Henry VII King Of ENGLAND

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact 1: Ancestor of Tudor and later Kings and Queens of England
• Fact: 22 Aug 1485, Defeated King Richard III at Bosworth

Notes:

Henry VII (January 28, 1457 - April 21, 1509), King of England, Lord of Ireland (August 22, 1485 - April 21, 1509), was the founder and first patriarch of the Tudor dynasty.

Henry was born in Pembroke Castle, Wales, in 1457, the only son of Edmund Tudor and Margaret Beaufort. His father died two months before he was born, which meant that the young Henry spent much of his early life with his uncle, Jasper Tudor. With the return of Edward IV to the throne in 1461, Henry was forced to flee to Brittany, where he was to spend most of the next fourteen years. After the failure of the revolt of his second cousin, Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, in 1483, Henry Tudor became the leading Lancastrian contender for the throne of England. With money and supplies borrowed from his host, Francis II, Duke of Brittany, Henry made an unsuccessful attempt to land in England but turned back after encountering Richard III's (1483?85) forces on the Dorset coast. Richard III attempted to ensure his return through a treaty with the Breton authorities, but Henry was alerted and escaped to France. He was welcomed by the French court, who readily supplied him with troops and equipment for a second invasion.

Rise to the throne
Having gained the support of the in-laws of the late Yorkist King Edward IV, he landed with a largely French and Scottish force in Mill Bay, Pembrokeshire, and marched into England, accompanied by his uncle, Jasper Tudor, and the experienced John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford. Wales had traditionally been a Yorkist stronghold, and Henry owed the support he gathered to his ancestry, being directly descended, through his father, from the Lord Rhys. He amassed an army of around 5000 soldiers and travelled north.

Though outnumbered, Henry was aware that this was his only chance to seize the throne. Using reinforcements that waited in Nottingham and Leicester his Lancastrian forces decisively defeated the Yorkists under the King at the Battle of Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485 when several of Richard's key allies, such as the Earl of Northumberland and William and Thomas Stanley, crucially switched sides or deserted the field of battle. This effectively ended the long-running Wars of the Roses between the two houses, though it wasn't the final battle. Henry's claim to the throne was tenuous: it was based upon a lineage of illegitimate succession, and overlooked the fact that he had been disqualified by an earlier act of attainder. However this proved to be no barrier to the throne. Following the battle all other claimants were either dead or too weak to challenge him. In the end Henry dealt with the act of attainder by claiming that it could not apply to a king.

The first of Henry's concerns on attaining the throne was the question of establishing the strength and supremacy of his rule. His own claim to the throne was limited, but he was fortunate in that there were few other claimants to the throne left alive after the long civil war. His main worry was pretenders such as Perkin Warbeck, who pretended to be Richard, Duke of York, the younger of the Princes in the Tower and son of Edward IV. These pretenders were backed by disaffected nobles. Henry triumphed in securing his crown by a number of means but principally by dividing and undermining the power of the nobility, especially through bonds and recognisances, as well as forcing them to disband their private armies. He also honoured his pledge of December 1483 to marry Elizabeth of York, daughter and heir of King Edward IV. The marriage took place on January 18, 1486 at Westminster. This unified the warring houses, gave him a greater claim to the throne due to Elizabeth's line of descent and ensured that his children would be of royal blood (although there is evidence that Edward was born illegitimate).

Henry's first action was to declare himself king retroactive to the day before the battle, thus ensuring that anyone who had fought against him would be guilty of treason. It is interesting to note, therefore, that he spared Richard's designated heir, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln. He would have cause to regret his leniency two years later, when Lincoln rebelled and attempted to set a boy pretender, Lambert Simnel, on the throne in Henry's place. Lincoln was killed at the Battle of Stoke, but Simnel's life was spared and he became a royal servant.

Simnel had been put forward as "Edward VI", impersonating the young Edward, Earl of Warwick, son of George, Duke of Clarence, who was still imprisoned in the Tower of London. Henry had shown uncharacteristic leniency in dealing with Edward and did not find a pretext for executing him until he had grown into adulthood, in 1499. Edward's elder sister, Margaret Pole, who had the next best claim on the throne, inherited her father's earldom of Salisbury and survived well into the next century (until she fell victim to a bill of attainder for treason too, under Henry VIII).

Name:
Henry VII of England, King of England, son of Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, by Margaret, daughter and heiress of John Beaufort, 1st Duke of somerset, regarded by the remnants of the Lancastrian party as the hope of Lancaster (though from an illegitimate line) on the extinction of the Royal line of the House of Lancaster, having invaded England, defeated and killed Richard III at Bosworth on 22 Aug 1485, chosen King of England on the battlefield, crowned 30 Oct 1485.

Henry married Elizabeth PLANTAGENET on 18 Jan 1486 in Westminster. Elizabeth (daughter of Edward IV 'Plantagenet' King Of ENGLAND and Elizabeth WOODVILLE) was born on 11 Feb 1465 in Westminster; died on 11 Feb 1503 in Tower of London. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Arthur Tudor (20 September 1486 St Swithin's Priory, Winchester? 2 April 1502 Ludlow Castle) was the eldest son of Henry VII of England. Henry named his eldest son Arthur after the hero of Arthurian legend, partly as a sign of his hopes for a rebirth of English greatness, and partly to emphasise the Tudor family's links to Wales.

