35 King Henry VII Facts: Personality, Reign, Family, And More

Henry Tudor, popularly known as Henry VII, was the first ruler of the Tudor Dynasty.

From the time he seized the throne on August 22, 1485, until his death in 1509, Henry VII was the Lord of Ireland and the King of England. Henry VII of England, born on January 28, 1457, was the son of Lady Margaret Beaufort, who was the Countess of Richmond at the Pembroke Castle.

About three to four months before his birth, his father, Edmund Tudor, first Earl of Richmond, died. Owen Tudor, Henry's paternal grandfather, was a page in Henry V's court, coming from the Tudors of Penmynydd on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales.

Following military duty at the Battle of Agincourt, he advanced to one of the 'squires to the body of the king.' Owen is claimed to have married Henry V's widow, Catherine of Valois, in secret.

Edmund, Henry's father, was one of their sons. Edmund was made Earl of Richmond in 1452, and Parliament officially recognized his legitimacy.

Henry's mother, Margaret, furnished the House of Beaufort with Henry's principal claim to the English throne. She was the loving great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, the first Duke of Lancaster (Edward III's fourth son), and Katherine Swynford, his third wife.

Margaret Beaufort, Henry's mother, was a Plantagenet descendent from the Lancastrian line of the House of Plantagenet. When he was born, his mother was just 13 years old.

She went to Wales, where she was stayed safe with Henry's uncle, Jasper Tudor. When Edward IV became king and Jasper Tudor was exiled, William Herbert, a Yorkist, became their guardian.

When Warwick revived Henry VI in 1470, Herbert was executed, and Jasper Tudor brought Henry to court. Henry VI, Henry's uncle, was battling Edward IV, a constituent of the Yorkist Plantagenet dynasty, throughout Henry's early years.

Henry Tudor lived 14 years in exile in Brittany when Edward Tudor retook the crown in 1471. When his soldiers, backed by France, Scotland, and Wales, beat Edward IV's brother Richard III at the War of Bosworth Field, the end of the Wars of the Roses, he ascended to the throne.

He was also the last monarch of England to be crowned on the battlefield. He solidified his claim by courting Elizabeth of York, King Edward's daughter.

Facts About King Henry VII

Read these facts about Edmund Tudor:

Henry VII was the first Earl of Richmond. Henry's father and half-brother of Henry VI of England was a scion of the Welsh Tudors of Penmynydd.

Henry VII, the King of England, was born in Pembroke Castle and was laid to rest in Richmond palace after his death. Henry VII was just 53 years old when he died.

The reign of Henry VII was tumultuous, to say the least. As a result, some say that he was not the true monarch, causing a great deal of conflict between Britain and the houses of Lancaster and York. Others, however, maintain that despite the poor hereditary claim to the throne by Henry VII, he was a good king.

King Henry VII's Reign

Henry VII, the king of England, took his claim to the throne by right of conquest retrospectively from August 21, 1485, the day before Bosworth Field, to solidify his grasp on the crown.

As a result, everyone who fought for Richard III against him was charged with treason, and Henry VII was able to seize the estates and possessions of Richard III lawfully.

The nephew and chosen successor of Richard III, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, was spared, and the Yorkist heiress Margaret Plantagenet was named suo jure Countess of Salisbury.

He did not speak to the barons or summon Parliament until after his proclamation ceremony, which happened at Westminster Abbey on October 30, 1485.

Following his coronation, Henry VII of England issued an edict stating that any gentleman who pledged homage to him would be safe in his property and person, regardless of any past attainder.

Henry kept his promise to wed Elizabeth of York made in December 1483. They were third cousins since they were both John of Gaunt's great-great-grandchildren.

Henry married Elizabeth of York with the hopes of reconciling the Plantagenet dynastic rivalries between the Yorkists and the Lancastrians, and he was mostly successful.

However, there was enough anxiety that anybody of Plantagenet ancestry (for example, the Earl of Lincoln) was accused of plotting to take the crown.

Henry had Titulus Regius, the act declaring Edward IV's marriage illegal and his children illegitimate, repealed by Parliament, thereby legitimizing his wife.

