HENRY VII 1485 -1509  (H7)  Lived 1457 - 1509

xxxxxHenry VII, founder of the Tudor dynasty, came to the throne by conquest, beating and killing Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. He had spent his early days in Brittany, but he had a valid claim to the English throne. He was the son of Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, and he was descended from John of Gaunt through his mother, Margaret Beaufort. In addition, his marriage to Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward IV, in 1486 united the warring houses of York and Lancaster and did much to pacify the country. Even so, he was faced with Yorkist rebellions for a number of years and, as we shall see, had to deal with two impostors, Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck, both lightweights in themselves, but a real danger in the manipulative hands of his enemies.

 

xxxxxTo reduce further the risk of insurrection, particularly among a restless nobility, his institution known as the Court of the Star Chamber, held in the royal palace of Westminster from 1487, meted out justice to any nobleman who thought himself above the law. In addition, his Acts of Livery and Maintenance (1487 and 1504) forbade the nobles to keep large private armies. Furthermore, the income from this royal court and that of the King's bench, together with trading treaties with various European powers, brought him a fortune and made him independent of Parliament. Henry was a careful, calculating kind of man, and his near obsession with making money did not win him a bundle of friends, but it made the country solvent and provided a good foundation for future expansion in the growing markets of the known world and the New World.


xxxxxIn the matter of marriage diplomacy, Henry also proved a shrewd operator. Two arranged marriages greatly strengthened England’s standing in Europe, that of his son Henry to Catherine of Aragon, and the marriage of his daughter Mary to the archduke Charles, later to become Emperor Charles V. These were catches indeed, but they illustrate above all the growing esteem in which England was now held in the courts of continental Europe.


xxxxxBut the reign was not without its troubles - far from it. In 1497 a revolt broke out in Cornwall over taxes and this had to be put down. Furthermore, Lambert Simnel attracted a sizeable force of Yorkists and hangers-on to his cause, and, because of the French support for Perkin Warbeck - weak though his claim was - an invasion of France had to be mounted to nip that support in the bud. And for the same reason, Henry was obliged to send Sir Edward Poynings to Ireland. A law passed at the Parliament of Drogheda in 1494 and bearing his name marks the subservience of Ireland to England and a renewal of the pain and suffering that this was to bring in its wake.


xxxxxBut despite these troubles, it is clear that during this reign England was at last given a period of comparative peace and prosperity. When Henry died of consumption in 1509 and was buried in the chapel he had had built for himself in Westminster Abbey, he handed over to his son a country in good order and ready for a challenge - and there were many to be had. Within the space of ten years the sea route to India had at last been opened - lengthy though it proved to be - and a vast new continent had been discovered across the Atlantic. Henry had himself played a part in this exploration by his support for the Venetian navigator John Cabot. For those European states whose lands bordered the Atlantic the future held out immense possibilities.


xxxxxIncidentally, Henry's famous Court of the Star Chamber was so called because the room in which it was held had stars painted on the ceiling. The court itself had wide-ranging powers, being able to impose fines, prison sentences and mutilation. It also had the right to permit torture in the extracting of confessions. This, together with other royal courts, did much to strengthen Henry's hold on the country after the oft-time turbulence of the fifteenth century. ……


xxxxx…… Henry confided in no man and trusted few, but he made particularly good use of the services of three loyal servants, Cardinal John Morton and two lawyers, Sir Richard Empson and Sir Edmund Dudley. They used various means to raise money for the king, including extortion and the selling of pardons, and were hugely unpopular. Morton died in 1500, but Empson and Dudley were beheaded on charges of treason soon after Henry VIII came to the throne. ……


xxxxx…… When Henry became king the population of England and Wales was little more than three million. By 1870, in the reign of Queen Victoria, it was close on 23 million!

1485

Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, is crowned King of England as Henry VII.


1486

The influential Flemish musician and chorister Josquin des Prez, regarded by many as the first important modern composer, begins a period of service in the Roman papal chapel.


1488



1492

The Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Diaz reaches the Cape of Good Hope, and discovers the sea route to the Far East around the southern tip of Africa.


Believing the world to be round, the Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus, financed by Spain, sails west and reaches the island of San Salvador in the "New World".



The fortress town of Granada, the last Muslim kingdom in Spain, is taken by the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella. The Moors are finally driven back to North Africa.


