Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- I POLITICS AND THE REFORMATION
- 49 The State: Government and Politics under Elizabeth and James
- 50 Lex Terrae Victrix: the Triumph of Parliamentary Law in the Sixteenth Century
- 51 Human Rights and the Liberties of Englishmen
- 52 King Henry VII
- 53 Wales in Parliament, 1542–1581
- 54 Piscatorial Politics in the Early Parliaments of Elizabeth I
- 55 English National Self-consciousness and the Parliament in the Sixteenth Century
- 56 Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell
- 57 Lancelot Andrewes
- 58 Persecution and Toleration in the English Reformation
- 59 Auseinandersetzung und Zusammenarbeit zwischen Renaissance und Reformation in England
- 60 Humanism in England
- 61 Luther in England
- 62 Die europäische Reformation: Mit oder ohne Luther?
- II ON HISTORIANS
- Index of Authors Cited
- General Index
52 - King Henry VII
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- I POLITICS AND THE REFORMATION
- 49 The State: Government and Politics under Elizabeth and James
- 50 Lex Terrae Victrix: the Triumph of Parliamentary Law in the Sixteenth Century
- 51 Human Rights and the Liberties of Englishmen
- 52 King Henry VII
- 53 Wales in Parliament, 1542–1581
- 54 Piscatorial Politics in the Early Parliaments of Elizabeth I
- 55 English National Self-consciousness and the Parliament in the Sixteenth Century
- 56 Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell
- 57 Lancelot Andrewes
- 58 Persecution and Toleration in the English Reformation
- 59 Auseinandersetzung und Zusammenarbeit zwischen Renaissance und Reformation in England
- 60 Humanism in England
- 61 Luther in England
- 62 Die europäische Reformation: Mit oder ohne Luther?
- II ON HISTORIANS
- Index of Authors Cited
- General Index
Summary
Henry VII, the son of Edmund earl of Richmond and the Lady Margaret Beaufort, a few weeks ago and 500 years before that won the battle of Bosworth (on 22 August 1485) and thereby won the crown of England; he then settled down to become king of England. He was twenty-eight years old when he won the crown, and he had twenty-four more years during which he held it. Thus his victory at Bosworth, which was a narrow thing, came effectively halfway through his life. For half his life he worked towards the crown, for much of the time not aware that he was doing so; for half his life he held it and became, in the opinion of many, a new king, a man who really set about making kingship into an effective force again in England.
In the first place I should like to see what Henry VII did to make himself king–what sort of kingship he ran and what inheritance he left to his successor. Henry became king at the end of a muddle of civil wars and disputes which had been going on for the best part of a hundred years, and he had first of all to restore the repute and honour to that position. His predecessors, the Yorkist kings Edward IV and Richard III, had very nearly achieved this but had then fallen short of accomplishing it. Henry therefore had to build up on past memory, a memory which by this time was well out of date, so as to revive the notion that the king of England was the ruler of England, to be obeyed and respected and to provide continuity, peace, order and law.
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- Information
- Studies in Tudor and Stuart Politics and Government , pp. 77 - 90Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992