Kings of England - The Monarchs who made England

the man known to history as alfred the great was born at wantage in berkshire in the late 840s the exact year of his birth is a matter of some dispute among scholars though all are agreed it was some time between 847 and 849 with most favoring the latter half of that period his father was ethelwolf meaning the noble wolf in old english in 839 ethelwolf had succeeded his father as the king of wessex one of the major anglo-saxon kingdoms which ruled over 9th century england however despite being rulers of wessex the family quite possibly had a kentish origin and were in effect blowings to wessex in any event the wessex line of kings had not descended from father to son in the 8th century and it was only in the early 8th century that the direct line was established thus bringing ethel wolfe to power in 839 alfred's mother was osborne the daughter of oslak the pinkerna or butler of the wessex royal household her father was an important officer in his own right and was descended from a family of jutes a small anglo-saxon tribe which had played a prominent part in the establishment of a political state on the isle of wight off the southern coast of england one later chronicler described osbor as a very religious woman and of noble character and it is possible that alfred took after his mother to a significant degree there are no portraits of alfred extant or images of him on contemporary coins from which we might glean evidence about his physical appearance while near contemporary written descriptions are uninformative generally playing up his handsomeness by comparison with his contemporary rulers without providing any major details of his actual appearance whether these general descriptions are accurate or not is hard to say with any certainty alfred was born into a medium-sized family he was the youngest of six children having four brothers and one sister etzel with of his four brothers one ethelstan the eldest of the five boys would die before he could succeed their father as king of wessex but each of the other three brothers ethel bald ethel birth and ethel red would each spend a short term as king of wessex before alfred's much longer reign commenced given the paucity of sources for the early middle ages it is perhaps unsurprising that we know little about alfred's earlier life the best contemporary or near contemporary account of his life and reign by far is to be found in the life of king alfred written by a welsh monk by the name of assa in the later years of alfred's life assa knew alfred personally and was a learned member of his court in the late 80s and 890s consequently his biography life is an invaluable account of the king's life though one which needs to be handled with some caution in terms of assa's possible tendency to exaggerate alfred's achievements the only comparably valuable source for alfred's life is found in the early stages of the anglo-saxon chronicle a large series of animals on english history between the 9th and 12th century these records are bulked out by numerous royal charters which survived and other extraneous material of the time equally significant are alfred's own considerable volumes of writings some on philosophy and ecclesiastical matters and some on the law codes and politics of late 9th century england slim though these pickings might be overall by comparison with the records for more modern monarchs they still make alfred by far and away the best recorded monarch of any english kingdom between the fall of the roman empire in the 5th century and the start of norman rule in the 11th century it is from assa that we learn one of the most significant facts about alfred's early life he did not learn to read until he was 12 years of age though this was not untypical for a time when the majority of people were illiterate it is evidence of a late literary blooming for the king who would be remembered in subsequent times as much for his scholarship as his actions on the battlefield another major event in his childhood occurred in the mid 850s when alfred was around seven or eight years of age when he was taken by his father on a pilgrimage to rome a journey which saw them passing through the court of charles the bald king of the franks and ruler of the largest christian kingdom of western europe other details of alfred's early life are more suspect asar reported that when the future king was just six years old his mother set a challenge whereby she would give an ornate book of anglo-saxon poems to whichever of her children could memorize them all first alfred won the prize but there is no determining whether this was an actual event which hinted at a precocious ability for learning or whether alfred's biographer simply made the event up as a literary device to highlight alfred's later scholarship more certain is the fact that alfred suffered from variable health and would do for his entire life an illness which scholars are now generally agreed on was crohn's disease an inflammatory bowel disease it probably contributed to his premature death in 899 when he was just in his very early 50s the world alfred was born into was changing more rapidly than perhaps even contemporaries could have understood following the collapse of the western roman empire in the 5th century western europe had fragmented into a number of successful states ruled over by various germanic tribes such as the franks in france the visigoths in spain and the anglo-saxons in much of britain nearly three centuries of disorder followed a period typically called the dark ages dominated by decentralized weak states this period was then tail-ended by the invasion and conquest of spain in the early 8th century by a combined arab berber muslim army however the muslim advance was checked in 732 when the franks under charles martell defeated them at tour and pushed them back into spain thereafter europe began to make significant strides towards rejuvenating itself notably in france and western germany which was united into a single kingdom under the rule of martel's ancestor charles the great or charlemagne during his reign a resurgence of imperial power occurred such that this period is typically known as the carolingian renaissance chalman was also crowned at rome as the first holy roman emperor a political entity which would last for over 1 000 years resurgence was mirrored in england throughout much of the sixth and seventh centuries the country was a miasma of petty kingdoms such as bernicia dera kent sussex wessex and mercier each ruling over a region stretching little beyond one or two of england's modern day counties that in the seventh century a handful of these states began to gain greater power and control over their neighbors creating more unified and centralized kingdoms in particular mercia emerged in the course of the 8th century as the dominant power in england by the late 8th century what has become known as the mercian supremacy had reached its greatest extent with murcia stretching throughout all of central england north to the river humber and south as far as the mouth of the river seven yet some kingdoms had avoided being conquered by the mercians in the north the kingdom of northumbria ruled a large area north of the river humber to the east was to be found the kingdom of east anglia covering the counties of norfolk and suffolk and some of the fenn's region finally in the south a number of small kingdoms retained their independence including kent and cornwall but the foremost of these independent southern principalities was the kingdom of wessex covering the modern day counties of devon dorset hampshire somerset wiltshire and berkshire it was into this kingdom that alfred was born moreover wessex was ascendant by the 9th century in the face of a weakening mercian state but all was not well as we will see shortly in the dying years of the 8th century a new and malicious force had begun making itself known from across the north sea in scandinavia this was the political equilibrium which existed as alfred was growing up the kingdom of wessex was also growing ever stronger with kent fully amalgamated into wessex while cornwall the last independent portion of the west country was effectively subjugated by wessex between the 830s and the 850s but there was also increasing family tension within the royal family of wessex at this time we have already seen that alfred accompanied his father to the european mainland in the mid 850s on pilgrimage to rome and to visit the court of the frankish kings when he returned in 856 ethelwolf faced an internal challenge within his family as his eldest son ethel bald sought to displace him the son was supported by several senior figures within the kingdom of wessex namely the el dorman of somerset and the bishop of sherborne consequently ethel wolfe was not entirely able to see off this challenge from his son and a compromise agreement was reached whereby ethelbold now ruled the core kingdom of wessex with his father essentially demoted to ruling over the kentish parts of the realm this arrangement continued beyond his reign when etherwolf died in 858 the next eldest son ethel bert took over the kentish branches of the kingdom yet this was a fluid situation and when ethel bald died just two years later in 860 ethel bert effectively reunited wessex and kent under his sole leadership a pattern which ethel read favored in 865 when ethel bert died and he succeeded as a consequence when alfred himself succeeded he would not have had the prior experience of ruling kent as a scion of the greater kingdom of wessex conversely he would also not have to share his kingdom and he would succeed to a regime where power was centralized in his hands rather than being divided amongst other extended family members before that succession took place though wessex was plunged into crisis the first viking raid in the british isles occurred in 793 when lindisfarne monastery in northeast england was attacked intermittent raids continued throughout the first half of the 9th century generally striking at coastal regions and often being confined to targets in the north of england and along the eastern seaboard yet as destructive as these raids were they were largely ephemeral with the vikings rarely establishing any lasting presence in the british isles this all began to change from around 865 when several armies arrived in the north and began to set down seemingly permanent routes the forest was led by haftan ragnason a danish warlord who commanded what has been termed the great heathen army in 865. the speed of the conquests was remarkable the kingdom of northumbria was effectively overrun in two to three years between 865 and 867 east anglia had become part of the territory of the vikings ordains by the end of 870 simultaneously the kingdom of mercia the once predominant power in england lost an extensive proportion of its territory in 868 and 869 though it maintained its independence for the present time in some instances the anglo-saxon rulers were allowed to retain their positions albeit as vassals of the danes but gradually the main viking leaders began to supplant them wessex was not unaffected by this with mercia and east anglia largely under their control by 870 the way was cleared for haftan to begin striking into the south of england consequently in late 870 and early 871 a series of viking raids has been carried out against wessex though the southern anglo-saxons were not entirely over-matched several of these had been repelled with victories for ethel red as such there were signs even before alfred's succession that the danes were certainly not invincible and would not be able to overrun wessex with the same ease as they had northumbria east anglia and mercia that succession would come just weeks later in 871 as ethelwood's reign proved similarly brief to his older brothers he died when he was perhaps as young as 25 or 26 of unknown causes and although he left behind two sons these were still in their infancy given the crisis aroused by the viking invasions and the movement of the danes southwards towards wessex at the time of ethelwood's death in 871 the obvious decision was made alfred would be king as he was the better choice to confront the crisis wessex found itself in that emergency would dominate the first years of alfred's reign the situation turned especially ominous in the spring of 871 as a new army of vikings arrived from denmark led by a commander who would soon take up the position of king of east anglia his name was guthrum he would become the key figure amongst the danes in the south for the next 20 years as haftan ragnason eventually turned his attentions towards eastern ireland clashes were soon occurring again in southern england alfred won some and lost others for instance an encounter at ashdown in the berkshire downs was a victory for alfred but other setbacks ensured that the danes were soon able to make forays into the heartland of the kingdom of wessex itself around wiltshire and hampshire then suddenly guthrum simply decided to turn his attentions elsewhere there seems little doubting that alfred and his advisors in wessex agreed to a black tax or dane gelt in order to have some raid stopped but guthrum was also distracted by events elsewhere while halfdam had reduced mercier to a considerable extent a portion of the kingdom had been left independent and guthrum now turned west to fully conquer this in 872 he would not resume his attacks on wessex for several years giving the southerners a respite in which to regroup and giving alfred an opportunity to begin introducing military reforms there were several aspects to the military reforms undertaken during alfred's reign in order to more fully secure wessex against the viking threat one of the key aspects concerned was what was known as the feared a species of anglo-saxon militia drawn from the freemen of wessex those marshaled under the feared were expected to provide a certain amount of day's military service to the king each year under alfred this was divided in two between those who would be at home in wessex and those who would be on active military duty exactly what this meant in practical terms at the time is not one hundred percent clear but it seems likely that alfred instituted a system whereby up to half the population of fighting age males in wessex could be called upon at one time if a severe military emergency such as had presented itself in 871 occurred again simultaneously the shire feared in each part of the kingdom of wessex would be responsible for defending those regions against localized raids a second major reform concerned the navy alfred was generally lionized by historians of later years as being the man who also began to establish england's great tradition of maritime dominance in the english channel and the north atlantic certainly he began patronizing the building of ships to a new format these being powered by sixty oars in this respect alfred was a pioneer and the sixty ore ship was a staple of english navies for many years to come yet there is a danger of placing too much emphasis on alfred's achievements in this particular respect the anglo-saxons in various kingdoms throughout england would have had a strong naval tradition throughout the early middle ages and we cannot conclude that alfred simply built a navy where none had existed in wessex prior to his reign the third and final aspect of alfred's military revolution was doubtlessly the most important this lay in the field of fortification in the course of his reign a chain of forts was built throughout the kingdom of wessex these were often built from scratch though some did reuse the older remains of roman or iron age defensive sites a burr as these fortifications were termed was built within 20 miles or so of every saxon settlement within wessex with a particular proliferation in the coastal regions given this it is clear that they were intended as refuge centers for the anglo-saxons of wessex for times when viking raids were occurring to each of these burrs there were then a lot at a specific number of hides these were a form of land measurement but in this instance were being used to calculate how many men from the local surrounding region would have to provide service during the year in order to first build then later both maintain and defend the bur extraordinarily the system allowed for the mobilization of 27 000 men throughout the kingdom of wessex to serve in some capacity within the burr system even if this figure was never fully mobilized even half this amount of men would have ensured that the burr system played a very considerable role indeed in securing wessex against the viking threat throughout alfred's reign and beyond into the 10th century we are extremely fortunate to have a detailed account of how this system worked found amongst the ketone manuscripts in the british library in london is a document known as the burgle heidage this is an account of the chain of the forts which were established through the bur system together with details of the arrangements for their maintenance and defense although the burgle heidage evidently post-dates alfred's reign perhaps being of the 920s internal evidence suggests it drew on an earlier version that had been in use during alfred's reign itself as such it is a record of a complex system of administration being used to ensure the security of the entirety of southern england during alfred's reign while all these innovations were only just beginning by the late 870s whatever benefits they could convey were soon very much needed in 874 guthrum had completed the conquest of murcia and installed a puppet ruler named seal wolf to rule over the region with western england now pacified he turned his attentions back southwards in 876 to wessex the only major power in england which still resisted the danes operating from around the cambridge region a series of attacks were launched by guthrum on exeter clashes followed in this region for months to come often with vague offers of peace the swapping of hostages and the paying of ransoms during the course of these clashes alfred had the closest call of his reign during the twelfth night celebrations on the 6th of january 878 guthrum launched a surprise attack on alfred's court at chippenham in wiltshire taken completely by surprise the wessex court was overwhelmed alfred himself only narrowly escaped and ended up hiding in the marshes of somerset for several weeks with a small band of followers attempting to regroup and plan their retaliation meanwhile guthrum and his danes had free reign throughout wessex during the spring of 870. however it would not last long as the spring wore on alfred gathered his forces about him and was soon in the field attempting to prosecute gothrum this would culminate in a famous battle at eddington in wiltshire in the first days of the summer the battle of eddington was the most significant military engagement fought by alfred during his reign it is typically understood to have occurred between the 6th and the 8th of may 878 near the modern day town of eddington in wiltshire unfortunately contemporary accounts of the engagement are lacking in precise details concerning what happened yet it seems plausible that alfred's forces considerably outnumbered guthrums the danes in england were increasingly divided in the late 870s and guthrum appears to have had little aid from halfdam further north hence guthrum's raiding party would have been smaller in size than previous ones to have attacked southward by way of contrast alfred had called up a levy on his way to eddington in early may and had recruited many more men from the counties of somerset wiltshire and hampshire as a consequence he might have had a substantial numerical advantage at eddington when the battle commenced a