Henry VII Read online

  The first three or four months of the reign saw a large number of rewards for the more important of Henry’s supporters. Although not chronologically the first, the greatest rewards, as was only fitting, went to the faithful uncle, Jasper, without whose devotion and services all would have been lost. On 27 October, just before the coronation, Jasper was created duke of Bedford.2 By then Jasper was a man of fifty-five years of age, and had never married, but before 7 November he was to marry Catherine Woodville, the widow of Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham, and a sister of Queen Elizabeth Woodville.3 Jasper was to be appointed chief justice of South Wales,4 steward of all courts and constable of several castles of many lands pertaining to the duchy of Lancaster in the Marches of Wales,5 was granted all the castles and manors of Glamorgan, Abergavenny, and Haverfordwest,6 and was given exemption for life from payment of any fees of the seal upon any letters patent, charters, or original and judicial writs.7 The earldom of Pembroke was restored to him in the parliament of 1485,8 and in October 1486 he was appointed lieutenant of Ireland.9

  John de Vere, earl of Oxford, the chief of Henry’s military captains, was naturally restored to the honours and estates he had lost under the Yorkists,10 and as early as 21 and 22 September was appointed admiral of England, Ireland, and Aquitaine, and soon constable of the Tower of London, keeper of the lions and leopards within the Tower, with all the usual fees;1 and was granted other profitable favours.2

  Thomas, Lord Stanley, and his brother Sir William duly reaped the rewards of their desertion from Richard III at the crucial moment, rewards large in the case of Thomas ‘the king’s righte entierley beloved father’,3 not so large in the case of William. Thomas, now the king’s step-father, became earl of Derby on the same day as Jasper became duke,4 was to become constable of England,5 chief steward of the duchy of Lancaster,6 was granted various manors,7 and of course saw his wife Margaret Beaufort not only restored to all of which she had been deprived by Richard III, but also granted a large number of favours.8 William, for some ten years, attained to dignities and profitable offices. He became very quickly chamberlain of the Household, a chamberlain of the Exchequer (vice Sir James Tyrell9), and later on constable of Caernarvon Castle,10 and chief justice of North Wales,11 as well as the recipient of grants in land. Powerfully entrenched as he became in the royal household and in North Wales, his fall, when it came in 1495, was all the more sensational.

  The two Courtenays (cousins) received recognition for their fidelity to Lancaster and to Henry. Peter, bishop of Exeter, became a king’s councillor and keeper of the Privy Seal and was granted the temporalities of the see of Salisbury,12 whilst the earldom of Devonshire was revived in favour of Sir Edward Courtenay.13

  Those who had rendered substantial military assistance at one time or another in 1483 or 1485, were rewarded. Henry’s French protagonist, Philibert de Chandée, as already mentioned, actually received an earldom – of Bath14 – and some financial favour.15 Sir Richard Edgecombe became one of the chamberlains of the Exchequer (vice Sir William Catesby16), and was given other substantial grants;17 the Savages, Sir John and several brothers, received minor offices of profit.1 Sir Richard Guildford became master of the Ordinance2 and a chamberlain of the Exchequer (vice Lord Hastings3). Sir John Cheyney obtained some modest favours, but after Stoke became a baron.4 Sir Giles Daubeney became master of the king’s hounds,5 lieutenant-governor of Calais,6 and in March 1486, a baron.7 The equivocation of Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland, received its reward with the office of warden of the East March and Middlemarch8 towards Scotland, which he doubtless coveted above all others. Sir Rhys ap Thomas, whose attitude in Wales during the ‘journey’ may not have altogether pleased Henry, does not appear to have received very substantial solace. With the necessity for providing handsomely in Wales for Jasper and Sir William Stanley, it was perhaps hardly practicable to do a great deal for Rhys ap Thomas. However, he was made chamberlain of South Wales in the counties of Carmarthen and Cardigan, steward of the lordship of Builth Wells,9 and constable and steward of the lordship of Brecnoc.10

