Establishing the Henrician Regime, 1485–1525
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CHAPTER ONE Establishing the Henrician Regime, 1485–1525 On August 22, 1485 rebel forces led by Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond (1457–1509), defeated a royal army under King Richard III (1452–85; reigned 1483–5) at the battle of Bosworth Field, Leicestershire (see map 4). As all students of Shakespeare know, Richard was killed. His crown, said to have rolled under a hawthorn bush, was retrieved and offered to his opponent, who wasted no time in proclaiming himself King Henry VII. According to tradition, these dramatic events ended decades of political instability and established the Tudor dynasty, which would rule England effectively for over a century. As told in Shakespeare’s Tragedy of King Richard III, Henry’s victory and the rise of the Tudors has an air of inevitability. But Shakespeare wrote a century after these events, during the reign of Henry’s granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth (1533–1603; reigned 1558–1603). Naturally, his hindsight was 20/20 and calcu- lated to flatter the ruling house under which he lived. No one alive in 1485, not even Henry, could have felt so certain about his family’s prospects. During the previous hundred years three different royal houses had ruled England. Each had claimed a disputed succession and each had fallen with the murder of its king and head. Each line had descendants still living in 1485, some of whom had better claims to the throne than Henry did. Recent history suggested that each of these rival claimants would find support among the nobility, so why should anyone bet on the Tudors?COPYRIGHTED In short, there was little reason MATERIAL to think that the bloodshed and turbulence were over. And yet, though he would face many challenges, Henry VII would not be over- thrown. Instead, he would rule England for nearly 25 years and die in his bed, safe in the knowledge that his son, also named Henry, would succeed to a more or less united, loyal, and peaceful realm supported by a full treasury. The story of how Henry VII met these challenges and established his dynasty will be told in this chapter. But first, in order to understand the magnitude of the task and its accomplishment, it is necessary to review briefly the dynastic crisis known, romantically but inaccurately, as the Wars of the Roses.1 32 99781405162753_4_001.indd781405162753_4_001.indd 3322 111/12/20081/12/2008 33:18:46:18:46 PPMM 100 miles 160 km Norham Wark Bamburgh Hedgeley Moor Dunstanburgh NORTH SEA Alnwick Warkwor th N Hexham Newcastle Carlisle Lumley Brancepeth Raby Appleby Skelton Barnard Castle Richmond Bolton Middleham Masham Sheriff Hutton Lancaster Knaresborough Spofforth York Cawood IRISH SEA Towton Moor Wressell Ravenspur Wakefield Pontefract Sandal Liverpool Conisborough Rhuddlan Tickhill Henry VII defeats Beaumaris Bolingbroke Conway Chester Lambert Simnel’s rebellion Denbigh Ruthin Stokefield Newark Tattershall Newcastle- under-Lyme Harlech Belvoir Blore Heath Tutbury Castle Rising Bosworth Field Fotheringhay Caister Stokesay Ludlow Wingfield Kenilworth Ludford Bridge Mortimer’s Cross Northampton Framlingham Warwick Tewkesbury Edward IV restored 1471–83 St. David’s Grosmont Skenfrith Haverfordwest Gloucester Pleshey Milford Haven White Castle Edgcott Kidwelly Raglan Abergavenny St. Albans Berkeley Pembroke Manorbier Swansea Usk Barnet Caerphilly Wallingford London Ogmore Cardiff Windsor Canterbury Farnham Reigate Leeds Dover Steyning Herstmonceux Tiverton Portchester Arundel Bramber Okehampton Pevensey Carisbrooke Compton Corfe English Channel Battle Map 4 The Wars of the Roses, 1455–85. 33 99781405162753_4_001.indd781405162753_4_001.indd 3333 111/12/20081/12/2008 33:18:46:18:46 PPMM Establishing the Henrician Regime, 1485–1525 The Wars of the Roses, 1455–85 It might be argued that all of the trouble began over a century earlier because of a simple biological fact: King Edward III (1312–77; reigned 1327–77) had six sons (see genealogy 1, p. 429). Royal heirs were normally a cause for celebration in medieval England, but so many heirs implied an army of grandchildren and later descendants – each of whom would possess royal blood and, therefore, a claim to the throne. Still, this might not have mattered if two of those grandchildren, an earlier Richard and an earlier Henry, had not clashed over royal policy. Dominated by his royal uncles as a child, King Richard II (1367–1400; reigned 1377–99) had a stormy relationship with the nobility, especially his uncles’ children, as an adult. The most prominent critic was Henry Bolingbroke, duke of Lancaster (1366–1413), son of the John of Gaunt (1340–99) whom we met in the Introduction (see gene- alogy 1). In 1399 Richard confiscated Lancaster’s ancestral lands. Lancaster, aided