week later the details of the battle itself are equally thin on the ground indeed we do not even know where exactly in the wider eddington area the battle actually took place of the engagement itself we know from asser's life that alfred and his anglo-saxons used a dense shield wall against the entire force of danes leading to considerable loss of life before the invaders broke off the army of wessex then pursued them towards the fortress the danes had occupied in the region at chippenham a siege now ensued for two weeks before the danes starving from a lack of resources sued for peace victory at eddington paved the way for the negotiation of the most significant peace terms agreed upon between alfred and a viking lord during his reign the treaty of wedmore was a capitulation by guthrum under the terms of it the danish king of east anglia and 30 of his leading followers were forced to convert to christianity they were also to leave the lands of the kingdom of wessex and move back into the region beyond its northern periphery effectively east anglia this was not an unheard of arrangement between the anglo-saxons and danes often resulting in little more than a temporary cessation of hostilities but there is evidence that wedmore was a more substantial and long-lasting peace agreement and although he took his time in doing so guthrum did eventually bring his followers into east anglia and largely honored the treaty whilst years later in the second half of the 10th century the english kings were symbolically marking the anniversary of the battle of eddington indicating that people at the time and in the decades that followed ascribed considerable significance to the victory at eddington and the terms agreed at wedmore perhaps most crucially it firmly established the idea throughout england that the kingdom of wessex would not capitulate to the viking incursions as easily as their counterparts in northumbria east anglia and murcia had in recent times under the terms of the treaty of wedmore the boundary between alfred's domains and those of guthrums was fixed along the course of the river thames and extended westward towards bedford accordingly east anglia became the frontier of what has been termed the danelaw the area that danish control and danish law was confined to in another sense it was also an opportunistic agreement between the two to divide up the rump of what remained of the kingdom of mercia and each take a piece another significant aspect of the treaty of wedmore was that alfred received london the city was not the primary city of england which it would subsequently become at this stage but it did house a number of significant mints and other civic buildings and alfred would take steps to develop it further in the 80s with the defeat of gothram and the establishment of a somewhat secure peace and border between wessex and the vikings alfred was free to begin actually ruling without the threat of invasion for the first time in his reign prior to his own accession to the throne in 871 alfred had already become a married man in 868 he was joined with ellsworth the daughter of mercy and noblemen ethel red moosel they would have five children that we are aware of the girls were ethel fled ethel gefu and effort amongst whom ethel fled was perhaps the most prominent as she would later marry into the mercy and royal family of the two sons edward and ethel were edward would eventually go on to succeed his father as the king of the anglo-saxons ruling for a quarter of a century as a highly significant king in his own right many matters of government concerned alfred in the eight eighties and eight nineties for instance he and his advisors were deeply aware of the critical importance of putting the kingdom's finances on a steady path as a means of preventing future incursions by the danes from being successful indeed the reason we know so much about the burr system of fortifications which were erected throughout southern england during his reign was that the burgle heidage is essentially a record of how the entire system was financed by taking payments from specific amounts of land throughout wessex the burgle heidage is in its own right a statement about the formalization of the finances of the kingdom of wessex and the improvement of the system whereby taxes were collected and administered alfred's own will also attests to the success of his efforts to put the finances of the kingdom of wessex on a more secure footing and there is evidence to suggest that the nascent states reserves of coin were at a greater extent in the latter parts of alfred's reign than they had been at almost any previous date two thousand pounds of silver were distributed under the terms of his will a huge sum which indicates the affluence of the kingdom of wessex by the end of the 9th century how might we explain this sudden boom in the wessex exchequer beyond the simple benefits of administrative reorganization some scholars have suggested that alfred had a keen interest in developing the tin and silver mines of southern england and these brought in some of the kingdom's additional revenues in the 880s and 890s similarly the expansion of the kingdom would have generated additional revenue notably the incorporation of the trading center of london into the kingdom of wessex increasing trade with the vikings of the north sea along the southern ports of england might also have brought in additional revenue but it is clear that one critical plank of alfred's increasing revenue stream in the 80s and 890s was that he was extracting his own bribes from the danes to the north to stay out of their affairs this is striking the tables had turned greatly from the first years of his reign such that wessex was not capable of being the aggressor on occasion against the danes of east anglia and mercy the affluence of the kingdom in the second half of the rain is most strikingly seen in the coinage issued during alfred's reign at the height of the emergency of the 870s the coins being issued in wessex were heavily debased with a much lower silver content a development which has interesting parallels elsewhere in europe during the 9th century the pattern being that whenever the vikings began attacking a region persistently the silver content of coins dropped as the native rulers began desperately trying to hire more soldiers to combat the invaders yet this debased coinage in wessex during the 870s quickly gave way in the 80s to a proper coinage with a pre-viking silver content the second half of alfred's reign in the late 80s and 890s saw a silver penny circulating in southern england which had one of the highest silver contents seen in england during the early middle ages a remarkable indication of how the political fortunes of the kingdom of wessex changed during alfred's reign part of this financial success was due to london having become a part of the kingdom of wessex as a result of the treaty of wedmore in 778 the roman city of londinium had perhaps a population of as many as sixty thousand people at the height of the roman presence in britain between the second and fourth centuries but it was almost entirely abandoned in the fifth century following the roman withdrawal from the province in 410 it is unclear when the site began to be re-inhabited but by the early 8th century it was described by the anglo-saxon scholar bead as a trading center for merchants from overseas it benefited considerably from being under mercy and rule thereafter with important mints for coins being located there despite this the wars of the mid 9th century did disrupt the city as such it required some attention in the 80s alfred ordered extensive repairs to be carried out on the old roman walls while the defensive ditch was also re-cut these effectively set the boundaries of the city for several centuries to come and as with so much else in england alfred's reign started a process whereby london began to occupy a greater space in england's urban landscape additionally lands were allocated to some of wessex's soldiers around the settlement at london in the 880s and the divisions and location of these continue to impact on the street plan which exists in london today between cheapside and the thames it is an indication of the breadth of alfred's wider achievements that his role as a substantial early english lawmaker is not amongst his most well-known accomplishments and yet he was highly successful in this regard too we are fortunate to have a copy of alfred's own law book or law code which he issued either in the late 80s or early 890s on the surface his approach towards the law was quite traditional and much of his law code was based on an older wessex law code instituted by king ein the early 8th century ruler of the kingdom a copy of whose own laws were appended to alfred's equally the mosaic law codes and directives of the early papacy were invoked all to designate alfred's approach firmly as being respectful of both divine and temporal precedents but even with this respect for his forebears alfred did introduce innovations the most significant was contained in an opening clause in which alfred's law code discusses the keeping of oath and pledge here the notion of what constituted loyalty to the ruler was being invoked throughout the law code loyalty to the king was closely associated with obedience to god and the past laws and as such harsh penalties could be imposed for those who disobeyed the ruling power legal scholars have consequently argued that the origins of the crimes of felony and treason can as a result be traced back to alfred's law code in this respect the legal reforms of alfred's reign established a key plank of the concept of royal power and legal practices which have remained in one form or another cornerstones of the english legal system down to the present day generally for alfred's reign we are lucky to have had a wide range of documentary evidence which informs us about everything from the state finances and administration to the reform of the military to his patronage of scholarship however there is one considerable and somewhat strange blind spot for his rule we know very little about how the church fared in the nearly 30 years he ruled between 871 and 899 it is safe to assume that the wealth and fabric of the church in southern england had been extensively compromised by the viking invasions and the wars that followed it is somewhat strange then that we do not hear of alfred making any concerted effort to reform or rebuild ecclesiastical institutions during his time as king he was certainly a pious ruler but we do not see the activity which might have reflected this there are some glimmers of evidence for instance alfred founded new monasteries at athony and shaftsbury the first new monastic houses in southern england in over a hundred years of course this reticence to patronage the church too extensively may have been due to fears about the resumption of the war with the scandinavians and the possibility that churches and monasteries in the south of england would prove easy targets for the danes of east anglia or overseas vikings if they once again went to war with wessex victory at eddington in 878 and the subsequent treaty of wedmore did not bring conflict between wessex and the danes to a permanent conclusion as the 80s and 890s saw intermittent conflict though not quite the same existential threat to wessex's future that had been there in the 870s one particularly large outburst occurred from 892 but by this time alfred's military reforms and the burr system had taken such effect that the danes found it much more difficult to penetrate south into wessex often the clashes took the shape of engagements around the thames area on the frontier between east anglia and the northeastern extremities of alfred's domains thus this large initiative of the early 890s produced little tangible results for the danes involved a striking contrast to haftan's conquests in the late 860s and guthrums in the 870s thereafter the vikings in the wider north sea region began to turn their attentions elsewhere often to the northern regions of france where they were carving out a large principality in the normandy region with the threat posed by the danes reduced though never entirely vanquished alfred was able from the mid-80s to turn his attention to his overriding passion the development of a learned court at winchester the capital of wessex he envisaged himself presiding over such a court as a latter-day wise king solomon and there were three major facets to the court of scholarship which was developed at winchester from 885 onwards alfred's own writings and scholarly output the court of scholars which he developed around himself and the royal family and the educational system which he patronized at the capital of the kingdom of wessex perhaps the most remarkable aspect of alfred the man as well as alfred the king was the breadth of his own learning and scholarship the extent of alfred's extant works is very considerable indeed they include his law book some translations of pope gregory's book of pastoral rule similar writings on the 5th century roman philosopher boethius's canonical work the consolation of philosophy and the church father augustine soliloquism as well as texts on the first 50 psalms from the book of psalms in the old testament these texts are unique for the early middle ages in expressing the world view and inner thoughts of a reigning european monarch the alfredian renaissance in learning certainly cannot be said to have compared with that which had been achieved by charlemagne in western europe in the late 8th and early 9th centuries but there is no comparison between the two monarchs who actually oversaw them charlemagne was illiterate throughout his life unable to read or write while alfred left behind his own substantial corpus of works even if alfred's political and military career had not been as significant as it was he is still a figure who would be worth studying exclusively for his scholarly output exactly when alfred composed these works is not clear although it has been observed that asa and his biography of the king most likely written around 893 does not refer to the majority of alfred's writings hence it might well be the case that alfred's literary output was the product of a particularly rich period of scholarship in his later years the texts by alfred which have survived point towards an individual who was concerned above all else for knowledge for its own sake but also in order to act as a good king alfred conceived of himself as a latter-day king solomon a wise king who would guide his people this certainly explains his pronouncements in some of his writings that the people of britain had previously prospered when learning flourished amongst them additionally the focus of alfred's scholarship is indicative of how he conceived of himself as a king in particular the fact that alfred chose to study some of the works of pope gregory the first is significant gregory had served as the bishop of rome between 590 and his death in 604 sanctified as saint gregory the great he is generally understood to have been the most important of the early popes not least because of his conversion work in sending missionaries to england notably augustine of canterbury and polinus of york in studying his writings alfred was effectively trying to understand better the thought of the individual who had paved the way for the political union of england gregory having already begun the religious unification of britain by initiating the christianization of its inhabitants beyond his own writings alfred was possessed of a vision to change wessex into a kingdom of learning to that end he established a school at the royal court on one level to educate his children and on the other to begin inculcating a better standard of scholarship at the heart of government one which would trickle down through the nobility of wessex he also imagined that he would learn from these scholars himself one who joined him in the mid-80s was his future biographer assa three others are noteworthy the first was plegemund a learned hermit who as well as being invited to join alfred's court of scholars was also appointed as archbishop of canterbury in 890 a third important figure was grimbald of saint burton a benedictine monk from france grimbald was persuaded to come to england by alfred perhaps in order to pass on to alfred's court the ideas he would have picked up on the continent about frankish law and government but the most significant of the members of alfred's court of scholars was probably john the old saxon a german by birth john was a revered scholar and was also appointed by alfred as the abbot of the monastery of atholme in 888 shortly after his arrival from continental europe some small fragments of his poems demonstrating knowledge of several languages including greek have survived a rarity for the time and one which indicates his scholarship the king's patronage of learning and education extended beyond this hiring and appointment of famed scholars a rudimentary education system was also being formed in the late eight eighties and eight nineties as with many of the other reforms alfred instituted the model was an education system which chalmaine had patronized in france almost a century earlier alfred's school was at the royal court at winchester incredibly for its time it seems to have included the children of families of lesser birth as well as those hailing from wessex's noble dynasties but critically it also prized study in the vernacular alfred was clear in his own writings that latin was still exalted above all other languages but he was also the first anglo-saxon king that we know of to have understood that old english was a valuable literary tongue in its own right it is hard to assess how successful all these initiatives were alfred's goal surely in creating a court of scholars and an educational system for the children of winchester was to create a learned group of governors and administrators who would be better placed to run the kingdom of wessex efficiently in years to come perhaps he was successful in this but it is not wholly clear our records for the 10th century are so thin that it is difficult to determine the extent of his success in this regard yet if judged on its own merits it is true in any event that his patronage of scholarship and education and attempts to create a learned society at winchester was admirable in its own right but as profoundly important a figure as alfred was from a literary and scholarly perspective and as monumentally significant his reign was in securing the survival of the kingdom of wessex and with it the last vestiges of anglo-saxon independence from danish rule he is best known as the founder of the english nation alfred had expanded wessex's sphere of control north and obtained direct control over london although murcia was allowed a nominal independence after wedmore moreover an alliance of sorts was negotiated with many of the rulers of wales and as such by the 880s alfred could lay claim to directly ruling over all of southern england and having a nominal control over much of the central parts of the country and suzerainty further west this forging of a union between the anglo-saxon people of england who were not directly under the control of the danes is highly significant contemporaries were fully aware of the importance of it it is unsurprising then to find that in the late 80s there are official treaties increasingly referring to alfred as acting on behalf of all the english people while some of the surviving charters from this time now refer to alfred as king of the anglo-saxons rather than just king of wessex his counselor and biographer assa was even more ambitious in referring to alfred as ruler of all the christians of the island