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On Sunday, 30 October 1485, at Westminster Abbey in London, Henry Tudor was officially coronated as King Henry VII of England. In the two months since his victory at Bosworth, Henry, along with his mother Margaret Beaufort, planned a magnificent coronation that would outshine Richard III’s own dazzling ceremony. It was the first step in dynasty building: establishing the magnificence of the king and there was no better way to do that than to spend a lot of money.
After all, this was the first time that most Londoners had ever seen Henry Tudor in person. He had to make sure he was bigger than life and thus dressed himself extravagantly in rich purple velvet, cloth of gold, and ermine trimmed robes. Westminster was decorated in nearly 13 metres of expensive scarlet cloth and even Henry’s processional horses were adorned with cloth of gold, a fabric which only the truly rich could afford. In the coronation procession, Henry rode in a canopy covered in gold and silk.1
On his coronation procession from the Tower of London to Westminster, Henry was accompanied by those who had fought next to him at the Battle of Bosworth. His uncle Jasper Tudor was given the great honour of riding directly behind Henry during the procession and holding the crown during the anointing ceremony.2 After the coronation ceremony, the huge royal party celebrated at a sumptuous banquet which was usually followed by a couple of weeks of jousting and further celebrations. But the revelry was temporarily delayed so Henry could get started on the business of running the country and laying down the roots of the most infamous dynasty in English history, the Tudors.
Immediately after his victory at Bosworth, Henry Tudor’s first thought was on security, both for himself and for his fiancé, Elizabeth of York. For his own security, Henry created a group of bodyguards in the French tradition called the Yeomen of the Guard. This was a group of about 200 soldiers who accompanied his every move, guarding doors and even tasting the king’s food in case it had been poisoned.3 Henry had sent Elizabeth to the fortress castle of Sheriff Hutton for her own safety during his invasion and now that Richard was defeated, Henry sent his trusted friend Sir Robert Willoughby to fetch Elizabeth and bring her down to London. Elizabeth was to live at Margaret Beaufort’s newly granted mansion in London called Coldharbour under her mother-in-law’s ever watchful eye. This was the location that the betrothed couple first met in person and it was private enough for the two to get to know each other before taking their marriage vows on 28 January 1486. Some say they may have gotten to know each other a little too well at Coldharbour since Elizabeth gave birth to their first child only eight months after their wedding.4 It is possible that their son Arthur was born prematurely but it is also very possible that Henry and Elizabeth consummated their relationship before the wedding.
Now that the appropriate measures had been taken to preserve the safety of himself and his future queen, it was time to dole out rewards for the men who had endured the Breton exile and fought with him at Bosworth. His uncle Jasper was created Duke of Bedford and was restored to his Welsh earldom of Pembroke. Henry awarded his father-in-law, Lord Stanley, the earldom of Derby. The greatest reward of all went to his mother Margaret Beaufort. Not only was she granted luxurious palaces and manors by her son, she was also given the very unique legal title of ‘femme sole’ which meant she could govern her own properties and land holdings independently of her husband.5 It was around this time that Margaret got the title she always wanted most: ‘the king’s mother’. Now that she achieved her goal of putting her son on the throne, she was not one to be content and step out of the limelight. If she had been a man, it was very possible that she would be the one sitting on the throne, a point that was not lost on her. She resolved to exert her royal authority through her son and she was a near constant presence at his court.6
Henry tapped his most trusted councillors and brothers in exile to head the top positions in his new government. John Morton, Bishop of Ely, was named chancellor, the highest position in Henry’s government. Sir William Stanley who had been so instrumental in Henry’s victory at Bosworth was named as one of the chamberlains of the Exchequer to oversee the royal treasury. Henry also looked to his circle of friends to maintain the peace throughout his kingdom: his uncle Jasper in Wales, the Stanleys in northwest England, the earl of Oxford in Essex and East Anglia, and finally the earl of Northumberland in Richard’s old stronghold of northern England. Henry also trusted in his friends to help teach him how to be king, how to structure his government, and most importantly, how to deal with rebel threats.7 It wouldn’t be long until he had to put that particular lesson to the test.