by a number of other disgruntled noble families, rebelled against his cousin and anointed king, deposed him, and assumed the Crown as King Henry IV (1399–1413). In so doing, he established the Lancastrian dynasty on the English throne – but broke the Great Chain of Being. Looking back with hindsight, Shakespeare and many of his contemporaries thought that this was the moment that set England on the course – or curse – of political instability. In The Tragedy of King Richard II, he has the bishop of Carlisle predict the consequences of Henry Bolingbroke’s usurpation as follows: And if you crown him, let me prophesy, The blood of English shall manure the ground, And future ages groan for this foul act …; O if you raise this house against this house, It will the woefullest division prove That ever fell upon this cursed earth. Prevent it, resist it, let it not be so, Lest child, child’s children, cry against you – woe! (Richard II 4.1) Shakespeare, writing long after these events, knew that the prediction would come true. The speech is therefore not so much an accurate exposition of contemporary opinion at the time of Richard’s overthrow as it is a reflection of how English men and women came to feel about that event under the Tudors. But many modern historians would point out that, despite his dubious rise to the top, Henry IV was a remarkably successful king. He established himself and his line, suppressing nearly all opposition by the middle of his reign. His son, Henry V (1386/7–1422; reigned 1413–22), did even better. He fulfilled contem- porary expectations of kingship, revived the glories of Edward III’s reign, and distracted his barons away from any doubts they might have had about his legiti- macy by renewing a longstanding conflict with France known as the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453). After winning a stunning victory over a much larger French force at Agincourt in 1415 (see map 5), Henry was recognized by the 34 99781405162753_4_001.indd781405162753_4_001.indd 3344 111/12/20081/12/2008 33:18:47:18:47 PPMM NORTH SEA N London Calais Rhine R. BRABANT Agincourt English Channel FLANDERS LUXEM- BOURG Paris Orléans E DUCHY OF COUNTY BURGUNDY OF BURGUNDY Saône R. R Bordeaux e n ô h R K I N G D O M O F F R A N C S P A I N MEDITERRANEAN SEA English possessions in 1429 Boundary of the Kingdom of France 100 miles Battle 160 km Map 5 Southern England and western France during the later Middle Ages. 35 99781405162753_4_001.indd781405162753_4_001.indd 3355 111/12/20081/12/2008 33:18:47:18:47 PPMM Establishing the Henrician Regime, 1485–1525 French king, Charles VI (1368–1422; reigned 1380–1422) as the heir to the French throne as well. This, despite the fact that Charles had a son, also named Charles (1403–61). In fact, central and southern France remained loyal to the dauphin (the French crown prince), provoking Henry into another campaign in 1421–2. It was on his way to besiege a recalcitrant French city, that Henry V contracted dysentery and died. The untimely death of Henry V was, for many historians, the real starting point for the disasters to come, for, combined with the almost simultaneous demise of Charles VI, it brought to the English and French thrones an infant of just nine months: Henry VI (1421–71; reigned 1422–61, 1470–1). Given his youth, it was inevitable that the early years of the new king’s reign would be dominated by the nobility, in particular his many royal relatives. But even after being declared of age in 1437, he proved to be a meek, pious, well-intentioned but weak-minded nonentity. Eventually, he went insane. Even before he did so, he was dominated by family and courtiers, in particular his great-uncles of the Beaufort family, dukes of Somerset; and from 1444 his wife, Margaret of Anjou (1430–82). They became notorious for aggrandizing power and wealth, for running a corrupt and incom- petent administration, and for losing France. In 1436, Paris fell back into French hands. By 1450 the French had driven the English out of Normandy. By 1453, what had once been an English continental empire had been reduced to the soli- tary Channel port of Calais (map 5). The French had won the Hundred Years’ War. The loser was to be Henry VI and the house of Lancaster. Put another way, the end of the Hundred Years’ War is important in French history because it produced a unified France under a single acknowledged native king. It is important in English history because it destabilized the English monarchy and economy, discredited the house of Lancaster, and divided the English nobility. The result was the Wars of the Roses. Remember that the Lancastrians had come to the Crown not through lawful descent, but through force of arms. Now their military skills had proved inadequate. Moreover, the wars against France had been very expensive and ruinous to trade.