Henry VII
Henry Tudor assumed the position of king on the field of Bosworth ; and, after marching by easy stages to London, entered the capital in royal state on September 3, the second Saturday after the assumes the battle. Any formal statement of his claims would have been position of inconvenient and dangerous, so Henry merely appealed to the silent logic of accomplished facts, arranged for his coronation on October 30, and sent out writs as king for the election of His first parliament. Richard was declared to have been an usurper, and those who fought for him at Bosworth traitors. No executions, however, followed, for it was Henry's policy to put a stop to the slaughters and executions which had been lately the rule, and a general pardon soon restored confidence.
Henry was the son of Margaret, great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt; and of Edmund Tudor. The hereditary right of Henry VII. to the crown was very defective ; but he strengthened his claim by marrying Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV.; and in this way the two houses of York and Lancaster were united. Henry had promised to marry the Lady Elizabeth, on which his Yorkist supporters had relied : and both houses joined in a request that Henry would 'deign' to marry her, and to this he consented at once. The marriage took place in January 1486; and as a son, Arthur, the first of many children, was born the same year, the union between the two houses, the crafty device of Bishop Morton, was secured. Henry, however, was determined to rest his position on his own claims, and not on those of his wife ; so, though treated kindly in private, the queen was for some time kept in the background.
Elizabeth Plantagenet, Queen of Henry VII., called the "White Rose of York," the eldest child of Edward IV. and Elizabeth Woodville, born at Westminster Palace, February 11, 1465, was betrothed to Henry VII., then Earl of Richmond, in 1483, but the marriage was not solemnized till January 18, 1486, and her coronation was deferred till November 25, 1488, to the disgust of the adherents of her family. She died in the Tower of London on her birthday, February 11, 1503, and nine days after the birth of her child, Catherine. She bore the character of being gentle and good, and her effigy in Westminster bears testimony to her beauty. Bacon tells us that "the King all his lifetime showed himself no indulgent husband towards her ; but that his aversion towards the house of York was so predominant in him, as it found place not only in his wars and councils, but also in his chamber and bed."
The character of Henry VII was shown by his actions. He was cool, wary, and persevering, a fair soldier, and a born diplomatist. There was also something about him which distinguishes him Henry's from former kings, and makes him well fitted to be the first character. modern sovereign of England. Henry, throughout his reign, trusted to diplomacy rather than force; and though, when it was necessary, he showed no want of ability for warfare, preferred to outwit his enemies rather than meet them in the open field. The two main objects of his policy were, first, to secure the throne to himself and his family by rooting out all rivals ; and, secondly, to strengthen the power of the crown itself by curtailing that of the nobility ; and po cy' to these he afterwards added a third, viz. that of taking an active part in European politics, and strengthening himself by matrimonial alliances.
These three objects Henry handed down as of cardinal value to his successors, and the circumstances of the period were such that with some variations they form the basis of the policy of all the Tudors. Such a policy, however, could only be attempted by popular sovereigns, for in the absence of a standing army the king, in time of rebellion, could rely only upon the goodwill of law-abiding citizens. It, therefore, became the policy of Henry and his successors to court the favor of the gentry and middle classes, by rigidly enforcing the laws for the security of life and property, and puttin down the retainers of the great nobles, whose existence had made civil war possible.
The policy of Henry was pacific, and his reign was comparatively tranquil; yet it was disturbed by several plots and conspiracies, two of which were of a singular character. One of these was the attempt of Lambert Simnel, the son of a baker, to counterfeit the person of the Earl of Warwick ; the other was a similar attempt of Perkin Warbeck, to counterfeit the Duke of York, who is said to have been smothered in the Tower, by the order of Richard III. By the earlier English historians, Warbeck is uniformly represented to have been an impostor, but several later writers maintain that he was the real son of Edward IV. Both of the adventurers aspired to the crown, and met with considerable support from the people. Simnel, after being proclaimed king of England and Ireland, at Dublin, was taken prisoner, and instead of being executed, was made a scullion in the king's kitchen, and afterwards promoted to be falconer. Perkin Warbeck, who maintained his cause by force of arms for five years, was supported by many of the nobility, and acknowledged by the kings of France and Scotland ; but being at last taken prisoner, he was executed as a traitor ; and near the same time, the real Earl of Warwick, the son of the Duke of Clarence, and nephew of Edward IV., the last male of the Plantagenets, who had been imprisoned from his childhood, for no other crime than his birth, was condemned and executed on a charge of treason.
Henry VII was more deficient in the feelings of the heart, than the qualities of the mind; and though much respected, was little beloved. He was wholly devoted to business; prudent and sagacious; little susceptible of the social ana generous affections; serious and reserved in his manners, suspicious in his temper, despotic in his government, and avaricious in his disposition - the love of money being his ruling passion. He was capable of descending to the meanest artifices, and of employing the most unprincipled agents in extorting money from his subjects, to fill his own coffers.
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