Tudors - King Henry VII

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Full Name: King Henry VII
Father: Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond
Mother: Lady Margaret Beaufort
Born: January 28, 1457 at Pembroke Castle, Wales
Ascended to the throne: August 22, 1485 aged 28 years
Crowned: October 30, 1485 at Westminster
Married: Elizabeth of York, on January 18 1486
Children: Arthur, Margaret, Henry, Elizabeth, Mary, Edmund, Katherine
Died: April 21, 1509 at Richmond Palace, aged 52 years, 2 months, and 21 days
Buried at: Westminster Abbey

Henry was the son of Edmund Tudor, earl of Richmond, who died before Henry was born, and Margaret Beaufort, a descendant of Edward III through John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Although the Beaufort line, which was originally illegitimate, had been specifically excluded (1407) from all claim to the throne, the death of the imprisoned Henry VI (1471) made Henry Tudor head of the house of Lancaster. At this point, however, the Yorkist Edward IV had established himself securely on the throne, and Henry, who had been brought up in Wales, fled to Brittany for safety.

The death of Edward IV (1483) and accession of Richard III, left Henry the natural leader of the party opposing Richard, whose rule was very unpopular. Henry made an unsuccessful attempt to land in England during the abortive revolt (1483) of Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham. Thereafter he bided his time in France until 1485 when, aided by other English refugees, he landed in Wales. At the battle of Bosworth Field, Leicestershire, he defeated the royal forces of Richard, who was killed. Henry advanced to London, was crowned, and in 1486 fulfilled a promise made earlier to Yorkist dissidents to marry Edward IV's daughter, Elizabeth of York. He thus united the houses of York and Lancaster, founding the Tudor royal dynasty.

Although Henry's accession marked the end of the Wars of the Roses, the early years of his reign were disturbed by Yorkist attempts to regain the throne. The first serious attempt, an uprising in favour of the imposter Lambert Simnel, was easily crushed (1487). In 1494, Henry sent Sir Edward Poynings to Ireland to consolidate English rule there. Poynings drove out of Ireland the Yorkist pretender Perkin Warbeck, who then sought support from the Scottish king, James IV. James attempted (1496) to invade England, but the next year, under pressure from Spain, he expelled Warbeck. The latter was defeated shortly thereafter in an attempted invasion of Cornwall. A truce (1497) between England and Scotland was followed by the marriage (1503) of Henry's sister Margaret Tudor, to James a marriage that led ultimately to the union of the monarchies of England and Scotland.

Henry succeeded in crushing the independence of the nobility by means of a policy of forced loans and fines. His chancellor, Cardinal Morton, was made responsible for the collection of these fines, and they were enforced by the privy councillors Empson and Dudley. Henry married his son Arthur to Catharine of Aragón, daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragón and Isabella of Castile, his daughter Margaret to James IV of Scotland, and his youngest daughter Mary to Louis XII of France. After Arthur died in 1502, an agreement was reached by which Catharine married Arthur's brother Henry (later Henry VIII).

Timeline

1485	Henry accedes to the throne after defeating Richard III of York at the Battle of Bosworth.
1486	Henry marries Elizabeth of York, thereby uniting the houses of York and Lancaster.
1487	Henry crushes a revolt by the Earl of Lincoln on behalf of Lambert Simnel, a claimant to the throne, at Stoke.
1491	Henry invades France but at the Treaty of Etaples agrees to withdraw English forces in return for a large sum of money
1492	Perkin Warbeck claims the throne and attempts to overthrow Henry, but is defeated and put to death in 1499.
1492	Christopher Columbus crosses Atlantic and discovers America
1503	Prince Arthur, Henry’s eldest son, dies, and Prince Henry (the future Henry VIII) becomes heir to the throne, later marrying Arthur’s widow, Catherine of Aragon.
1503	Death of Elizabeth of York, Henry’s wife.
1509	Henry VII dies at Richmond Palace, at the age of 52.