Chapter 1 - The Consolidation Of Power Flashcards
How did Henry come to the throne?
He acceded following his victory over Richard III’s forces at the Battle of Bosworth on 22 August 1485. This victory terminated Plantagenet rule in England, and saw the establishment of a new dynasty, the Tudors.
Why was it essential for him to consolidate his power by establishing his dynasty and ensuring that any rivals to the throne were dealt with firmly?
Because his grasp of power was insecure; he had virtually no discernible claim to the throne and he had many enemies who were only too keen to see him experience the same fate as his immediate predecessor.
Why was his claim to the throne weak?
Henrys claim to the throne was weak in two respects:
- He was descended through the female line represented by his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort.
- More importantly, the line came from John of Gaunt’s third wife: their son John Beaufort had been born before their marriage and was therefore seen as illegitimate.
Why did Henry become the Lancastrian claimant?
Only because there was no one else who could fulfil the role. In reality, however, it was victory on the battlefield alone which had brought him to the throne.
Henry had lived abroad since what age?
14
What happened at Henry’s trip to London as the new monarch and what was the reaction of the people?
He journeyed to London where on 3 September 1485 Henry was met by the lord mayor of the city. The London public was wooed by pageantry and ceremony into cheering the new monarch. In truth, by this point Richard
had become such an obiect of suspicion because of the disappearance of the princes in the lower, along with other presumed crimes, that it mattered little who Henry was and how slender was his claim to the throne. That he was not Richard was enough for the public to accept him.
Who proclaimed Henry king on the battlefield at Bosworth?
Lord Stanley
What was Henry’s background before he became king?
Henry VII had not been brought up to rule. In 1471, when Henry was 14, Edward IV regained power for the House of York in the Battle of lewkesbury,
in which many of Henrys relations, the Lancastrians, died or were executed.
Henry fled to France, where he lived for most of the time as a fugitive in the Duchy of Brittany. To the historian Thomas Penn, Henry’s ability to think like a fugitive proved to be useful political training for his future as a ruler.
Henry’s main priority after he acceded?
to ensure that he kept his throne, mindful as he was that four monarchs from the previous hundred years had met untimely ends themselves. Therefore, his primary aim at the start of his reign was to consolidate his power, which he did by a number of political
actions combined with military success.
Methods/actions by which Henry consolidated his power after he came to the throne?
He did it by a number of political
actions combined with military success. Henry immediately consolidated his power in a number of ways:
. He dated his reign from 21 August 1485, the day before the Battle of Bosworth, thereby ensuring that anyone who had fought on the Yorkist side could be designated a traitor.
He publicly rewarded many of his key supporters, for example by conferring 11 knighthoods.
He arranged for supporters to detain Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, and the Earl of Warwick, Edward IV’s nephew, each of whom could be seen as having a much greater claim to the throne than Henry himsell.
• He made key appointments to his Council and household, for example making Sir Reginald Bray Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Sir William Stanley Chamberlain of the Household.
He arranged his coronation to take place on 30 October before the meeting of his first Parliament on 7 November, thereby demonstrating that his
right to the throne was based on hereditary right and not onlv because parliament had sanctioned it.
Parliamentary Acts of Attainder against Yorkists who had fought at Bosworth ensured that their property was forfeit to the Crown, thereby
increasing roval income. This was further enhanced when Parliament granted Henry the customs revenues of tonnage and poundage for life
Having had her detained the previous year, in January 1486 Henry married Elizabeth of York, the daughter of King Edward IV. By waiting until the other stens towards consolidation of power nad been completed. Henry was able to ensure that his assumption of the Crown was not brought about by his wife’s own claim to the throne. However, he was able to exploit in royal propaganda the union of the two houses of Lancaster and York. For example, the emblem of the Tudor rose combined the red rose of Lancaster with the white rose of York.
A vital step in the securing of the dynasty took place in September 1489 with the birth of an heir to the throne. Prince Arthur.
Why was there potential for threats to his throne from pretenders?
Many Yorkists, not satisfied by his marriage to Elizabeth, still regarded him as a usurper. There were several potential Yorkist claimants to the throne, such as the earls of Warwick and Lincoln, Edward IV’s nephews and the situation was complicated by the appearance of pretenders to the throne who were allegedly either Edward V or his younger brother Richard, the two murdered ‘princes in the Tower’. However, what Henry had to fear most was the influence of Margaret of Burgundy, the sister of Edward IV and Richard III. Margaret was never reconciled to the Tudor takeover and, as the dowager duchess of Burgundy, she had access to funds which enabled her to encourage the ambitions of Yorkist claimants.
When was Viscount Lovell and Stafford’s threat, who was involved and what happened?
Easter 1486
It was led by Francis, Viscount Lovell - who had prospered as a key supporter of Richard III - and Humphrey and Thomas Stafford.
Lovell tried to raise a rebellion in Richard IlI’s heartland of support in the North Riding of Yorkshire.
Simultaneously, Stafford tried to raise forces against Henry, drawing upon another area of Yorkist support in the Midlands. Lovell managed to escape from the king’s forces, but Humphrey Stafford was captured and executed, though his younger brother and accomplice, Thomas, was pardoned. What seems significant about this rising is how little enthusiasm there was at this stage for a Yorkist rising in their traditional heartlands. It was easily suppressed.
Change in strategy after Lovell rebellion (for rebels):
Following the Lovell rebellion, leading Yorkists realised that a change in
strategy was needed it they were to be successful in their attempts to get rid of Henry VII. There were two key aspects to this. Firstly, they needed a figurehead who could claim to be a Yorkist prince and, secondly, they needed the financial support to generate a significant military threat to Henry. Their figurehead was Lambert Simnel.
1st Simnel threat:
Simnel was being passed off as the Earl of Warwick, who had been imprisoned by Henry, and was even crowned as King Edward in Ireland in May 1487. The conspiracy was put together by John de la Pole, the Earl of Lincoln, himself a potential Yorkist claimant. In response to this hoax, Henry now had the real Earl of Warwick exhibited in London for all to see. Lincoln subsequently fled from Henry VIl’s court and had joined the failed plotter Lord Lovell at the court of Margaret of Burgundy in the Netherlands. They persuaded Margaret to support Simnels bogus claim and to pay for a force of mercenaries to invade England.
Rebellion of the Earl of Lincoln
Lincoln and Lovell persuaded Margaret to support Simnels bogus claim and to pay for a force of mercenaries to invade England.
Henry had plenty of notice that a rebellious conspiracy was being planned, and thus he had ample opportunity to plan his response. Given that Richard Ill’s main power base was in the north of England, Henry took the gamble of reinstating the rather untrustworthy Earl of Northumberland, who led a major portion of Richard III’s army at the Battle of Bosworth, to power in the north.
This helped to neutralise Richard’s old power base and also ensured that the traditionally Yorkist Howard family had no intention of joining the conspiracy, as Northumberland was one of their descendants. He also reinforced coastal defences in East Anglia. However, the rebels landed on the northwest coast of England in Cumberland, and crossed the Pennines in order to drum ur support in Richard Ill’s old heartland in the North Riding of Yorkshire. In actual fact the Yorkist gentry of the North Riding were reluctant to commit themselves wholeheartedly to the cause, presumably waiting to see who was likely to win. Henry gathered a group of advisors, which included the close relatives of former Yorkists who had been victims of Richard Ill, in the south and Midlands. The two armies met at East Stoke near Newark in Nottinghamshire.
Henry himself was not confident. He could remember only too vividly how Richard had been double-crossed at Bosworth and feared that he himself might suffer the same fate. However, his 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.