1493

The notorious Cesare Borgia is made a Cardinal by his father Pope Alexander VI, but later renounces his ecclesiastical career and sets out on a ruthless campaign of conquest.


The new Inca leader Huayna Capac inherits a vast Empire which stretches some 2,500  miles through the Andes and along the Pacific coast of South America.


1494

By the Treaty of Tordesillas Spain and Portugal agree to share the lands of the World between them along a north-south divide. This has the support of the Pope.


The Dominican friar Savonarola, a prophet of the Reformation, seizes power in Florence and denounces the Church and the papacy for its corruption and immorality.


The Italian Wars begin over the control of Italy. The conflict, which lasts until 1559, is mainly between France and the Habsburg rulers of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire.


1495

The Italian printer Aldus Manutius founds the Aldine Press in Venice, specialising in the publication of Greek and Latin classics in small, reasonably-priced editions.


Poynings' Law is passed in Ireland. Enacted by the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Edward Poynings, it places the Irish parliament under the control of the English king and his council.


1496

Accompanied by 800 horseman, Askia Muhammed I, the new and powerful leader of the Songhai Empire in West Africa, makes a pilgrimage to Mecca, the holy Muslim city in Arabia.


1497

Perkin Warbeck, with an army of 3,000, claims he is Richard, Duke of York (believed murdered in the Tower) and marches on Exeter. He is eventually captured and executed.


The genius of the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci, paints one of his greatest works, The Last Supper. He excelled as a painter, sculptor, architect and engineer.

 

The explorer John Cabot, a Venetian immigrant to England, seeks a western sea route to Asia and discovers Newfoundland. He claims North America for the English crown.


1498




1499

Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese navigator, commands the first fleet to sail from Europe to India. Sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, he opens up the spice route to the Far East.


In the Punjab, Sikh Nanak founds the Indian religious sect known as Sikhism. A mixture of Hindu and Muslim beliefs, its centre is established later at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.



Shah Ismail I establishes the Safavid Dynasty and within twelve years extends his rule over most of Iran and parts of Iraq. Expansion is continued under Shah Abbas I (1623 J1).


The Swiss Federation, joined by many Cantons since its foundation in 1291 (E1), defies its Habsburg rulers and, by the Treaty of Basel, Switzerland becomes an independent state.


1500

The Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch completes his three-part altarpiece The Garden of Earthly Delights, a fantastic work showing the terrible fate awaiting the souls of the damned.


1501

The Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci, exploring the coast of Brazil, is the first to realise that he has reached a new land mass. Later his name is given to the continent of "America".


1502

The Transatlantic Slave Trade begins with the arrival in America of the first African slaves. This new traffic in slavery increases enormously with the growth of the plantation system.


1503

The building of Canterbury Cathedral, begun in 1070, is completed, and work is started on the Henry VII's Chapel, one of the most splendid additions to Westminster Abbey.


1504




1506

The colossal marble figure of the young biblical David is completed at Florence by the Italian Michelangelo, one of the artistic giants of the High Renaissance period in Italy.


The Laocoon, a group of marble statutes depicting a Greek legend and dating from the first or second century BC, is unearthed from the ancient Baths of Caracalla in Rome.



Pope Julius II appoints the Italian architect Donato Bramante to start his rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica. The foundations are laid, but his grand design is never completed.


1507

Montezuma II, the new leader of the Aztec kingdom, by his increasing demands for tribute and victims for human sacrifice, stirs up hostility among his conquered peoples.


1508

The Italian artist Sanzio Raphael, one of the world's greatest painters, begins work on a cycle of frescoes in the Vatican which includes one of his masterpieces, The School of Athens.


The Portuguese navigator Lourenco de Almeida is defeated and killed by the Arabs off Chaul, India, but the following year at the Battle of Diu his father regains control of the Indian Ocean.


1509

Henry VII dies of consumption and is buried in his chapel in Westminster Abbey. He is succeeded by his son Henry as Henry VIII.


1485

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Ital

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1498

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Acknowledgements

Henry VII: 1505, artist unknown – National Portrait Gallery, London. Map (Europe): licensed under Creative Commons – https://wdarcy.wikispaces.com. Coat of Arms: licensed under Creative Commons. Author: Sodacan – https: // commons.wikimedia. org. Raphael: Self-Portrait – Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University, England.

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Snippets During Henry I reign Synopsis of Henry 7 Reign

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