According to trainee chroniclers Sir Clements Markham and Bertram Fields, he may have been implicated in the killing of the Princes inside the Tower since the abolition of Titulus Regius provided the Princes a greater claim to the crown than his own.

The Rennes tradition, two years before, was only feasible if Henry and his allies were confident that the Princes were already dead, according to Alison Weir. Henry consolidated his authority by separating and weakening the nobility, particularly via the forceful use of bonds and recognizances to ensure allegiance.

He also passed rules prohibiting livery and maintenance, the habit of powerful lords having huge numbers of 'retainers' who sported their noble's emblem or uniform and might be used as a private army.

After Bosworth Field, Henry started making preparations against revolt while still in Leicester. Edward, Lord of Warwick, the 10-year-old son of Edward IV's sibling George, Duke of Clarence, was the senior-surviving male of the House of York.

Before leaving for London, Henry sent Sheriff Hutton in Yorkshire to apprehend Warwick and transport him to the Tower of London. Despite these safeguards, Henry was subjected to a number of revolts during the following twelve years.

The first was the Stafford brothers' 1486 uprising, which was aided by Viscount Lovell and ended without combat. Then, in 1487, Yorkists headed by Abraham Lincoln rose out on behalf of Lambert Simnel, a young man they claimed to be Edward of Warwick.

Edward Story served as Bishop of Chichester during the majority of Henry's reign. Unlike his forefathers, Henry VII took his claim to the throne with no prior expertise in estate management or financial management.

Despite this, he became an economically responsible Tudor king throughout his reign, restoring the fortunes of a practically insolvent exchequer.

King Henry VII's Family

Henry VII of England had seven children with Elizabeth:

Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scotland as the missis of James IV and regent for their child James .

Arthur, Prince of Wales, was a successor obvious from birth until death.

Edmund titled Duke of Somerset but never officially constituted a peer, Henry VIII, Henry VII's successor, Elizabeth, Mary, Queen of France as the bride of Louis XII and Katherine are the others.

Sir Roland de Velville, alternatively Veleville, was the Constable of Beaumaris Castle when he was knighted in 1497. He is often shown as Henry VII of England's evident illegitimate offspring by a Breton woman whose name is unknown. It's impossible that this was Henry's illegitimate child.

King Henry VII's Personality

The personality of Henry VII of the Tudor Dynasty was defined in The Anglia Historia as: his physique was slim but well-built and powerful, and he stood taller than others.

His eyes were little and blue, whilst his teeth were few, poor, and blackish, his hair was white and thin, and his face was pale; his eyes were remarkably appealing.

His face was upbeat and positive, especially when speaking; his eyes were tiny and blue, his teeth were few, poor, and blackish; his hair was slender and white.

His soul was noble, smart, and cautious; his intellect was bold and steadfast, never abandoning him even in the most perilous situations.

He had a very sharp memory. He was not, however, bereft of knowledge.

He was astute and wise in governing, and no one dared to take advantage of him via deception or trickery. He was cordial and friendly, and he was as accessible as he was attentive to his guests.

His hospitality was magnificent; he enjoyed having foreigners at his court and freely bestowed favors upon them. He dealt them harshly for those of his people who owed him money and did not repay him with honor or who were merely generous with promises.

He was well-versed in maintaining his regal grandeur and everything that entails monarchy at all times and in all places. He had a lot of luck in battle, despite being more attracted to peace than to combat.

He valued justice above everything else, and as a consequence, he harshly punished violence, manslaughter, and any other kind of wrongdoing.

However, there are good contemporaneous visual records of this Tudor King and his looks in realistic images that are largely devoid of idealization.

He was tall and slim at 27, with little blue eyes that were believed to be animated and visibly poor teeth in a long, sallow face behind extremely pale hair.

Henry was amiable and vivacious, with a stately yet welcoming demeanor, and it was evident that he was exceptionally clever.

His biographer, Professor Chrimes, credited him with a great degree of personal appeal, the capacity to inspire trust, and a rising reputation for astute decisiveness even before he became king.

However, on the negative side, he may have seemed frail due to his deteriorating health.