With regard to foreign policy, Henry had three main aims – these were to further the interest of English merchants, to achieve an effective security system through preventing war, and to be recognised as the rightful King of England. The first major treaty that Henry signed was the Medina del Campo with Spain in 1489, which has been described by Rogers and Turvey as “the most significant achievement of Henry VII’s foreign policy”, and rightly so; Henry achieved all of his main aims with this treaty. The King gained recognition through the treaty as the Spanish Monarchs, who had emerged as a giant power in Europe, recognised him as a peer. Additionally, he was able to secure a marriage between his son Arthur and Ferdinand and Isabella’s daughter, Catherine of Aragon. Furthermore, he achieved peace and security through diplomacy, the joint pact between Spain and England, against France, ensured that both countries were protected against their French enemies should they go to war. As well as this, Henry achieved prosperity for his merchants as the trade tariffs between England and Spain were removed. Whilst the treaty of Medina del Campo did have its drawbacks, for example Henry having ‘the worst of the bargain’, as regaining Normandy and Aquitaine was impractical and unrealistic, he was willing to ignore this so he could reap the benefits of being recognised as an equal by the Catholic Monarchs. The second major treaty was the Treaty of Etaples, signed in 1492 with France. Again, Henry was able to achieve his main aims; security - through Charles’ promise to no longer aid any English rebels, money – through the sizeable annual pension from £5000, and recognition as a good monarch, as he was able to establish good terms with France, who had been a traditional enemy of England. The third major treaty was signed with Scotland in 1497, the Truce of Ayton established good terms between England and Scotland, who, like France, had been traditional English enemies for centuries. The main outcomes of this truce were that Henry was able to secure his position, through James IV’s promise not to aid any more rebels, and through a marriage seal between James and Henry’s eldest daughter, Margaret. Recognition as a good monarch also came with this truce, as previously mentioned, this was major progress with Scotland, whom England had not had good relations with since 1328. Overall, Henry was able to reach his three main aim, and although there were few drawbacks, the King was able to establish the Tudors as a powerful dynasty overseas, particularly through recognition and security, the latter being the most important, as shown by the Magnus Intercursus in 1496.
A potentially dangerous group that traditionally threatened the throne was the nobility. Henry had a number of ways of attempting to deal with the powerful nobles. Firstly, from the beginning of his reign he limited the number of new Lords, as it was easier to control a smaller number of nobles, and this would save more money for the crown, with less money and land being handed over to nobles. This measure also meant that when he did make somebody a peer, it was more prestigious as it was a rare occasion. As an alternative to peerage, Henry introduced the Order of the Garter which was an ancient honour bestowed on the most important knights; this was a valuable alternative as it involved no financial obligations from the crown but acknowledged nobles as seniors. Similarly, the nobility were not to expect patronage from the King, it would have to be earned before Henry’s support would be granted. Another method of curbing the nobility’s power was to control marriage between powerful families to prevent a further threat to the throne. Henry also used wardship to prevent abuses from the nobles, as the King would step in and interfere to look after inheritances in young male heirs, until they were of age and had proved their loyalty to the Tudor dynasty. Additionally, Henry and his agents kept a close eye on any potentially over mighty families that may attempt to abuse their power, and would step in if they thought this was the case. For example, the King used financial threats to make sure the nobles were loyal and behaved well, the use of bonds and recognisances meant that nobles would have to pay large sums of money as a promise of good behaviour. Henry also used acts of attainder to make examples of opposing Yorkist magnates, such as those who were supporters of the Earl of Suffolk. Henry did not only punish people though, he did forgive people if they showed loyalty to the crown, the King was willing to forget past problems if this was shown, for example Thomas Howard, who did not take the opportunity to escape from the tower when he could. As well as this, Henry had a strict policy on retaining, unlike his predecessors, he made sure to treat everybody the same when it came to punishment for retaining. This was evident when Henry even punished his close relatives such as his mother for the crime. All of these policies that were put in place may suggest that Henry had an agenda to deliberately quell the nobility, however it has been argued that nobles still enjoyed much wealth and not much changed for them. I support the view that Henry was conscious of the noble’s threat and took the appropriate measures to make sure that they did not step out of line, however, I do not believe that he followed an anti-noble policy as such. In terms of effectiveness, Henry certainly managed to curb the nobility’s power, through these various policies, the most important, perhaps, being his financial threats against the nobles, which acted as an example to anybody else who was thinking of abusing their position.
In conclusion, the King managed to effectively deal with all rebellions that he came across; although some threats were potentially dangerous he was able to deal these, overall, in a very efficient manner. Similarly, Henry’s foreign policy was able to achieve his main aims, with security being the most important of these. Lastly, the King developed several policies that effectively limited the power of the nobility in such a manner that he was able to diminish potential threats. These points being considered, Henry was a very efficient monarch when taking into consideration the instability of his position.