When any new king came to the throne, one of the first required courses of legal action was to summon parliament to confirm the ascension of the new king. King Henry’s first parliament met on 7 November 1485 and they had a lot of work ahead of them. The first order of business was to make Henry’s seizure of the throne legal. The petition was put forth by the Commons to proclaim Henry the rightful King of England by God’s divine will and Henry’s victory in battle, making him and the heirs of his body the legal inheritors of the kingdom of England.8
Several other acts were passed and reversed during Henry’s first parliament. An Act of Attainder was passed against Richard III and twenty-eight of his leading adherents, declaring them traitors to the crown and stripping those who survived Bosworth of their lands and titles. In the Act, Richard was accused of ‘unnatural, mischievous, and great perjuries, treasons, homicides, and murders in shedding of infants’ blood’ which certainly refers to the disappearance of the princes in the Tower.9
All of the acts of attainder Richard III had issued against Henry Tudor and his adherents were reversed. Also reversed was Richard III’s Titulus Regius which had illegitimised the children of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, thus making Elizabeth of York once again the heir of the House of York. Henry also took care to re-enact the 1397 legislation declaring the Beauforts legitimate heirs of John of Gaunt and the House of Lancaster.10 The latter two actions were meant to strengthen Henry’s claim to the throne, especially emphasising the Beaufort legitimacy since the Yorkists believed royal claims could be passed through a female to her son.
Henry weaved together his three claims to the throne, Beaufort, York, and Wales, in the use of his heraldic badges worn on the clothing of his servants and displayed on his banners. To represent his Beaufort heritage, he included a portcullis on his royal badge and a Dun Cow on his royal standards. For his Welsh ancestry he flew the flag of the red dragon in honour of his Welsh ancestry. To represent the new union of the rival houses was the newly devised Tudor rose, a combination of the white rose of York and red rose of Lancaster. Henry used the Tudor rose throughout his vast kingdom to promote his new joined kingdom.
Henry’s first parliamentary session was concluded in March 1486, at which time Henry and his new bride departed on a royal progress. It was important for Henry to show himself throughout his new kingdom to establish not only his majesty but his authority. This was especially important in northern England where Richard had held such a strong grip over the region and where there were loyalists who might try to rise against Henry. The king and queen spent March of 1486 slowly traversing north through England, stopping at cities along the way to be received under great pomp and circumstance.11 They would participate in public banquets, attend Mass with the locals, and work to address the needs of the poor.
Upon arriving at Nottingham in the Midlands on 11 April 1486, Henry was told of an organised uprising against him in the north at Yorkshire, led by Viscount Lovell and Sir Humphrey Stafford. These two men were the leading supporters of Richard and had been hiding in sanctuary ever since losing at the Battle of Bosworth. Now they had slipped out of sanctuary and were ready to make a move to oust the new king. Lord Lovell was tasked with attacking York while Stafford would simultaneously lead an attack in Worcester.12 King Henry reacted swiftly by summoning his nearby nobles to raise men and ride out against the rebels in all haste. The first to arrive on the scene was Henry’s loyal uncle, Jasper, who had raised as many as 3,000 men to confront Lovell’s rebel army.13 As soon as Lovell heard Jasper was near with a huge force, he deserted his army and fled into hiding. Stafford was not so lucky. Upon hearing of Lovell’s desertion, Stafford fled to a nearby abbey and claimed sanctuary, but was dragged out by Henry’s men and executed at Tyburn on 8 July 1486.
After the Yorkshire rising had been handily put down by Henry and his nobles, the royal couple finished their progress north, culminating in their arrival at York on 20 April 1486. By early June, they were back in London so Henry could attend to the business of ruling a kingdom and planning for the arrival of his first child, which he hoped was a son and heir. Henry and his mother Margaret went to great efforts to carefully plan out the arrival of the new Tudor heir. Henry carefully selected Winchester as the place where his wife, the queen, would go into confinement and give birth.14 Not only was Winchester the ancient capital in Anglo-Saxon time, it was also the supposed location of Camelot and King Arthur. By choosing Winchester as the birthplace, he aimed to tie together the legend of King Arthur to his newborn heir. For her part, Margaret literally wrote a book on how royal children should be born and raised. Margaret’s Ordinances defined protocols for the queen’s confinement, the christening, and the churching, the ritual that celebrated the queen’s return to court life after recovering from childbirth.15
On the evening of 19 September 1486, Elizabeth of York gave birth to the first royal Tudor, a son and heir, whom they named Arthur after the legendary king. There was much rejoicing throughout the city of Winchester as church bells rang out to announce the safe delivery of the prince. Elizabeth would go on to produce seven more children for King Henry, only three of which survived into adulthood: Margaret, born 28 November 1489, Henry (future Henry VIII) born 28 June 1491, and Mary, born 18 March 1496.
