Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England

Home > Other > Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England > Page 45
Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England Page 45

by Thomas Penn


  9. A group of plate-armoured jousters arrives at a tournament. These are the ‘venants’, or ‘challengers’, who take up the challenge issued on the king’s behalf. On the left, ladies of court look on from the royal pavilion.

  10. Informer’s report by John Flamank, detailing the secret conversation among Henry VII’s officials at Calais, September 1504. The officials describe the king as ‘a weak man and sickly, not likely to be no long-lived man’ (line 6) and discuss a debate among ‘great personages’ at court over possible heirs to the throne: ‘none of them spoke of my lord prince’ (lines 12–13).

  11. ‘They think he is a fox – and such is his name.’ Richard Fox, Henry VII’s lord privy seal and diplomatic mastermind. Portrait by Hans Corvus.

  12. The death of Henry VII, ‘secretly kept by the space of two days after’. Drawing by Garter king-of-arms Thomas Wriothesley.

  13. From Thomas More’s coronation verses, on the rainstorm that disrupted Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon’s procession through London, 23 June 1509: ‘if one looks at the omen, it could not have been better. To our rulers, days of abundance are promised by Phoebus with his sunshine, and by Jove’s wife with her rains.’ Below, an intertwined red-and-white rose and pomegranate of Granada, flanked by a French fleur-de-lys and Beaufort portcullis, are surmounted by a crown imperial.

  14. Henry VII’s accounts. This page, written in the king’s own hand, details monies that he himself has processed and delivered to his chamber treasurer John Heron. Items include the annual payment of Henry’s French pension in ‘plain crowns’ and ‘crowns of the soleil’ (lines 6–8), ‘diverse coins of gold’ from the Calais treasurer (lines 13–15) and £1,133 in ‘old weighty crowns’ (lines 16–17).

  Epilogue

  As he sat in the Tower of London awaiting his death, Edmund Dudley set to work on a book, a treatise of advice on government, his last gesture to the young Henry VIII and his counsellors. The result, The Tree of Commonwealth, is the only full-length expression of the way one of Henry VII’s ministers thought. Using the metaphor of society as a tree, Dudley laid out a vision of an organized society divided into ranks and estates, church, nobility, commons: everything in its right place, with the king at the top, the fount of justice, order and morality. Not so subtly, Dudley repudiated the abuses of the late king’s reign, in which he had played an integral role – its unaccountability, its ‘extraordinary justice’, its ‘insatiable’ avarice. But other than that, the picture that he painted was one that had been refined and sharpened over the previous quarter-century, and one to which people had gradually become inured: that the well-being and ‘prosperous estate’ of England, and of even its most exalted subjects, depended on loyalty and service to the crown. The Tree of Commonwealth presented a vision of Tudor sovereignty, Dudley’s blueprint for the reign to come.1

  The counsellors on whom Henry VIII relied to push through his megalomaniac schemes in the following decades were formed in his father’s reign. The creation of his mentors Richard Fox and Thomas Lovell, Thomas Wolsey soon shouldered them aside. After his fall in 1529 Wolsey was succeeded by Thomas More – who in turn was displaced by Wolsey’s own protégé Thomas Cromwell, a man in whom the spirit of Henry VII’s administrators seems distilled. Cromwell incorporated Reynold Bray’s financial acumen and aggression, the consummate political skill and European vision of Richard Fox and the forensic zeal of Dudley, qualities honed by an apprenticeship on the battlefields and in the counting-houses of Italy – notably at the Florentine branch of Henry VII’s favoured bankers, the Frescobaldi. Under Cromwell, Henry VII’s council learned in the law would be reborn in devastating fashion in the notorious Court of Augmentations, the committee that oversaw the destruction of the monasteries and the siphoning of huge quantities of ecclesiastical cash into the coffers of a spendthrift crown.2

  Beneath the magnificent, insouciant exterior, Henry VIII was to prove himself his father’s son in his ingrained suspicion of the house of York and of those with royal blood. Before leaving England in 1513 for his first war against France, he had the earl of Suffolk, still in the Tower, beheaded; eight years later the duke of Buckingham, who never stopped grumbling about the indignities done him and his family, met the same fate, convicted of treason on evidence supplied by his own household servants. But the idea of York persisted. In 1514, rumours of a planned invasion by de la Pole’s younger brother Richard – backed, of course, by France – was one of the motives for a hastily concocted Anglo-French peace, at its centre a marriage between the ageing French king Louis XII and Henry VIII’s younger sister, Princess Mary.3 Mary’s long-awaited wedding with Charles of Castile – or Emperor Charles V, as he would become – never had taken place; now, Henry VIII abruptly called off the engagement, and with it, his father’s grandiose visions of pan-European Anglo-Habsburg dominance. Mary’s marriage to Louis, though, was short-lived. Having ‘danced him to death’, as contemporaries delicately put it, she returned to England in the company of the king’s sparring partner Charles Brandon, recently given the former de la Pole title of duke of Suffolk. As it turned out, Brandon was the man Mary had had eyes for all along. Initially livid at their secret wedding, Henry VIII eventually forgave them both.