Arthur was born to Henry and his queen, Elizabeth of York, at Winchester on September 19 or 20, 1486, but was never a robust child. The hopes of the newly-established Tudor dynasty were nevertheless pinned on him. He was Duke of Cornwall from birth, and was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester on November 29, 1489.

The only original surviving portrait of Prince ArthurAt the age of two, a marriage was arranged for Arthur, to the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon through the Treaty of Medina del Campo. They were married in November, 1501, and departed for Ludlow on the Welsh border, where Arthur normally resided in his capacity as Prince of Wales and President of the Council of Wales and the Marches. The following spring, he died of a fever, possibly caused by the damp weather conditions. Medical researchers recently speculated that Arthur's death was due to an outbreak of hantavirus among rodents in Wales. The question of whether his marriage to Catherine was ever consummated would have a powerful effect on the subsequent history of Britain.

Arthur was buried in Worcester Cathedral; the memorial to him, "Prince Arthur's Chantry", was erected in the cathedral in 1504. His younger brother, Henry, inherited his titles, eventually acceding to the throne as King Henry VIII of England. In due course, a papal dispensation was obtained, enabling Henry to marry his brother's widow, Catherine. The grounds cited for their eventual divorce was the circumstances of her previous marriage to Arthur.

Arthur bore a marked resemblance to his father and brother, the future Henry VIII, with red hair, small eyes, and the Tudor high-bridged nose.

Arthur married Catherine Of ARAGON in Nov 1501. Catherine (daughter of Ferdinand V of Castile Ferdinand II King Of ARAGON and Isabella I Queen Of Castile And LEON) was born on 16 Dec 1485 in Alcala de Henares; died on 07 Jan 1536. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Margaret married James IV on 08 Aug 1503. James (son of James III and Margaret Of OLDENBURG) was born on 17 Mar 1473; died on 09 Sep 1513 in Killed Flodden Field. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Margaret married Archibald DOUGLAS in Aug 1514, and was divorced in 1526. Archibald was born in 1489; died in 1557. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Margaret married Henry STEWART in 1526. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
In the Early years of his reign, Henry was content to leave governing in the hands of his Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey. However, Wolsey fell from power when he failed to secure a divorce for Henry from Catherine of Aragon. The King became increasingly autocratic and by his death he was much hated.

As a young man, Henry was tall and handsome. However, when older he became grossly overweight and was riddled with disease.

Although well-educated, Henry at first had no enthusiasm for statecraft or personal rule, preferring hunting, the tourney, games, mistresses, and music to governing the country. During the first two decades of his reign, Henry entrusted the business of government to his great minister, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. born in 1475, Wolsey was the son of an Ipswich butcher. He entered the church and became Archbishop of York in 1514. A year later he received his cardinal's hat and became the Chancellor of England. Cardinal Wolsey looked after England's affairs at home and abroad with great skill, presiding over a period of growing prosperity. However, Wolsey fell from grace in 1529 when he failed to secure Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon. he died that year before he could be brought to trial for treason.

After Henry VIII's break with Rome, Thomas Cromwell set up a commission to examine the state of every monastery and convent in England, with a view to possible closure and appropriation of its wealth by the Crown. Many were found to be racked with corruption. Henry, who urgently needed money to finance his extravagant lifestyle, ordered their dissolution. In 1537, the smaller monasteries were closed and their property confiscated. the remainder were similarly dealt with in 1539.

Henry married Catherine Of ARAGON in 1509. Catherine (daughter of Ferdinand V of Castile Ferdinand II King Of ARAGON and Isabella I Queen Of Castile And LEON) was born on 16 Dec 1485 in Alcala de Henares; died on 07 Jan 1536. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married Anne BOLEYN on 25 Jan 1533. Anne (daughter of Sir Thomas BOLEYN and Elizabeth HOWARD) was born about 1507; died on 19 May 1536 in Beheaded on Tower Green for alleged adultery. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married Jane SEYMOUR in 1536. Jane (daughter of John SEYMOUR, Knt. and Margery WENTWORTH) was born in 1509; died in 1537. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married Anne Of CLEVES in 1540. Anne was born in 1515; died in 1557. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married Catherine HOWARD in 1540. Catherine (daughter of Lord Edmund HOWARD and Joyce CULPEPPER) was born about 1525; died on 13 Feb 1541/2 in Beheaded on Tower Green. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married Catherine PARR in 1543. Catherine was born in 1512; died in 1548. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Mary married Louis XII King Of FRANCE on 09 Oct 1514 in Abbeville, France. Louis (son of Charles I De Valois Duke Of ORLEANS and Marie Of CLEVES) was born on 27 Jun 1462 in Chateau de Blois, Blois, Touranine; died on 01 Jan 1515. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]