of britain that is an element of hubris in this for sure when alfred eventually died in 899 he certainly did not rule over england in the sense that we would understand it today but he had laid down the conceptual groundwork for a centralized state on the island of britain which would unite the disparate anglo-saxon peoples under one king that is alfred's achievement as the founder of the english nation alfred died on the 26th of october 899 when he was just in his early 50s the exact cause of his death is unknown but it is plausible that it was associated with the poor health he had suffered from for his entire life he was buried in the old minster in winchester in what became a family crypt sadly for an individual who was revered as the father of the english nation several future english kings including william the conqueror and henry viii disturbed his resting place in the early 12th century his remains were removed to hide abby then during henry viii's reign hyde abbey was dissolved and demolished leading to alfred and his family members being effectively forgotten about at the site in a field they lay underground for two and a half centuries before being exhumed during construction of a prison in the late 18th century at which time the coffins were destroyed and the bones scattered around the area a wholly ignominious end for the remains of the father of the english nation the kingdom alfred left behind was more fortunate he was succeeded by his son edward who in the course of his 25-year reign was able to conquer east anglia from the danes his son athelston alfred's grandson was able to complete the destruction of the viking kingdoms and unite england when he amalgamated northumbria into wessex in the course of the late 1920s viking raids and intermittent conflict would continue throughout the 10th century but athelston was effectively the first anglo-saxon king to rule all of england perhaps that is no better sign of this consolidation of power within england than when athelstan invaded scotland in the 930s a pattern which would be repeated in the centuries to come and could be said to mark the beginning of the modern english state at least in terms of power projection there is no doubting alfred's immense contribution to english history and the development of the english state his first action as king of wessex in the 870s was to finally stop the viking incursions into england which had largely destroyed the kingdoms of mercia east anglia and northumbria further north this he successfully accomplished within a few years of becoming king in part through a military revolution which reorganized the manner in which land forces were used in wessex while he also reformed wessex's navy and as a result he was victorious at the battle of eddington in 878 and stopped the southward advance of the danes this did not bring the viking raids to an end and further attacks occurred with regularity throughout the eight eighties and eight nineties but the existential threat to wessex's survival had been neutralized and the system of burs or fortifications which he established across southern england provided safety and security for his subjects in the years that followed away from the battlefield alfred was an even more accomplished and complex monarch he reformed the finances of the kingdom of wessex began developing london in such a way as would make it the pre-eminent town of england and years to come whilst his patronage of the church and education rejuvenated england's cultural life in the aftermath of the worst ravages of the viking invasions more strikingly he was a highly accomplished scholar in his own right producing work on such individuals as the late roman philosopher boethius and the influential early bishop of rome pope gregory there is very little to say against alfred that we know of he did not wage unnecessary wars which cost the lives of civilians in order to aggrandize himself nor were there large internal political disputes within wessex which resulted in the king shedding blood to maintain his authority he was by all accounts a model king in part our view of this might be influenced by our reliance on admittedly biased contemporary sources such as asa's life but that we do not have a hostile account of any kind is significant and then we must consider the long-term legacy of his reign by the time of his death in 899 the kingdom of wessex was being transformed into the state of england it was alfred's most lasting and greatest achievement that he not only managed to defend wessex from the danes during his reign but by the end of it had established what had become the english state one which endures in an admittedly vastly different form right down to the present day what do you think of alfred the great is he fully deserving of the epithet the great please let us know in the comments section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching this video is sponsored by truebill the amazing all-in-one finance solution for busy people like you it provides an overview of your finances lowers bills cancels unwanted subscriptions and helps you achieve all your financial goals in one easy to use app truebill also allows members to monitor their credit scores and build savings but the best thing about truebill for us is the ability to set budgets and monitor spending with handy notifications members can keep their finances on track with this all-in-one finance app plus you can see your spend to earn ratio by month quarter or year we love the fact that unwanted subscriptions can be easily cancelled too true bill identifies recurring charges and cancels unwanted subscriptions for you with just a tap let truebill improve your financial health and budget like a boss members can lower those bills cancel unwanted subscriptions and set up a smart savings account just set your saving amount and frequency and true bill will do the rest you can download truebill for free by heading to trubil dot com slash the people profiles or by simply clicking on the link in the video description the man known to history as william the conqueror was born at filets in the normandy region of northern france in either 1027 or 1028 like many other noblemen of the high middle ages william's family did not use a surname and since his by name the conqueror was one which he acquired much later we should consider him for the first 40 years of his life as simply william of normandy his father was robert of normandy who in 1027 at around the time of william's birth had ascended to the position of duke of normandy ruler of the large duchy of normandy in northwest france which dominated the valley of the river seine as it flowed outwards from paris into the english channel williams mother was a woman named helava whose precise background is unclear one story has it that she was a servant of the duke or householder for lays others that she was the daughter of a tradesman from the town yet although haleva's background is uncertain there is no doubt that her liaison with robert of normandy was not within the confines of marriage or recognized by the church accordingly william was not a legitimate child and although he would succeed his father he was nevertheless regularly referred to throughout his life as bastardus or the bastard in reference to his illegitimacy the duchy of normandy into which william was born and which he would soon rule was a relatively new dukedom or territory in france its origins lay in the early 10th century william's great-great-great-grandfather was harold for ragna volson a viking who in the late 9th century led a large viking contingent which launched several raids into the north of the kingdom of the franks in what is now france however unlike many other viking war parties which simply raided regions and moved on by the 870s rolfer and his viking followers had settled in the lower saint river valley from where they could exact money from paris and farm the rich farmland of the normandy region this situation lasted until the early 10th century when eventually the french king charles iii in 911 decided to accommodate harold as one of his own subjects rather than continue to be harassed by these viking warriors thus in 911 harold became the first count of normandy and he changed his name to that which he is most commonly known by today he called himself rollo and in time his ancestors would adopt the title of dukes of normandy thus william was born into a norse family but one which had rapidly gallicised for instance they adopted the languages and culture of their new homeland speaking french and latin and employing laws which were partially germanic and partially acquired from the civil law of the romans as it was passed down to the frankish kingdoms however they brought some of their own culture to the region as well consequently this was soon understood to be a unique culture which was present in northwest france one which would have an enormous impact on europe during the high middle ages they were called the normans and their culture was norman culture william's childhood is relatively shadowy compared with our extensive knowledge of his later life he evidently received some sort of literary education but the details are unclear other than a nugget of information which reveals that a mysterious ralph the monk was involved easily the most traumatic and momentous event in williams young life occurred in 1035 when he was either seven or eight years old the boy would have been aware even at this young age of his father's prolonged absence from filets in 1034 he had undertaken a pilgrimage to visit jerusalem in the holy land however on the way home he fell ill and died at nicaea in northwestern anatolia in what is now turkey on the 2nd of july 10 35 when news of his death reached normandy the young william as robert's only son though illegitimate was now proclaimed duke of normandy william's reign during his minority was chaotic already during robert's reign there had been a number of overly powerful lords exercising too much independence from the duke of court at filets and with an eight-year-old boy now the duke of normandy these tendencies only became greater consequently williams guardian spent much of the 1030s and early 1040s trying to re-establish juco authority the situation even declined to the extent that william had to be moved around the normandy region for his safe keeping despite these early challenges william was able to assume the rule of normandy in his own right upon turning 15 most likely in 1042 thereafter in the years ahead he succeeded in re-establishing dukel authority throughout northwest france aided to a great extent by the king of france henry the first and in around 1047 william managed to see off a series of challenges to his legitimacy when his cousin gee of breon claimed the duchy for himself having eventually defeated ghee william then cemented his control of the region by appointing his half-brother odo as bishop of bayer in 1049 a major position in western normandy it is also at this time that we first hear regular mention in contemporary histories of figures such as william fitz osborne and roger de montgomery as acting as williams advisors these men would advise william for many years to come and their appearance in a historical record at this time gives the impression that a stable and coherent government had been formed in the late 1040s thus by mid-century william had strengthened his control over normandy and ended the instability which had characterized the region since the early 1030s having done so william's thoughts turned to securing his line in 1050 he married matilda of flanders the daughter of count boudoir of flanders in what is now southern belgium boudoir was one of the most powerful rulers in northern europe at the time and the marriage was a major diplomatic coup for william in time the union would result in four sons robert richard william and henry and his five daughters adelaide cecilia matilda constance and adella two of these sons would sit on the throne of england in time to come william's career subsequent to 1050 and the events which have made him one of the major figures in english history must be assessed in light of developments in england as far back as the 1010s in 1013 swain forkbeard the king of denmark and ruler of the danes ignores people who have been raiding britain extensively since the 980s conquered england and usurped the throne from king ethelred the head of the wessex line of kings although ethelred quickly fought back and resumed the kingship in 1014 he died in 1016 making his son edmund ironside the new king however edwin was now cast into a new war with the son of swain forkbeat canute by the end of 1016. knut had managed to seize control of much of england from edmond and when the wessex king died in november knude proclaimed himself king of all england a powerful ruler who now reigned over a north atlantic empire stretching from england east to denmark and north to norway he would rule until 1035 and was remembered as canoe to the great despite knuts ascendancy the wessex line was not wholly defeated in 1016 ethelred's other son and edmund einstein's brother edward fled with the rest of the family across the english channel they found refuge at the court of the dukes of normandy where they acted as kings of england in exile and were afforded many honours by william's grandfather and father in the 1020s and 1030s then in the early 1040s just as william was entering his early manhood and preparing to rule in his own right the situation changed again in england knut was succeeded in 1035 by his son harold hereford who subsequently died in 1040 only to be succeeded by another son of canutes half the canute however arthur knude was a young man without an heir who was already suffering from some unspecified illness possibly tuberculosis accordingly in 1041 he made preparations for the succession should he die his dispensation for england was that edward now known by the by name the confessor owing to his religious piety would return from normandy and succeed him as king of england should he die without procuring an heir this subsequently occurred the following year thus the wessex line of kings was restored in england in 1042. edward did not quickly forget the support he had received from the dukes of normandy and the honours they had been afforded in northern france throughout his and his family's long exile in the quarter of a century after 1016. although there is substantial controversy over these events it is very possible that in 1051 when a crisis arose in england between edward and the powerful anglo-danish house of godwin the king promised william of normandy that he would succeed him as king of england following his death edward being without a legitimate heir and largely leading a celibate life there is substantial reason to believe that this promise was actually made in 1051 many of our most important sources for william's life attest to it for instance the jester williami or deeds of william written by william of poitiers around 1066 and the jester normanorum dukem or these of the dukes of the normans compiled by william of zumiez around 1070 both include this version of events however these could be dismissed as having been written after william had made his claim to the throne of england and conquered the country and as such might be deemed politically biased but there is also evidence from the anglo-saxon chronicle a long history of england in the middle ages which predates william becoming king recent studies have proven that the relevant sections of the chronicle detailing edward's promised william were written in the 1050s or early 1060s before william became king of england consequently the author would have had no political reason to include this version of events if it was not true there is then every reason to believe that edward did in fact make william his air in 1051 and that the norman duke's claim to the throne of england was authentic and strong as a result whatever the truth of these matters their material significance for william would not become a concern for another 15 years as edward lived well into the 1060s in the interim william faced further challenges at home in normandy despite his earlier alliance with henry the first of france william clashed with the french monarch on several occasions in the 1050s a result of the splintered and decentralized power arrangement which predominated in france throughout the 11th century several invasions of normandy were undertaken by henry between 1053 and 1057 but when william won a substantial victory against the king and his allies at the battle of varroville in august 1057 the tide was turned william now went on the offensive against henry and when both the king and his foremost ally geoffrey counter von zhu both died in 1060 william was able to impose his power throughout northern france in 1063 he even managed to bring the entire county of maine a substantial french province in the south of normandy under norman rule this brought extensive additional resources under williams control which would aid greatly in his invasion of england a few years later having secured the southern border of normandy william turned his attention west in 1064 towards the celtic duchy of brittany and its ruler conan ii this resulted in the breton norman war which would last until 1066 eventually ending in something of a stalemate but it is curious for having involved harold goblinson earl of wessex in england and the head of the powerful house of godwin howard had most likely been sent to france to reaffirm king edward's earlier offer to william to succeed him as england's ruler at this time william made harold swear an oath that he would accept his succession this latter event is vividly depicted on the bayer tapestry a 70 meter long cloth tapestry produced in the 1070s and which still survives today it depicts the events leading up to williams claim to the throne and his subsequent invasion of england in 1066 housed today in the bayer tapestry museum in the town of bayer in normandy in northern france it is a remarkable survival and a striking record of williams ascent to the kingship of england or at least how we wish people to understand how he had risen to the kingship the meeting of william and harold in northern france in the mid-1060s was to take on a striking significance in early 1066 king edward the confessor by now in his 60s fell into a coma late in 1065 he never fully recovered and he died on the 5th of january 1066 in london he still had no clear air and edward's lack of clarity and indecision over the succession now opened a window of opportunity for harold the following day on the 6th of january the anglo-saxon whitten the assembly of anglo-saxon and danish lords and members of the ruling class of england met and proclaimed harold as the new king of england the stage was set for a major showdown with william within weeks plans were underway in normandy for william to enforce his claim as edward successor indeed it is almost certain that william had been preparing politically and militarily for edward's death throughout the 1060s hundreds of warships and transport boats were now gathered or placed under construction in the ports of northern france and william reached out to his recently acquired subjects and allies from across northern france to aid him in his invasion william was not the only claimant to the throne harold also faced challenge from his own brother the earl of northumberland tostig as the earl of a large domain in northern england and a member of the powerful house of godwin tostig had his own considerable support to claim the throne he had already been implicated in a rebellion in the north in 1065 prior to edward's last illness and death now in 1066 he clashed directly