How successful was Henry VII in securing international recognition in the years 1485 to 1509?

Secondly, Henry ensured that he included dynastic recognition in all the important treaties that he signed for example, The Treaty of Estaples. Henry had announced his intentions of asserting his claim to the French crown and sent commissioners to collect a forced loan when the loss of Brittany was clear in the summer of 1491. He spent the year preparing to invade France with his force of 26,000 men who crossed the Channel in October 1492 and laid siege to Boulogne. They were joined by hired Breton mercenaries. Charles VIII was eager to get rid of his English aggressor and so 9 days later Charles offered peace to Henry and then on November 3rd the Treaty of Estaples was concluded. Charles promised to give no further aid to English rebels, and to pay Henry 50,000 crowns a year. The Treaty of Estaples ultimately marked Henry’s failure to keep Brittany as a independent country as Charles VIII went on to marry the princess of Brittany, uniting Brittany and France. However, on the plus side Henry made some diplomatic gains. Firstly, Yorkist rivals were not to look to Spain or France for assistance. Also there was no immediate prospect of French aggression against England because Charles VIII was looking for glory in Italy. Additionally, Henry was accepted as an equal by the Kings of France and Spain and by the Holy Roman Empire. Overall Henry must have felt some satisfaction when viewing the international situation at the end of 1492. Henry here achieved some of his main priorities and importantly achieved more international recognition. Henry also prevented Charles from helping Perkin Warbeck in his rebellion, and had secured an annual pension.

Unfortunately, between the years 1502 and 1506 there were a series of deaths which undermined Henry’s foreign relations affecting his international recognition. Firstly, Henry’s son Arthur died in 1502, this affected Henry’s international recognition as not only was Arthur the next heir to the throne. This meant that the Treaty of Medina Del Campo had to be renegotiated – Catherine of Aragon would instead marry Henry’s younger son who was now inline to be the next heir to the throne (later became Henry VIII). Secondly, Henry’s wife Queen Elizabeth died, this unsurprisingly had a very negative affect on Henry emotionally especially after the death of his son Arthur the year before. Thirdly, Isabella the Spanish Queen died in 1505, meaning Ferdinand of Aragon would rule Spain alone. Phillip of Burgundy was Isabella’s son-in-law as well as the husband of Princess Joanna of Castile, Phillip was summoned to Spain and well recognised as the king of Castile. Henry decided to break the Treaty of Medina Del Campo and join Phillip, this was a very good decision at the time as Philip became king. However, soon later in 1506 Phillip died and Ferdinand was re-crowned ruining Henry’s foreign relations with Spain and undermining his international recognition.

Towards the end of Henry’s reign he was very dangerously isolated as a king in Europe as his international recognition was undermined and he lost alliances. Henry had tried to form a three-way agreement between England, the Netherlands and France. He revoked the Malus Intercursus and reinstated the Magnus Intercursus, this was intended to placate the Netherlands, although it was clearly opposing to England’s trading interests. In 1507 Maximillian agreed to a marriage between the eldest son of Philip of Burgundy, Archduke Charles and Henry’s daughter Mary. To discomfort Ferdinand even more Henry offered Prince Henry to marry Louis XII’s niece. By 1508 it seemed that his Habsurg and French allies were going to unite against Ferdinand. The unifying factor was The League of Cambrai, ostensibly planned to finance a crusade against the Turks, but in reality designed to be an anti-Spanish alliance. However Louis XII decided not to jeopardise his understanding with Ferdinand over Italy and so he bribed the Spanish king to join him. Therefore when The League of Cambrai was signed in 1508 it was an alliance against Venice, between the Pope, Louis XII, Maximillian, the Archduke Charles and Ferdinand. In the end it was Henry who was left isolated by this alliance. It can be argued that it had an advantage of turning Europe’s attention away from England at a time when Henry VII was nearing the end of his life. Never the less there was still a danger that the focus of the alliance might move to an anti-Tudor position.

Overall, Henry was successful in securing international recognition but only to a certain extent. Henry was very successful in securing his international recognition mainly towards the start of his reign,  for example with the signing of Treaties such as, the Truce of Ayton and the Treaty of Medina del Campo. However, from 1502 onwards Henry faced a series of deaths which caused his international recognition to be undermined and he also found himself isolated, so for this reason his success was limited. Henry VII struggled to determine international relations and secure his dynastic recognition ultimately causing his relationships to fluctuate over the years and in the end his success of this priority was limited.