Henry VII Flashcards
Introduction
1457 - Henry VII is born (Parents, Margaret Beaufort (granddaughter of Edward III) and Edmund Tudor (half-brother of Henry VI
1471 - Henry escapes to France with Jasper Tudor when Edward IV comes back to throne
1485 - Henry VII takes throne from Richard III (Many noble families wiped out by WoR -> makes peace with supporters of York -> Plenty of riots and rebellions break out and Henry VII struggles to keep stability and security)
Pretenders
1487 -Lambert Simnel from Ireland claims to be Earl of Warwick (Son of George Duke of Clarence -> nephew of previous king so had superior claim to throne compared to Henry VII and Richard III -> crowned king by supporters and rebellion is organised.
Not a threat -> Real Earl of Warwick is displayed in tower of London -> Simnel is forgiven))
1491 - Perkin Warbeck from France is contacted by exiled Yorkists and convinced to pretend to be Richard Duke of York (Edward V younger brother who disappeared in tower -> harder to prove he is fake -> Warbeck has strong claim
1494 - Arrives in Scotland to meet Scottish King James IV (Warbeck has strong support from English and Europeans, and requires James’ support)
1497 - Henry VII’s taxation policies had generated rebellions in Cornwall (the people turned to Warbeck as figure head for resistance -> Warbeck does a tour to gain support)
1497 - Rebellions lay siege in Exeter there are 8,000 men (They were held off & forced to make a retreat -> Warbeck and men eventually caught and brought to Henry VII)
1498 - Henry tours Warbeck around as a fraud in London (On tour, Warbeck escapes, suspicion King helped but Warbeck ends up in shackles 2x and then imprisoned in Tower of London for life)
1499 - Warbeck and Duke of Warwick hung (In tower, joins up with real Edward Duke of Warwick and they plot to get him to escape and be placed back on the throne -> plan found -> these deaths affect Catherine of Aragon later in life as they are executed when she is to marry Prince Arthur)
1500 - Henry VII still dealing with Yorkists trying to take the throne (Not end of War of Roses -> deals with it by putting rebellions down and dealing with figure heads)
Ruling
- Dressed richly
- Copied other monarchs -> was not that different -> did have crown wearing ceremonies and kings touch (healing diseases with his touch)
- Dynastic badges displayed frequently (Constant reminder of his legitimacy to the throne)
- Coin has more distinct portrait of him (Full body image rather than head)
- Used print (Laws published with images of his power over parliament with him pointing at them in orderly manner)
Marriage Alliances
1466 - Elizabeth of York born (Eldest child of Edward IV -> solid heir for a while -> when uncle Richard III takes throne from her brother her family are hidden away in a sanctuary in Westminster)
1484 - They emerge with promise of protection from Richard III
1486 - Henry VII and Elizabeth of York get married (Most important marriage of his reign, much of Henry’s legitimacy rests on the marriage -> children: Arthur, Margaret, Henry and Mary)
1486 - Prince Arthur born (Symbol of the union of two roses -> at age of 2 he was intended to marry Catherine of Aragon -> Union of Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain, there was hope of Henry and Elizabeth uniting England and having an alliance with Spain)
1501 - Arthur and Catherine marry
1489 - Sibling Margaret is born
1496 - Negations of Margaret to marry Scottish king James IV by Proxy (Proxy = having someone to consummate the marriage in the kings place by touching thighs etc so one does not have to travel)
1503 - Margaret travels to Scotland (Has a son)
1512 - Son becomes king at 5 months due to King being killed in war
1502 - Prince Arthur dies (Both Henry and Mary’s marriage alliances are affected. Catherine left stranded in England -> becomes Henry VII ambassador and potential wife after Elizabeth of York dies)
1507 - Mary married into France (promised to Charles V but is married to France when Henry VIII gets into power)
Political Reforms
- England moves from a medieval feudal system to a modern centralised state -> nobility weakened, and power is more centralised so there are less competitors for power
For: - Henry keen to see nobles under control by usually putting them in debt
- Limits nobles from keeping own personal armies (Judical activities of King’s council)
- Smaller peerage; 55 members at start, 42 at end
- Encouragement of commerce rather than depending on landed wealth
- Establishment of royal bodyguards
- Promotion of ‘New Men’ over nobility (People who don’t have any ranking but are intelligent -> lawyers, intelligent men, scholarly -> continues under Henry VIII)
Against: - Systems became more organised eg. Treasury
- New Monarchy Thesis (Pacific policies, doesn’t build army, does little for navy, avoids warfare)
- Doesn’t move towards direct taxation, income comes from
- Ordinary revenue - income from crown owned lands
- Relied mainly on old policies (never did anything new and if he taxed directly, he was met with riots and resistance)
- Most of Henry’s centralised power came from inheritance of land, no modernisation (-> able to grant offices and properties as gifts from throne to tie Lord’s loyalty to him rather than them being independent land owners from which Henry would have to ask for assistance)
- H could force anyone earning £40 + to become a knight & H would receive big sums of money for it
- Bonds = task or good behaviour and if they failed, they would lose the money that came with it
Final Decade
1502-1503 - Due to death of Arthur and Elizabeth he recedes into an illness (Councillors from France also begin to die and relies on new men, Empson and Dudley -> Dudley becomes a closer minister of the King and uses intelligence and knowledge of law (He was a trained lawyer) to bring in more revenue for the crown -> Henry gains reputation of greed and has doubled the crown’s income from under Richard III -> increased annual customs by 1/3 above levels of mid 15th C)
- Taxes clergy heavily
- Selling offices and selling King’s favour in lawsuits
- Still in control of personal finances when ill
- Obligation by debt (Getting people to do whatever he wanted with use of blackmail of debt and charging for everything like £40 to become a knight)
- 16/62 noble families didn’t owe him money
- English men kept obedient through fear
Death
1509 - Henry VII dies (Hidden for 2 days for smooth transition of monarchies -> Dudley is arrested -> killed for treason -> symbol of end of Henry VII reign)
1509 - Henry VIII becomes king at age of 17 (First smooth transition since Henry V in 1413) Henry VII held on for as long as possible so reign was secure, and Henry VIII was old enough to rule.
