A-Level History Notes Henry VII (1485-1509) PDF

A-Level History Notes: Henry VII (1485-1509) Chapter 1: The Consolidation of Power - England had experienced political instability in the 15th century. The unsuccessful reign of Henry VI had culminated in 1455 in the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses between the royal houses of Lanca...

A-Level History Notes: Henry VII (1485-1509) Chapter 1: The Consolidation of Power - England had experienced political instability in the 15th century. The unsuccessful reign of Henry VI had culminated in 1455 in the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses between the royal houses of Lancaster and York. Between 1455 and 1485, England had suffered from 30 years of intermittent civil war and five violent changes of monarch. - The unpopularity of Yorkist King Richard III allowed Henry Tudor to successfully seize the throne at the Battle of Bosworth in August 1485, beginning the reign of the Tudors.  - However, his claim to the throne was weak for the following reasons: - He was descended through the female line, through his mother Lady Margaret Beaufort.  - The Beaufort line came from John of Gaunt's third wife; their son had been born before their marriage and many considered him illegitimate. - Henry was the Lancastrian claimant only because there was no other suitable candidate. - As a result, the early years of Henry VII's reign were characterised by insecurity, and by fears of a potential Yorkist challenge.  - Proclaimed king on the battlefield by the hesitant Lord Stanley (later Earl of Derby), who finally declared for Henry, the new king was cheered on his arrival in London, where the unpopularity of Richard III was enough for the public to accept him. Henry VII's character and aims: - Henry VII had not been brought up to rule. He had lived in exile in Brittany since the age of 14, following the Yorkist victory at the Battle of Tewkesbury, in which many of his relations, the Lancastrians, died or were executed. Many of his personality traits (he was shrewd, calculating and self-restrained) were probably shaped by his life as a fugitive. - From 1485, Henry's main aim was to consolidate his power in order to keep his throne. He accomplished this through both political actions and military success. - Henry had to work to retain his throne and establish his dynasty. Above all, he had to reduce the power of nobles who had used the previous period of instability to enhance their own authority. He also had to improve the Crown's financial position and secure the recognition of foreign powers. Henry VII's steps to securing the throne: August 1485: - He dated his reign from 21 August, the day before the Battle of Bosworth, thus anyone who had fought on the Yorkist side could be accused as a traitor. - He publicly rewarded many key supporters (eg, by conferring 11 knighthoods) - He detained the Earl of Warwick (Edward IV's nephew), whose claim to the throne could be seen to be much greater than his own. October 1485: - He arranged his coronation for a week before the meeting of his first parliament in November, to show that his right to the throne was hereditary, and not just based on parliamentary sanction. - He made key appointments to his council and household (eg, Sir Reginald Bray as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Sir William Stanley as Chamberlain of the household) - He issued parliamentary Acts of Attainder against Yorkists who had fought at Bosworth; their property became forfeit to the crown. - He further increased his income by demanding the customs revenues of tonnage and poundage for life at his first parliament.  January 1486: - Having consolidated power in his own right, Henry married Elizabeth of York. This enabled royal propaganda to exploit the union of the houses of Lancaster and York. September 1486: - An heir, Prince Arthur, was born Establishing the Tudor dynasty: Henry's position was extremely insecure at first. There were several threats: 1486: Viscount Lovell and the Staffords Minor rising, focused on traditional Yorkist heartlands of Yorkshire and the Midlands: - Led by Viscount Lovell (Yorkshire) and Humphrey Stafford, with his brother Thomas (Midlands). - Attracted little support and was easily suppressed. - Lovell escaped to Burgundy, Humphrey Stafford was captured and executed (though Thomas was pardoned). - This shows that there was little support for a Yorkist rising at this point. - Yorkists realised the need for a figurehead and funds. 1487: Lambert Simnel and the rebellion of the Earl of Lincoln - Simnel impersonated the imprisoned Earl of Warwick and was crowned as King Edward in Ireland in May 1487. - Henry exhibited the real Earl of Warwick in London. - Lincoln fled to the court of Margaret of Burgundy and joined Lord Lovell; they persuaded Margaret to support Simnel and to pay for a force of mercenaries to invade England.  - Henry neutralised Yorkist support in the north by reinstating the Earl of Northumberland, a traditional Yorkist supporter, to power in the north as his supporter (a calculated gamble). - The rebels landed on the north-west coast of England in Cumberland and tried to muster support in the Yorkist heartland of the North Riding of Yorkshire; however, they failed to attract followers. - Henry's army defeated the mercenary army at the Battle of Stoke Field, June 1487; the Earl of Lincoln was killed. - This shows that this battle effectively ended the Wars of the Roses and Henry's position became safe, though not completely secure. Reasons for Henry's victory: - His own shrewdness and hard work - Organisational skills and military leadership of his key supporters - Willingness of landowners in many parts of the country to support his cause - Henry's lenient treatment of the rebels won over some Yorkists who had previously opposed him - He also began to develop the policy of using bonds of good behaviour, providing lump sums of money to landowners that they did not have to repay if they behaved well. 1491-1499: The Perkin Warbeck imposture - 1491: Warbeck began to impersonate Richard, Duke of York in Ireland. - 1492: He fled to the court of Margaret of Burgundy, was trained as a potential Yorkist prince, and began to draw English courtiers into his conspiracies. - 1495: He attempted to land in England in 1495 but was quickly defeated; he fled to the court of James IV of Scotland.  - 1496: He tried to invade England with a small Scottish force; this soon retreated, and James IV agreed to marry Henry's daughter, Margaret. - 1497: He tried to claim the throne by exploiting the Cornish Rebellion; his forces were crushed; Warbeck surrendered; he was treated leniently at first but tried to escape. - 1499: He was tried and executed along with the Earl of Warwick. - This shows that patronage from foreign rulers made Warbeck a potentially serious threat and demonstrated how fragile Henry's position was considered by other rulers.  - The involvement (in 1495) in the conspiracy of Sir William Stanley (Henry's step-uncle and Lord Chamberlain, the head of the royal household) showed how vulnerable Henry was even within his own household. 1506: Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk and Richard de la Pole, "The White Rose": - Edmund (Suffolk) largely lived in exile from 1498 to 1506, under the protection of Margaret of Burgundy; returned in 1506 and was imprisoned in the Tower of London; executed in 1513 by Henry VIII. - Richard de la Pole was exiled until his death fighting for France at the Battle of Pavia, 1525.  - This shows the imprisonment of Suffolk effectively eliminated the remaining threats, leaving only Richard de la Pole at large in exile. In conclusion: - Having successfully seized the throne at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, Henry's immediate aim was to consolidate his power. - His shrewdness and skill at planning allowed him to achieve this to a great extent in the first years of his reign, through a series of astute political moves. - However, his position remained insecure and the years 1486-1499 saw a succession of threats to his rule, including rebellions and claims by Yorkist rivals and pretenders; almost all of which he had successfully defeated in 1506. Chapter 2: Henry VII's government The Council: - The king ruled with a "council" of advisers who supported him in making key decisions. The working Council contained around six or seven members. - Its functions were: - To advise the king - To administer the realm on the king's behalf - To make legal judgements - There were three main types of councillors: - Nobles, such as Lord Daubeney, through the working Council only rarely included the great magnates. - Churchmen such as John Morton and Richard Fox, who often had legal training and were excellent administrators. - Laymen, either gentry or lawyers, who were skilled administrators, such as Sir Reginald Bray and Edmund Dudley. - Under Henry VII, the council was a permanent body with a core membership, though with no established procedures. Sometimes members also met separately to discuss legal or administrative issues. - Non-councillors could also advise the king, for example, Henry's Mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, acted as an unofficial adviser. The council Learned (or council learned in the law): - An offshoot of the council, this body developed during the second half of Henry's reign, initially under Bray. Its function was to maintain the king's revenue and to exploit his prerogative rights. It made the system of bonds and recognisances work effectively, thus helping to ensure loyalty and raise finance. It was not a recognised court of law and there was no right of appeal against it. This council was important in maintaining Henry's authority as well as raising finance.  - Bray's associate in the Council Learned was Sir Richard Empson, a fiercely ambitious lawyer and bureaucrat. After Bray's death in 1503, Empson was joined by Edmund Dudley. Empson and Dudley were able and conscientious bureaucrats, whose ruthless extraction of money from the king's subjects made them feared and unpopular, and created enemies out of some of the king's other advisors. They were removed and executed after Henry's death. Court and household: - The royal court was the centre of government. It was a focus for personal monarchy, a system in which a person's power was determined by his relationship with the monarch. Rewards and status were distributed through the court; courtiers enjoyed paid positions or the right to receive free food, and it was there that the support of the king or other influential persons was obtained.  In 1485, the court comprised: - The household proper, responsible for looking after the king, courtiers and guests, supervised by the Lord Steward. - The Chamber presided over by the Lord Chamberlain, a powerful and influential courtier who was also a member of the king's council and often spoke for the monarch, this was the politically important part of the system.  - In 1495, after the involvement of Sir William Stanley, the Lord Chamberlain, in the Perkin Warbeck conspiracy, Henry remodelled the Chamber as the Privy Chamber. He could retreat into this, protected by his most intimate servants; this made it more difficult for anyone to gain or regain the king's favour, and cut Henry off from many of the king's traditional contacts at court. Parliament: - Parliament met infrequently and so was not central to the government. It comprised the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Of these, the House of Lords was more important.  - Only the king could call Parliament, and Henry demonstrated his right to rule by calling his parliament in November 1485. Henry called seven parliaments in his reign. Five of these met in the first ten years and only two in the remaining 14 years; this shows that power centred on the Crown and when Henry felt more secure, Parliament could be dispensed with. Henry's early parliaments were largely concerned with the following: National security: - His first two parliaments passed numerous Acts of Attainder (by which individuals could be declared guilty without trial if alive; if dead, their property would be forfeit to the crown.) Raising revenue: - His first parliament granted tonnage and poundage (custom revenues) for life. - Other parliaments granted extraordinary revenue (taxation granted as a one-off payment, for example to enable the king to wage war.) - Parliament appears in general to have operated effectively under Henry VII, with the king accepting its decisions. Domestic policy: justice and the maintenance of order: - It was essential for the king to maintain law and order to prevent uprisings or rebellions, and so that potential enemies had no excuse to challenge his authority. Regional government (in the hands of the nobility): - Following losses of land and power during the Wars of the Roses, the great magnates (the wealthiest nobles) were powerful only in the North of England. The Stanleys controlled the north-west. The Earl of Northumberland ruled the north-east until 1489, when the Yorkist Earl of Surrey was released from prison and sent to the north; this risk paid off, and Surrey served loyally for 10 years. - The Earl of Surrey ruled this area through the Council of the North. There were other regional councils in Wales and the Marches, and in Ireland. - Henry preferred to rely on the lesser magnates, but he trusted few and employed a spying network to ensure all the nobility remained loyal. Local government (justices of the peace): - At a local level, Henry gradually increased the powers of justices of the peace (JPs) who, together with the sheriff (the man responsible for elections to parliament and peacekeeping), were appointed to each county.  - JPs were unpaid and mostly local gentry (of lower social status than the nobles); a few were royal officials. - They met four times a year to deliver judgements on disputes at the quarter sessions.  - They were responsible for routine administration, eg, tax assessments, complaints against local officials and maintenance of law and order. - More serious cases were heard at the courts of assize by judges by judges appointed by the Crown. The Court of King's Bench dealt with appeals from the quarter sessions and courts of assize and could overturn the decisions of the lesser courts. There was also a wide range of other courts, eg, Church courts, manor and borough courts, and king's courts. Domestic policy: improving royal finances Royal income could come from various sources: - **Profits from feudal dues and exercise of the royal prerogative** - **Revenue increased by reviving/extending mediaeval/feudal dues eg:** - Profits from wardship (when property was held by a minor) increased. - Feudal aid (the crown's right to impose taxes for certain services) granted in 1504. - Dues paid by landowners on death of a feudal tenant-in-chief. **Other sources:** - Customs revenue (tonnage and poundage) - Legal system and profits of justice (including fines and income from bonds) - Bonds and recognisances - Clerical taxes and grants - Loans and benevolences - Parliamentary grants - Pensions from other powers (5000 pounds per year from France from 1492 under Treaty of Etaples) **Crown lands (income from rents):** - Large proportion of ordinary revenue - Around 12000 pounds per year at the beginning of reign, collected by the inefficient Court of Exchequer. - From c1492, administered through the Chamber (as under Edward IV)  - By the end of reign, it had risen to around 42000 pounds per year. - Blue represents ordinary revenue (regular income) and red represents extraordinary revenue (irregular income) - Henry and his officials focused heavily on increasing Crown revenues from all the sources above. However, many of his policies were politically risky, in that those most affected were the landowners, on whose support Henry relied. Summary: - Henry VII largely maintained the traditional structures of government; however, there were developments, such as the establishment of the Privy Chamber in 1495 and the creation of the Council Learned in the Law. - He kept law and order through the nobility (helped at a local level by justices of the peace), while his system of bonds and recognisances enforced obedience; a network of spies ensured the performance of both. - A key focus was the improvement of royal finances, in which he achieved considerable success, though at the cost of rising unpopularity and at risk of alienating the group on whom his throne most depended. Chapter 3: England's relations with Scotland and other foreign powers (1485-1509): Henry VII's relations with foreign powers: Henry's foreign policy aims were straightforward: - To maintain good relations with European powers (thus allowing him to consolidate his power at home) - To gain international recognition for the Tudor dynasty - To maintain national security - To defend English trading interests Britanny and France: - 1487: The French invaded the Duchy of Brittany, the last independent area within France; the death of Duke Francis II of Brittany, without a male heir, provided the excuse - 1489: Treaty of Redon -- Henry agreed to support the claim of Duke Francis' young daughter, Duchess Anne, although he was anxious not to antagonise the French - 1491: 6000 English "volunteers" were sent to Brittany, but Anne surrendered to the French; it was arranged that she would marry Charles VIII of France, ending Breton independence - 1492: Based on intelligence that Charles was more interested in invading Italy than fighting the English, Henry raised two parliamentary subsidies and invaded France with 26000 men. The French rapidly sought peace; November -- Treaty of Etaples; Charles agreed that he would no longer assist any pretenders to the English throne. Henry was also to receive 745000 crowns, paid in annual instalments of 50000 crowns a year. This was around 5% of Henry's total annual income. - Henry's strategy had proved successful. He had defended national and dynastic interests, improved his financial position and ensured a period of relative friendliness in Anglo-French relations. Burgundy, the Netherlands and the Holy Roman Empire: The ports of the Netherlands were important for English trade, particularly in cloth. However: - The Netherlands had been under the control of Burgundy: Margaret of Burgundy (Edward VI's sister) had married the ruler, Charles the Bold, who died in 1477. Thereafter, she ruled as protector, while the duke's title passed to Maximilian, who became Holy Roman Emperor in 1493 and, in turn, placed his son, Philip, in control of the area as Duke Philip IV. - Margaret, Maximilian and Philip supported the pretenders to Henry's throne, Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck. - 1493: Following Margaret's support for Perkin Warbeck, Henry broke trade relations with Burgundy. He was more concerned with securing his dynasty than protecting the commercial interests of London and east-coast merchants, but the embargo harmed both the English and Flemish economies. - 1496: Henry VII and Philip IV agreed the Intercursus Magnus which ended the trade embargo and Margaret recognised Henry's position as king. - 1503: Death of Margaret of Burgundy - Philip and his wife, Juana, daughter