This is interesting as it is most certainly false, but it served Henry’s purpose and reinforced the ideology that the crown was taken by right rather than conquest. Vergil recites how he was widely welcomed, and the overarching theme of his coronation and early days on the throne was that of a country rescued from the throes of civil war and tyranny.īefore the ceremony, according to the French chronicler Jean Molinet, Henry VII proclaimed that if there were any with a better claim than himself to the throne, Henry VII would “himself help to crown him but no-one appeared”. Henry was “crouned kyng by the whole assent as well of the comons as of the nobilite”, and he was received with “all honour and gladness” on 30th October 1485. Grand public displays were “magnificent vehicles of Tudor state propaganda” and for Henry VII public displays were in “direct relation to his dynastic insecurity”. One of the first major opportunities Henry Tudor had to display his legitimacy was his coronation. Even fifty-six years after Bosworth, Henry VIII perceived such a threat from those with royal blood (direct Plantagenet blood especially) that he had Margaret Pole executed in 1541 despite her being a woman of sixty-seven years old. For his son, too, legitimacy was an issue always at the forefront of his mind. ![]() The dynasty was plagued with insecurity when Henry VII took the crown there were other heirs lingering with much better claims than himself (the earls of Lincoln and Warwick, for example), and the string of pretenders to the throne made it imperative that the first Tudor king stress his legitimacy. The chances of Tudor winning the day at Bosworth – his first major battle – were relatively low.Īs a result, following the battle the Tudors were keen to impress upon the nation their legitimacy at every opportunity they could. ![]() Henry Tudor was one of the “unlikeliest” men ever to ascend the throne of England, having spent most of his life in exile in France without even the experience of running his own household. When, in August 1485, Henry VII claimed “glorious victorie” at the battle of Bosworth, the Tudors were a family of little importance, their nobility claimed from the second marriage of Henry VI’s mother Katherine of Valois, and through Margaret Beaufort’s descent through John of Gaunt from Edward III. A Vehicle for Legitimacy: Early Tudor Coronations
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