with harold who banished him from england tostig spent the spring and summer months scheming with various foreign powers in the world of the north atlantic he took refuge with his brother-in-law the count of flanders baldwin v who gave him the financial and military support to raid southern england in the summer tostig even considered allying with william but eventually he looked further east to norway and at some point in the summer of 1066 he made contact with king harald hard rada of norway and convinced the norse monarch to lay his own claim to the english throne haraldtard radha received tostig's petition favorably he quickly prepared an invasion force of approximately 10 000 men and 300 ships which landed in northern england in the early autumn initially hard radar and tostig made good progress a substantial victory was won against some regional forces outside the town of york at fulford on the 20th of september 1066 but in the days that followed harold arrived in the north himself with his armies the forces of the english king harald and the norwegian king herald met at the village of stamford bridge in yorkshire on the 25th of september 1066 the result was a stunning victory for the english herald both hard rada and tostig were killed in the engagement and thousands of norwegians were killed or badly wounded such was the scale of their defeat that of the 300 ships which conveyed the norse army to england only two or three dozen were needed to bring what was left of the army back to norway harold had seen off the first major threat to his rule but the greater one waited to the south and the distraction created by the northern invasion of harada was not insignificant in the campaign which followed having spent the summer rallying his allies and supporters in france williams invasion force of perhaps somewhere between 8 000 and 12 000 men crossed the english channel on the night of the 27th of september making their full landing near pevensey in east sussex on the morning of the 28th the date is significant as harold had been making preparations in the south throughout the summer an early autumn against williams landing but the invasion by harada and tostig in the north had drawn his forces away allowing for a smoother landing in the south thus the stage was set for the final showdown between harold and william having disembarked william moved his forces to the nearby town of hastings in late september and early october and in the process his forces devastated the surrounding sussex countryside requisitioning food supplies for the army and also as a form of psychological warfare but no sooner had he defeated hard rada in the north then harold had to quickly make his way south to see off the second invasion on the other hand william did not advance north towards london and harold's forces he was content to wait his reasons were twofold first he had established a strong base with good supplies collected from the surrounding region secondly he did not wish to sever his lines of communication with his fleet by advancing inland clearly william was preparing for the possibility of an unsuccessful military engagement against harold and the eventuality that he might have to make a hasty retreat back across the channel to normandy by the 13th of october howard had advanced south to near williams position at hastings when william received word of the king's arrival in east sussex and his encampment to the northeast of the town he prepared his troops and marched out from hastings shortly after dawn on the morning of the 14th the ensuing battle one of the most critical in english history has become known as the battle of hastings but it did not actually take place in or next to the town of hastings itself rather the clash occurred roughly 11 kilometers to the northwest of the town near a steep bridge in the sussex countryside the area is now the site of the village of battle named in honour of the conflict which occurred there nearly a millennium ago the exact specifics of how the battle played out are a matter of some dispute not least because contemporary histories and accounts tended to greatly distort events for political reasons in the aftermath for instance the number of troops involved are usually exaggerated to a great extent nevertheless historians today are agreed on the general facts of the battle william brought at least 7000 men with him out of hastings and perhaps as many as ten thousand a large proportion being norman heavy cavalry the elite warriors of 11th century europe harold had a similar number but these were tied after the month of exertion in marching all the way north to yorkshire and then returning quickly to the south fighting the battle of stamford bridge along the way the battle commenced in the early morning of battle and lasted all day a long engagement for the time howard's forces had the advantage of the high ground having occupied the high ridge at the site but they were restricted by having the forest of the wild at their back thus while williams forces were disadvantaged by having to move uphill they had greater room to move about the battlefield in the end three factors won the day william was able to deploy his archers to pick off howard's troops on the rich secondly his cavalry was superior to harold's but the most significant factor was williams generalship throughout the day he used the number of feigned or pretend retreats to disrupt the english lines and strike at weak points in heralds of great men it was during one of these famed retreats late in the day that harold himself was struck down and killed with the king dead the anglo-saxon and danish forces broke many fled and others surrendered thus by the time the sun set on the 14th of october 1066 over the field at battle and near the town of hastings howard gobwinson was dead and william of normandy was one gigantic step closer to claiming the english throne from a military perspective hastings was not just the critical battle in the war for the throne of england in 1066 it also reflected the changing order in the north atlantic world as for nearly 300 years the world of scandinavia britain northern france and the low countries have been dominated by the military power of the viking people who burst out of europe in the late 8th century with their longboats and their infantry warriors hastings marked the triumph of franco-norman fighting tactics with its mixed infantry and cavalry over the anglo-saxon and danish troops which had long dominated the north atlantic world in the aftermath of the battle william did not immediately assume the english crown this was complicated by the creation of a new king by the lords of the witten in london the man chosen was edgar etheling a grand nephew of king edward the confessor and the grandson of king edmund ironside who had briefly ruled england 50 years earlier in 1016. when news of harold's defeat and death at hastings reached london in the days that followed a decision was taken to proclaim edgar a boy of perhaps 13 years of age at the time as the king edgar's reign would be one of the shortest in english history in the immediate aftermath of the battle of hastings william proceeded cautiously securing the towns of dover canterbury and winchester before making any attempts to seize london by this means he secured the south and the midlands and isolated the supporters of the puppet king in the capital just weeks later as williams armies advanced towards london the supporters of the young king made the decision not to continue the charade of pretending william could be resisted the boy king and his supporters met with william not far from the capital in early december here an agreement was reached which allowed edgar to abdicate peacefully this action and the seizure of london completed the initial norman conquest william of normandy was crowned as king of england in westminster abbey on christmas day 1066 and it is from this date that he ceases to be known as william of normandy but as william the first or as he is more commonly known to history william the conqueror it would be incorrect to suggest that the shift which occurred in england in 1066 was limited to a few set-piece battles and a change of ruler after which things settled down again quite quickly england had been conquered by foreign power one which brought with it new ways of governing laws cultural moors and even a different language as we will see over the next 20 years of his life william and his norman followers would transform england from a hybrid anglo-saxon and danish land into a new anglo-norman kingdom as one of the great historians of medieval england richard southern once noted no country in europe between the rise of the barbarian kingdoms in the 5th century and the 20th century has undergone so radical a change in social to time as england experienced after 1066 some of these changes were immediate the changing order saw thousands of anglo-saxons and danes who have been strong supporters of the house of wessex or the danish lords flee england either for denmark norway scotland or even neighbouring ireland many would attempt to organize new invasions to restore the old rule of the anglo-saxons and danes but most would never return in their place william brought in thousands of norman settlers from france perhaps as many as twenty thousand these medieval colonists did not enormously dilute the existing population but they did place a strong body of normans in positions of power in many of the towns and villages up and down 11th century england over time these newcomers transformed english society the most obvious and enduring sign of this was the introduction of the language of the conquerors anglo-norman a dialect of old french with some traces of norse in it reflecting the viking heritage of the normans over time much of the diction of the anglo-norman was absorbed into english thus fundamentally altering the language spoken in england into a hybrid of germanic and romance languages this would take centuries to fully occur however and for the remainder of williams reign the conquering class spoke a version of french and the bulk of the population still spoke old english thus bilingualism would have become necessary for many working in government or as traders in london and the other towns from the late 1060s onwards along with this lingual change shifts in the functioning of government and the law also occurred law french became the language of the courts a position it would hold legally until the 18th century moreover the court system now became more centralized under norman rule a move which helped in the development of the common law in the two centuries that followed a truly positive development was the gradual phasing out of slavery as a regular feature of society in england this being far less common practice within norman society another very substantial change william brought about was his reform of the english church at the time of the conquest the church in england was very loosely organized william tied it much more closely together and appointed several followers to senior positions in order to impose uniformity land frank a celibate benedictine monk was made archbishop of canterbury in 1070 the same year that williams chaplain william of bayer was made the archbishop of york between them the pair oversaw the creation of a centralized anglican church which strove to maintain its independence from the papacy in rome on many matters an independent streak of anglicanism which foreshadowed many developments in the english church in years to come but the real heart of the changes brought throughout england in the aftermath of the norman conquest lay in the sphere of land ownership william had many followers who had supported him not just in his campaign against harold in 1066 but throughout several periods when he needed their military and political support in the 1040s and 1050s england was now their bounty we can gain an insight into just how great this land transfer was from the doomsday berg a record which william commissioned nearly 20 years later in the winter of 1085 finished in 1086 it comprises a vast survey of land ownership in 11th century england two decades after the norman conquest this was the most extensive account of land ownership produced for the country until the 19th century and what it reveals is the manner in which william rewarded his french and norman followers in the aftermath of his conquest by granting them vast territories throughout the country leading lords and followers had enormous estates bestowed upon them these were often huge chunks of land in geographically strategic regions which they were also expected to control in the interest of the normans as the conquerors of this foreign land for instance one of william's strongest supporters robert de beaumont heir to the title of count of merlot in normandy had fought with william at hastings he was rewarded with over 90 manners in england in the years that followed strategically centered around warwickshire and leicestershire thus this leading companion of williams was to hold the english midlands for the norman interest and was given enormous estates in the region to do so on these in the years ahead the new norman stone castles would have begun to appear throughout the countryside as a means of securing norman rule here if the anglo-saxons and danes should rise up in recognition of his immense authority in the area robert was made the first of leicester later in his life he was not alone in being placed in a position like this another senior companion of williams in 1066 william de warren was granted land in at least 13 counties by the 1080s particularly around sussex and surrey he was ennobled shortly before his death in 1088 as the first earl of surrey william fitz osborne the lord of bratoy in normandy was a close companion of williams who was also related to the conqueror he was given a position of prominence in the west midlands and march region bordering into wales particularly the counties of heretfordshire gloucestershire and monmouthshire here he was given clifford castle barclay castle and monmouth castle as imposing symbols of norman rule he was also quickly made earl of herod to symbolize his preeminent position in the english west midlands through these measures william and his norman companions imposed their rule over england in the years following the conquest this was not a benign conquest enormous land transfers of this kind severely uprooted people and turned england upside down moreover the conquest itself in late 1066 caused severe devastation of the countryside of southern england it was not long before it provoked resistance in 1067 william had returned to france to oversee his domains there unrest began rising as soon as he left for france when he returned later that year an extensive program of castle building had already been undertaken by william fitz osborne to try and impose greater control over the regions beyond london and the home counties and early in 1068 william campaigned into the west country where norman rule was being resisted the following year saw perhaps the greatest threat to the newly established anglo-norman kingdom a major rebellion broke out in northumberland in 1069 which coalesced around the figure of edward etheling the house of wessex member who had briefly been proclaimed king in london in the winter of 1066 the rebels here were also aided by contingents of danes from scandinavia but all were driven south into scotland when william campaigned against them in 1069 this was a brutal military action with william devastating the countryside of northern england a near contemporary chronicler ordered vitalis who is generally regarded as an accurate chronicler who did not sympathize with the norman conquerors described william as bringing famine and the sword to northern england in 1069 his description is corroborated by the evidence of the doomsday book which showed that land values here in the north of england were still enormously lower in the 1080s than they otherwise should have been a sign of how much damage william and his followers inflicted on the region to suppress its independence further campaigns followed in 1070 in the northwest along the coastline near chester and the march region bordering wales newcastles were quickly erected and norman overlords imposed their will the last major pockets of resistance were not finally crushed until 1071. thus we might consider that far from being assured military conquest in 1066 the norman conquest was actually a long six-year campaign in which england was subjugated by the normans through a brutal strategy of military conquest enforced famine and the replacement of the anglo-saxon and danish aristocracy with a new nobility of norman knights ruling the country from their imposing stone castles hand in hand with this brutal policy of military subjugation william also implemented a propaganda campaign in the late 1060s and 1070s to justify his invasion of england and the benefits of norman rule we've already seen that writers such as william of poitiers and william of zumiez were writing soon after the conquest in ways which depicted william's career leading up to 1066 and the actions of that year in a favorable light other efforts were more visual and symbolic the pope in rome alexander ii ordered in 1070 that william and his followers should do penance for the sins they committed in killing many people during the conquest and in the months and years after william took this as an opportunity to further glorify the conquest the penance he undertook was to order the construction of an abbey for the religious order of the benedictines it was to be built on the battlefield in the north east of hastings where william had effectively won the throne of england in october 1066. the altar of the church within the abbey was apparently placed at the exact location where harold had fallen during the battle dedicated to saint martin battle abbey was only completed after william's death but is a striking example of norman propaganda in england more famous is the bayer tapestry previously mentioned its exact origins are not entirely clear but it is assumed that this was commissioned either by william's wife matilda or his half-brother odo earl of kent and bishop of bayer the latter theory seems more likely and if so it was very likely that odo had commissioned it to be placed the newly built bayer cathedral when it was consecrated in july 1077 yet even if oda did commission it it is highly unlikely that william was not aware of the project or had not granted it his seal of approval because as a visual display of the official history of the norman conquest standing at bayer cathedral from 1077 the tapestry would have told williams subjects in normandy the story he wished them to believe about how he had come to be king of england in the aftermath of his final conquest of the country william made clear his priorities in terms of his domains they lay in france and for the remainder of his life some 15 years he would spend approximately four fifths of all of his time in normandy and elsewhere on the continent only returning to england for short periods of time our natural inclination is to think that william would have made england his home in the 1070s is based on our knowledge of england's later position as a great world power but in the world of 11th century europe the real heart of williams territories lay in france closer to the central of norman and french culture which was gradually spreading out to conquer many other parts of europe notably much of southern italy and sicily he was also needed in france unrest arose there in the mid 1070s and forced him into several years of military campaigning firstly to resume control of the county of maine in 1073 following