Summary Henry VII

Rebellion and reaction 1485-1498-
Lovell conspiracy-

 Early rebellion
 Not serious in reality, but they didn’t know that at the time
 Trouble in midlands, north and Wales as Henry embarked on a royal progress
 Led by Lord Lovell and the Stafford brothers
 Henry heard of the plot and foiled it
 The royal progress continued



Yorkshire rebellion 1489-

 Henry was charging a tax to help Brittany against France which led to a dissent in Yorkshire
who also had to defend against Scottish attacks
 Earl of Northumberland was murdered while trying to collect the tax
 Led by Sir John Egremont, a Yorkist supporter
 The rising was easily crushed but the money was not collected
 Showed that ruling the north needed compromise



Cornish rebellion 1497-

 More serious but had the same cause as the Yorkshire rebellion
 This time Henry needed money to defend against Scotland
 The Cornish didn’t see why they should pay
 15,000 supporters
 Crushed easily by a 25,000 strong army
 Leaders tortured and executed; others heavily fined



Summary-

 2 taxation rebellions showed that the country was not prepared to fund campaigns to
defend the Tudor monarchy
 Cornish rebellion was 12 years into Henry’s rule-still not secure
 He was not prepared to give second chances by then



Pretenders to the throne-
The first pretender- Lambert Simnel-

 Claimed to be the Earl of Warwick
 Early threat within a year of coming to the throne
 Supported by Margaret of Burgundy- sent money and 2000 mercenaries
 Henry offered them a pardon and paraded the real Earl of Warwick but the rebellion
continued
 8,000 men landed in Lancashire and marched south in June 1487

,  In the end it lacked popular support- people fed up with chaos or disliked the brutal Irish
force with Simnel
 But Henry had to fight at the battle of stoke (last battle of the wars of the roses)
 Showed his vulnerability and how much his monarchy was on a knife’s edge
 Many of his men held back until they could see the outcome, much like at Bosworth



The second pretender- Perkin Warbeck-

 Claimed to be Edward IV’s second son, Richard Duke of York
 As Richard was already dead, he couldn’t be paraded
 Likely to have been a plot involving Charles VIII and Margaret of Burgundy
 This international element made it dangerous due to poor relations with France and
Scotland
 Warbeck had support from France but had to move to Flanders after the Treaty of Etaples
where he had Margaret’s support
 Henry broke off the cloth trade and took it very seriously



 Holy Roman emperor Maximilian also supported Warbeck, but lacked finance which helped
Henry
 Henry used spies to find out and pass attainders against conspirators, including Stanley, a
previous supporter
 Warbeck’s invasion failed and he fled to Ireland
 When he failed in Ireland he fled to Scotland and married James IV’s cousin
 James gave him 15,000 troops to invade England but by now he lacked support and went
back to Scotland
 But this time James abandoned him as he was going to marry Henry’s daughter, Margaret



 Warbeck went back to Ireland again in 1497 but he had even less support
 He sailed to England to capitalise on the Cornish rebellion but was driven back
 Gave himself up in November 1497
 He tried to run away and was put in the tower
 Rumoured to have plotted with the Earl of Warwick- both were executed
 Bit of an embarrassment all around



Evaluate Yorkist threat-
 The York threat continued- Edmund de la pole- Henry refused to make him Duke of Suffolk
 He ended up freeing to France and then to the court of the Holy Roman Empire
 Henry’s third son Edmund died in 1500 and oldest died in 1502, then his wife in 1503-
everything rested on his son Henry
 Rest of the Suffolks were imprisoned and acts of attainders passed
 Didn’t feel secure until 1506- persuaded Philip of Burgundy to hand Suffolk over if he spared
his life
 Few Yorkists left