21st April 2018
Henry VII died on this day in 1509, at 52 years old. His death was due to tuberculosis, and he was buried at Westminster Abbey next to his wife Elizabeth of York, who had died six years previously.
Henry had ruled since 1485, though his rise to the throne was not expected. His claim was through his mother, Margaret Beaufort, who was a great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt and his mistress, Katherine Swynford. Their children were legitimised by King Richard II after John finally married her.
This tenuous claim put Henry in a vulnerable position during the Wars of the Roses, known at the time as The Cousins’ War, for it was cousin against cousin – the House of Lancaster against the House of York. But Henry would soon become Lancaster’s leading claimant, when all the other male heirs died or were killed.
When the York king Edward IV died and his brother Richard III usurped the throne, support for Henry and the Lancastrians swelled. His mother Margaret negotiated a marriage to Edward IV’s daughter Elizabeth of York, combining claims of both houses.
Henry now returned from exile in France to Wales, his birthplace, and where he had great support due to his Welsh ancestry from his father, Edmund Tudor. From there, he marched to England and met and defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. Henry declared himself king by right of conquest and is the last king of England to win his throne on the battlefield.
He also kept his promise to marry Elizabeth of York. Their union was symbolised with the Tudor rose – which combined the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster. While his reign was troubled with plots and attempts on his throne, his crowning and his marriage is still seen as the end of the Wars of the Roses and the beginning of the Tudor monarchy.
Images: King Henry VII by Unknown Netherlandish artist, 1505. NPG 416, © National Portrait Gallery, London. Tudor Rose, via Wikimedia Commons