  The men of administrative talents among Henry’s companions soon found their offices, in which they were to remain for many years, in most cases for the rest of their lives. John, Lord Dynham, became treasurer of England,11 Thomas Lovell, chancellor of the Exchequer,12 Reginald Bray chancellor of the County Palatine and the duchy of Lancaster,13 Richard Fox, already the king’s secretary and ‘beloved counsellor’, became bishop of Exeter and keeper of the Privy Seal in succession to Peter Courtenay in February 1487.14 Christopher Urswick, the faithful priest, became king’s almoner and the recipient of a number of favours and preferments.1

  There were two other personages to whom Henry owed more than he could measure, both prime movers in the original plots. One was his mother Margaret Beaufort, and the other John Morton, refugee bishop of Ely. Margaret became in all but name the dowager Queen Mother, well endowed2 to sustain her many acts of piety and patronage. Morton was to become chancellor of England on 6 March 1486,3 and archbishop of Canterbury before the end of that year, cardinal in 1493, and so remained until his death in 1500.4 John Morton, born about 1420, had been educated at Cerne Abbey and Balliol College, Oxford, where he became a doctor of civil law, and afterwards practised in the court of Arches. He attracted the favourable notice of Thomas Bourchier, archbishop of Canterbury, and was appointed chancellor of the duchy of Cornwall and a master in Chancery. He strongly supported Lancaster, and was present at the battle of Towton. Subsequently he was attainted and went into exile with Queen Margaret at St Mihiel, where he had the opportunity to discuss affairs with Sir John Fortescue and others of the party. He was concerned in the negotiations which led to the Readeption of Henry VI, but after the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury he came to terms with Edward IV, and his attainder was reversed. In March 1473 he was appointed master of the Rolls, and became a councillor and bishop of Ely on 31 January 1479. He remained a valuable servant to Edward IV, but attracted the hostility of Richard, duke of Gloucester, who on 13 June 1483 caused him to be ousted with other councillors, was sent to the Tower, but was shortly committed into the custody of the duke of Buckingham, with results that have already been noticed. After fleeing from Buckingham’s custody, he had sought refuge in Flanders. Many other companions in exile, as well as other persons who participated in the risings of 1483 received grants and favours. Some were knighted shortly before or after Bosworth. Some such as Fox and Bray, and others such as Thomas Lovell, were designated councillors from an early date, and a number of others were so designated.

  Preparations for the coronation proceeded apace. No expense was going to be spared to make the occasion an impressive and glittering display, and every effort was to be made to ensure the maintenance of the traditional ceremonies and rituals. By 19 October, a commission was issued to Peter, bishop of Exeter; Jasper, the king’s uncle; John, earl of Oxford; William, earl of Nottingham; Thomas, Lord Stanley; John, Lord Fitzwalter, steward of the Household; Robert Morton (John Morton’s nephew), keeper of the Rolls; Sir Thomas Brian, chief justice of the King’s Bench; Sir Humphrey Starkey, chief baron of the Exchequer, and Sir Richard Croft, treasurer of the Household, to do all pertaining to the office of steward of England at the coronation.1

  The joint steward of the Household, Sir Robert Willoughby de Broke, must long before this date have put in hand the ordering of vast purchases of sumptuous cloth and clothing of every hue; silks and satins, furs, skins, leather, trappings, ribbons, shoes and boots, spurs, harness and banners; and had hired tailors and workmen, and the total bill for his efforts alone was to come to £1,506 18s 10¾d.2 Additional large sums were spent by the keeper of the Great Wardrobe on the clothing and equipment of the household, partly before and partly after the coronation.1 Henry VII was, of course, obliged to provide a new royal household from scratch.

