Essay on ways in which Henry VII was successful

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Kate Armitage 21/09/13

Essay on ways in which Henry VII was successful…Henry the VII was successful in bettering England’s finances, instating the Tudor dynasty, foreign policy and stabilising the monarchy by controlling rebellions and nobles.

Henry Tudor was born on 28 January 1457 in Pembroke, Wales. He was born into a country divided by the war of the roses. In which he came from the house of Lancaster, who were fighting for control of the monarch against the house of York. Henry had a claim to the throne as his mother Margaret was a descendant of Edward III. This made Henry important to the Lancastrians, and was intrusted by his mother (who gave birth at 13!) to the care of his uncle. After this the house of York crushed the Lancastrians in the battle of Tewkesbury, and as a result many from the house of Lancaster died making henry a close heir to the throne and as a safety procuration his uncle took him to France to wait for henrys chance to seize the throne. In 1485, Henry landed at Milford Haven. He marched across Wales and England to meet Richard III's forces at the Battle of Bosworth Field in Leicestershire. In the battle Richard III was killed and Henry was crowned King Henry, already having the popes support.

Now Henry was king he had a huge challenge on his hands England was bankrupt due to the lack of exporting from the war of the roses, The yorkists and other nobles looking for power were on the verge of constant rebellion and the country as a whole was weak as the monarchy had been very unstable for many years, this made England vulnerable to foreign attacks. But the First issue Henry had was the house of York, being born into a country divided had installed henry with the want to end the war unlike his predecessors he wanted peace and not to crush the house of York. In doing this he married Elizabeth of York thus uniting the House of Lancaster and the House of York. He adopted the Tudor rose as the emblem of England, combining the white rose of York with the red rose of Lancaster to symbolise an end to the dynastic war. This was clever of Henry as now the yorkst could not complain that they should be on the throne as they had a yorkist queen and the descendants of the two monarchs would combine the two, meaning yorkist couldn’t rebel because they wold be rebelling against their own. In some ways this was unsuccessful as some from the house of York did rebel and as a result henry took their land away from them. But It was also successful in the sense that Henry had no heirs and was the only Tudor, but this marriage would provide him with four children and an heir to the throne. He needed to establish a dynasty, so having a wife would give him children, but also stabilise the crown, as a king without an air is a weak king and fears of a war other who should rule next after the king can cause wars.

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Henry VII's grip on power was far from secure. His claim to the throne was shaky and he was plagued by plots and conspiracies. He needed to prove his claim to throne and show to the people that it was gods divine right for him to be there, he managed to successfully prove his relations to Edward III .But during Henrys rain he was constantly plagued by imposters who claimed to be the lost sons of Edward IV, making their claim stronger than Henrys. Many of these imposters gained support In particular Perkin Warbeck; He had support from the duchess of burgundy, from yorkists and his support in Ireland. The French received him as the duke of York. Henry had to be careful how he dealt with Warbeck the support he had could make henry lose his throne. Henry Made his son Henry VIII the duke of York at the age of 3, in order to stop Perkin being called this. Perkin Warbeck and confesses to be an imposter, After henry captures him as Perkin attempts to invade with the scotts. Henry also faces other rebellions but was again successful in crushing them. His rule was tested and his claim to the throne was constantly dwindling but he had managed to expand the Tudor dynasty with 4 children and calm the situation greatly between Lancastrians and yorkists.

After the 100 years’ war in France and the war of the roses, the country was bankrupt. Henry wanted to make the crown financially independent of Parliament. He received an annual sum from Parliament (Tunnage and Poundage), but was sometimes denied the desired amount. Firstly Henry confiscated the land of Yorkist rebels, and sold it. One of the ways Henry was most successful in earning money was the Bonds and recognises. Bonds and recognisances were agreements which the king could make landowners sign in which they would agree to pay a fine if they broke the agreement. This often involved agreeing not to fight a specific landowner. Nobles could have more than one bond – indeed 23 noble families were put in this position by Henry. The noble with the most bonds was the young Duke of Buckingham. An example is , In 1504 Lord Broke was forced to give a bond of £500 which would be forfeit if his servants fought with those of Sir Thomas Brandon. Another one of Henrys financial schemes was Feudal dues. These were relics of the old feudal system when the nobility provided kings with military service in return for their land. By the 15th century they paid rent and yet still some of the old feudal dues remained. These included: Warship. This was the feudal due which most irked the nobility since it gave the king control of a nobles’ land. It also gave the king control over the marriage of these children, which if the heir was female could mean that the family lost control of its land entirely and control nobles from getting to powerful. Also when a noble died a fine hand to be paid to the king before the heir could inherit the land. This was the first real form of inheritance tax.

Whist some of Henrys financial ventures are seen mostly to control the nobles (which they were) they were also important in the revenue they created from the taxing, Henry would send consorts to nobilities estates to decide how much to tax them, this controlling nature of henrys didn’t stop there, he also over saw all the finances himself, this meant he could control the monarchy’s money to his exact specification but also it kept nobles in the dark with means to rebelling against him, as henry could be rich and be to afford military power. But henrys constant over taxing and abuse of nobles had its downfalls; whilst henrys became rich from this he also became very unpopular with the nobles. He was in danger of when his son, Arthur succeed the throne the nobles rebel against him in worries he would be like his farther and treat the nobles poorly or simply the nobles take out there discontent for his farther upon him. We see this worry follow through as when Henry VIII came into power after his brother’s death, Henry instantaneously disconnected himself from his farther and gave nobles the power they lost during the Henry VIIs’ rein. This was one was in which Henry VII was not successful as he had cast a riff between him and the nobles who he would need the armies of in case of a war.

When Henry took the throne foreign powers looked at him doubtfully, England’s monarch was constantly under threat and Henrys hold on the thrown had little faith making other countries unwilling to invest in him. During the wars in England, the country had done little to no exporting and as a result it had weak finances and foreign alliances. Henry made an exporting deal with burgundy, this proved hugely successful as not only did it give England an alliance of sorts but also proved England was stable again and able to produce, gaining money. Henry also wanted an alliance with sprain. Due to a major marriage, Spain had become a very powerful empire and henry wanted to be on the good side of this, therefore he created and alliance. Henry married his son, Prince Arthur to the Spanish Catherine of Aragon, uniting the two. He consolidated his position with a treaty with France that opened up trade between the two countries. He arranged the marriage of his daughter, Margaret Tudor, to James of Scotland in order to secure peace between the two countries. Henry was successful in securing England’s future and protection against Invasions in which he also minimised the outcome for.

In conclusion Henry was successful in many ways. He was the first king to leave the throne not in debt. He made England a prosperous country which exported many goods such as textiles. He didn’t start any wars which benefited him in not losing money but also increasing connections between other foreign powers. He used his children as bargaining chips with other countries which brought England many gains financially as well as its safety against wars. He brought back stability to the country after long time and united two houses with his marriage that conquered peace with most. He secured the Tudor dynasty; with a secure throne and heirs to carry on his legacy. He also controlled nobility who had caused most of the wars prior to henrys take of the throne. But to a harsh standard he controlled the nobility; in ways this made him unsuccessful it increased the risk on rebellion but also makes him lack strong alliances.