Henry VII

Strengths and weaknesses of the Henry VI's reign.

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Henry VII - Foreign Policy - Treaties

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Treaty of Medina del Campo (Spain) 1489 - Main term was Henry VII's son's marriage to Catherine of Aragon. He now had an alliance with Spain through marriage. This also secured a dowry of 200,000 crowns and certain trade tariffs were dropped, allowing more free trading. Part of the treaty also stated that if England or Spain were to go to war with France, the other must come to their aid. This meant Henry VII had support from a country growing in importance and riches from a long term enemy, and they had increased trade and financial status.

Treaty of Etaples (France) 1492 - One of the terms was the French had to withdraw their support for Perkin Warbeck. This meant Henry has a lesser threat of being usurped and had a securer realm. Also stated that England had to accept French control over Burgundy which was a loss to Henry as he was now more vunerable to attack, however France had to pay 50,000 crowns Per Annum to England which almost doubled Henry's income. This was a very succesful treaty for Henry, he had removed support for one of the key threats to the throne and he had increased his financial status. He was also somewhat safer from attack from France as they had an agreement which was key as they were Englands biggest threat from abroad.

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Henry VII - Foreign Policy - Treaties

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Treaty of Perpetual Peace (Scotland) 1502 - This was an attempt to end the intermitent warfare between England and Scotland. It was signed in 1502 and sealed in 1503 through the marriage of Henry VII's daughter to James IV - King of Scotland. Scotland was at this time one of England biggest threats, as they could easily invade and were allied with France at the time. The treaty meant Henry VII had a far more secure realm, and the never ending threat of war with Scotland was all but gone.

Henry VII's use of treaties shows he used his foreign policy succesfully. They helped to secure his realm and created better relationships abroad as well as at home, lowering the threat of invasion and getting rid of supporter for usurpers.

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Henry VII - Foreign Policy - Marriages

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His marriage to Elizabeth of York 1486 - This united the houses of York and Lancaster. It was particularly important as his claim to the throne was tenuous to say the least and it was important that he secure his dynasty from any possible over-mighty subjects.

Arthur Tudor and Catherine of Aragon 1479 - Spain was growing in wealth and status and Henry realised  they would be a powerful ally, particularly against France. Therefore his ties to Spanish Royalty through marriage were of particular importance. However, when Ferdinand's wife died in 1504, Henry made the poor decision of backing Catherine of Aragon's sister in her inheritance bid rather than his own son. This caused animosity between the two Kings and in 1505 Ferdinand married the King of France's niece, forfeiting any alliance through marriage and giving France the upper hand.

The marriage was a successful move in general for Henry as it gave him support from an important nation; however his poor decisions later led to him loosing this support.

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Henry VII - Foreign Policy - Marriages

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Margaret Tudor (Daughter) and James IV (Scottish King) 1503 - This meant Henry had little chance of invasion from Scotland, and although this resulted in their children having a claim to the English throne, Henry was prepared to take this risk in order to keep his realm secure. This was another successful choice of Henry's as it lowered the chance of any more imposters, and gave him a connection to Scotland that ended their years of battle.

This was one of his most successful foreign policy strategies as his use of marriage, particularly those of his children, sealed several treaties and provided him with ties to some of his greatest threats, as well as countries rising in power.

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Henry VII - Military Success

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Throughout Henry's reign there were noticeably little battles, both within England and from abroad, and Henry was known to be far more inclined to peace than going to War.

Henry VII was plagued with the threat of war from Scotland. This increased in the wake of imposters to the throne, Perkin Warbeck and Lambert Simnel.

The split between England and Scotland was at its worst when Warbeck travelled to Scotland and James IV gave him his support. During his stay James gave Warbeck refuge as well as around £1200 a year. Although James knew it was unlikely Warbeck was actually the lost prince, he used the opportunity to disrupt England and Henry's reign.

However, when Henry realised this threat he took action against it. Henry offered James his daughters hand in marriage, and James realising this potentially had far more opportunities to offer than Warbeck, accepted.

Warbeck fled back to Ireland in 1497 however had to then sail to Devon as he was not accepted there.

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Henry VII - Military Success

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France - There was a similar situation to Scotland within France during Henry's reign, which he again handled successfully.

Warbeck travelled to France to gain support and was initially given it by Charles VIII. However Henry knew having an imposter with the support of France was dangerous.

He therefore organised the Treaty of Etaples, in which France agreed to expel Warbeck and no longer give any possible usurpers their support.

This was very successful for Henry VII as it meant one of the countries that could possibly do the most damage to his reign, was no longer giving their support to imposters, making his entire realm more stable and secure as there was no looming threat from abroad.