  William Cornish continued to flourish, his triumphant performance at the epic Anglo-French summit of the Field of the Cloth-of-Gold in 1520 confirming him as the age’s greatest musical and dramatic impresario. John Skelton too returned to court: part visionary seer, part laughing-stock for a younger generation. In the mid-1520s he fled to the sanctuary of Westminster Abbey after a vicious satirical attack on Thomas Wolsey, before turning his fire on religious radicals at Wolsey’s behest. Skelton died in 1529, a year before Wolsey, as the seismic religious debates sweeping Europe were lending a new edge to the king’s increasingly desperate search for his way out of a marriage that was, he was now convinced, sinful in the eyes of God.

  The bickering and infighting between the Italian humanists continued. Andrea Ammonio landed his coveted post of Latin secretary to the king. His boss Silvestro Gigli stopped at nothing to get his hands on the top English diplomatic job in Rome, poisoning his English rival, Cardinal Bainbridge, in 1514. Protected by Thomas Wolsey from reprisals, Gigli repaid the favour handsomely, his intriguing bringing Wolsey a cardinal’s hat. All three men worked tirelessly to sideline their rivals, Adriano Castellesi and Polydore Vergil, with varying degrees of success. Vergil, who detested Gigli, exacted a historian’s revenge. In the various editions of his Anglica Historia, Gigli’s name is nowhere to be found.4

  Business in England boomed for the Italian merchant-banks of Frescobaldi and Cavalcanti. Their favoured sculptor, Pietro Torrigiano, had more commissions than he knew what to do with. In October 1512, he finally signed a contract to make Henry VII’s tomb; seven years later, it was finished, a vision in marble and gilt bronze, inscribed with verses by John Skelton. The finely moulded effigies of Henry and Elizabeth of York still lie side by side where he left them, under the soaring fan vaulting of Henry VII’s completed chapel. The location of the tomb, though, was not quite where Henry had planned. His son moved it behind the altar, reserving the more prominent space for his own tomb and that of Catherine of Aragon which, also designed by Torrigiano, was intended to trump his father’s. The plans never came to fruition; neither did subsequent, ever more colossal projects. Where Henry VII is buried at the heart of Westminster in his own, meticulously planned monument to his dynasty, his son lies in St George’s Chapel at Windsor under an unadorned slab of black marble.5

  On 8 October 1621, Henry VII’s first biographer presented his just-completed The History of the Reign of Henry VII to James I, the Stuart king who became the first monarch to rule over England, Scotland and Ireland. In his dedication, Sir Francis Bacon came up with a fanciful conceit. Not only was Henry VII James’s ancestor – his great-great-grandfather – but he was also a unifying king: after all, his reign had united the warring roses. As such, he was a touchstone for this new i
dea of Great Britain, ‘the kingdoms by him begun’, now embodied in James. Henry VII, Bacon wrote, was a wise man and an excellent king, in times that were rough ‘and full of mutations and rare accidents’. Then, in the self-deprecating way of writers presenting manuscripts, Bacon excused himself and his work, noting that of course James had other, more immediate and equally good examples of kingship at hand. But, after all, he concluded, ‘it is not amiss for you also to see one of these ancient pieces’.6

  Bibliography

  PRIMARY SOURCES

  Manuscript sources

  British Library, London

  Additional: 5465, 7099, 12060, 21404, 21480, 21481, 28623, 45131, 45133, 46455, 71009, 59899; Cottonian: Vespasian C XIV, Vitellius C XI, Titus A XIII; Harleian: 69, 78, 283; Lansdowne: 127; Royal: 12 B vi, 16 E xi, 16 E xiv, 18 D ii, 19 C viii; Sloane: 3479

  St John’s College, Cambridge

  C7 Cartularies and registers of college lands and goods

  D91 Lady Margaret Beaufort’s treasurer: Accounts Various

  D102 Lady Margaret Beaufort’s treasurer/chamberlain: Accounts Various

  D105 Letters to John Fisher, Nicholas Metcalfe and others, 1509–26

  The National Archives, Kew

  C67 Chancery: Supplementary Patent Rolls

  C82 Chancery: Warrants for the Great Seal, Series II

  C255 Chancery Files, Tower and Rolls Chapel Series, Miscellaneous Files and Writs

