Henry VII: The Forgotten Tudor Founder

The Tudors (1485-1603) were one of the most successful, and arguably the most colorful, dynasties to rule England, Wales, and Ireland before the union with Scotland that later produced the UK. The exploits of Henry VIII, Mary, and Elizabeth I still fascinate historians and the public. However, the founder of the line, Henry VII (reigned 1485-1509) is not well known and attracts a fraction of the attention of his descendants. Who was the first Tudor king? Did he make his mark on history?

The Wars of the Roses (1455-85) were intermittent civil wars waged throughout England by the Houses of York and Lancaster, two branches of England’s royal family, the Plantagenets. By the 1480s a young Welsh nobleman, Henry Tudor, arose as a leading contender for the Lancastrian side. Born in 1457, Henry was guided by his mother Margaret Beaufort, and uncle Jasper Tudor to pursue his claim to the English throne.

Through Margaret, Henry was directly descended from King Edward III (reigned 1327-1377). While this was not the strongest claim, Henry found an opening. After the death of the Yorkist king Edward IV in 1483, Edward’s brother Richard had usurped the throne from the late king’s young son and heir, Edward V. The boy king and his brother disappeared into the Tower of London, and Richard was crowned as Richard III. This inter-family coup predictably split the Yorkist camp. Henry Tudor allied with the anti-Richard Yorkists, marrying Edward IV’s daughter Elizabeth of York.

The coalition defeated and killed Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485. Henry Tudor was crowned as Henry VII on the field of battle. Elizabeth became queen, and the two would produce several children during their reign. The real work had only begun, however. Having usurped the usurper, the sickly-looking new king now had to establish order in the kingdom and make his family a viable dynasty.

Henry’s New Order

To secure peace after 30 years of on-and-off civil war, Henry VII cracked down on the independence of the nobility. Henry needed these magnates to help him govern England, but he also wanted to control them, lest they continue to destabilize the country for their personal ends.

Nobles whose loyalty was suspect, or who retained too many armed men, were forced to post a bond with the king to guarantee good behavior. Those who were actively disloyal found themselves attainted: stripped of rights, property, and titles. They then had to beg the king for reinstatement. The most dangerous plotters were executed. Henry tried to keep the class of aristocrats small by handing out few new titles of nobility.

For administration, Henry’s government began to rely more on commoners to operate the instruments of the state. The king cultivated justices of the peace, diplomats, and administrators of common (non-noble) birth. This growing class of “new men,” professional civil servants, diluted the influence of the nobility in government. Meanwhile, Council Courts of top royal advisors sat, most famously in Westminster’s “Star Chamber” to dole out speedy judgment upon nobles and commoners alike.

Late 20th-century historians have pointed out that many of these methods of control were not complete innovations and had been used previously by various English monarchs. Nevertheless, Henry seems to have used them more effectively. Southampton University’s T.B. Pugh believed that “During his later years, the first Tudor king was more fully in control of England than any of his predecessors since the Norman Conquest” (Pugh, 1992).

The other key to creating a secure government and a viable dynasty was the management of financial resources. Perhaps because of his modest past, and new, politically insecure regime, Henry VII appreciated the need for steady income and a full treasury.

Henry employed an efficient bureaucracy of administrators tasked with collecting revenue. To say that the king took a personal interest in finance would be an understatement. Starting in 1492, he personally inspected and initialed each entry in his treasurer’s books.

A large part of the king’s revenue derived from fees for government services like licenses, as well as import duties owed to the crown. Another was a system of “bonds.” English citizens, both commoners and nobles who were accused of crimes had to promise bonds of cash to keep the peace, appear in court, or maintain good behavior. If they broke the condition of their bond, they would have to pay. This system was reinforced from both ends — if Henry’s officials failed to do their duty, they would be forced to surrender a bond themselves, it was a condition of their employment.

The efficient collection of revenues and widespread use of bonds, combined with the king’s avoidance of large expenses helped create a stable economic situation for the crown. Henry VII contributed to the English economy at large by keeping order, creating a stable currency, and negotiating trade treaties with neighbors.

Henry VII’s biographer Stanley B. Chrimes summed up the king’s fiscal legacy: “Henry VII did become solvent quite early in the reign and was able to secure some considerable surplus annually during his later years.” He left his successor, Prince Harry (Henry VIII), a sizable legacy mostly in the form of jewels and precious plates.

Writing in the early 17th century, Francis Bacon left an exaggerated account of Henry VII’s fiscal accomplishments, making the king out to be fabulously rich. While the first Tudor was not an economic wizard, his ability to stay in the black compares favorably with the chaos of the Wars of the Roses and the debt created by his son, Henry VIII.