a revolt which had broken out there during his absence in england and then to campaign against the french whose power was being restored under the new monarch philippe the first but the most pressing issue was a family dispute which arose between 1077 and 1080 between william and his eldest son and designated heir robert william had left robert in charge of normandy when he had left for england in 1066 and the dispute might well have arisen as a result of disappointed hopes held by robert that he would effectively rule the french duchy thereafter with william living in and contenting himself with his new english domains the conflicts though settled by 1080 foreshadowed rivalries that were to bedevil the family for years to come war with scotland in 1079 brought william back to england for an extended period of time in 1080 and 1081 no doubt the resulting military campaigns throughout northumberland served to further destabilize a region which had already suffered greatly under norman rule it was also during this time that he traveled deep into wales firstly on a pilgrimage to saint davids in the extreme west of the country but also as a means of imposing some sort of overlordship over the welsh princes there the first in no longer an intermittent process whereby english rule was established in wales during the late middle ages the final years of williams reign were in many ways an anti-climax after the heights of achievement seen in the 1060s when the normans had united so much of britain and france under the rule of one man a further conflict arose with robert in 1084 which led to his exile from norman court he would not return during williams lifetime the mid-1080s also saw an emergency arise within england over an expected invasion of the country by a joint force of danes and flemish troops under the king of denmark cnut iv who sought to challenge william for control of the country demonstrating the callousness of the normans towards their english subjects the new laws of the country implemented a policy of scorched earth throughout eastern england in preparation for the invasion the idea being to deprive any army which landed of crops and other suppliers to sustain themselves in the event the invasion never materialized as canoe died in denmark before it ever departed but the doomsday book tested the manner in which east england was devastated by the normans who prized the military benefit of doing so over the damage it did to the communities who lived there william spent christmas 1085 at gloucester and it was while he was there that the doomsday book was commissioned more often called the winchester role in its own day as a result of being housed at winchester it gradually became known as the doomsday book from the late 12th century onwards the reference being to doomsday in the sense of the finality it offered in its records of land holding in anglo-norman england portions of the text were brought to william while he toured some of southern england in 1086 but he would never have seen the finalized text in the format in which it survives today at the national archives the united kingdom at queue in london as it was not fully finished and collected together until after his death it is fitting that one of the final acts of williams reign was to audit its completion the doomsday book presented a striking picture of how the norman conquest had transformed england and of the 1400 or so anglo-saxon and danish tenants and chief who had formed the upper caste of landholders in england prior to 1066 only two were still in place in 1086 when the doomsday book was compiled several thousand free men and three women below these tenants in chief still held lands which their families had possessed prior to the conquest but these now owed service and taxes in kind and cashed their new norman overlords those who had been placed throughout england who lived in the many stone castles which have been built in the 20 years since william of normandy had become william the first of england william left england for the last time in the autumn of 1086 he returned to france where his enemies on that side of the channel including the king of france had yet again taken advantage of his absence in england to begin attacking his possessions in normandy and elsewhere in 1087 he stabilized the situation and then campaigned towards paris it would be his last military action in her life which consisted for nearly 50 years of warfare in july while undertaking a siege of the town of mont in the north west of paris he became ill possibly having suffered a riding accident which caused the pommel of his saddle to rip into his stomach as a result of the injury he was moved back north to normandy first to the town of rua and then to the abbey of central vase outside the town it was here on the 9th of september 1087 at about 60 years of age that the conqueror of england the norman who had united much of france and england under one ruler finally died in the days that followed william's body was transported to khan where it was late to rest in a tomb in the abbey of san natienne the succession was a more complicated matter as early as 1063 william had designated his eldest son robert as his successor as duke of normandy however the matter of the succession to the throne of england had never been fully resolved and the falling out between william and robert had suggested that robert would not succeed him moreover it was common practice amongst the normans for multiple sons to split the inheritance from their father but as the second son richard had pre-deceased william and died in 1081 the next eldest was william called william rufus for his red beard the arrangement now reached was that robert would succeed to the duchy of normandy as agreed in 1063 but william would succeed his father as king william ii of england the fourth son henry was given very little though he would eventually succeed william ii as king of england many years later in 1100 as perhaps befitted william the conqueror's life and the bloodshed which followed him his sons would spend many years after 1087 at war with each other for power in the political world of northern france and england and when henry himself died in 1135 england was yet again thrown into civil war thus for all that the conqueror did to transform england after 1066 his family could never peacefully rule the country for very long there is no doubting that william of normandy who became william the conqueror was one of the most significant figures in english history and one of the most consequential rulers of medieval europe having assumed the rule of a relatively unstable duchy in northern france when he was just seven or eight years old he succeeded in his young adult years in not only securing his position in normandy but in also browbeating the king of france and effectively conquering the county of maine in the late 1050s and early 1060s and at the peak of his powers in france he began in 1064 to campaign west into the duchy of brittany it was at this point when his military and political power on the continent was at the strongest it would perhaps ever be in his lifetime that edward the confessor died in england without an air the result was a military invasion in 1066 the battle of hastings that october and williams coronation as king of england on christmas day but the real conquest took six years and was a bloody brutal affair which would have unleashed misery on many people living in england at the time in its aftermath william and his followers transformed england totally in the case of land holding and gradually in the case of its culture with the adoption of new laws and customs and eventually the creation of a new language in modern english which blends the pre-conquest germanic language of the anglo-saxons and the post-conquest french of the normans by temperament william was by all accounts an easygoing character he was clearly religious and founded many churches though he had limited appreciation for the supposedly universal sovereignty of the pope in rome and his governance of the church within his own dominions preempted that which henry viii would later attempt by nearly 500 years he was it appears faithful to his wife matilda during their long marriage an unusual occurrence for the time nevertheless he was a largely uncultured figure one who hardly patronized the world of learning in england or france and who pursued his political and military ambitions with a dogged single-mindedness born of a strong character it was this single-mindedness which brought the normans to england and transformed the country forever what do you think of william the conqueror was he a great king who united england after many years of unstable kingship or was he an ambitious tyrant who brutalized england in his efforts to reduce it to norman rule please let us know in the comments section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching the man known to history as king henry ii of england was born on the 5th of march 1133 at le mans in normandy in northern france his father was jeffrey count of anger to reign and maine and in that capacity he was the ruler of much of northwestern and central france particularly those regions to the west of paris at a time when france was divided into a number of powerful principalities jeffrey was known by the epithet the handsome or the fair henry's mother was matilda known as empress matilda she was the daughter of king henry the first of england and had previously been married to the holy roman emperor henry v matilda's lineage was pivotal for the future of her son's life her father henry the first was the fourth son of william the conqueror the duke of normandy who in 1066 had crossed to england and conquered the country for the normans as a younger son henry had not succeeded to any of his father's lands when william died in 1087 but when his older brother william rufus died in 1100 henry seized the throne of england in due course his own son and successor william was in line to succeed him but in 1120 when henry was already in his early 50s william died in a naval accident known as the white ship disaster and the issue of the succession was now thrown wide open matilda as one of henry's daughters provided one potential line of succession although it was generally accepted that a woman could not succeed to the throne at the time this aside henry the first concluded as he aged that matilda would indeed provide his successor through her marriage to her husband jeffrey thus despite some family quarrels between the king and his daughter and son-in-law there was a strong claim that the two-year-old henry should succeed his grandfather when henry the first died after a brief illness on the 1st of december 11 35 however this would not happen and the virtual usurpation of the english throne by henry the first's nephew stephen of blue ushered in a period of civil war which would last for nearly 20 years this video is sponsored by magellan tv a brilliant documentary streaming service covering many different areas of interest including ancient and modern history science the earth and nature true crime as well as historical drama we really enjoyed the series on magna carta and especially the episode called magna carta immortal document this fascinating episode called magna carta the most important document in world history it suggests it is a symbol of freedom which we would do well to consider again today to reaffirm our liberties henry ii lived in a time just before the advent of magna carta his world was a world without these vital freedoms that magna carta introduced with new content being introduced on a weekly basis you will never be lost for something to watch with magellan tv plus there are no advertisements and you can watch anytime anywhere on your tv laptop or mobile phone and with an annual membership costing only 59.88 you pay only 4.99 per month for over 3500 hours of viewing time also viewers can take advantage of a special holiday offer buy one get one free gift card for an annual membership by clicking on the link in the description the nearly two decade long period from henry the first's death in 1135 to the eventual full ascent to power of henry ii in 1154 is often referred to as the anarchy stephen of blue's seizure of power in the aftermath of henry the first's death and the competing claims of the infant henry driven by his mother matilda and father jeffrey ensured that there would be no stable succession while stephen was the nephew of william the conqueror having been born to the conqueror's daughter adela his accession was not accepted without hesitation by his english and welsh subjects it would cause the first stages of a crisis between the english monarchy and the english barons which would escalate for decades to come with rebellions arising within wales and border clashes with scotland occurring during the course of the 1130s and 1140s then most forcefully matilda and jeffrey began to press their claim and that of their infant son in 1139 matilda led a direct invasion of southern england with several key noble allies while she and jeffrey and their allies were unable to achieve a complete victory over stephen at this time they did secure key footholds in the south of england and using their bases of support in france particularly around honju they were able to continue the conflict in such a way that the anarchy would continue for many years to come into the 1140s the anarchy continued as it did henry was growing up oblivious to the wars being fought across the english channel in his name his first years were spent largely in france as indeed the vast majority of henry's life would be this he shared with many of the early anglo-norman kings of england whose power base lay largely in normandy and the other french possessions later from the age of seven he resided at his father's home in on zhu where he was educated by peter of song a well-regarded grammarian and scholar of the mid-11th century but when he was nine years of age a more active involvement for the young would-be monarch was decided upon by his parents he was sent to bristol which was one of the principal towns of england in late medieval times as well as a focus of support for henry's cause in england in the 1140s this transfer of henry to england was at once political and also somewhat dangerous placing him within reach of stephen's armies in england but galvanizing matilda and jeffrey's supporters who for a time knew that the child on whose behalf they were fighting was in england itself here henry continued his education for some time before returning to france in 1144 where he received his later education as he entered his teenage years under william of course a scholastic philosopher who was a leading early figure in the christian humanist movement by 1147 henry was taking a more active involvement in affairs that year he led a military expedition himself to england from normandy the beginning of a period in which he would press his own claims to the throne of england and in addition he was also gaining powerful friends from the late 1140s king david the first of scotland was a prominent ally although an attempt to seize the northern capital at york from stephen's forces failed in 1149 thereafter matters in france distracted from a full prosecution of the war in england the french king louis vii who had been absent in the orient for some time as one of the principal leaders of the second crusade now returned to western france and was immediately troubled by the possibility that henry would unite normandy zhu and the family's other french possessions as well as england all under his rule such a king would be possessed of as greater domain as louis himself and would actually command greater resources than him accordingly war followed but a resolution was quickly patched up in 1151 whereby henry paid homage to louis as his feudal overlord and provided the french king with a number of small properties belonging to the duchy of normandy the title to which henry had officially been granted in 1150. when henry's father jeffrey of on-joue died in september 1151 henry united the disparate french territories of his mother and father under his own rule including normandy anjou and maine these extensive properties in the north and northwest of france were soon added to when henry married in 1152 his bride was eleanor of aquitaine a woman who at 30 years of age was 11 years henry's senior she had also been married previously to none other than king louis vii of france as the daughter of william the tenth duke of aquitaine a man who died without a son in 1137 elena had ascended as duchess of the large duchy of aquitaine which extended across a large part of western france she had married louis the same year but by 1152 the union had only produced two daughters and as female successors were excluded in the succession to the french monarchy neither could succeed louis despairing of an heir and with eleanor seemingly having lost interest in their marriage louis successfully acquired an annulment in march 1152 within weeks the reason for eleanor's apathy towards louis was clear to all as she married the young duke of normandy just 12 weeks after her marriage ended louis was furious at both this insult to his honor and at the fact that henry now had a claim through his marriage to a further large territory in western france the fallout from henry's marriage to eleanor led briefly to renewed conflict between the young duke and king louis in france yet this only lasted for a few months and by 1153 with an unprecedentedly large power base in northern and western france henry was in a position to decisively challenge stephen in england by that time nearly two decades after the civil strife between stephen and henry's supporters had begun the english king was in control of large parts of the north east and south of england including london while henry's base lay in the west particularly around the river seven valley he also had a number of prominent allies including the powerful northern lord ran off of chester however by 1153 when he arrived in england the war situation was profoundly different to how it had been for so many years henry was no longer a child but was a very powerful french lord in his own right this combined with a lack of support from amongst his nobility in england enjoined the king after a limited campaign to agree a treaty with henry under the terms of the treaty of winchester or the treaty of wallingford as it is sometimes referred to and which was formally signed in 1154 stephen would remain as king of england but upon his death henry would succeed him finally after 20 years and limited bloodshed in its final stages the anarchy had come to an end henry did not have to wait long for the terms of the treaty of winchester to be implemented in 1154 stephen was no longer a young man exactly how old he was by this time is not 100 clear but he was at least in his late 50s and possibly in his early 60s at the time a relatively old age for the 12th century stephen might well have viewed the treaty as a temporary expedient during which time he could regroup and muster support for his son william's cause to succeed him over henry but if this was the case ill-health scuppered his plans then in the late autumn of 1154 he fell ill from a serious stomach ailment while in kent and died shortly afterwards on the 25th of october henry by a rather fortuitous series of events had gone from being at war with stephen in early 1153 to succeeding him as king of england just a year and a half later it was the culmination of a meteoric ascent which had seen henry acquire vast territories through succession marriage diplomacy and military action between 1150 and 1154 henry is generally deemed to have been the first of the