII (reigned 150947), who would initiate the Protestant Reformation in England. Henry had only been accepted as King because the Princes in the Tower, the sons of Edward IV, were dead, so when Yorkist exiles groomed Perkin Warbeck to pose as one of the princes and raised an army it was a huge threat. For many he remained a usurper, a false king. Blair Worden's The English Civil Wars is published by Phoenix. Early life He took care not to address the baronage or summon Parliament until after his coronation, which took place in Westminster Abbey on 30 October 1485. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . How did a precariously enthroned ruler, lacking a police force or a standing army, manage to run roughshod over the law? Luther made a protest against the Catholic practice of Indulgences. An easy read? Only through the deaths of more obvious claimants, and after the accession of Richard III in 1483, when Henry was 26, did he become a leading candidate. The usurpation of Richard III (1483), however, split the Yorkist party and gave Henry his opportunity. Henry restored power and stability to the English monarchy following the civil war. [citation needed], Henry's most successful diplomatic achievement as regards the economy was the Magnus Intercursus ("great agreement") of 1496. Still, as Penn observes, the national sense of relief in 1509 was palpable. Henry VII (28 January 1457 21 April 1509) was King of England from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. Pembroke Castle, and later the Earldom of Pembroke, were granted to the Yorkist William Herbert, who also assumed the guardianship of Margaret Beaufort and the young Henry. [17] Now supported by Francis II's prime minister, Pierre Landais, Richard III attempted to extradite Henry from Brittany, but Henry escaped to France. He was supported in this effort by his chancellor, Archbishop John Morton, whose "Morton's Fork" was a catch-22 method of ensuring that nobles paid increased taxes: those nobles who spent little must have saved much, and thus could afford the increased taxes; in contrast, those nobles who spent much obviously had the means to pay the increased taxes. The father's government was an exercise in discoloration. [citation needed], Henry also made some political capital out of his Welsh ancestry in attracting military support and safeguarding his army's passage through Wales on its way to the Battle of Bosworth. [12], Henry lived in the Herbert household until 1469, when Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (the "Kingmaker"), went over to the Lancastrians. [36] However, he spared Warwick's elder sister Margaret, who survived until 1541 when she was executed by Henry VIII. From his victory over Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth, to his secret death and the succession of his son Henry VIII, the film reveals the ruthless tactics . $14.97 1 Used from $14.96 3 New from $14.97. [18] He was welcomed by the French, who readily supplied him with troops and equipment for a second invasion. [16] With money and supplies borrowed from his host, Francis II of Brittany, Henry tried to land in England, but his conspiracy unravelled resulting in the execution of his primary co-conspirator, Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. [72] Immediately afterwards, Henry became very sick and nearly died himself, allowing only his mother Margaret Beaufort near him: "privily departed to a solitary place, and would that no man should resort unto him. Its restoration by the Magnus Intercursus was very much to England's benefit in removing taxation for English merchants and significantly increasing England's wealth. [a] Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufort, was a descendant of the Lancastrian branch of the House of Plantagenet. Henry was thus handed over to English envoys and escorted to the Breton port of Saint-Malo. He cemented his claim by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of King Edward IV. He had, Bacon added, much to be suspicious about, "his times" being "full of secret conspiracies and troubles". [66], Henry wanted to maintain the Spanish alliance. Henry Tudor, named after his father, Henry VII, was born by Elizabeth of York June 28, 1491 in Greenwich Palace. After winning the throne of England, he wed Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of the dead Yorkist king Edward IV. this was well-written and i love henry vii for how he managed to a) get the throne of england and b) keep it and make the crown so solvent after the devastating years of the Wars of the Roses, but i can't help but think that a lot of this was rather dry. Claiming to be Edward, earl of Warwick, the son of Richard IIIs elder brother, George, duke of Clarence, he had the formidable support of John de la Pole, earl of Lincoln, Richard IIIs heir designate, of many Irish chieftains, and of 2,000 German mercenaries paid for by Margaret of Burgundy. We know that Henry attended the wedding celebrations of Arthur and his bride . Letters to relatives have an affectionate tone not captured by official state business, as evidenced by many written to his mother Margaret. I'm not giving this a star rating because I suspect it's me at fault not the book. [19] He marched toward England accompanied by his uncle Jasper and John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford. Elizabeth of York (11 