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What was Henry's maternal claim to the throne?
- Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufort, was a direct descendant of Edward III by the marriage of his third son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, to Katherine Swynford
- John and Katherine's children had been born prior to the marriage when Katherine had been his mistress, so there was uncertainty about the legality of the claim
- though an act of parliament in Richard II's reign had legitimised Gaunt's children, a further act in Henry IV's reign had excluded them from the line of succession
What was Henry's paternal claim to the throne?
- Henry inherited royal blood (though not a claim to the throne) from his father Edmund Tudor,a s Edmund's mother Catherine was a French princess who had been previously married to Henry V
- after Henry V, Catherine's husband, died she had no claim to the throne
- she married Owen Tudor and they had Edmund Tudor and Jasper Tudor, half-brothers of the king Henry VI, who raised them both to peerage by creating Edmund Earl of Richmond and Jasper Earl of Pembroke
- thus Henry VII was the half-nephew of Henry VI
Describe the Wars of the Roses:
1455-85
- a series of dynastic civil wars fought between the Houses of Lancaster and York for the English throne
- named after the war between the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster
- both houses claimed the throne through descent from Edward III
- started during Henry VI's reign, a mad Lancastrian King who went insane in 1453
What happened during Henry's rise to kingship from 1457-1461?
1457: Henry Tudor born to a young mother (14) and a dead father; mother distantly related to Lancastrian throne but better claims existing
1461: Lancastrian King Henry VI lost his crown to the Yorkist Edward IV; Henry Tudor taken away from his mother at 4 years old and looked after and closely watched by Edward's friend William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke and a prominent Yorkist
What happened during Henry's rise to kingship from 1470-1471?
1470: Henry VI King again after a rebellion against Edward IV (after he married a commoner, Elizabeth Woodville, whose large family wanted land and titles which angered the Yorkists who got nothing); Henry was taken to London and briefly reunited with the mother he hadn't seen for years before again returning to south Wales, though this time with his Uncle Jasper Tudor
1471: 6 months later Edward IV returned to England, killing Henry VI, his son and heir and all other leading Lancastrians, almost exterminating the line completely, making Henry the most important Lancastrian heir; that September 14 year old Henry and Jasper Tudor fled Pembroke Castle, where they had been holed up by Yorkist armies, to the traditional Lancastrian refuge of France; storms took them west to the Duchy of Brittany
What happened during Henry's rise to kingship from 1471-1482?
- Henry was received kindly by Duke Francis of Brittany, who himself had no sons
- Henry was an important bargaining chip he could use against who also wanted Henry (France was trying to take over areas like Brittany)
- Henry was transferred from fortress to fortress as a fugitive and exile
- Once in November 1476, Francis succumbed to give Henry to Edward IV in return for funds and military aid
- 19 year old Henry escaped, and by the time he made it back to the Breton court Francis was very sorry for his betrayal
What happened during Henry's rise to kingship in 1483
April 1483: Edward IV dies grossly fat with his 12 year old son Edward Prince of Wales named as his heir; however Edward IV's brother Richard Duke of Gloucester felt Elizabeth Woodville's clan had got too close to the heart of power, arresting and executing leading members and putting the two princes (Edward and Richard Duke of York) in the Tower; he then proclaimed himself Richard III
Summer 1483: Lady Margaret Beaufort secretly agrees a pact that Henry Earl of Richmond (Henry Tudor) would return from Brittany to claim the throne and take Elizabeth of York, the oldest of Edward IV's daughters, as his wife - uniting the houses of Lancaster and York
August 1483: Richard III's right hand man the Duke of Buckingham persuaded to the new alliance by Bishop John Morton of Ely, his prisoner; an uprising headed by Henry and funded by Brittany is co-ordinated
Autumn 1483: Woodville loyalists rose in rebellion along the south coast of England from Kent to Devon, Buckingham marched out from Wales ahead of an army of retainers and Henry prepared to set sail from Brittany; that October the weather was terrible and forced Henry to turn back, though in England Richard III had already quashed the uprisings, beheading Buckingham and destroying his army; the Woodville rebels fled to Brittany
December 1483: Henry seals his pact with the exiles at the cathedral of Rennes on Christmas Day, they pledging allegiance to him, he swearing to marry Elizabeth of York
What happened during Henry's rise to kingship in 1484?
- the ageing and infirm Duke of Francis was bribed by Richard's men to give up Henry in exchange for help against the increasingly menacing France
- warned of his imminent betrayal Henry fled across the border to France
What happened during Henry's rise to kingship in earlier1485?
Spring: France proclaimed lavish financial support for Henry's invasion of England as the threat of English-backed Brittany increased; however by July the Breton menace evaporated along with French enthusiasm
- rumours were circulating that Richard III had taken an interest in marrying Elizabeth of York, which panicked Henry, who then scrambled to raise an invasion force of demobilised French mercenaries and his own sketchy forces of ex-Yorkists and other supporters
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What happened during Henry's rise to kingship in August 1485?
1st August: Henry sets sail for England
- Henry lands at the port of Milford Haven in Wales
- he and his forces march through Wales and into NW England, the heartlands of his stepfather's powerful Stanley family
- The Stanley's hoped for support arrived with reluctance as Margaret Beaufort's 3rd husband, Lord Stanley, was all talk little commitment
- Stanley's vast well-armed forces shadowed Henry's own on the journey south-east to see how the chips fell
22nd August: Battle of Bosworth; Henry wins against Richard III and becomes King
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