Henry VII

Taking power after victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, Henry Tudor was the first of a great family of English rulers. Called the ‘Solomon of England’, he was a promoter of art and literature, and helped English life become imbued with the pleasures of the Renaissance.

He put up with the conspiracy of Lambert Simnel, pretender to the throne, and the popularity of Perkin Warbeck, and dealt with dissent in the North of England from dissatisfied supporters of the House of York. The Earl of Warwick was eventually executed for his stirrings against Henry.

The king preferred diplomacy to warfare, and from the start of his reign he watched the French was a cautious eye. He rewarded navigators who found new lands abroad, and was generous to bishops and subjects.

He had great ambitions and took a wide and general view of the course of European politics, using his unmatched diplomatic skill to play upon international rivalries for his own purposes. Throughout his reign he had many dealings with Philip of Spain.

It was said that Henry turned English commercial attentions to power, rather than accumulation and quantity, and for this reason he put into place the mercantile system to regulate industry and increase England’s trade position in Europe. He also reformed some of the courts, introducing the short-lived Star Chamber.

With this in mind, Henry reformed coinage, weights and measures, and sought to appeal to the middle classes. Temperley writes at length on the ‘popular despotism’ that Henry VII set forth for the Tudor dynasty, whereby he drew the power from the will of the people, supported by the noblemen and the Church. The House of Commons acted for the Crown in a manner that had never been seen in England before, strengthening Henry’s influence on the English people.

The king established treaties and set up alliances through marriages between English and foreign royalty, including his son Arthur’s marriage to Katherine of Aragon which Temperley explains was drawn-out and extravagant, full of gifts and promises.

Henry improved the bond between England and the Papacy as part of the Holy League, which assisted him in his feud with Scotland, while he supported the war on the Turks. Temperley also notes Henry’s treatment of Ireland and the brief feud with the land ‘beyond the Pale’.

Many writers called his reign dismal and harsh, but Temperley’s view is that Henry VII was a munificent, Christian king who was good for England.

Gladys Temperley was among the first women to graduate from university. She was an early modern historian, her book on Henry VII was published in 1914. She was married to the Professor of Modern History at Cambridge and Master of Peterhouse, Harold Temperley. She died in 1923.

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