english kings known as the plantagenets although this term was not used to refer to the english royal family until the 15th century over 300 years after henry's accession the plantagenet designation divides henry and his successors from the kings of england who ruled from william the conqueror in 1066 through to henry's own accession and lasts up to the outbreak of the wars of the roses in the 15th century the term plantagenet is something of a lingual construct rather than being a family name in and of itself it derives from a nickname which henry's father jeffrey count of aunjou and duke of normandy was given during his lifetime in recognition of a bright yellow flowering plant which he used to wear as a symbol of his house the name plantagenet is derived from this as the latin for the same common broom plant is plantagenista which subsequently through common usage became the french term plant genest and was then further anglicized as plandagenet as a result the dynasty of english kings which held the throne from henry's eventual accession in 1154 through to the advent of the tudors in 1485 is known as the plantagenets upon his succession henry became the ruler of what has become known as the onjevan empire or the possessions of the orgevang kings of england this empire would be held by himself and two of his sons this imperial designation was granted to henry's dominions as an acknowledgement of both the extent of the territories he ruled as well as their cosmopolitan nature by the time he ascended to the throne in 1154 henry ruled all of england and virtually the entirety of northern and western france including the duchy of normandy the county of honju from which the anger imperial title was derived the duchy of aquitaine by right of his wife as well as extensive territories in maine and gascony in france the english crown had virtually secured control over wales as well by this time a process which had started under william the conqueror nearly a century earlier while england's long history of involvement in scotland ensured that henry had a certain amount of influence here also this combined with a role within brittany in northwest france through a marriage arrangement in the 1180s as well as the rapid conquest of much of ireland in the early 1170s ensured that by the middle years of his reign henry ii was the ruler of a vast empire for its time one which stretched from dublin to london and south as far as the pyrenees just who was the new king of this vast expanse of territory in western europe to begin with his name itself was somewhat ambiguous in the late medieval period individuals were very often referred to by a place with which they were associated or a sobriquet for instance the first anglo-norman king of england had been william of normandy prior to his conquest of england and subsequently became known as william the conqueror and as we have seen subsequent generations would come to refer to henry and the royal family which he created as the plantagenet but at the time and indeed in chronicles and government records for hundreds of years to come he was more usually referred to by the quite unusual name of henry fitz empress this was in honor of the fact that henry's claim to the throne and that of his successors descended by right of his being the son of the empress matilda furthermore unlike some of his predecessors we have a clear idea of what henry fitz empress looked like he was of an average height but was clearly a well-built individual with a large chest albeit somewhat stooped as the years went by and not uncommon development for individuals who spent long periods of their life on horseback he had blue grey eyes and reddish hair which he kept short by temperament the new king was said to be at once gentle and friendly to those within his inner circle while also being possessed of a fiery and even explosive temper one which he often employed to get his way when he met with resistance from his advisors and senior nobility he was also an extremely energetic individual one who rarely rested in the same place for prolonged periods of time at ease as many other monarchs of his own day and later would do indeed one of his common traits was his preference for standing at court rather than sitting moreover his leisure time was often spent hunting and hawking however henry also possessed a sense of humor as at court he procured the services of a flatulist roland the farter who would perform one jump one whistle and one fart for the king and it is recorded that he was rewarded with the manor house at hemingstone in suffolk for his services along with 30 acres of land but as well as this henry was also possessed of an intellect he was well read could engage in debate with scholars and would have traveled across much of europe without the need for interpreters such was the breadth of languages he spoke furthermore chroniclers of the times attest to his loyalty towards those who were equally loyal to him but that he displayed unwavering resentment against those whom he felt had betrayed him in time this latter trait would create enormous difficulties for his rule and tarnish the legacy of what was otherwise a highly successful reign whilst henry had finally secured the throne after years of struggling with stephen and brought the political anarchy which had subsumed england to an end henry's reign was quickly confronted by a fresh challenge and it came from his own brother jeffrey in december 1155 jeffrey initiated a revolt in france calling for parts of the family's french possessions to be handed over to him now that henry had assumed power in england specifically the counties of honju maine and terrain an extensive family conference in france in february 1156 failed to resolve the conflict but within months without any major military action henry managed to crush his brother's ambitions in part by making jeffrey the new count of nant and in the end the challenge proved beneficial to henry's cementing of his rule he used the opportunity presented by jeffrey's revolt to crush the independence of some of those french knights and nobles under his dominions who had sided with jeffrey and when jeffrey himself died in 1158 the time proved opportune to fully cement henry's control over his french possessions now henry would have unequivocal control of the growing arjvan empire a hegemony which would not be challenged for nearly 20 years in part henry's success came about because of his own boundless energy combined with a shrewd pragmatism the young king knew what was achievable and worked to implement it but his accomplishments in bringing stability to england and france after so many years of turmoil must also be attributed to the intelligence with which he selected his advisors significant amongst them was his mother matilda who had done so much to champion henry's cause in his youth at a time when he barely knew what it was that was being fought over she worked extensively with the church and patronized the cistercian reform movement throughout the 1150s and 1160s until her own death in 1167. other close advisors included henry's uncle reginald of cornwall the earl of arundel william dorbany and the justice years robert earl of leicester and richard delusi several senior bishops were also brought into the administration but no figure was as ubiquitous and influential in the young king's government than the man he made lord chancellor of england thomas beckett a protege of the archbishop of canterbury theobaldo beck beckett was recommended to henry in the mid-1150s and quickly became an indispensable part of his regime increasing henry's revenues throughout england what each of these advisors offered was experience and administration which the young henry otherwise lacked these years would also see the almost continuous growth of henry's family and eventually henry and eleanor would have eight children in total surprisingly in a time of high infant mortality all but one of the eight survived infancy and by 1170 their surviving four sons and three daughters ranged in age from 15 years old to just three years old the elder daughters matilda and eleanor were married to the duke of saxony named henry the lion and alfonso the king of castile respectively while the third daughter was joanna the eldest son was henry's namesake who was married to margaret the daughter of the king of france louis vii henry jr's younger brothers were richard jeffrey and john two of whom even as younger sons of the king would eventually go on to have extremely consequential lives and careers and their own right richard not least as a king and the lionheart who would battle with saladin in the sands of the holy land on the third crusade and john as a future king of england whose famous clash with his barons and nobles in the early 13th century would result in the fashioning of the magna carta the great charter henry's relationship with his sons would soon come to dominate the latter half of his reign although he was very often distant from his english dominions henry ii took a decidedly strong interest in the administration of his kingdom and the oversight of the courts there for instance he initiated a series of inquests and issued many royal edicts which led to the development of a more coherent and centralized bureaucracy for instance an ordinance of 1170 brought local officials such as sheriffs and major local landholders under greater royal scrutiny and made it clear that wide-scale corruption would no longer be tolerated even if henry was absent in france or elsewhere and other regulations standardized some specific elements of oversight for instance the size of the forest act of 1184 brought the regulation of forests and the taking of wood from the same into a formal and standardized form of royal control other extremely important laws in this regard provided new prohibitions around the ability of landlords to simply eject tenants from their lands and around how freeholds could be created and maintained these new regulations also evolved the system which allowed 12 knights to adjudicate on disputes at the local level which eventually would lead to the development of the modern jury system in terms of taxation henry increased the rates payable based on a night's service from as early as 1166 based on a document known as the kartaibaronum or the baronial chart this was the first country ride listing of dues which were owed to the crown by knights and was used by henry's exchequer officials to increase the potential yield from military taxation some of these taxes were gradually increased during the course of the 1180s to pay for exchequer increases which were necessary to support the crusades to the holy land as the muslim lord saladin was threatening to recapture jerusalem and the crusader states there ultimately henry's administrative reforms are most clearly defined by the uniformity which he lent to the kingdom's courts and taxation in the early 12th century a series of competing judicial systems still existed in england in large part owing to the overlapping anglo-saxon norman and viking traditions in use across the kingdom but by the end of henry's reign a much greater degree of uniformity had been lent to the system of administration in the end henry ii's managerial policies were leading to a situation at the local level where a system had been created which one historian has defined as a species of self-government at the king's command meaning that local courts and administrators could govern themselves as long as they gave ultimate authority to the king henry was perhaps above all else an innovator as a king of england in contrast to william the conqueror and his immediate successors in that henry understood how to manifest and display the royal power which he had attained in an effort to impress his contemporaries he employed numerous building programs and other measures which in more modern times would be referred to as acts of propaganda for instance henry had a great leper house or lazarus constructed in car in france in the early 1160s whilst there were many other royal building projects underway throughout normandy aquitaine or zhu main and england which commanded the enormous respect of contemporaries such was their grandeur these displays of wealth and power were intended to convey an order of strength and prosperity and were designed to indicate that a strong monarchy had returned after the years of anarchy which preceded henry's full accession and henry was well attuned to the statement architecture could make an enormous keep was built above the cliffs of dover which greeted so many visitors to england as they sailed to kent from northern france this building program also extended into the ecclesiastical sphere henry acting as a patron of a great many impressive church establishments both in france and in england all of this served to cement and aggrandize henry's rule something which was much needed in the aftermath of the anarchy of stephen's reign having secured his rule during the course of the 1150s and introduced a number of highly effective reforms to consolidate his grip on the anchova empire in the years that followed henry might have looked forward to a more sanguine peaceful time in the 1160s one in which he could enjoy the fruits of his earlier accomplishments however it was not to be so the 1160s were largely defined in henry ii's reign by conflict and it came from the strangest of places we have already seen that one of the individuals in whose hands henry placed great power in the first years of his reign was thomas beckett whom he made lord chancellor of england this patronage of beckett reached its height in 1162 when following the opening of a vacancy in the position he promoted beckett to become the archbishop of canterbury as archbishop beckett was the senior ecclesiastical officer in all of england and was theoretically answerable only to the pope in rome in the management of many church affairs henry's reasoning for this promotion was clear he wanted an individual who would do his bidding as archbishop yet it would prove to be one of his few bad moves a year later in the summer of 1163 at a major confidence held at woodstock beckett first quarreled with henry by attacking the king's effort to turn an annual payment which was paid to sheriffs by the church into a form of royal revenue this was an extraordinary clash vitriolic in its anger during the course of which henry turned in fury on the archbishop and stated that by the eyes of god it shall be given as a revenue and entered in the royal rolls to which beckett responded that by the reverence of the eyes by which you have sworn my lord king there shall be given from all my land or from the property of the church not a penny it was just the first step in an increasingly intense rivalry between the king and england's most senior religious figure this was all very different to what henry had expected in 1162 when he promoted beckett he expected a compliant senior cleric who would act in unison with him as king the conflict would drag on for the remainder of the 1160s and eventually formed one of the most turbulent and controversial aspects of henry's reign one which is still widely remembered and written about today over 800 years later soon after the initial clash between the pair at the council of woodstock the king and the archbishop quarrelled yet again over the issue of beckett's right to excommunicate tenants in chief on the church's vast lands throughout england without first seeking out royal approval henry perceiving beckett's behavior in this respect to be a breach of his royal position began to pressurize the bishops of england to acknowledge his superior authority over such matters compared to that of beckett as primate of the english church these clashes culminated in the constitutions of clarendon at 1164 where henry presided over a synod which sought to reduce clerical independence ultimately it was no surprise when beckett resisted any efforts by henry to weaken the church's jurisdiction and rights and henry responded by stripping becket of several large estates which beckett held by right of his previous role as lord chancellor of england a tit-for-tat exchange followed throughout the mid-1160s with beckett trying with some considerable success to interfere in henry's marriage arrangements for his wider family an issue which the archbishop of canterbury had some significant jurisdiction over and henry for his part taking over beckett's personal residence at birkemsted and using it henceforth as a royal christmas retreat thereafter as things ratcheted up in the mid-1160s the struggle between the pair became increasingly personal some distance was maintained between the pair following the constitution of clarendon and the various scuffles of the mid-1160s but the ultimate conflict was simply being delayed largely by pope alexander iii who was himself an exile in france owing to political strife in mainland europe involving the holy roman emperor frederick barbarossa and who had advised beckett to keep his distance from henry nor was the king inclined to let the mata go and so from 1164 onwards he attempted to break beckett's political resistance by imposing a series of highly punitive financial fines on the archbishop some of which concerned his previous exercising of the office of the lord chancellor of england and which culminated in the charging of an obscene bill of 000 pounds against beckett the equivalent of tens of millions of pounds in today's money rather than accept such measures beckett entered into outright opposition to henry fleeing to flanders in the low countries or modern day belgium now the pair would not see each other directly again for five years beckett variously spending time in flanders and at the papal court of pope alexander iii in exile during the late 1160s it is difficult to know on whom the majority of the blame for what had already occurred and what subsequently occurred should be placed henry was certainly an autocratic monarch but beckett was also a cleric who thrived on being at the heart of political intrigue moreover the archbishop liked the fact that he was the center of much of europe's political correspondence as the king of england fought with his senior ecclesiastical official henry for his part hated this need for celebrity in beckett and yet a rapprochement was eventually reached in july of 1170 as the leading monarchs of western europe and the pope intervened to make the king of england and the archbishop of canterbury c eye to eye it was ultimately an ephemeral piece when beckett landed in kent in the south of england on the 1st of december 1170 after five years in exile on the continent he cannot have expected what would happen disputes over land yet again arose and within days it was clear that henry desired to be rid of becket once and for all four knights who were followers of henry from northern france julie took up the charge on the afternoon of the 29th of december 1170 they entered canterbury cathedral and murdered the archbishop within the church the clash had residual consequences for henry the conflict between the church and the king of england intensified and pope alexander iii quickly had beckett canonized in 1173 one of the swiftest acts of bestowing sainthood ever undertaken by the roman catholic church yet henry tried his level best to separate himself from the murder which he did not orchestrate directly with a diplomatic drive amongst the monarchs of western europe ultimately henry feared his excommunication by the pope whereby he even as one of europe's leading monarchs would be officially excluded from taking the sacraments and receiving the services of the catholic church although a general reproduction was worked out between henry and the pope in the course of 1172 and 1173 