February 1466 11 February 1503) was Queen of England from her marriage to King Henry VII on 18 January 1486 until her death. Seriously, got nudged by my partner when I'd nodded off. Who could have expected that he would rule for 24 years, die in his bed, bequeath the first orderly succession to the throne for nearly a century, and found a famous dynasty? In that, he was quite successful, but he was neither loved nor admired. Why was Henry VII called the Winter King? Why is this ambitious? Author Thomas Penn takes an extraordinary journey into the dark and chilling world of the first Tudor King, Henry VII. Henry VIII Books livestream YouTube 18 February 2023, February 13 A queen and her lady-in-waiting are beheaded. Shakespeare later turned to Henry's son and successor Henry VIII, whose rule brought marital sensation, renaissance spectacle and the reformation. Penn explained how Henry reworked recent events to suit him. Corrections? Thomas Penns Winter King in a brilliant mash-up of gothic horror and political biography. Why was Henry VII called the Winter King? Accordingly, he arranged a papal dispensation from Pope Julius II for Prince Henry to marry his brother's widow Catherine, a relationship that would have otherwise precluded marriage in the Church. Henrys Chamber Accounts show payment to strangers and people across the sea, who appear to have been part of a network of spies and informers who kept an eye on potential troublemakers and alerted the King. Henry, recognizing that Simnel had been a mere dupe, employed him in the royal kitchens. (HIST003) Persecutions, Populations and Politics: Early Modern Britain 1550-1750, (HIST004) Country, Colonies and Culture: Early Modern Britain 1550-1750, (HIST006) The Stuart Court: History Politics and Culture, (HIST010) The Tudors: History, Culture and Religion, (HIST011) The English Country House: History, Architecture and Landscape, (HIST018) The Changing English Countryside, 20th Century Musicals: A Celebration of Song and Dance on the Silver Screen and the Stage. Stanley was accused of supporting Warbeck's cause, arrested and later executed. This book was way too focused on what happened, but not so much on the why or why it was important. The Field of Cloth of Gold: Royal Revelry. Henry then consolidated his reign with magnificent architecture, an opulent household and money. The devastated King became so ill that he was close to death, but then he recovered and Penn explains that when he took control once more, he was remorseless. [citation needed], Henry began taking precautions against rebellion while still in Leicester after Bosworth Field. [13] When Warwick restored Henry VI in 1470, Jasper Tudor returned from exile and brought Henry to court. He was the founder of the Tudor dynasty, and his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville brought together the too sides that were facing off during the Wars of the Roses (the Lancasters and the Yorks) basically uniting the two houses into a single family. But definitely rewarding! He had a populist touch and his reign started with pardons, reforms and justice. He had unified the kingdom, accrued immense wealth and created the most notorious dynasty in English history: the Tudors. Luther gained support for his ideas and Europe became . Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufort, was a descendant of the Lancastrian branch of the House of Plantagenet. He had finished his palace of Richmond, he was controlling his allies and keeping an eye on his enemies, and now was the time to finalise the marriage agreement between England and Spain. It was propaganda to spread the message that he was the rightful King. At Rennes Cathedral on Christmas Day 1483, Henry pledged to marry Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of Edward IV. [13] When the Yorkist Edward IV regained the throne in 1471, Henry fled with other Lancastrians to Brittany. Stephens, "affords some illustrations of the avaricious and parsimonious character of the king". The research was thorough and it was presented well and kept me engaged. All the information is from Thomas Penn. Today is Shrove Tuesday time for pancakes! Then in 1491 appeared a still more serious menace: Perkin Warbeck, coached by Margaret to impersonate Richard, the younger son of Edward IV. They were appointed for every shire and served for a year at a time. There are an awful lot of books written about the Tudor era, both fiction and non-fiction, so you have to ask whether this book adds anything new. He would learn better as the new reign unfolded. [32], Next, in 1487, Yorkists led by Lincoln rebelled in support of Lambert Simnel, a boy they claimed to be Edward of Warwick (who was actually a prisoner in the Tower). Indeed he was born in winter, on January 28th 1457, in Pembroke Castle, in Wales and that is one of the reasons why the Welsh dragon always formed part of his insignia. [68] In 1505 he was sufficiently interested in a potential marriage to Joanna of Naples that he sent ambassadors to Naples to report on the 27-year-old Joanna's physical suitability. In 1621 Francis Bacon's history of the reign called Henry "a dark prince, and infinitely suspicious". 