KING HENRY VII's REIGN IS ESTABLISHED

Many historians have associated the victory of King Henry VII at the Battle of Bosworth Field over the House of York, with the start of modern government and the end of Medieval England.

Undoubtedly he achieved some formidable accomplishments during his reign, proving himself to be an able administrator and more than an adequate match for the Nobility.

His policy was to create prosperity, for he knew that his new dynasty would flourish or founder on financial success or failure. He needed money and a lot of it. For a new and as yet unknown and possibly unpopular King, to approach Parliament for permission to raise taxes and create new ones, he knew would invite much opposition and antagonism. This was especially so, as the country was close to the verge of bankruptcy.

He explored and used every loophole there was, to extract every penny he could from the existing methods of taxation, instead of creating new sources.

He opined that if the person had clearly spent a lot of money on himself, in order to live in luxury, then he was obviously rich enough to spare some for the King. If however, the person showed no sign of being wealthy and lived frugally, then he must have sufficient savings therefore, to be able to give it to the King.

This came to be known as Morton's Fork, being a choice between two equally unpleasant alternatives, leading to the same unpleasant conclusion. It applied regardless of whether the person was rich or poor, he just didn't have a choice.

A highly controversial tribunal was set up in 1495, designed to defend the position of King Henry VII, as a feudal landlord. It was the Council Learned in the Law and was there to enforce payments of debt and proved to be a very efficient method of ensuring that those debts were paid. It was very unpopular and was abolished after Henry's death in 1509. The most prominent councillors of the Council Learned in the Law were the hated Edmund Dudley and his colleague Sir Richard Empson. Both were at the forefront in assisting the King, check the lawlessness of the barons.

They both amassed great wealth for themselves and possessed large estates. On the death of their royal protector, King Henry VII,the new king, wasted no time in imprisoning them both, charged with the crime of constructive treason.

The real reason for them being charged, was their undoubted unpopularity, which stemmed from their position in the Council Learned in the Law. They were both attainted and executed on the 17th or 18th August 1510.

Henry was able to claim the land and associated revenues from any heirs of the old Noble families, who had been killed in the Battles during the Wars of the Roses, or any survivors from these battles who had been attainted after the Battle of Bosworth Field, often found their estates confiscated by the King.

Of paramount importance of course, was securing the legitimacy of his claim to the throne and the restoration of royal authority, in order that peace could be brought about to a country, which had been ravaged by decades of civil war. Most importantly he had to maintain that peace.

What King Henry VII, did not want however, was a situation in which men at the local level would become much too powerful. His struggle had not ended with his victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field. There were several uprisings at the beginning of his reign (covered in the previous section, His Reign Begins)

Therefore only his most trusted Nobles were given positions of power. Men such as the Earl of Oxford, the Duke of Bedford and Lord Stanley were trusted by the King, but they were also well aware of the outcome if they showed any disloyalty whatsoever.

These trusted men he allowed to control the regions, but only if they were loyal to him, if they were not loyal, they would be attainted. All he needed to do, was sign the Bill of Attainder, which was already in place and the disloyal Noble would have all his property and possessions confiscated, with the possibility he may even be executed.

The Bill of Attainder, was one of the most potentially tyrannical laws ever to have been enacted, enabling royalty to punish citizens without trial.

It is easy to see why King Henry VII and other monarchs before and after him used it as a threat, to subdue their subjects and to further their own power, but also putting it into action on many occassions when they thought it neccessary. It was finally abolished in England in 1870.

Another way he used to bring his over powerful subjects to heel was to pass a law against livery and maintenance, forbidding the use of too many male servants and flaunting them by means of badges and emblems. This had been a potential way of creating private armies.

These armies had been used in the past to intimidate people into paying off debts and fines and also to intimidate juries.

Huge fines were levied against anyone who was perceived to break these laws, or on anyone he saw as a threat.

Henry revived the earlier practice of the Court of the Star Chamber, an English Court of Law which sat at the Palace of Westminster. It comprised of a small and trusted group of Privy Counsellors and common-law judges, which supplemented common-law and equity courts in both criminal and civil cases. It was able to act quickly, cutting through the complexity of the legal system.

These courts were set up to ensure fair enforcement of laws against prominent people, who were too powerful for the ordinary courts to convict them of their crimes. The court would be held in secret, with no indictments, no juries, no witnesses, no right of appeal. It became a political weapon over time and a symbol of the abuse of power by the English Monarchy.

Justices of the Peace, were used by King Henry VII, nationwide, serving for a year at a time and appointed for every shire, to ensure that the laws of the land were obeyed everywhere.

He applied the same constraints on the Justices of the Peace as he did to the Nobility, in order to curtail their power, by imposing a similar system of bonds and recognisances.

The Nobility who tried to exert their elevated status over these Justices of the Peace, had already been curtailed by the same system of bonds and recognisances.

All Acts of Parliament were overseen by the Justices of the Peace. In accordance with the 1495 Act which prevented the corruption of juries, they could replace any suspect jurors.

It proved to be a very successful policy for King Henry VII. By the end of his reign in 1509, the Justices of the Peace were key enforcers of law and order throughout the country. It was an unpaid post, but was seen by the Local Gentry as an office of prestige and much local influence, a very much sought after post.

King Henry VII's eldest son and heir died suddenly in 1502, while living at Ludlow Castle on the Welsh border. The cause of his death is not officially known, but it is thought to have been the mysterious Sweating Sickness, which was widespread at that time. This made his second son Henry, Duke of York, the heir to the throne.

Wanting to maintain the Alliance with Spain, which had been made with the marriage of his son Arthur, to Catherine of Aragon, King Henry VII sought a Papal Dispensation for Prince Henry to marry Arthur's widow.

The following year, Elizabeth of York, the wife of King Henry VII, died during childbirth, so the King arranged for the dispensation to also allow him to marry Catherine.

After the dispensation was obtained, it appears Henry had second thoughts. There was some dispute regarding the payment of Catherine's dowry when she married Prince Arthur. However, whatever the reason, he would not allow his son Henry to marry Catherine during his lifetime.

King Henry VII died on 9th May 1509 and was buried at Westminster Abbey. The last six years of his life was marked by his sheer greed to obtain as much money and possessions as he could.

So much so in fact that as well as leaving the English economy in a far healthier state than he had found it, he was also able to leave a huge fortune to his son King Henry VIII.

He was succeeded by his second son King Henry VIII, who would reign from 1509 to 1547, a period that altered the course of English history in a way that was totally unimaginable at the time.

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