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Henry VII - Finance

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Money from Wardship - By 1507 he was getting £6000 a year. He took over land that was inherited by a minor until they came of age, when that happened they had to pay a 'livery' to get it back. If there was no-one to inherit the land the King would get it. More ways of gaining land and money.

Acts of Attainder - Consisted of taking away land if charged with treason. If they weren't sufficiently loyal they were fined. Gained land and loyalty as they lived in fear of having their land taken away. Gave out 51 in 1504 alone! Loyalty through fear, but also appeared merciful for not locking them up.

Recognizances - Fined 46 families (75% of which were peerage) as they did not act as he commanded. Two of his advisor's Empsom and Dudley were put in charge of collecting this money, and collected over £50,000 in 1504. If they weren't being loyal enough to the king they were fined. Gained him more money and loyalty.

French Pension - Had it renewed in 1492. Brought Henry £160,000 more and in return he agreed to withdraw troops from France. This lowered the threat of war and he again gained more money.

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Henry VII - Administration of Government / Parliament

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Parliament - He met with parliament only 7 times throughout his entire reign. He did not rely on them for funding like other Kings and they rarely met for reasons other than law and order. This meant he was not anticipating war so he did not have to impose lots of taxation. His realm was secure and he had loyalty.

Council - He gave only a small amount of his council power and those he did give power to were made up of his nobility. He chose his members on merit and experience meaning he could trust they knew what they were doing.

He also used lots of different councils. In order to stop his nobility becoming over-mighty he set up councils such as the Council of the North and the Council of the Marches, to keep out enemies, specifically from France and Scotland.He left only a small amount of very trusted people in charge - such as his mother - therefore no one untrustworthy was given any sort of power.

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Henry VII - Patronage

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When Henry gained the throne he inherited all the Yorkist and Lancastrian land. He was very unwilling to give this land away as he didn't want to make the same mistakes as other kings such as Richard III.

He had very few family obligations as he had no brothers to challenge him to the throne or to award land/money to. He also outlived his wife and his mother and therefore managed to keep most of his land.

He married Elizabeth of York, and therefore united the Yorkist's and Lancastrian's. This stopped any threat from over-mighty subjects from either side.

He appointed his mother as leader of the Council of the Marches. This meant he also kept power within the family instead of giving his power and trust to outsiders.

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Henry VII - Nobility

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Henry VII was very careful with his nobility and more often than not gained his loyalty through fear.

He curbed the might of the nobility by passing laws in 1485,87 and 1504 restricting the keeping of retainers, potential armies of servants and supporters being identified by wearing their lord's livery. This also meant he limited the military capacity of the nobility.

Over half of Henry's nobility were obliged to give recognizances to the crown, and many nobles gave more than one. Most of this time these weren't collected in, but they were made to live under the threat of having to pay off crippling payments should they offend the King.

He rewarded 37 of his nobles with the Order of the Garter. This was cheaper for the crown but also meant he did not need to gift them any land, and left his nobles feeling rewarded.

Empsom and Dudley - Widely feared by the Nobility so they paid their debts.

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Henry VII - Lambert Simnel

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Simnel - Bore some resemblance to Edward IV. On hearing this the Earl of Oxford changed Simnel's name and identity, he was then taken to Ireland and was crowned King Edward VI in May 1487.

Henry tried to avoid War by offering those who supported the imposter King a free pardon if they admitted their mistake. However Simnel had the backing of men such as the Archbishop of Dublin as well as his 'aunt' Margaret of Burgundy.

Battle of Stoke 1487 - An invasion led by John de la Pole (a principal supporter of Simnel) staged in the summer. The predominantly Irish army met Henry's army and completely outnumbered, was defeated quickly.

This was the last battle of the Wars of the Roses, and Simnel and the Earl of Oxford were both captured. Simnel was sent to work in the King's kitchen and the Earl of Oxford was sentenced to life imprisonment.

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Henry VII - Perkin Warbeck

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Warbeck - Began to cultivate the rumour in Cork, Ireland in 1491. For the rest of the nineties he caused trouble for Henry as he travelled through Europe making alliances with Ireland, Scotland and France.

He led a forlorn invasion of England in 1497 but survived until 1499.

In 1492 he fled to Flanders following the Treaty of Etaples. However, in retaliation Henry VII broke off all trade in order to discourage this support.

He was hanged after being found guilty of plotting to escape from captivity in the Tower of London.

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Comments

Hayley Toms

Report

all the different colours are a bit hard to read- is there a key missing for them?

Other than that- fantastic :D

Hayley Toms

Report

also the Warbeck slide is missing!

thea

Report

AMAZING BBZ ,DEEZ R FABULUS M8  <3

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