  With all the officials and workmen concerned doubtless working overtime, as the day approached, Henry began to take up positions approp
riate to the occasion.2 On 27 October he dined at Lambeth Palace, with the archbishop of Canterbury, that veteran member of the progeny of Edward III, Thomas Bourchier, who had been archbishop for thirty years and had officiated at the coronations of Edward IV and Richard III, and now was to participate in the third and last coronation of his life. Then came the procession to the Tower of London, the traditional apartments for the sovereign prior to his coronation. Unlike those unhappy princes, soon to be his deceased brothers-in-law, Henry had no difficulty in re-emerging from the Tower at the appropriate moments. Next day came the bestowal of the dukedom upon Jasper, and earldoms on Thomas Stanley and Edward Courtenay, who afterwards dined together at one table in the king’s great chamber. Seven new knights of the Bath were thereafter appointed, including Reginald Bray,3 and the traditional ceremonies for their installation followed. On the Saturday morning Henry created a new pursuivant, Rouge Dragon. In the afternoon the great procession from the Tower to Westminster Hall filled the streets with pageantry. The heralds and serjeants-at-arms, the esquire of the body, the king’s secretary (Richard Fox) and almoner (Christopher Urswick), the mayor of London and Garter king of Arms, and the earls of Derby and Nottingham, of Oxford and Lincoln, preceded the King’s Grace, who was bare-headed, clad in a long gown of purple velvet edged with ermine and a rich baldric, under a royal canopy supported by four knights on foot. The only two dukes, Bedford and Suffolk, followed, with six henchmen, trapped with ‘divers arms and badges’. Sir John Cheyney, knight now of the king’s body, led the courser of state trapped in a cloth of gold and arms.

  On Sunday, 30 October Henry was anointed and crowned king. The text of the service was the same as that used for Richard III, hastily amended to omit references to a queen. Archbishop Bourchier, too infirm to perform the whole rite, performed only the anointing and crowning; the officiating bishops, John Shirwood of Durham, and Robert Stillington of Bath and Wells, were supported by Peter Courtenay of Exeter, and John Morton of Ely. The new duke of Bedford had the honour of bearing the crown, and the new earl of Derby the sword of state; Oxford bore the king’s train. To Bishop Peter Courtenay fell the agreeable task of asking the will of the people, and Thomas Kempe, bishop of London, said mass.

  The consecration and crowning, the taking of the oath,1 and the acclamation over, Henry, now king dei gracia, accompanied and supported by all his entourage, could emerge from the abbey and show himself to the populace en route again to the Tower for the banquet. At this Jasper was steward, and rode up and down on horseback, trapped with ermined cloth of gold. Sir Robert Dymoke, the hereditary king’s champion, could appear on horseback trapped this time with the arms of Cadwallader, and challenge all-comers, just as he had for Richard III two years before, and as he was going to do for Henry VIII twenty-four years later. The extreme irony of the present challenge must have struck all beholders as rich indeed. The banquet ended, proceedings lapsed, as the coronation tournament2 originally fixed for the following Sunday had been postponed until 13 November, for on Monday, 7 November the first parliament was to assemble.

  The legal problems confronting the new regime were formidable, and some of these at least had to be resolved before the parliament met. No time was lost in appointing justices and legal officers; many such appointments were made during September and October,3 and by the time Michaelmas term opened (usually 6 October), the king was in a position to consult the justices on several difficult questions. The most awkward of them was the fact that Henry himself was an attainted person, disabled in the law. The justices of the Exchequer chamber discussed this problem and decided, apparently without difficulty, that he was discharged of his attainder ipso facto on taking upon himself to reign and to be king. This evasion of the problem had at any rate the advantage of simplicity and enabled Henry to appear as a lawful person and to hold his parliament in the normal way. No other solution indeed was practicable, for it would not have been possible to annul the act of attainder in a parliament without a lawful king.1

  On Monday, 7 November, with the king seated on the throne, John Alcock, bishop of Worcester, chancellor of England since 7 October, opened the parliament with the usual pronunciatio,in the room called the Cross in the palace of Westminster.2 He gave a solemn discourse on the text Intende, prospere, procede, et regna, exhorted members to pursue not private convenience, but the public and common good, with edifying examples culled from Roman history and supported with a variety of the commonly used anthropomorphic concepts. The commons were instructed to assemble in domo sua communi to choose a speaker, and receivers and triers of petition were appointed. On the next day the commons chose a speaker but were inhibited from mentioning his name, presumably because he was a man who had been attainted by Richard III’s parliament, as one of the rebels in 1483, and one who, though he had not been in a position to put off his attainder, had already been appointed to several important offices. None the less the commons were ordered to present him next day, 9 November, which they did, coram domino rege in pleno parliamento (before the lord king in full parliament). The decision taken must have been simply to ignore the attainder, for no difficulty was raised to the appointment of the man of their choice, to wit, Thomas Lovell.3

  The primary business of the first parliament, so far as the king was concerned, was to declare his title, to reverse certain attainders and enact some new ones, to obtain financial grants and authorize certain financial arrangements, and to try to ensure observance of the laws for the better preservation of public peace and order.