The first year of Henry’s reign was a huge success. He had easily put down the sole rebellion and he already had a male heir to inherit his kingdom and continue the dynasty he had founded. By November 1486, rumours began circulating through England that another rebellion was afoot.16 By the spring of 1487, the conspiracy plans were laid clear: the new group of rebels aimed to put forth the young earl of Warwick as the true king of England.
Eleven-year-old Edward, Earl of Warwick, was the last living Yorkist male. His father was George, Duke of Clarence, the brother of Edward IV and Richard III. When Richard III died without a living legitimate son, Warwick was widely considered his heir being the last living male with royal Plantagenet blood. Because of the strength of his claim, Henry knew Warwick would be the focus of a Yorkist uprising, therefore, he imprisoned him in the Tower of London shortly after his victory at Bosworth.
In the spring of 1487, a meddling English priest recruited a boy of Warwick’s age and appearance to impersonate him. The priest groomed the young boy in the ways of royalty so he could convincingly play the part, and that he did.17 The priest took his protégé, whose real name was Lambert Simnel, to Ireland to find supporters. The Irish were loyal Yorkists and were all too happy to welcome a Yorkist claimant to the throne. Simnel was welcomed to court as the earl of Warwick and promptly declared true king of England. Support in Ireland alone would not be enough to make a serious run against King Henry so messengers were sent to Yorkists sympathisers in England as well as the duchy of Burgundy, home of Warwick’s aunt, Duchess Margaret, who hated Henry and was more than happy to give her support.
In late March or early April 1487, Simnel and his supporters sailed to Burgundy where Margaret welcomed him to court as her true nephew. She had probably never seen him in her life and therefore couldn’t attest to his identity but nevertheless decided to take his word for it. She supplied to Simnel 2,000 highly skilled German mercenaries to fight in his army.18 Her city of Flanders became the mustering point for Yorkist defectors, including a new, powerful member: John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln. After the earl of Warwick, Lincoln was the leading Yorkist male in the kingdom of England and was considered by some a better choice of heir for Richard III. After the Battle of Bosworth, Henry had wisely pardoned de la Pole and brought him into his court where he was treated with favour. Apparently, he couldn’t stomach the Tudors taking the throne from a Yorkist contender and turned his back on Henry, thus becoming one of the leaders of the 1487 rebellion.19
When the news of the rebels’ muster reached Henry, he took quick and decisive action. By 7 April 1487, he had beacons watching the shorelines of England, ready to signal at a moment’s notice if an invasion fleet was spotted.20 In what should have put the entire plot to bed, Henry then had the real earl of Warwick taken out of the Tower and paraded through the streets of London to prove that the boy being put forth by the Yorkists was truly an imposter.21 It wasn’t enough to extinguish the flames of rebellion, however.
On 4 June 1487, Lambert Simnel and his fleet landed in Lancashire in northwest England where they joined up with thousands of Irish soldiers and rapidly made their way south, picking up loyal Yorkists along the way to join their rebel army.22 They arrived in York on 12 June and attempted to sack the city, but their forces were repelled by the army of the earl of Northumberland. Unbeknownst to them, King Henry himself was less than 100 kilometres away with his own army, waiting to block Simnel’s path to London. On the evening of 15 June, the king moved his army to Newark where they set up camp and awaited the arrival of the rebel army. Early the next morning, Henry’s spies informed him that Simnel’s army was nearing the village of Stoke, less than ten kilometres away. The final battle of the Wars of the Roses, the Battle of Stoke, was about to commence.
