KING HENRY VII

KING HENRY VII - FIRST OF THE ENGLISH MONARCHS FROM THE HOUSE OF TUDOR

Henry VII, was the King of England and Lord of Ireland from the moment he seized the crown on 22nd August 1485, at The Battle of Bosworth Field, until his death on 21st April 1509, becoming the first of the English Monarchs from the House of Tudor.

Known previously as Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, he won the throne by defeating King Richard III, Duke of Gloucester, at the Battle of Bosworth Field, thus putting an end to the Plantagenet Dynasty, which had ruled England since 1154, when Henry II was King.

The early Life King Henry VII was spent in Wales, where on 28th January 1457 he was born to Margaret Beaufort, the wife of Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, at Pembroke Castle.

It was a time of civil war, known as the Wars of the Roses, which took place between the two rival factions, of the House of Lancaster and the House of York, both of which were branches of the royal House of Plantagenet. They were disputing the right of succession to the English throne.

The House of Lancaster, was descended from John of Gaunt the fourth son(third surviving son) of King Edward III and his wife, Philippa of Hainault.

The House of Lancaster, had been established on the throne by Henry Bolingbroke, (the son of John of Gaunt and therefore, Grandson to King Edward III), when he deposed his cousin, King Richard II, in 1399. (King Richard II, was the young king who was involved in the Peasants Revolt, led by Wat Tyler in 1381).

The House of York was descended from both Edmund of Langly, 1st Duke of York, who was the fourth surviving son of King Edward III, paternally, and also descended maternally from Lionel, Duke of Clarence, King Edward III's second surviving son.

There had been armed clashes between the two Houses previously, but it was in 1455 at the First Battle of St. Albans, that open warfare really broke out.

Several battles were then fought in the ensuing years until the Battle of Tewkesbury, on 4th May 1471, saw the end of the legitimate Lancastrian succession to the throne, when Edward, Prince of Wales the son of King Henry VI, was captured and executed after the battle. His father King Henry VI, already a prisoner in the Tower of London, died a few days later, probably murdered.

With all the legitimate Lancastrian heirs to the throne now dead, it left Henry Tudor, the future King Henry VII, although from an illegitimate, female line, nevertheless, the only male Lancastrian claiment remaining.

While fighting for the Lancastrian King Henry VI, against the Yorkists in South Wales in 1456, Henry's father, Edmund Tudor, was captured and imprisoned in Carmarthen Castle, where he contracted the plague and died, just three months before his son Henry Tudor was born.

Henry's uncle, Jasper Tudor, who was Edmund's younger brother and was also the Earl of Pembroke, undertook to protect Henry and his young mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, now a widow. She was only thirteen years of age when she gave birth to Henry.

Jasper Tudor however, fled abroad on the accession to the throne of Edward IV of England, the Yorkist claiment to the throne. Pembroke Castle, was given to the Yorkist, William Herbert, who in 1468 was promoted to Earl of Pembroke. He also obtained the guardianship of Henry Tudor, the young Earl of Richmond and his mother Margaret Beaufort.

There, in the household of Herbert he lived until 1469 when Warwick, the Kingmaker defected to the Lancastrians. In the Battle of Edgecote Moor, near Banbury, William Herbert was captured by the Lancastrians who were now being led by Warwick and subsequently executed.

The following year, 1470, Warwick restored Henry VI to the throne, and Jasper Tudor returned from exile, only to flee again in 1471 when Edward IV regained the throne, this time taking the future King Henry VII, with him.

A period of peace occured over the next fourteen years. However, In the year 1483, Edward IV died suddenly, leaving his twelve year old son, Edward V of England to succeed him. The King lingered long enough to name his brother Richard, the Duke of Gloucester Lord Protector of the Realm, in his Will.

As the young King travelled to London, his uncle Richard, the Lord Protector met him at Stony Stratford, a small market town in the county of Buckinghamshire, escorted him the rest of the way and placed him in the Tower of London, which although a prison, was still a royal residence at the time. Edward's brother Richard, the ten year old 1st Duke of York was to join him there later.

Once the young Princes were safely in the Tower, a campaign was mounted, publicly condemning King Edward IV's marriage to their mother, Elizabeth Woodville as invalid.

The father of the two young Princes, King Edward IV had been a notorious womaniser, having many mistresses.

He had secretly married their mother, the widow, Lady Grey (previously Elizabeth Woodville or Wydeville) who's husband Sir John Grey, had been killed at the Second Battle of St. Albans in 1461, ironically fighting for the Lancastrian cause in the long Civil War, known as The Wars of The Roses, a series of battles fought between the rival factions of the Houses of Lancaster and York. King Edward IV was the Yorkist claiment to the throne at the time of the battle.

Richard III accused her of having acquired the marriage by witchcraft. This would make their children illegitimate and therefore ineligible for the throne.

The Act of Parliament, Titulus Regius, which was passed on 25th June 1484, by an assembly of Lords and Commoners contained the witchcraft charge and endorsed all the claims, invallidating the marriage. On the following day Richard officially began his reign and was crowned in July.

Two major rebellions followed King Richard III's accession to the throne. The first occurred in 1483 when supporters of the dead King Edward IV, conspired to depose Richard and place the young Edward V back on the throne.

When rumours began to circulate that the two young Princes in the Tower (Edward V and his brother Richard) were dead, Henry Stafford, the Duke of Buckingham, then put forward a plan, (which Henry Tudor's mother, Margaret Beaufort had been campaigning for) in which Henry Tudor (the future King Henry VII) would return from exile, take the throne from Richard by force of arms and marry Elizabeth of York.

If the plan succeeded the two warring factions of the Houses of Lancaster and York would be reconciled, thus ending the Wars of the Roses, which had been raging spasmodically for over thirty years in which the very fabric of English Society had been torn to shreds.

By this time, Lady Margaret Beaufort, the mother of the future King Henry VII, was actively putting her son forward as an alternative, to the now unpopular King Richard III, in spite of her being married to Lord Stanley, a staunch Yorkist.

On Christmas Day 1483, at Rennes Cathedral, the first part of the Duke of Buckingham's and his mother's plans were carried out, when Henry Tudor solemnly promised to marry Elizabeth of York, the Eldest daughter of the late King Edward IV.

She was of course now the late King's heir, if as was suspected, her brothers, the two young Princes, Edward and Richard, the prisoners in the Tower of London were dead.

Borrowing money from the Duke of Brittany, Francis II, Henry Tudor set out for England.

Fate was to favour Richard on this occasion. A storm arose which forced Henry Tudor's ships to return to Brittany, the same storm also troubled Buckingham's army whose men deserted in droves on coming face to face with Richard's army.

The Duke of Buckingham was captured when his own men turned him in for the bounty which King Richard had placed on his head.

He was executed at Salisbury on 2nd November after being convicted of treason.

The Duke of Buckingham was captured when his own men turned him King Richard then attempted to extradite Henry from Brittany, but Henry managed to escape to France, where he was welcomed and supplied with all that was neccessary to mount a second invasion of England.

GO TO NEXT PAGE FOR KING RICHARD III, KING HENRY VII AND THE BATTLE OF BOSWORTH FIELD in which King Richard III was defeated and killed and Henry Tudor was crowned King Henry VII of England.

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