Henry VII - Key People

Question 1

Thomas, Lord Stanley (1435-1509)

Answer 1

-Henry VIl’s stepfather
-initially stood aside from the battle.
-His intervention on behalf of Henry
proved crucial - he was rewarded
with the title Earl of Derby
-Derby
was key to the exercise of royal power
in the northwest of England and
north Wales during Henry’s reign

Question 2

Edward, Earl of Warwick (1475-99)

Answer 2

-son of Edward IV’s brother, the Duke of Clarence
-he was placed in the
Tower of London in 1485
-There he remained except for occasional public
appearances
-alleged to have plotted with Perkin Warbeck against
Henry VII in 1499 and was beheaded for doing so

Question 3

Sir William Stanley (c1435-95)

Answer 3

-the brother of Thomas Stanley, the Earl of Derby, and Henry VIl’s
step-uncle
-rewarded with the post of Lord Chamberlain following
Bosworth - gave him considerable political influence and enabled him to develop his landed estate in Cheshire and North Wales
-a shock when he was accused of treason.

Question 4

Lambert Simnel

Answer 4

-boy from Oxford
-tutored in courtly manners by
a priest, Richard Symonds
-intention initially of impersonating
Richard, Duke of York, the younger of
the two princes in the Tower, though
he soon switched to impersonating
the Earl of Warwick
-Captured at the
Battle of Stoke
-spared by
Henry VII, who gave him a job in the
royal kitchens.

Question 5

John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln (c1460-87)

Answer 5

-a nephew of Edward IV
and Richard III
-Richard IIIs designated successor
-regarded as the Yorkist leader in the
immediate aftermath of Bosworth.

Question 6

John Morton (d. 1500)

Answer 6

-highly able churchman and lawyer
-began his public career as a
passionate Lancastrian, but made his peace with the Yorkists to serve Edward
IV, under whom he became the Bishop of Ely
-worked against
Richard III and was promoted for his services by Henry to Archbishop of
Canterbury in 1486
-became a cardinal in 1493.

Question 7

Margaret Beaufort (1443-1509)

Answer 7

-married Edmund Tudor in 1455 and
gave birth to the future Henry VII
when aged only 14
- third
husband was Thomas, Lord Stanley
-she remained an
important unofficial adviser to
the king
-granted
a large landed estate by Henry at
Collyweston in Northamptonshire
-retained her political influence
throughout her son's reign
-her ability to intervene
directly in political affairs was
limited because she spent much of
her time keeping her own lavish
household.

Question 8

Sir Reginald Bray (d. 1503)

Answer 8

-had been a faithful servant of Henry
Tudor for a long time
-helped Henry
to raise funds before the Battle of Bosworth.
-Under Henry's reign his influence was
exercised through his role as Chancellor of the
Duchy of Lancaster
-led the Council
Learned in Law
-Thomas Penn described him
as the king's chief executive. As such he was
'more powerful than most nobles’

Question 9

Sir Richard Empson (c1450-1510)

Answer 9

-member of the king’s Council from 1494
-chaired the Council Learned
-Closely identified with the increasing
ruthlessness of Henry VIl’s regime - arrested shortly after the
death of the king, charged with treason and executed in the following year.

Question 10

Edmund Dudley (c1462-1510)

Answer 10

-came to prominence following the death of Bray
-Steven Gunn argues
that his role was to exploit financial opportunities, which gave him ample
opportunity to make influential enemies
-became vulnerable to
counter-attack as soon as he lost the king’s protection
-Upon Henry Tudor’s
death he became accountable for what had been the king’s demands.

Question 11

Maximilian I (1459-1519)

Answer 11

-Holy Roman Emperor from 1493
to 1519, though he had taken over
rule of the Empire in 1486
-In 1477
he had married Mary of Burgundy
and through her had gained control
of the Netherlands, England's main
trading partner.

Question 12

Charles VIII (1470-98)

Answer 12

-King of
France from 1483 to 1498
-ruled
in his own right from 1491
-main concern was to assert his claim
to the throne of the kingdom of
Naples in the Italian peninsula. This
reduced any potential threat from
Charles to Henry VII.

Question 13

James IV (1473-1513)

Answer 13

-succeeded to
the Scottish throne at the age of 15
in 1488
-responsible for the
invasion of England in 1496, but did
not pursue the policy, making peace
the following year
-married Henry
VIl's daughter, Margaret
-killed at the Battle of Flodden in 1513.

Question 14

Gerald Fitzgerald, 8th Earl of Kildare (c1456-1513)

Answer 14

-known as
‘the uncrowned king of Ireland',
-leading member of the Irish
nobility
-Henry became dependent
upon Kildare for the maintenance of
law and order in Ireland.

Question 15

John de Verre, Earl of Oxford (1442-1513)

Answer 15

Henry’s most
trusted military commander and led
his troops at the battles of Bosworth
and Stoke.

Question 16

Giles, Baron Daubeney (c1451-1508)

Answer 16

-originally a Yorkist
-rebelled against Richard III
in 1483, fled to Brittany and
transferred his loyalty to Henry,
for whom he fought at Bosworth
-led the Crown’s forces against
the Cornish rebels in 1497
-succeeded Sir William Stanley as
Lord Chamberlain in 1495.

Question 17

Richard Fox (c1447-1528)

Answer 17

-began
serving Henry VII when he was still
in exile
-In 1487 became Bishop
of Exeter and Lord Keeper of the
Great Seal
-became successively
Bishop of Bath and Wells, Durham and
Winchester 
-along with Morton,
managed the Crown's transition to
Henry VIll.

Question 18

Polydore Vergil (c1470-1555)

Answer 18

-Italian humanist
-came to
England in 1502 in the employ of
the Church
-welcomed at
the court of Henry VII and began
writing his History of England in
about 1505
-The first edition was
published in 1513, but a third
edition published in 1555 covered
the period up to 1537.

Question 19

John Cabot (c1451-98)

Answer 19

-like
Christopher Columbus, a native of
Genoa
-seems to have been a
merchant involved in the Venetian
spice trade before moving to Spain
where his services were in demand
as a harbour designer
-might
have met Columbus in 1493 and his
navigational intuition led him to
believe that a more northerly course
across the Atlantic would reach land
more quickly.

Question 20

John Colet (1467-1519)

Answer 20

-like
Grocyn and Linacre, travelled
to Italy and was introduced to
humanist influences there
-After
following a largely academic career,
he became Dean of St Paul's, and
refunded St Paul's School in 1512.
-His one surviving sermon was
highly critical of the standards of
the clergy, and this has led many
historians to assume that his views
foreshadow those who favoured the
antith of Protestantism.

Question 21

Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)

Answer 21

-distinguished lawyer and
humanist scholar, most famous,
perhaps, as the author of Utopia
-valued councillor to Henry VIII
-appointed Lord Chancellor
on the fall of Wolsey in 1529,
but resigned in 1532 in despair
at Henry's religious changes
-executed for treason, having
denied the royal supremacy.

Question 22

Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)

Answer 22

-Dutch scholar whose influential
book The Handbook of a Christian Soldier, published in 1504, sought to
regenerate Christianity through emphasis on education and rejection
of some of the Church’s traditional ceremonies
-satirical works were
highly critical of the abuses of the Church.