As the two armies lined up into battle position on 16 June 1487, it was clear that Simnel’s army of 8,000 was outnumbered, perhaps as much as two to one.23 Nevertheless, Simnel chose to fight. The earl of Oxford led the king’s vanguard as they crashed into enemy lines. Fierce fighting ensued for at least three hours, the rebels being buoyed by the German and the savage Irishmen but were eventually overcome by the king’s artillery. The victors rushed the field and cut down every rebel they could find, including John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln. Simnel and his mentor-priest were captured and taken to Lincoln to be interrogated by Henry. The king was merciful to both men. The priest was confined to a trusted bishop’s residence while Simnel was employed in the royal kitchen as a turnspit.24 Recognising that this young boy had merely been a puppet, Henry took pity on him.
Henry did not, however, have pity for the grown men who had participated in the Yorkist uprising. He called parliament in November 1487 to dole out punishments, passing an Act of Attainder against twenty-eight of the rebel leaders, stripping them of their lands, titles, and goods.25 Henry also took the opportunity to request money from parliament for the overall defence of the realm. At this point, there was no further hints of a Yorkist rebellion but there was plenty of trouble with France.
While Henry worked to contain uprisings in his own kingdom, his old friend Duke Francis of Brittany was dealing with threats from King Charles VIII of France. The duchy of Brittany was an independently ruled province separate from the kingdom of France and for many years, French kings had sought to consolidate the entire territory of France into one kingdom, Brittany being a prime target.
In the fall of 1487, the powerful Duke Francis fell ill and the French took the opportunity to exert their authority over the duchy. Henry felt a profound responsibility to help Francis since he had helped Henry through all the years of his exile. In the spring of 1488, Henry sent three ships and a modest number of armed soldiers to help defend Brittany.26 Even when combined, Breton and English resources could not match the French. On 20 August 1488, the Bretons suffered a crushing loss at the Battle of Sable, resulting in a treaty where the French secured power over Francis’ heir, the 11-year-old Duchess Anne. Clearly, the French planned to marry Anne to a Frenchman and then take over the duchy. Two weeks after the treaty was signed, Francis died, leaving Anne unprotected. Henry again tried to help Brittany, undertaking attempts of invasion in the spring of 1489 and again in the winter of 1491, but ultimately relying on diplomatic negotiations to bring about peace. He was not, however, able to rescue Anne and she was married to King Charles VIII of France shortly thereafter.
No doubt the failure in Brittany was an embarrassing failure for Henry but he had no time to sulk on matters as there was another uprising stirring in England by the fall of 1491. Building on the momentum of Lambert Simnel, the Yorkists put forth another Yorkist pretender, this time a young man claiming to be Richard, the younger of the two princes in the Tower. The imposter, named Perkin Warbeck, would menace Henry for the next eight years of his reign.
Perkin Warbeck was a crew member on a Breton merchant ship in the fall of 1491 when he was lured into the conspiracy to impersonate Prince Richard. Like Lambert Simnel, Perkin Warbeck was coached in royal manners and speech to be more believable to the masses.27 The conspiracy gained traction in Ireland and by the spring of 1492, Charles VIII of France joined the plotters and brought Warbeck to his French court. It was there that Yorkist exiles gathered in France and where he was treated like a royal. Henry, who had already been at odds with France over the usurpation of Brittany, now faced further concerns at the harbouring of this new imposter. He knew he had to take decisive action to put down the threat.
In October 1492, Henry led an invasion force of 700 ships and 14,000 men into France to defend Brittany and press his own claim to the French throne.28 The threat was enough to force Charles into negotiations and on 3 November 1492, they concluded a treaty of peace at Etaples. In the treaty, Charles had to agree not to support Perkin Warbeck so the imposter was compelled to take refuge elsewhere. He was welcomed with open arms by Duchess Margaret of Burgundy, the same noblewoman who had support Lambert Simnel’s attempt at the throne.