it was a chastening experience overall the clash with beckett must be remembered as one of the least successful and dire aspects of henry's reign he had sought to increase his control over the church particularly its land and wealth and succeeded in little other than creating a church and state crisis which dragged on for an entire decade yet it was a significant moment in english ecclesiastical affairs one which foreshadowed the more significant rupture which occurred over three centuries later during the reign of henry viii while the clash with beckett generally dominated the 1160s and early 1170s for henry another major aspect of his reign was playing out during these years one which would have enduring consequences for england and britain down to the present day this involved the island to the west ireland had never been conquered by the romans and it remained largely aloof from britain too during the early middle ages although it too had experienced various viking encroachments from the late 8th century onwards nevertheless by the mid 12th century it was still a land largely made up of competing irish kingdoms controlling different parts of the country such as the provinces of leinster and connect yet this rivalry between small kingdoms was about to have an enormous bearing on england's involvement with ireland as in 1166 the king of leinster dermot mcmakada pressed acclaim to the high kingship of ireland and when this was successfully resisted by rory o'connor the king of connect dermot petitioned for outside help from henry ii although henry did not directly offer aid he did allow some of his subjects particularly those in wales to consider aiding dermot this was to be the beginning of much strife in ireland in 1169 one of the major canberra norman lords of wales richard fitzgilbert or richard declare who was also known as strongbow and who had succeeded in 1148 as earl of pembroke in wales was successfully solicited by dermot to undertake a military incursion into ireland to ally with dermot against his irish enemies in a bewilderingly quick military campaign between 1169 and 1171 when strongbow and his allies beginning with robert fitzsteven first began arriving in ireland they succeeded in conquering large swathes of the country for instance waterford was quickly seized by strongbow upon his first landing in the south of the country in the early autumn of 1170 and he then moved on to capture dublin itself as a result dermot was able to consolidate his position within ireland and was soon challenging his rivals in connor and the broader west of the country as the cambro normans in the south and east of the country were consolidating their position one which would not diminish in one form or another for over 700 years moreover dermot's death in 1171 removed him as the driving force behind strongbow's invasion and created a situation in which declare and his allies could begin to carve out their own principalities and act upon their own initiatives all of this quickly agitated henry who now perceive declare as becoming a potential threat as an over mighty subject across the sea in ireland accordingly he mounted his own expedition to ireland in the autumn of 1171 as rory o'connor was himself attempting to strike back against strongbow and his allies around dublin and waterford in the months that followed henry ii succeeded in firstly asserting his control over strongbow and his other subjects in ireland who may have begun to view themselves as lying outside of his jurisdiction in britain while also receiving the submission of a very large number of the more powerful regional irish rulers and kings ultimately this campaign of henry's between the autumn of 1171 and the late spring of 1172 transformed the nature of the english intervention in ireland what was originally a campaign by some opportunistic mercenaries led by strongbow became a concerted political intervention in ireland by the english crown although henry quickly left ireland in 1172 three years later the treaty of windsor was negotiated with the irish lords which effectively acknowledged the english crown as the ruler of leinster meath dublin waterford and wexford as time went by this rule extended further north to incorporate east ulster leaving the english crown in control of over half of ireland and cementing its role there for centuries to come while the irish conquest must be viewed as a huge success for henry's reign at least from the anglo-norman perspective if not from that of the irish it was soon followed by further turbulence within henry's wider dominions this fresh unrest following quickly upon the near-decade-long controversy surrounding beckett must have stung henry even more than the perceived betrayal of the man he had promoted to lord chancellor and then archbishop of canterbury it came from within the king's own family as we have seen henry and eleanor's union had produced many children by the end of the 1160s it was customary in western europe in the 12th century that a ruler who held such extensive territories as henry did would begin to hand over control of some of these to his sons as they came of age henry himself had been granted the duchy of normandy by his father while he was still a teenager now the king's eldest surviving son and namesake typically called henry the young king having turned 17 in 1172 began to grow restless at his father's failure to devolve some power to him despite naming him as his legal heir in 1170 the young henry was encouraged in this resentment by two sources one was his father-in-law henry ii's on off nemesis king louis vii of france whose daughter margaret the young henry had married the other was shockingly his own mother and king henry's wife eleanor of aquitaine this unrest soon turned into outright plotting and then civil war one which would come to dominate much of the mid eleven seventies throughout the ancient empire during it henry's consummate abilities as a tactician and diplomat were yet again on display before he was fully aware of what the young henry eleanor and king louis were even plotting a massive alliance had been formed against him which included the kingdom of scotland and the powerful counts of bologna flanders drew and blue in france and the low countries moreover to add insult to injury eleanor had succeeded in drawing king henry's other sons including richard the lionheart who was also of a substantial age like young henry into the conspiracy but despite this array of enemies king henry pulled through the count of bologne was knocked out of the conflict when he was killed by a crossbow bolt in the summer of 1173 while this also effectively removed the count of flanders the count of bolognese brother from the war similarly the back of the rebellion was broken in britain when king william the first of scotland was captured at the battle of anak in northumberland in july 1174. henry studiously stayed away from these conflicts and oversaw events from afar allowing his enemies to damage their own efforts through overt involvement but surely the most significant moment in the war came when eleanor was captured as she was travelling to paris from plato and this combined with the military defeats of their allies forced the young henry and his brothers to concede to their father in 1174 yet despite the victory of henry if its empress over his family many of the familial problems which had brought about the rebellion would remain and continued to fester in the years that followed henry never forgave eleanor and in 1175 he sought to obtain an annulment of their marriage from the papacy a move which was protested vigorously against by his sons henry richard and jeffrey and which was in any event blocked by pope alexander iii nevertheless it was a clear indication of how precarious the familial situation was in the aftermath of the civil war of the mid-1170s and more tangibly elena was kept effectively under imprisonment by henry in the years that followed although his sons were given more leeway for instance richard was given some authority over the duchy of aquitaine after 1174 and when jeffrey married constance of brittany and effectively brought that duchy in north west france into the anger van sphere of influence in 1181 he too was afforded some control over the region the young henry though as the leader of the rebellion was never truly forgiven when he died prematurely in 1183 in his late 20s he had not been given control of any major territory while the period from 1173 through to the young henry's death a decade later had been largely characterized by instability during king henry's reign primarily wrought by his own family the death of the king's heir opened up a period of full-blown political crisis in part this was driven by conflict between the sons themselves each of whom had ambitions to succeed to various parts of the ajwa empire and could benefit at the expense of the others this tension became more extreme with the death of the young henry in 1183 now richard was king henry's heir but the question remained as to what territories would pass to him and which would be cut off from the wider anger inheritance and granted to jeffrey and john and as ever the court at paris looked on waiting to see what would happen in 1180 louis vii was succeeded by his son philip ii or philip augustus as he was more commonly known and it was in this new monarch's best interest to ensure the ultra inheritance was split amongst henry's sons a move which would weaken them compared to his own power base in central and eastern france although in this respect phillips aims were hampered in august 1186 when jeffrey was killed in a jousting accident there were now just two sons richard and john amongst whom henry could split his dominions the result of jeffrey's death was war between henry and philip augustus one which would prove the last significant military and political engagement of his life he hired large numbers of welsh mercenaries the very kind who had driven the conquest of ireland nearly 20 years earlier to launch a campaign into france in the course of 1187 aided in this instance by the counts of flanders and broad the enemies of an earlier time however now he was joined in his efforts by richard and john as the burgeoning plantagenet dynasty showed some rare unity in the face of this act of overt aggression by the french king then a meeting between the two kings in april 1187 failed to reach a compromise and in the summer lengthy clashes occurred in central france around the region of beri the resulting engagements were sporadic for two weeks the opposing armies skirted next to each other around the river andre while diplomatic efforts to avoid a full pitched battle continued it is a remarkable feature of this time the degree to which henry and the french kings attempted to avoid major engagements which would fully resolve their conflicts and then yet again before a major conflagration occurred a temporary peace was patched up again the diplomatic armchairs seem to have shifted and henry's son richard had apparently intervened with the french king while the conflict had temporarily abated the succession issue still remained unresolved but what would come to be the last months of henry's reign in 1188 and 1189 lent a final degree of resolution to it when the french king philip yet again invaded beri a renewed unity was achieved between henry and his eldest surviving son richard the fighting brought henry himself out of england and into france with renewed forces of english and welsh troops war erupted all along the frontier between phillips french dominions and those of the extended anger empire in northern and western france large settlements were attacked and largely destroyed eventually a temporary piece was finally patched up in the early winter of 1188 when the ever powerful and influential counts of blue and flanders refused to engage any further in the hostilities which pertained in france details of a piece were worked out in the weeks that followed and managed negotiations between richard and phillips royal family were further brought under consideration these negotiations would still be underway when henry's life entered its final chapter a parley occurred between the respective sides in may 1189 but behind the scenes king henry was preparing for renewed war with the french as ever extensive mercenary units from wales had been recruited at the end of the pali fighting broke out again but henry was unable to prosecute the war which followed his health had been failing for some time the result of a severe ulcer diminished physically and perhaps worn out psychologically owing to the continuous conflicts with his family members so many of whom had pre-deceased him henry appeared at a final confidence with philip with whom richard was now unequivocally allied in july 1189 at this meeting henry was visibly ill as a result he agreed to some conciliatory terms but was said by a contemporary chronicler gerald of wales to have defiantly whispered in his eldest surviving son's ear god grant that i may not die until i have my revenge on you if he did say this and the account may be spurious he would never live to see that wish fulfilled two days later henry ii the man who had ruled england for 35 years and had created the original empire died at the age of 56. just hours before he collapsed into a final fever he learned that his other son john had joined richard's new rebellion as a result many chroniclers and scholars have judged that this final act of betrayal had all proved too much after years and years of family strife he was buried in the abbey of fontrevo in the county of onju despite the massive difficulties which had arisen in henry's family relations throughout the 1170s and the 1180s the succession to his rule would not prove as fraught as had been that which followed the death of henry the first over a century earlier with its nearly 20 years of anarchy before henry's own accession in 1154 but the succession in 1189 was complicated nonetheless henry's eldest surviving son richard cordelian or richard the lionheart as he is more commonly known had already taken the crusaders cross in france in 1187 and committed himself to traveling to the holy land to try to secure jerusalem from the great arab lord saladin who would eventually reconquer the city that year after nearly a century of it being in christian hands although he was still in western europe when his father died and was duly crowned as king of england at westminster on the 3rd of september 1189 two months after his father's death he soon set off for the holy land in january 1190. he would not return for several years and in the interim his younger brother john assumed a great degree of authority in england it was the beginning of a period of renewed unrest within england one which worsened after john succeeded richard in his own right in 1199 and which culminated in a major baronial revolt in england the first barons war in 1212. consequently the political consensus which henry ii managed to create for much of his reign quickly broke down following his death henry ii must surely have a place amongst the english kings who are most difficult to decipher there is little doubting his achievements for instance the very act of his accession and consolidation of power ended a period of nearly 20 years during which england and its french possessions have been racked by political anarchy owing to the insecure succession to king henry the first by way of contrast henry ii not only secured his ascent to power in his youth but consolidated his power in such a way as to set england on the path to becoming the most centralized state in late medieval europe beyond this his marriage to eleanor and his intervention in ireland created the so-called anja empire a political entity which spanned england wales substantial parts of ireland and much of france including normandy maine on zhu and aquitaine all of this is a formidable achievement but against it must be considered the failings of his rule notably his inability to control the ambitions of his children and even his own wife as a result a state of civil war essentially existed within his kingdom throughout much of the 1170s and 1180s but perhaps most significantly his clash with thomas beckett and the murder of an archbishop of canterbury during his reign stands considerably against him for these reasons we might say that henry ii was an enigmatic ruler a king who aspired to greatness and whose reputation was irrevocably tarnished by one or two key failings what do you think of king henry ii was he one of england's greatest kings or other aspects of his reign most notably his clash with thomas beckett which tarnish him beyond repair please let us know in the comments section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching [Music] the man known to history as richard the lionheart was born on the 8th of september 1157 in england possibly at beaumont palace in oxford one of the royal residences of the orangeven royal family during the 12th century his father was king henry ii of england who was born in 1133 henry had taken possession of the french territories of the successes of william the conqueror in the 1140s including the duchy of normandy and the county of maine and the north of france but he had contested for years with his cousin king stephen the first for possession of england and wales then three years prior to richard's birth he finally ascended to these territories when stephen died bringing the extended civil war to an end richard's mother was eleanor of aquitaine a formidable woman herself who had earlier been married to king louis the seventh of france before divorcing him and marrying henry in 1154 as the successor to the duchy of aquitaine in western france she had brought this territory to the marriage expanding the territory ruled by henry to cover much of northern and western france in addition to england and wales and the dynasty which richard was born into is known to posterity as the plantagenets after a flower of the order of plantogynista which henry ii's father used to wear this family now ruled extended territories on either side of the english channel and richard's life would be spent straddling these two worlds where the plantagenets were the royal family of england as well as a major noble family in france richard's early life was typical of a family which ruled over a very disparate dominion king henry ii was the king of england and lord of wales much as the modern day state of england has included a close connection with wales for centuries but the plantagenet dominions stretched much further still as the descendant of william the conqueror henry ruled over the duchy of normandy in northern france along with several other territories in northern and western france such as the county of maine moreover as we have seen his marriage to eleanor had brought the duchy of aquitaine into the plantagenet sphere of control as a consequence henry's dominions were nearly as extensive as those of the french monarchy in france with the south and east of the country ruled by the french kings from paris however owing to the peculiarities of france's territorial divisions the kings of england swore allegiance to the french kings as subjects as dukes of normandy even while simultaneously challenging the french crown for political and military predominance throughout france as well as this henry ii oversaw the establishment of a new english lordship across the irish sea during richard's youth thus what is known as the orangevin empire stretched across england wales ireland and most of northern and central france it was this disparate territory which richard would one day come to rule over during his youth many would not have countenanced the idea that young richard would one