  DL 5 Duchy of Lancaster: Court of Duchy Chamber: Entry Books of Decrees and Orders

  E101 King’s Remembrancer: Accounts Various

  E114 Exchequer: King’s Remembrancer: Bonds and Obligations

  E154 King’s Remembrancer and Treasury of the Receipt: Inventories of Goods and Chattels

  E23 Exchequer: Treasury of the Receipt: Royal Wills

  E404 Exchequer of Receipt: Warrants for Issues

  E405 Exchequer of Receipt: Accounts Various

  E36 Exchequer: Treasury of the Receipt: Miscellaneous Books

  LC2 Lord Chamberlain’s Department: Records of Special Events

  LC9 Lord Chamberlain’s Department: Accounts and Miscellanea

  SC1 Special Collections: Ancient Correspondence of the Chancery and the Exchequer

  Westminster Abbey Muniments

  9260, 12249, 13601, 13602, 16015-16078

  Printed Primary Sources

  Acts of Court of the Mercers’ Company, 1453–1527, eds. L. Lyell and F. D. Watney, Cambridge, 1936.

  The Antiquarian Repertory, eds. Francis Grose and Thomas Astle, 4 vols., London, 1807–9.

  Ars moriendi: that is to seye the crafte for to deye for the helthe of mannes sowle, printed about 1491 by William Caxton or Wynken de Worde, London, 1891.

  The Babees Book … The Bokes of Nurture of Hugh Rhodes and John Russell, ed. F. J. Furnivall, EETS, o.s., 32, London, 1868.

  Bacon, Francis, The History of the Reign of Henry VII, ed. Brian Vickers, Cambridge, 1998.

  Bentley, S., Excerpta Historica, or, Illustrations of English History, London, 1833.

  The Book of Quinte Essence or the Fifth Being; that is to say, Man’s Heaven, ed. F. J. Furnivall, EETS o.s. 16, London, 1866.

  Burchard, Johann, At the Court of the Borgia: being an account of the reign of Pope Alexander VI, ed. and trans. Geoffrey Parker, London, 1963.

  Calendar of the Close Rolls, preserved in the Public Record Office … 1485–1509, 2 vols., London, HMSO, 1955–63.

  Calendar of the Patent Rolls, preserved in the Public Record Office … 1476–1509, 3 vols., London, HMSO, 1901–16.

  Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Series, of the Reign of Elizabeth, vol. 1, ed. Rev. J. Stephenson, London, 1863.

  Calendar of State Papers, Milan, vol. I, 1359–1618, ed. A. B. Hinds, London, 1912.

  Calendar of Letters, Dispatches, and State Papers Relating to the Negotiations Between England and Spain, vols. I & II, ed. G. Bergenroth, London, 1862.

  Calendar of Letters, Dispatches, and State Papers Relating to the Negotiations Between England and Spain. Supplement to vols. I & II, ed. Garrett Mattingly, London, 1868.

  Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts Relating to English Affairs, Existing in the Archives and Collections of Venice, vol. II, 1202–1529, ed. Rawdon Brown, London, 1864.

  Cavendish, George, The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, ed. Richard S. Sylvester, EETS o.s. 243, London, 1959.

  Caxton, William, The Prologues and Epilogues of William Caxton, ed. W. J. B. Crotch, EETS, o.s., 176, London, 1928.

  Cellini, Benvenuto, The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, London, 1996.

  Chartier, Alain, Curial … translated thus in Englyssh by William Caxton, EETS e.s. 54, ed. F. J. Furnivall, London, 1888.

  The Chronicle of Calais, in the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII to the year 1540, ed. J. G. Nichols, Camden Society, o.s. 35, London, 1846.

  The Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London, ed. J. G. Nichols, Camden Society, o.s. 53, London, 1852.

  The Chronicle of John Harding, ed. Henry Ellis, London, 1812.

  Chronicles of London, ed. C. L. Kingsford, Oxford, 1905.

  A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations for the Government of the Royal Household, Society of Antiquaries, London, 1790.

  Commynes, Philippe de, Memoirs: The Reign of Louis XI, 1461–83, trans. M. C. E. Jones, Harmondsworth, 1972.

  The Crowland Chronicle Continuations: 1459–1486, eds. N. Pronay and J. Cox, London, 1986.

  Dudley, Edmund, ‘The petition of Edmund Dudley’, ed. C. J. Harrison, English Historical Review, 87 (1972), pp. 82–99.

  — The Tree of Commonwealth, ed. D. M. Brodie, Cambridge, 1948.

  English Historical Documents, vol. 5, ed. C. H. Williams, London, 1967.

