Don't worry, I haven't forgotten to do a monarch today! We're starting a WHOLE NEW CHAPTER of the English Monarchy...
THE TUDORS! The progenitor of the "Terrible" Tudors was Henry Tudor, who killed Richard III at Bosworth Field. With that usurpation, the Wars of the Roses were over, with both sides having been annihilated. The Plantagenets, who had ruled for nearly 500 years, were finished. Most people were ok with this, as the Wars of the Roses had seen nothing but civil war, murder and strife. The threat of French invasion was still real, the economy was in shambles... and just who WAS this usurper? And... could he do a better job? - Was the grandson of Owen (Owyn) Tudor, a welsh page under Henry V. When Henry V died, Owen "comforted" the grieving widow queen. She soon became pregnant. - One of their sons, Edmund Tudor, was made the Earl of Richmond and legitimized by Parliament in 1452. - This made Edmund's son, Henry, the great-great-grandson of John of Gaunt, who himself was the son of king Edward III and uncle of Richard II. Technically, the royal family of Spain had a better claim, but no one really wanted a Spanish king anyway. - Edmund had married Margaret Beaufort. She was only 12. He was a lusty kind of man, and she was pregnant quickly. Then Edmund went and got himself killed fighting for Henry VI. Jasper Tudor, Henry's uncle, had protected the very pregnant 13 year old girl. - Henry spent his entire youth on the run, sometimes in England, sometimes in France. As a tenuous heir to the throne, he was in constant danger, as was his young mother. Henry was raised to desire the throne, and he made that happen in a spectacular manner once Richard III took over. - Henry was the best compromise for all. He was Lancastrian by blood, York by marriage, and of Welsh descent, which made the Welsh happy. (They had protected him on his way to Bosworth field.) This, however, did nothing to increase England's popularity in occupied Wales... the Welsh were still a problem at best, a threat at worst. - Since the Tudors had no symbol or station, Henry, now King Henry VII, used the red rose of Lancaster and the white rose of York together, to make the 2 toned "Tudor Rose." That would be their symbol from then on. - He retroactively declared himself king from the day BEFORE the battle of Bosworth Field. This made his murder of Richard III a justice served rather than regicide, thus he could not be prosecuted. No one pushed the matter forward, and the coronation went off quickly. (on purpose.) - In order to mollify the Yorkists, he married Elizabeth of York, Edward IV's daughter. She was neither beautiful nor particularly intelligent, but they got along fairly well, by all accounts. They had several children, but only two sons who lived: Arthur, and his younger brother Henry. - Henry put down a couple of small rebellions, but faced harder opposition when the Irish claimed to have saved Edward V, the prince in the tower who SHOULD have been king. This, of course, was ludicrous, but the fighting was hard. The young man in question turned out to be one Lambert Simnel, a commoner who had been trained to speak like a noble. Henry showed remarkable restraint. He pardoned most of the conspirators once Simnel recanted his claims of being king Edward V. He even gave young Simnel a job in the royal kitchens! - Next, Henry had to deal with the Scots and the Flemish, who were backing the NEXT "real" king, who claimed to be Richard, the younger prince from the tower. This uprising was crushed. The boy turned out to be a Fleming named Perkin Warbeck. This time Henry was not so kind, and had the lot of the conspirators, including Warbeck, executed. - Pulled a trick on the nobles, to make sure they paid their taxes. Some were living a life of extravagance, and thus had little cash saved. Others were living meager lives, claiming to have not enough money to pay. Henry simply stated that if they haven't been spending, they've been saving, so pay up. If they HAVE been spending, then they obviously have enough to pay taxes as well. This sort of logic was typical of not only Henry VII, but also later Tudor monarchs. The barons could only watch as their power dwindled and the Tudors became more wealthy and entrenched in power. - Was the first king to refuse to attack France. Henry was not interested in English holdings in France, as he had no direct claim to them at all. Instead, he focused on trade. Some called him the "Merchant King," but it could not be denied that the Tudor family became the wealthiest in the British Isles. (He was worth over what would today be one billion pounds.) - He became so rich that he was able to ally with the Holy Roman Emperor, and convinced the Pope to excommunicate anyone but Tudors who tried to claim the throne of England. Henry saw the power of WEALTH, not land. This was the era of the Renaissance... the future was in the guilds, not the blue-blooded hoary old aristocrats. - When the Flemish backed Perkin Warbeck, Henry responded by expelling all Flemish wool merchants from England. This move was seen as cutting his nose off to spite his face, but it worked. The Flemish merchants lost all their trade from England, their best customers. Both sides hammered out a new trade agreement, the "Magnus Intercursus" in which the Flemish wool merchants were allowed to trade English cloth out of Antwerp, and in exchange, the English were allowed duty free trade on wool with the merchants. Both sides became extremely wealthy, Antwerp became a major trade hub, and the English now enjoyed cheaper Italian, Dutch, and French goods. The economy grew steadily. - Now faced with barons who wanted a piece of the action, and were not used to being told "No," Henry created a special court that would be able to swiftly and securely crush any noble he saw as a threat. This was to be the infamous "Court of the Star Chamber," which was effectively a secret court that could punish with impunity. These sort of tactics would be used by Hitler, Stalin, and many others over time. Henry was a bit ahead of his time. The reason it was so powerful was that it was made up of privy councilors, rather than local judges. The local judges, while powerful, were often bullied by the nobility into finding them conveniently innocent of all wrongdoing. The Star Chamber was beholden to no one but the king, so they were able to lay low any and everyone in the entire kingdom, with full legal weight. - Henry also appointed judges to every small village and city in the realm, so that his laws would be enforced quickly and decisively. -Married his teenage son, Arthur, to a Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon. This was a good match, as both were children of powerful Catholic kings. The Protestants were now a threat, and Henry liked the trade he would receive from Spain. However, disaster struck. The prince suddenly grew ill and bedridden from the "Sweating Sickness." Within 6 months he was dead. Henry VII was grief stricken, showing a rare amount of emotion not only for his dead son, but also his grieving queen. It is said Henry wept uncontrollably for days. The next year, his own wife died in childbirth. Again grief stricken, but wanting his alliance with Spain, he asked for special dispensation from the Pope to let young Catherine marry either prince Henry, or the king himself. Since Catherine swore to God that she had never consummated the marriage to Arthur, the Pope agreed to let her marry his younger brother, Henry. -Now growing thinner and weaker, Henry became increasingly paranoid... his moods turned darker, his laws harsher. His fanatical NEED to hang on to power and his ruthless treatment of those who stood in his way would impress upon his young son greatly. - Now a middle aged man, and with his dynasty supposedly secure, Henry's health grew worse. He only allowed his mother, Margaret Beaufort, near him. (Remember, she was only 12 years older.) He was asked to remarry, but he was broken hearted after the loss of his wife. He never remarried, and in 1509, he died of tuberculosis at age 51. - Was succeeded by his son, Henry VIII... a rather well known king. |
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