4. Shakespeare later turned to Henry's son and successor Henry VIII, whose rule brought marital sensation, renaissance spectacle and the reformation. I found this really interesting, but Im a history nut. Before Henry VIII, English kings were addressed as "Your Grace" or "Your Highness.". In my never-ending quest to read possibly every single published book on the Tudor monarchy, I spied this little gem a few weeks ago and picked it up. [citation needed] Henry also formed an alliance with Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (14931519) and persuaded Pope Innocent VIII to issue a papal bull of excommunication against all pretenders to Henry's throne. During Henry's early years, his uncle Henry VI was fighting against Edward IV, a member of the Yorkist Plantagenet branch. [58], Henry's principal problem was to restore royal authority in a realm recovering from the Wars of the Roses. Even if the king outfaced his enemies in his lifetime, would they not forestall a Tudor succession? Through this, he found that his Lord Chamberlain, Sir William Stanley, was involved in the plot. Henrys throne, however, was far from secure. Two themes of his book preside: the permanent vulnerability of Henry's regime, and his ruthless methods of rule. Royal Collection Trust At the summit, even dinnerware testified to its owner's status. More wrote that this King is loved and compared Henrys accession to the coming of a new season, a new spring following a winter of repression. Alternate titles: Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond, Professor of Medieval History, University of Liverpool, 196780. The union was both symbolic and necessary. Not only was . This was excellent. Henry IV had confirmed Richard IIs legitimation (1397) of the children of this union but had specifically excluded the Beauforts from any claim to the throne (1407). Several of Richard's key allies, such as Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, and also Lord Stanley and his brother William, crucially switched sides or left the battlefield. If you missed the programme then here is the YouTube video for you enjoy! By the way, dont forget that Ian Mortimers Time Travellers Guide to Elizabethan England is on tonight on BBC2 at 9pm. In response to this threat within his own household, the King instituted more rigid security for access to his person. [6] Henry IV's action was of doubtful legality, as the Beauforts were previously legitimised by an Act of Parliament, but it weakened Henry's claim. For him, it was never about glory and battle. Fittingly he dressed in expensive black. Penn ended the programme by visiting the tombs of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York in Henrys chapel at Westminster Abbey, a chapel that remains at the heart of political life. Supported at one time or another by France, by Maximilian I of Austria, regent of the Netherlands (Holy Roman emperor from 1493), by James IV of Scotland, and by powerful men in both Ireland and England, Perkin three times invaded England before he was captured at Beaulieu in Hampshire in 1497. Henry was the only child of Edmund Tudor , Earl of Richmond , and Margaret Beaufort . [43] According to the contemporary historian Polydore Vergil, simple "greed" underscored the means by which royal control was over-asserted in Henry's final years. The rest, as we say, is history; Richard III was defeated at the Battle of Bosworth and Henry Tudor had arrived out of nowhere and avenged the death of the little princes in the tower, although there is some debate as to who was actually responsible for their murder. However, with the help of the forces of his step-father, Lord Stanley, he defeated Richard and Richard was killed on the battlefield. [26] Henry married Elizabeth of York with the hope of uniting the Yorkist and Lancastrian sides of the Plantagenet dynastic disputes, and he was largely successful. He had gone from a refugee landing on an isolated beach in Wales to being a great king. Henry VII was the King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 to his death. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Dydd Gyl Dewi Hapus! Watch with Prime 1517. Penn went on to show Henry VIIs wax funeral effigy, which I saw on my recent trip to London, and which shows his fine-boned features and his crooked eye, but also a face bearing the signs of stress and illness. His biographer, Professor Chrimes, credits him even before he had become king with "a high degree of personal magnetism, ability to inspire confidence, and a growing reputation for shrewd decisiveness". In 1485, history was about to be changed for ever by a man who was a refugee, a fugitive whod spent half his life on the run and with barely a claim to the throne: Henry Tudor. [79], Amiable and high-spirited, Henry was friendly if dignified in manner, and it was clear that he was extremely intelligent. However, as France was becoming more concerned with the Italian Wars, the French were happy to agree to the Treaty of Etaples. [citation needed], By 1509, justices of the peace were key enforcers of law and order for Henry VII. He spent most of the next 14 years under the protection of Francis II, Duke of Brittany. As his mother was only 14 when he was born and soon married again, Henry was brought up by his uncle Jasper Tudor, earl of Pembroke. Henry VIII Books Exploring the Best Books on Englands Most Infamous King, 18 February 1516 The birth of Queen Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. He had enough of that getting himself to the throne.

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