Henry VII price to pay is his reputation which Henry VIII allows and is seen as joy and relief
The Black Death:
1300 - Populations grew across Europe, England and Wales -> 5-6 million
1315-18 - Outbreak of disease and famine
1348-49 - 1st plague outbreak in England -> kills 40-50% (Fewer labourers meant their value went up as landowners desperately needed them so they began to be paid in wages rather than just living there -> higher wages better social mobility)
1400 - England’s population halved since 1300, (1,000 villages had disappeared)
Lives and Trade
- Trade from agriculture, export commodity was wool and cloth
- Utopia 1516 -> sheep eating men (people who used common land for their sustenance were starving to death as the land has been given to sheep to make wool. Essentially sheep were killing people due to starvation as they couldn’t grow food on the land)
- Guilds -> controlled crafts & freedom
- Participation in guilds and trades essential
1517 - Evil Mayday Riot (outside traders tried to control trade and led to London apprentices rising up and attacking the foreign artisans and apprentices in London who would sell goods which was unpopular with locals due to foreigners goods being popular) - Shops family owned -> crafts and artisans sold their stuff there
Church
- Catholic church -> governed by canon law (law of church) and Pope was based in Rome
- Church owned 1/3 of land in England and governed parts of daily life, religion was in everything
- Parish church, most expensive and biggest church in parish (area)
- Church calendar governed life: fast days, feast days, times to have sex, times to eat
- When clocks came about, were placed in church, Church governed time
- Life was governed by 7 sacraments: 1) Baptism 2) Confession 3) Eucharist (Receiving just the body (bread) most didn’t receive blood (wine), more common at Easter) 4) Confirmation 5) Holy Orders 6) Marriage 7) Last rights -> these steps important for soul
- Centred around sin and redemption -> church offered absolution for sins
- Transubstantiation -> bread and wine meant to become the body and blood of Christ
- Whenever there is a intervention in life such as child birth you would pray to the saints
Heresy
- Concern of Lollards (heretical movement founded by John Wycliff -> belief of Lollards was overlapping with Lutheran beliefs which includes attacks on the church property and authority -> deny transubstantiation)
- Denial of purgatory -> Wycliff advocated himself for English bible (vernacular)
1401 - permitted burning of those who refused to renounce their beliefs
1420s - 100 years before reformation comes to England there was 544 heresy trials and 30 burned - Non-church courts could burn heretics
Law & Punishment
- Heresy seen as ultimate treason
- Treason = hanging, drawing, quartering, ¼ nobles beheaded instead
- Capital punishment: murder (hanging), rebellion (starvation in gibbet)
- Imprisonment (under fix term or king’s pleasure and he decides when you’re released)
- Moral offences (Whipping and stocks)
- Stocks = public shame; burning = hell; immoral = cleansing a wound by burning, whipping, stocks; fighting or writing seditious materials = loss of hand
- Torture (nobles and women exempt) frowned upon and ceased in 17th C
- Country largely self-policing and would hunt down criminals, could not afford to pay for people to patrol streets
Education
- David Cressy study - 30% of adult men literate, adult women 10%, based on people writing their name
- Place of society mattered
- 100% gentry, upper class literate
- Humanist educational reform 16th C
- 60% tradesmen and 15-20% farmers literate
- If you could afford it, children sent to grammar schools -> learn to read and write in Latin and English
- Priests meant to educate but sometimes were not educated enough themselves to teach children
- Home tutors for nobles
Marriage
- More than 90% when reached adulthood would get married, maybe more than once
- Usually in 20s, nobles marry younger mostly women like (Margaret Beaufort)
- Courting stage (negations of marriage between families and then ceremony)
- Money was motive for setting up children’s marriages
- Consummation meant marriage could not happen again later
- Ring on left finger (thought it was connected to heart)
Children
- Children main purpose of marriage
- Infant mortality under age of 7 -> high -> 20-30% -> higher when plague
- Women lived longer in upper and lower classes compared to men
1330-1479 - life expectancy at birth was 22 for men and 23 for women -> male babies tended to die more than females - Higher social status did not = living longer due to indulgency
- Blame placed on women for infidelity -> gross treatments, pilgrimage, charms, prayers
- Males desired
Drunk & Prostitution
- Prostitution urban phenomenon, made a lot of money but was dangerous
- Attempt to crack down on prostitution through public shaming, whipping, stoning, exile from city
- Prostitution associated with drunkenness
- 20,000 alehouses sold mostly drink but sometimes food, licensing increased to curve immorality and stopped serving young people after 7pm -> not a good look for young men
