Chapter 3 - Flashcards
Main foreign policy aims
Broadly speaking, he sought to maintain positive relations with foreign powers to ensure:
• national security
• recognition of the Tudor dynasty . -
defence of English trading interests.
Status of Brittany at this time
a fiefdom of the French Crown which had enjoyed effective independence.
Problem with Brittany and Henry’s immediate reaction and action
Following an invasion in 1487 it looked as if the French would gain complete Control of Brittany. This alarmed Henry who, in 1489, summoned Parliament to grant him extraordinary revenue to raise an army against the French. There were two main reasons for this:
• his sense of obligation to the Bretons
. his fear that direct French control of Brittany could increase a potential
French threat to England.
Events following Invasion of Brittany
-England and Brittany agreed the Treaty of Redon in February 1489, according to which the Duchess Anne would pay for a small English army to defend Brittany from the French threat. At the same time Henry tried to strengthen his position by an alliance with Maximilian, the Holy Roman Emperor-elect. A widower, Maximilian had contracted a marriage-by-proxy with Anne and had no desire, therefore, for the Duchy of Brittany to fall into French hands.
-The English army went to Brittany but Anne, fearing the futility of prolonged resistance to the French, surrendered and reluctantly married Charles VIII. This left the English army marooned in Brittany, and also meant that Maximilian lost interest in the matter, which left Henry in a difficult position. The situation was made worse for Henry by Perkin Warbeck seeking French backing for his claim to the English throne. In his first foreign adventure Henry had suffered an immediate setback.
However, Henry did recover his position very skilfully. He launched an invasion of France in 1492, rather late in the campaigning season, and the French quickly sought a peace settlement. Though Henry’s invasion might have appeared a gamble, he used information from his agents that Charles VIII was much more interested in launching an invasion of Italy and would therefore quickly seek a peace settlement with Henry. Henry showed enough flexibility in his approach to benefit from this change in French priorities.
At the signing of the Treaty of Etaples in November 1492, Charles VIII agreed to withdraw his support for Perkin Warbeck and to pay a pension to Henry to compensate him for the expense of having recruited an army of invasion.
Effectiveness of Henry’s Brittany actions
Henry’s strategy had proved successful, and he had managed to defend national and dynastic interests. Moreover, he had improved his financial position and ensured a period of relative cordiality in Anglo-French relations
Why was The Netherlands important to Henry?
The bulk of England’s exports went through the ports of the Netherlands, such as Antwerp and Bruges, which came under Burgundy’s jurisdiction.
It was therefore important for commercial reasons for good relations to be maintained.
What was the problem with Burgundy?
The complicating factor was, however, the presence of Margaret, widowed Duchess of Burgundy in ownership of her late-husband’s estate.
She was the sister of Edward IV and Richard Ill, and the leading upholder of the Yorkist cause. Margaret also enlisted the support of her stepson-in-law, Maximilian, who became Holy Roman Emperor in 1493 and passed over jurisdiction in the Netherlands to his sixteen-year-old son Philip in the following year. Relations between England and Burgundy deteriorated as a result of the hospitality which Maximilian and Philip were offering to Perkin Warbeck, and Henry gambled that putting an embargo on English trade with Burgundy would ease the matter. The problem which this caused was that it brought two of Henry’s foreign policy objectives - securing the dynasty and encouraging trade - into conflict with each other.
Trade events and outcomes with Burgundy
In giving priority to his dynastic interests, Henry showed himself prepared to sacrifice the commercial interests of London and east-coast merchants, which did nothing for his popularity in those parts of the country. Relations did improve to an extent after Warbeck left Burgundy, and Henry and Philip were able to agree the Intercursus Magnus in 1496 which brought the trade embargo to an end.
Anglo- Burgundian relations again became central to Henry’s foreign policy calculations in 1504 following the death of Isabella, Queen of Castile (see the map at the beginning of this chapter). One of the outcomes of the resulting Treaty of Windsor was a new trade agreement, the Intercursus Malus. In this, Henry showed the same forceful approach which by this time he was adopting in his domestic financial affairs: he demanded a trade deal which would have given a much stronger trading position to English merchants in the Netherlands had it ever been enforced (in the end, this trade deal was never put into practice). Another outcome was that Philip and Maximilian agreed to hand over their Yorkist fugitive, the Earl of Suffolk, whom Henry promptly imprisoned in the Tower. Henry appeared to have improved both England’s trading position and also the security of the dynasty.
What was agreed in the Treaty of Medina del Campo?
It was an important development for Henry in that it gave him some of the international peace and security to which he aspired:
• the two monarchies offered mutual protection in the event of attack
•they agreed not to harbour rebels or pretenders
the treaty arranged a marriage alliance between Arthur, Prince of Wales, and Catherine, Princess of Aragon, the daughter of Ferdinand and
Isabella.
What were problems with the implementation of the treaty of medina del campo?
• arrangements for the royal marriage did not go smoothly
• Ferdinand proved reluctant to allow the marriage to go ahead as long as
Henry’s dynastic stability remained threatened by Perkin Warbeck
• the two monarchs argued over the size of Catherine’s dowry.
Outcome of TOMDC
The details of the marriage were finally agreed in 1499 and it took place in
1501. However; the death of Arthur in 1502 brought complications to Henry’s relations with Ferdinand:
• Henry immediately suggested that Catherine should marry his second son, Prince Henry, but Ferdinand was reluctant to agree. He had little need for an English alliance and the proposed marriage would require a papal dispensation - which could be arranged but at a price.
• In 1504, Henry lost his enthusiasm for the marriage, when the death of Isabella made Ferdinand a less significant political figure. During the resultant succession struggle in Spain between Ferdinand and Juana (Catherine of Aragon’s sister), Henry chose to support the latter.
What happens to Philip and Juana in 1506?
• Juana and her husband Philip of Burgundy set sail for Spain in January 1506, but were forced to take refuge in England when their ship was wrecked at sea.
How did Henry take advantage of Philip and Juana being stranded?
Henry was able to take advantage of his guests situation. By the Treaty of Windsor (1506) Henry secured a stronger relationship with Juana and Philip with:
• the Intercursus Malus (restoring trade relations between England and
Burgundy)
• the return of the Earl of Suffolk (further securing Henry’s dynasty)
• a proposed marriage alliance for himself with Philip’s sister, the Archduchess Margaret (aimed at strengthening Henry’s rule after the death of his wife Elizabeth, but this marriage never happened)
• Henry’s recognition of Juana and Philip as rulers of Castile (strengthening the couple’s claim to the Spanish throne).
How did Philip’s death prove disastrous for Henry?
However, Philip of Burgundy’s death, soon after the couples arrival in Spain, proved disastrous for Henry:
• Juana, in her grief, was described by her father Ferdinand as having gone mad
• This gave Ferdinand the opportunity once more to become regent of Castile.
• This left Henry diplomatically isolated as once again he had been diplomatically outsmarted by a major European monarch.
. Ferdinand ensured that the marriage between Prince Henry and Catherine would not take place in Henry VIl’s lifetime (though they did marry once
Prince Henry had come to the throne as King Henry VIII).
Anglo - Scottish relations 1485-95
Anglo-Scottish relations were often tense, though for the first few years of Henry’s reign relationships remained relatively cordial.