of Isabella of Castile was blown in to the English coast as they set out for Spain following Isabella's death in 1504. Henry VII entertained them for three months and negotiated two treaties: By the Treaty of Windsor, he recognised Philip's claim to Castile, and they each promised to assist one another against rebels. A trade treaty was agreed but became known as the Intercursus Malus by the Flemish because it was over-generous to England. Further agreements meant that Philip handed over the Yorkist Earl of Suffolk, who had been sheltering in Burgundy, to Henry. A marriage was arranged between Henry (widowed in 1503) and Philip's sister, Margaret, Dowager Duchess of Savoy (this came to nothing). Philip died in September, and the trade treaty, of which Margaret (who became the new Burgundian governor) disapproved, was never implemented. - 1507: A third treaty reverted to the terms of the first Intercursus Magnus - 1508: Henry VII was diplomatically isolated by not being a signatory to the League of Cambrai, which was formed by the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, France and the Papacy. Spain: - Spain (ruled by Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile) was a powerful state, with which Henry hoped to develop good relations. - 1489: The Treaty of Medina del Campo agreed a marriage alliance between Catherine of Aragon (Ferdinand and Isabella's youngest daughter) and Prince Arthur (Henry's eldest son). - 1501: Marriage between Arthur and Catherine - 1502: Arthur died; Henry (anxious to retain Catherine's dowry) proposed a new marriage between Catherine and Henry VIII (Henry VII's youngest son); a treaty was signed in 1503 and a marriage planned for 1506. - 1504: Isabella died; Henry supported the claims of Juana (married to Philip IV) to succeed in Castile. (this was confirmed during their stay in England in 1506) - 1506: Philip's death led to Ferdinand to deprive his daughter Juana of her inheritance. The marriage between Catherine and Henry was jeopardised and did not take place until June 1509 after Henry VII's death. Scotland: - Scotland was the only country which shared a border with England. It often supported France against England. - 1485-1495: Anglo-Scottish relations were tense - 1495-1496: James IV of Scotland supported the pretender Perkin Warbeck and provided a small army to invade in England in 1496. War threatened - England and Scotland made the Truce of Ayton (this became a full peace treaty in 1502) - 1503: James IV married Henry's daughter Margaret to seal the treaty Ireland: - In Ireland, henry VII ruled only the "Pale", the land around Dublin. The rest of Ireland was ruled by independent chieftains. - The Earl of Kildare (Lord Deputy of Ireland since 1477) was a threat to Henry because of his Yorkist sympathies. Kildare crowned Lambert Simnel King of Ireland in 1486 and supporter Perkin Warbeck in 1491. - Consequently, Henry replaced him with Sir Edward Poynings who passed the "Poynings" Law of 1495 which declared that the Irish Parliament needed the approval of the English monarch before it could pass laws. Poynings also tried to subdue the Irish by force. However, Kildare was persuaded to abandon the Yorkist cause and was reinstated in 1495. Thereafter, he served Henry loyally and secured the submission of various Irish chieftains. By 1500, Henry had established a reasonable level of control. Securing the succession and marriage alliances: - Henry had four children who survived childhood: Arthur, Henry, Margaret and Mary - Despite Henry's efforts at arranging suitable marriage alliances for Arthur (with Catherine of Aragon) and Margaret (with James IV of Scotland), Arthur's unexpected death in April 1502 increased the insecurity of the dynasty - The new heir, Prince Henry, was still a child - The Yorkists had a powerful claimant in the Earl of Suffolk - Henry VII's health was deteriorating - The death of Henry's wife, Elizabeth of York, in 1503, meant that no more children would be forthcoming. Despite the imprisonment of the Earl of Suffolk in 1506, the succession remained insecure as it rested on the survival and acceptance by ministers of Prince Henry. - Henry VII died in April 1509. One faction, led by Bishop Fox and supported by Lady Margaret Beaufort, declared for Henry; Empson and Dudley were arrested. Summary: - Henry VII's foreign policy aims were broadly to maintain good relationships with Europe, with a view to strengthening the Tudor Dynasty - In this, he was largely successful, overcoming various attacks to reach agreements with France, Burgundy, Spain and Scotland and achieving a certain level of security in Ireland. - Agreements with Spain and Scotland were cemented with marriage alliances, ensuring that by the end of his reign the Tudor Dynasty seemed to have been accepted internationally.