The Gateway Chronicle 2020

23
Wars of the Roses had significantly weakened
the nobility due to the great killings
that took place between noble families.
It is tempting to say that Henry was the
founder of this new
kingship. After all,
1485 marked the end
of the ‘Wars of the
Roses’ and brought a
new dynasty to the
throne. A new period
of history, the
Tudors, had begun and therefore surely
that’s where the new style of kingship begun.
New kingship, New England.
In fact, however, Henry VII had probably
drawn on Edward IV’s example of inform
his new monarchy. During his second
time on the throne, Edward IV had also
employed a similar style of kingship. He
had not fought foreign battles repeatedly.
Instead, he went to France with an army
“Henry VII shaped, crafted and
accentuated the new kingship”
began the use of spies, which he made
great use of in 1466 to capture Henry VI.
But maybe the original creator of this
kingship came from a man nearly a century
before Henry
VII’s reign. Richard
II was often seen as
an unsuccessful and
inept monarch who
was deposed in 1399.
Yet his style of kingship
was certainly
completely different to previous English
monarchs. He pursued peace with France,
which he achieved through his 1396 marriage
that gave him a 28-year truce and
£130 000. This made him less reliant on
Parliament which he took great pleasure
in not having to be dependent on anymore.
He most certainly tried to bully the
nobility. He forced the nobles to sign
away all their lands to him in the late
1390s and in 1397 killed three nobles who
had angered him ten years back. He
was trying to send a message to the nobility
which conveyed his strength
over them and his toughness against
them. While his bullying ultimately
backfired when Henry Bolingbroke,
who he had expelled and disinherited,
usurped him. But some aspects of his
strategy such as peace with France was
observed and acted upon by his successors
many years later.
Commemorative plaque
for Cornish Rebellion in but came back with a treaty in
Cornish and English, 1475 which gave him more
Blackheath Common money and one less threat. Rather
than relying on Parliament
for money to pay off the debts left by his
predecessors through taxation, he also relied
on forced gifts which made Parliament
less controlling. It was he who
Henry VII’s son, Henry VIII, would
build on his father’s legacy by breaking
with Rome, furthering the power
of the king – an incredibly significant
milestone in changes to kingship.
Henry VII certainly shaped, crafted
and accentuated the ‘new kingship’.
But it was not his creation entirely. Richard
II and, more importantly, Edward IV
were in fact significant players too in the
foundation of this new style of monarchy.
Sam OA