  Erasmus, Desiderius, The Collected Works of Erasmus, vols. 1–8, The Correspondence of Erasmus, trans. and ed. R. A. B. Mynors and D. F. S. Thomson, Toronto, Buffalo, 1974–1988.

  — Ecclesiastae sive de ratione concionandi, ed. F. A. Klein, Leipzig, 1820.

  — The Epistles of Erasmus, trans. F. M. Nichols, London, 1901.

  A Fifteenth Century School Book: from a manuscript in the British Museum (MS Arundel 249), ed. W. Nelson, Oxford, 1956.

  Fifty-Third Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, London, 1892.

  Fisher, John, The English Works of John Fisher, ed. J. E. B. Mayor, 2 vols., EETS, e.s., 27, London, 1876.

  Foedera, ed. Thomas Rymer, 20 vols., London, 1704–35, repr. Farnborough, 1967.

  Fortescue, John, On the laws and governance of England, ed. Shelley Lockwood, Cambridge, 1997.

  Fox, Richard, Letters of Richard Fox, 1486–1527, eds. P. S. Allen and H. M. Allen, Oxford, 1929.

  Fuensalida, Correspondencia de Gutierre Gómez de Fuensalida, embajador en Alemania, Flandes é Inglaterra (1496–1509), Madrid, 1907.

  Gachard, M. M., Collection des voyages des souverains des pays-bas, vol. 1, Brussels, 1876.

  The Great Chronicle of London, eds. A. H. Thomas and I. D. Thornley, London, 1938, repr. Gloucester, 1983.

  Hall, Edward, Hall’s Chronicle: Containing the history of England, ed. H. Ellis, London, 1809.

  Hawes, Stephen, Stephen Hawes: The Minor Poems, eds. Florence W. Gluck and Alice B. Morgan, EETS, o.s., 271, Oxford, 1974.

  — The Pastime of Pleasure by Stephen Hawes, ed. William Edward Mead, EETS, o.s., 173, London, 1928.

  Henry VII, The Will of, ed. T. Astle, London, 1775.

  The Household of Edward IV: The Black Book and the Ordinance of 1478, ed. A. R. Myers, Manchester, 1959.

  ‘The Justes of the Moneths of May and June’, in Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, vol. 2, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, London, 1866, pp. 109–30.

  Leland, John, Joannis Lelandi antiquarii de rebus Britannis collectanea, ed. Thomas Hearne, 6 vols., London, 1774.

  Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Reigns of Richard III and Henry VII, ed. J. Gairdner, 2 vols., Rolls Series, 24, 1861–3.

  Letters and Papers, Foreign and Do
mestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, eds. J. S. Brewer, J. Gairdner and R. H. Brodie, 21 vols., with 2 vols. of addenda, London, 1862–1932.

  Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies of Great Britain, 3 vols., ed. Mary Anne Everett Wood, London, 1846.

  The Lisle Letters, ed. Muriel St Clare Byrne, 6 vols., Chicago, 1981.

  Lydgate, John, Stans puer ad mensam: table manners for children, facsim. and tr. Nicholas Orme, London, 1990.

  Machiavelli, Niccolò, Lettere familiali, ed. E. Alvisi, Florence, 1883.

  Machiavelli, Niccolò, The Prince, ed. Maurizio Viroli, Oxford, 2008.

  Mancini, Dominic, The Usurpation of Richard the Third, ed. C. A. J. Armstrong, Oxford, 2nd edn, 1969.

  Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII, ed. W. Campbell, 2 vols., Rolls Series, 20, 1873–7.

  Memorials of King Henry VII, ed. J. Gairdner, Rolls Series, 10, London, 1858.

  More, Thomas, The Complete Works of St Thomas More, ed. C. H. Miller and others, 21 vols., New Haven, 1963–97.

  — The Correspondence of Sir Thomas More, ed. E. F. Rogers, Princeton, 1947.

  — St Thomas More: Selected Letters, ed. E. F. Rogers, Yale, New Haven and London, 1961.

  The Most Pleasant Song of Lady Bessy, ed. J. O. Halliwell, Percy Society, 20, 1877.

  The Obituary Roll of John Islip, ed. W. H. St John Hope, London, 1906.

  Original Letters Illustrative of English History, ed. H. Ellis, 1st ser., 2 vols., London, 1824–7.

  The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, 1275–1504, vol. 15: Richard III, 1484–1485; Henry VII, 1485–1487, ed. Rosemary Horrox, London, 2005.

  The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, 1275–1504, vol. 16: Henry VII, 1489–1504, ed. Rosemary Horrox, London, 2005.

  Paston Letters and Papers of the Fifteenth Century, ed. Norman Davis, 2 vols., Oxford, 1971, 1976.

 

‹ Prev