Rather than pursue glory through ambitious (and expensive) wars, Henry VII’s foreign policy was based mostly on trade and diplomacy. Just like the king’s approaches to law and finance, this cautious posture was aimed at consolidating and securing what Henry already had, rather than expanding his territory.

The early Tudor state concluded agreements that gave English merchants favorable terms and expanded trade with the important markets in the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands) and Spain. England’s traditional enemies were not left out, as Henry’s government also concluded a trade agreement with the French and a dynastic alliance with the Scots.

Such marriage alliances were a favorite tool of Henry VII’s diplomacy. Besides marrying off his daughter Margaret to Scotland’s King James IV, he also arranged the marriages of his other children with Elizabeth. Their son and heir, Prince Arthur, wedded Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon. After Arthur’s sudden death in 1502 at only 15, Catherine was re-betrothed to England’s new heir, Henry.

In 1508, the year before his death, the wily matchmaker arranged the union of his youngest daughter Mary to Archduke Charles of Castile, the future king of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor. The agreement came with a treaty of perpetual peace between England and the Empire. However, both Mary and Charles were too young to actually marry just yet. After King Henry’s death, the two nations ditched this agreement.

Henry VII’s mostly successful attempts to tie his upstart Tudor Dynasty into Europe’s web of monarchies gave his regime international legitimacy and lessened the risk that other nations would conspire to overthrow him. These family ties greatly influenced English foreign policy during the entire Tudor Period (1485-1603).

The histories of Polydore Vergil and Francis Bacon have helped set the tone for Henry VII scholarship for centuries. Both writers captured the strength of judgment and apparent character defects that have survived as Henry VII’s defining features.

Vergil (1470-1545) was an Italian Scholar who spent almost a decade at Henry’s court. He described his host as a stable and effective ruler who was “inclined to peace” and “cherished justice.” Bacon (1561-1626), a celebrated polymath and civil servant published his History of the Reign of King Henry VII in 1622. He held Henry up as an example of stability and prudence, the “Solomon of England” (Bacon, 211).

The comparison of Henry VII to the proverbially wise biblical king did not start with Bacon. Tudor-era biographer George Cavendish (1497-1562) quotes Queen Catherine imploring Henry VIII at their divorce trial to preserve their marriage, reminding the king that his own father, who was reckoned “the second Solomon” had arranged their match (Cavendish, 1557, 1962).

Stability and wisdom were not Henry VII’s only legacy. From the time of his reign, observers took note of a darker strain in Henry’s character: his love of money and the despotic tactics he sometimes used to acquire it. Polydore Vergil admitted that the king’s good qualities were offset by “avarice” (greed). Henry thoroughly used his Parliament-given right to levy taxes and fees, employing an army of bureaucrats to find every potential source of revenue and squeeze every loophole to gather his hoard. Toward the end of his reign, the king’s revenue policy became so unpopular that shortly after his death in 1509, two of his agents Dudley and Empson were executed by his son to appease the public.

Francis Bacon, who otherwise saw Henry VII as a model ruler, criticized this fixation on money. Bacon also described the king as somewhat insecure and fearful, troubled by “apprehensions and suspicions” (Bacon, 1622, 1902). This sinister image of a paranoid miser survived in tandem with that of the “Solomon of England.”

On April 21, 1509, Henry VII died at the age of 52, possibly succumbing to tuberculosis. His only surviving son, Prince Harry succeeded as Henry VIII. Unburdened by the threat of constant civil war and rebellion, the heirs of this Tudor state re-established England as a European power.

The younger Henry reigned for almost 40 years (1509-47) and left a very different England in his wake. For the first 20 years, Henry allowed his father’s “new men,” bureaucrats like Richard Foxe and Thomas Wolsey, to manage the kingdom’s routine affairs. In the 1530s he sprang into action, separating England from the Roman Catholic church so that he could divorce his Queen, Catherine, and remarry. This act centralized power in his person as head of the new Church of England, England’s official church to this day. Henry built up a large navy, and unlike his cautious father, engaged in several wars with France and Scotland, giving England a greater profile on the European stage.

After the short reigns of Henry VIII’s other children, Edward VI and Mary, his youngest daughter Elizabeth took the throne in 1558. Elizabeth helped define the Church of England’s moderately Protestant character while providing strong leadership nationally and internationally. The queen faced repeated foreign and Catholic plots against her yet remained secure on the throne. The highlight of her foreign policy was England’s successful naval defense against a Spanish invasion armada in 1588. During these crises, the bulk of the nobility rallied behind their queen. This royal-noble relationship was a long way from the rebellions and shifting loyalties of the Wars of the Roses.