Perkin Warbeck spent a year building a base of supporters in Burgundy, including Yorkist exiles as well as foreign leaders. King James IV of Scotland had thrown in his lot with the pretender and pledged his support to send armed forces for Warbeck’s English invasion. Then in November 1493, Warbeck received the support of Maximilian, King of the Romans and son of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III. Warbeck visited Maximilian’s court in Vienna, Austria, and the two men became fast friends. Warbeck accompanied Maximilian to his father’s funeral in December 1493 and in the summer of 1494, Maximilian openly declared Warbeck as the rightful king of England. In return, Warbeck proclaimed Maximilian his heir to the kingdom of England. Throughout the spring of 1495, the two men began preparing the invasion attempt by raising money through loans, calling men to arms, and assembling their battle ships for a planned summer invasion.29
As early as February 1495, King Henry knew of the impending invasion and placed his kingdom on high alert.30 It was around this time when Henry learned from his spies the disconcerting news that some of his closest household men were planning to betray him to join the young man pretending to be Prince Richard. The biggest shock was the betrayal of Sir William Stanley, the brother of Henry’s own stepfather. Sir William had saved the day for Henry at Bosworth and Henry had rewarded him by making him lord chamberlain, but apparently that wasn’t enough for Sir William, or perhaps he truly believed that Perkin Warbeck was Prince Richard. In either case, Henry had Sir William arrested, tried, and executed for being a traitor to the crown.31
For all the time and effort spent on Warbeck’s English invasion, it turned out to be a miserable failure. His flotilla of battle ships landed in Kent, which being the site of so many rebellions in the past seemed like a good place to raise a rebel army, but the Kentishmen didn’t turn out to join Warbeck. In fact, they defended King Henry by beating back Warbeck’s soldiers themselves, capturing over 100 of his men and slaying two.32 When Warbeck saw the slaughter upfolding on land, he abandoned his men and set his sails for friendlier territory. He was rebuffed in Ireland but found a safe haven at the court of King James IV of Scotland.
In mid-September 1496, King James and Warbeck led a raid across the Scottish border into England where they burned down villages and murdered inhabitants. After only four days, James and Warbeck returned to Scotland in haste after they learned there was a large Neville force heading their way.33 James was stunned and disappointed that no northern Englishmen rose to join ‘Prince Edward’ in his quest to claim the throne. Having lost hope in Warbeck’s conspiracy, James dismissed the pretender from his court and signed a seven-year truce with King Henry in September of 1497.
Around the same time as James and Henry were signing their peace treaty, Warbeck appeared off the coast of Cornwall in southwest England but this time he only had a meager three ships. Cornish leaders had sent him messages imploring him to land in Cornwall. They were ready to rebel against the king, like they had done many times before, over taxes. The Cornishmen stayed true to their promise and came out in the thousands to join Perkin Warbeck on his march to London.34
On 17 September 1497, Warbeck’s army besieged the castle at Exeter but after a fierce twenty-four hours of fighting, gave up and retreated to Taunton, at which time he was surrounded by the king’s forces. Warbeck managed to escape and make it safely to sanctuary at Beaulieu Abbey. The king’s men lured him out a week later with promises of a full pardon if he admitted to being an imposter. Warbeck was taken to King Henry at Taunton and he made a full confession, telling Henry that ‘against my will they made me learn English and taught me what I should do and say’.35
Henry brought Warbeck back to London and made him repeat his confession in public for all to hear. In return, Henry honoured a pardon. He treated this imposter who had caused him so many years of trouble with amazing leniency, even allowing him to travel and lodge with the royal court.36 Warbeck took advantage of Henry’s kindness by making an escape attempt in June 1498 but he was quickly captured and sent to the Tower where he would be less at liberty. A little over a year later, Henry discovered a new escape plan hatched by Warbeck. This time he involved the unfortunate earl of Warwick who was in the Tower in an adjacent room. Henry had them both arrested before they could put their plan into motion. Warbeck was hanged on 23 November 1499 and Warwick was beheaded five days later.37
Henry could now feel some level of relief. The imposter he had battled for eight years was finally dead and conveniently for Henry, the last living Yorkist heir, the earl of Warwick, was taken down with him. There were no real rivals left to challenge Henry, especially not after the strength and might Henry had demonstrated in putting down all the rebellions of the 1490’s. Now feeling some semblance of safety, Henry turned his attention towards building even more security for his new dynasty by arranging foreign marriages for his many little princes and princesses.