Henry VII

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So all at once it seemed that Henry Tudor had a good claim to the throne. The Lancastrian dynasty in the male line had been wiped out; the Beauforts now had a reasonable, though not indisputable, right to be the family’s representatives in the claim to the throne. And in the Beaufort line, Margaret, Henry’s mother, was the sole heiress. But a woman claimant to the English throne was a situation unprecedented since the 12th century; no woman could hope to win support on her own account. So, discarding Margaret (and ignoring Henry IV’s denial of the Beauforts’ eligibility to the crown), the obvious heir to the Lancastrian pretension was Henry.

His uncle Jasper was not blind to the situation, nor to the danger in which Henry would stand if he now fell into Yorkist hands. Jasper took the 14-year-old boy with him to Brittany to keep him safe against the day when Henry’s chance might come to return as king.

It seemed that the time was ripe for their return in 1483, when the brother of the Yorkist King Edward IV usurped the throne of the late King’s son, the boy Edward V, becoming King himself as Richard III. Jasper won support for his invasion scheme in Brittany, at that time a Duchy independent of the French Crown. An English uprising was to coincide with the landing of the Breton army. But Providence ruled against the bid. Storms in the Channel divided Henry’s ship from the main body of his fleet, and adverse weather conditions in England weakened the forces there, dooming the venture to failure. Henry reluctantly returned to Brittany.

Richard III could not rest easily knowing that his rival was free to mount another invasion at any time and persuaded the Breton government to hand their refugee over to him. Henry learned of the plan only just in time to evade capture, escaping over the border into the Kingdom of France.

By now he had not only the Lancastrians behind him but also a coterie of disaffected Yorkists, and he was able to persuade the French King to sponsor another invasion of England. On 7th August 1485, Henry Tudor landed in his native Wales and marched east, gathering men to his colours. He confronted the army of Richard III at Bedworth in Leicestershire. When the forces joined battle on 22nd August, it seemed at first that the odds were in favour of the Yorkists: Richard III was an experienced commander, whereas Henry had never even witnessed a battle; the King had superior forces and the better position. Confident and determined to make a swift end to the battle and to rid himself forever of the pretender, Richard made a dash directly at Henry himself. But he was beaten back and then killed by the contingent of one of his own men, Lord Stanley, who joined the battle on Henry’s side in the nick of time.

It was Stanley who retrieved the fallen crown of England from the battlefield and placed it on Henry’s head. Henry would need more than luck, however, to keep it there. His prime requirement was a speedy takeover of the machinery of Government, those departments of Chancery and Exchequer, of the royal household, which medieval kings ruled through their Council. But to do so, Henry would need money. To get money he had to call a Parliament. Yet, by all that was basic to English law, only a king could call Parliament. So Henry must show that he had become king already whether by heredity or conquest was immaterial and summon Parliament as undisputed sovereign.

Having sent out his writs to Members, he had himself crowned a week before Parliament met on 7th November 1485. There was thus no possibility of Parliament’s claiming to have made Henry king by their consent, by agreeing to honour his right by conquest or descent. All the Members were required to do was to pass a brief statute which ordained, established and enacted that the crown be, rest, remain and abide in the most royal person of our now sovereign lord King Henry VII and in the heirs of his body. This left Henry’s title open to no lawful challenge.

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