The legacy of Henry VII was tangible during the reigns of his son and granddaughter. As Oxford historian Steven Gunn put it, Henry VII “laid the foundations for the strong governments of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I” (Gunn, 2016). A fiscally strong state run by professional administrators and a nobility largely under control formed the background of Henry VIII and Elizabeth’s freedom of action.

While Henry VIII and Elizabeth have spawned an industry of biographies, novels, plays, films, and TV series, the founder of their line remains largely overlooked by fiction and non-fiction writers alike. The patriarch who made it all possible is a ghost in the background of the Tudor saga.

When he is featured in popular narratives, Henry VII is usually a secondary character. Notably, Shakespeare skipped past number seven in his historical “Henry” plays. Henry Tudor instead figures as a supporting character in the drama of Shakespeare’s great villain Richard III.

As a villain, himself, Henry VII also falls flat. Although he provoked much ill will through his revenue-generating shakedowns of taxpayers, he was not a violent king, executing relatively few enemies, mostly rebels. More commonly he used confiscation of lands and titles to punish. By contrast, Henry VIII used execution as a tool of policy, executing two of his wives, a chancellor, a former chief minister, a first cousin, a cardinal, and the elderly Countess of Salisbury, among others. Henry VIII’s daughter Mary I (reigned 1553-58) burned over 200 Protestants at the stake as she tried to reassert Catholicism in England. Henry VII’s abuses of power do not capture the imagination in the same way.

The relative obscurity of Henry VII may be explained by his lack of color and dynamism. He was nowhere near as glamorous as his son or granddaughter. The younger Henry’s six wives and romantic escapade and Elizabeth’s many favorites and rumored lovers, set against the backdrop of their dazzling courts, continue to fascinate historians and the public. Henry VIII was a charismatic man prone to mood swings, while Elizabeth was an inspiring public speaker. The old man, on the other hand, was calm and calculating, wasted thin by disease, averse to dramatic action. Neither his accomplishments nor his abuses are enough to leave a stamp on the imagination.

Bibliography:

Ackroyd, Peter (2012). Tudors: The History of England from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I. Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press.

Bacon, Francis. (1902). History of the Reign of King Henry VII with Notes. Cambridge University Press, Second Edition. Original work published 1622.

Bernard, G.W (1992). The Tudor Nobility. Billing and Sons. Manchester University Press.

Bilyeau, N. (2013, May 27). 1541: Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury. Executed Today. ttps://www.executedtoday.com/2013/05/27/1541-margaret-pole-countess-of-salisbury/

Briscoe, A. (2011, February 7). Elizabeth I: An Overview. BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/elizabeth_i_01.shtml

Carpenter, C. (1997). The Wars of the Roses: Politics and the Constitution in England C.1437-1509. Cambridge University Press.

Cavendish, G. (1962). The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, in Two Early Tudor Lives, Yale University Press. Work originally completed in 1557.

Cavendish, R. (2001, November 11) Elizabeth I’s “Golden” Speech. History Today

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/elizabeth-golden-speech

Cavill, P.R (2009). The English Parliaments of Henry VII 1485-1504. Oxford University Press

Chrimes, S.B. (1999). Henry VII. Yale University Press. Original work published 1972.

Downey, C. (2014). The Great Debasement of Henry VIII and Edward VI. Student Economic Review

Green, M.A.E (1851). Lives of the Princesses of England from the Norman Conquest. Henry Colburn Publisher.

Gunn, S. (2016). Henry VII’s New Men and the Making of Tudor England. Oxford University Press

Gunn, S.  (2018). The English People at War in the Age of Henry VIII. Oxford University Press

Herrup, Cynthia. (2009, April 1) The Hot Dynasty: The Tudors on Film and TV. https://www.historians.org/research-and-publications/perspectives-on-history/april-2009/the-hot-dynasty-the-tudors-on-film-and-tv

Horowitz, M.R. (2018). Daring Dynasty: Custom, Conflict, and Control in Early-Tudor England. Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Lockyear, R. and Thrush, A. (2014). Henry VII. Routledge. Original work published 1968.

Pugh, T.B. (1992). Henry VII and the English nobility. In G.W Bernard (ed.) The Tudor Nobility. Manchester University Press.

Turvey, Roger. (2019). Access to History: The Early Tudors: Henry VII to Mary, 1485-1558 Second Edition. Hodder Education

Weir, A. (2008). The Life of Elizabeth. Ballantine Books. Originally Published 1998.

Weir, A. (2008). Henry VIII. The King and His Court. Ballantine Books. Originally published 2001.