  Declaration of the king’s title was made in the form of a bill put forward (nominally at least) by the commons, assented to by the lords spiritual and temporal, and by the king. The bill thus became an act of parliament, though it was not at the time enrolled as a statute. Whoever drafted the bill produced a masterpiece of terse assertion which, as a statement of the fait accompli, could scarcely have been bettered.

  To the pleasure of All mighty God, the Wealth, Prosperite;, and Suretie of this Roialme; of England, to the singular comfort of all the Kings Subjects of the same, and in avoiding of all Ambiguities and Questions, be it ordained, stablished, and enacted, by the auctorite of thys present Parliament, that the Inheritance of the Crownes of the Roialmes of England and of Fraunce, with all the preheminence and dignitie Royall to the same pertaineing, and all other Seignories to the king belonging beyond the see, with th’appurtenaunces thereto in any wise due or perteineing, be, rest, remaine and abide in the most Royall persone of our now Soveraigne Lord King Harry the Vllth, and in the heirs of hys body lawfully comen, perpetually with the grace of God so to indure, and in non other.1

  The king himself addressed the commons, showing how he had come to the right and Crown of England, by just hereditary title as well as by verum Dei judicium revealed in his victory over his enemy in the field, and declared that all subjects should have and hold all their properties, except those who offend his royal majesty.

  Henry had put off this attainder by becoming king, but a number of persons needed an act of parliament to be freed from the legal dangers and disablements. Some of the stalwarts who had been attainted under Richard III ‘late in dede and not in right king’ or under Edward IV, whether those who had rebelled and fled to the continent in 1483 or later, or whether persons who had incurred penalties for their faithful service to Henry VI, now received their alleviation. Not only the still living but some of the dead got restitution, for what it was worth – Henry VI himself, Queen Margaret of Anjou, Prince Edward, and Henry Beaufort, duke of Somerset. Margaret Beaufort had all her possessions restored, and so did Edward Stafford, heir to the dukedom of Buckingham, as well as Sir Richard and Robert Wells. The Queen Dowager, Elizabeth Woodville, was also restored to her properties. A number of lesser persons, or their heirs, received similar relief.2

  Now it was the turn of the sovereign whom the last parliament had declared to be the lawful king, to suffer the penalties of failure, along with the more important of those who fought for him.
Richard, ‘late duke of Gloucester’, calling and naming himself by usurpation King Richard III, and twenty-eight other persons, having assembled a great host at Leicester on 21 August the first year of the now sovereign lord, traitorously intending, imagining and compassing the destruction of the king’s royal person, our sovereign liege lord, levied war against him, now stood convicted and attainted of high treason, and were disabled in the law and subjected to forfeiture.1 The arbitrariness of this action was not lost on the members of the parliament, and privately, it would seem, fears were expressed for its effect on supporters of future kings on the day of battle.2

  The financial provisions made in the parliament were, on the face of it, straightforward. A subsidy of tunnage and poundage was granted for the king’s life.3 An act of resumption of all lands, etc., held by Henry VI on 2 October in the thirty-fourth year of his reign (1455) in England, Wales, Ireland, Calais, or the Marches, was passed, subject to substantial provisos.4 The duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall were annexed to the Crown, with provisos in favour of Cecily, the dowager duchess of York.5 Specific provision was made for the assignment by the treasurer of England to the treasurer of the Household for the expenses thereof of an annual sum amounting to just under £14,000, from eighty-five different stated sources.1 Similarly, rather more than £2,000 from eighteen sources was to be assigned to the keeper of the Wardrobe for its expenses.2 The intention to clarify the king’s domestic finances was doubtless good; how far the effort was successful is another matter.