day succeed to the kingship as he had an older brother named henry after the king himself while he also had two younger brothers jeffrey and john and three sisters matilda eleanor and joan each of whom would play a consequential part in richard's life at one time or another as was typical for the age the upbringing of richard and his siblings was the responsibility of his mother much of it was entrusted to a nurse named hadiyana to whom richard later granted a substantial pension and recognition of her service as is typical of the time little concrete evidence is available for richard's youth and education but we know that he would have received a conventional education for a royal son insofar as it focused on the art of war yet he was able to read and speak latin to a very high level while he also evidently had a keen interest in poems and music moreover several muslim writers would later attest to him having an interest in arab culture although it is unclear of this evinces some previous learning on his part or was cited by muslim authors as a way of suggesting the english king was possessed of a considerable cultural tolerance this video is sponsored by magellan tv the amazing documentary streaming service founded by filmmakers that include subjects such as ancient and modern history science the earth and nature true crime as well as historical drama we love the series the warriors way the original superheroes and especially the episode knights to templars geofreyd to champa the superb documentary covers the knights templars god's warriors forged after the crusades nigeria freud de champagne foregoes earthly pleasures to join the templars and proudly wears the white mantle with a red cross the knights templar's greatest patron was rich the lionheart england's great crusader king with magellan tv there are no advertisements and you can watch content anytime anywhere on your tv laptop or mobile phone and with 15 to 20 hours of new content being added on a weekly basis you will always have something to watch and with an annual membership costing only 59.88 you pay only 4.99 per month for over 3500 hours of viewing time viewers can take advantage of a special holiday offer buy one get one free gift card for an annual membership by clicking on the link in the description richard's adult life was overwhelmingly connected with france rather than england and this association began early in june 1172 he was formally made the duke of aquitaine when he was just 14 years old a year later he was implicated in the first of a series of internal wars within the plantagenet family as eleanor and her sons allied with king louis vii of france against their father during this rebellion richard was actually knighted by king louis and in the summer of 1173 he saw his first significant military action in normandy just weeks later his father offered richard full possession of several major castles in france and half of the revenues of aquitaine to which he had ascended largely just in name the previous year this was initially rejected by richard however the nature of the rebellion changed in november 1173 when eleanor was captured by henry ii the fighting continued for months thereafter until henry the younger and king louis elected to make peace with king henry in 1174 and richard who was already showing a surprising degree of independence for a teenager finally submitted himself in september 1174. terms were given to the sons but elena would effectively remain her husband's prisoner for years to come as a means of offsetting further unrest within the family henry ii was evidently impressed by his second eldest son's performance during the war this was a time when familial rivalry which spilled over into actual rebellion was not entirely uncommon and the king would not have viewed his son's revolt as marking a fatal break with them accordingly in the aftermath of the revolt henry gave richard full control of some of the armed forces of the duchy of aquitaine with orders to reduce any rebels who emerged there to peace this was the first experience of genuine power and rule which richard would enjoy from 1175 onwards through to the late 1180s much of this work focused on quelling any independent streaks among the nobility of western and central france notably emma the vikanth of limoge and guiom the count of angulem both of whom were inclined to challenge plantagenet primacy in the region in 1176 and 1177 this military campaigning even extended as far south as the borders of navarre a small basque kingdom straddling the pyrenees in both france and spain consequently richard began to develop his reputation for military prowess at a very young age as he was still shy of his 20th birthday at this time when he undertook these campaigns it was this military ability which later earned him the name of richard cordelian or richard the lionheart a name which was entering into widespread use by the mid to late 1180s we know a lot about the character of the individual who was emerging at this time from several chronicles composed on him by contemporary or near contemporary historians and writers such as ralph of koggeshol and benedict of peterborough richard was evidently exceptionally tall by the standards of the 12th century standing well over six foot high he was handsome with reddish blonde hair and a pale complexion he was known to have a character which favored military prowess and he cultivated an image of himself as a great warrior one who patronized troubadours and poets though somebody who was also prone to pride and greed and was sometimes quick to anger he married later in his life after lengthy negotiations to have him wedded to berengeria the eldest daughter of sancho vi at navarre although the union would never produce any children this latter lack of children combined with some contemporary allusions to richard's sexuality have led 20th century historians to query whether richard was in fact gay and did not produce any children with berengaria for this reason but this is still open to debate with the sources proving ambiguous leading other historians to conclude that he might have actually been bisexual the late 1170s and early 1180s saw richard's relationship with his father strengthening despite the rebellion years earlier in 1176 and 1177 he campaigned as far away as northern spain in order to shore up the anger empire's southern boundaries in aquitaine simultaneously his actions could often prove overly heavy-handed and there are many instances of his crushing of local rebellions and in particular the pulling down of castles of those whose loyalties were suspected leading to resentment and unrest as one poet of the period bertrand de borne noted he besieges and pursues them takes their castles and smashes and burns in every direction even by the standards of an age which expected war-like behavior of its rulers there is the inference here that young richard the lionheart's tactics were excessive resentment of this brutal suppression of any signs of revolt culminated most notably in the outbreak of a major rebellion within gascony in southwestern france in the late 1170s and early 1180s and in the limousine region towards central france richard continued to suppress these instances of unrest though the degree to which he was responsible for causing them through his own heavy-handed rule over aquitaine is debatable given the manner in which his actions were often depicted in an overly positive light by later chroniclers underlying all of this activity in the late 1170s and into the early 1180s was continuing familial conflict amongst richard his brothers and their father aggravated by henry ii's ongoing imprisonment of their mother eleanor and much of this increasingly focused on the issue of the succession as henry ii neared his 50th year which would have been considered the beginnings of old age in the 12th century whilst henry was his eldest son and heir designate according to the principle of primogeniture the disparate nature of the orangev empire and the antagonistic relationship between henry and his sons ensured that there was much confusion as to who would succeed to which parts of henry's dominions and perennial tensions as a result richard for instance clearly hoped to secure aquitaine for himself over his elder brother this all boiled over in the winter of 1182 when king henry asked richard to pay homage to his elder brother henry this required richard to acknowledge that henry would have some say over the duchy of aquitaine in time to come whereas richard was clearly pressing to have the duchy separated from the wider anjavan empire and made his own fiefdom upon his father's death when this became clear henry sent the third eldest son jeffrey to richard's territories to prepare a family confidence however this backfired and instead jeffrey entered into a new rebellion with henry the younger 1183 witnessed a dramatic shift in the diplomatic arrangements within the orangevin empire on the 11th of june that summer henry ii's eldest surviving son and namesake sometimes referred to as henry the young king died of dysentery while yet again in rebellion against his father in central france richard was now his father's eldest surviving son and the new heir of the orangevin territories in england wales ireland and much of france on the surface the reduced number of suns should have made the family rivalries more stable particularly so when the king's third jeffrey also died in 1186 in largely unclear circumstances surrounding a jousting tournament yet this did not bring an end to the plantagenet family squabbles and in the years that followed the king began to increasingly favor his younger son john particularly so following jeffrey's death henry now wished for john to inherit the duchy of aquitaine while richard would take the rest of his father's lands conversely richard would not easily agree to his father's wishes in this respect not least because his long-standing ties to aquitaine had created a personal attachment to the duchy for him it was thus in an effort to force his father's hand in this respect that richard allied with the french king philip ii in 1187 it would be the last rebellion between henry and one of his sons the rebellion of 1187 proceeded quickly philip ii had succeeded to the throne of france in 1180 when he was just 15 years of age he and richard would have a long-standing rivalry for over a decade between when they first allied with each other and richard's own death over a decade later yet during the late 1180s it was a highly amicable relationship a combined military campaign by richard and philip against henry ii in early 1189 culminated in a major military defeat of henry in the summer of 1189 at a final conference henry was visibly ill and is believed to have cursed richard he died days later on the 6th of july 1189 leaving richard as his clear successor and the new king moved quickly to secure his patrimony he was invested as the duke of normandy two weeks later on the 20th of july later that summer he made one of the few very brief visits he ever made to england and was crowned as king there on the 3rd of september 1189. finally after over 15 years of internal strife the political landscape of the anjan empire seemed to be settling down richard had only his brother john as a rival he might have posed little threat but now just at the moment of his final victory richard was preparing to head to a new challenge one very far away a call had come from the crusader states of the holy land the crusades were an ongoing series of wars which european christians had been engaged in since the late 11th century to reclaim the holy land around palestine and syria especially jerusalem for the christian powers for centuries after the rise of christianity throughout the roman empire in the third and fourth centuries the holy land had remained in christian hands specifically as part of the byzantine empire however in the 7th century these territories were quickly overrun and conquered by the arabs and assimilated into their caliphate which was soon ruled from baghdad yet while the loss of the holy places associated with jesus and his followers was a blow for christian europe it was mitigated by the general tolerance of the muslim powers which allowed christian pilgrims from europe to visit the holy land relatively unimpeded but in the course of the 11th century this equilibrium changed as the seljuk turks and aggressively expansionist people from central asia conquered most of the middle east threatening the byzantine empire's capital at constantinople and reducing access for christians to the holy land in response the byzantine imperial government appealed to the christian powers of western europe to come to their aid against the turks the resulting response led to two centuries of crusading activity between the 1090s and the 1290s in 1095 pope urban ii first preached the need for a crusade to reclaim the holy land for christianity this met with a highly enthusiastic response and tens of thousands took the crusader cross and headed eastwards including numerous senior nobles from france england and germany and by 1099 this first crusade had resulted in the conquest of the holy land and the establishment of several crusader states including a newly established kingdom of jerusalem these kingdoms and principalities flourished for decades until a muslim force reconquered the city of edessa in 1144 triggering a second crusade between 1147 and 1150. although king louis vii of france and king conrad iii of germany went east on this occasion the second crusade met with little success and things were calm again for years afterwards but in the 1170s and early 1180s a new muslim ruler from kurdistan succeeded in uniting the disparate muslim kingdoms of syria and egypt thus encircling the crusader kingdoms this war lord's name was yusuf ibn ayub but he is more widely known by his honorific title saladin meaning the goodness of faith in the summer of 1187 his forces won a great victory at the battle of hattin and that autumn jerusalem was recaptured from the christians the call now went out from the remaining crusader states help was needed from europe if they were to survive and retake jerusalem richard had already determined to head to the holy land on crusade as early as 1187 as news of saladin's victory at the battle of hattin had trickled into europe and in the months that followed king philip of france and indeed king henry ii prior to his death had committed to doing the same these were not untypical acts for leading european monarchs and lords who wished to appear committed to the crusading ideal but in this particular instance the western european monarchs were wholly committed to doing so and richard remained committed to undertaking his quest to the middle east following his accession as king and so plans were underway to depart throughout the summer and autumn of 1189 and into the winter the primary goal here was to raise sufficient financing for the initiative one which would require a considerable fleet to convey troops across the mediterranean as well as massive logistical support over several years a tithe or 10 percent tax was raised to that end to fund the crusade known as the saladin tithe one which had been begun by henry ii before his death simultaneously the church hierarchy of england and of the various angeven territories in wales ireland and france were coerced into providing thousands of pounds of funding towards the third crusade which richard was now committed to undertaking in 1190 there were some final preparations to be made in england and france before richard could depart the goal here was to put in place individuals in the regions particularly the various duchies and counties under his control in france who would prop up richard's rule during what was sure to be a lengthy absence in the holy land thus william fitzralph a stalwart of henry ii's rule and one who had shown considerable support for richard since his accession was confirmed as seneschal of the duchy of normandy effectively making him the governor of the large territory of northern france payne de rochefour was appointed as his counterpart as seneschal of honju in western france but most significant was the appointment of william de longchamp the lord chancellor of england as the head of the government there during richard's absence it was a cutting rebuke of richard's brother john who might have hoped to be given a greater role in the governance of his brother's dominions during his absence and his dissatisfaction at this development would lead to several years of unrest while richard was away during which john would seek to continually undermine his brother principally by attempting to usurp his position as king in england normandy and elsewhere after months of preparations the crusade was finally ready to depart by the summer of 1190 at this early stage it would be effectively co-led by richard and the french king philip ii and the two kings left vesilei in central france together on the 4th of july 1190. they separated at leon where philip led his contingents by land over the alps through italy while richard elected to make for marseille to sail along the italian coastline to sicily from the southern french port there were extensive delays during these passages as much of the fleet which had been sent from england and western france around the iberian peninsula had been delayed in entering the mediterranean sea notably a drunken spree by the soldiers while in lisbon and portugal had particularly slowed the proceedings and so richard had to hire other ships marseille to send much of his forces to the holy land ahead of him and he then conducted a lengthy tour of the italian coastline to visit locations in the region such as the medical school of salerno a trip which evinced richard's interest in the new learning of the 12th century renaissance which was underway in italy finally he arrived to messina in sicily on the 23rd of september 1190. here richard conferred with philip before the french monarch quickly headed away to the holy land richard however had matters to attend to in sicily before leaving himself in 1177 richard's sister joan had married king william ii of sicily known as william the good william died in november 1189 and the crown was quickly usurped by an illegitimate contender named tankred this tank red then imprisoned joan fearing she would become a focus of resistance to his reign having arrived in sicily richard quickly secured her release but there were serious issues still to be resolved concerning jones dowry and valuable household plate tensions quickly escalated in late september and early october and by the 2nd of october richard had ordered his troops to disembark fully from their ships and prepare for battle if necessary when skirmishes broke out between richard and tangrid's troops two days later richard ordered an attack on the city of messina one which quickly proved successful peace terms were agreed on the 6th of october whereby tankrid paid a huge sum of money to richard and a formal alliance was agreed between the two simultaneously ships were sent to spain to bring richard's long-promised bride berengaria of navarre to sicily so that the pair could have their long-awaited marriage during the winter of 1190 as they waited to set off for the holy land however it would not happen here when richard finally left his base at messina it was several days more before berengaria finally arrived to sicily richard's crusader army finally left italy on the 10th of april 1191 consisting in total of over 200 ships and 17 000 soldiers and mariners it soon ran into difficulties but in the long run these would prove highly fortuitous on the third day out from sicily a severe storm scattered the fleet and by the time the ships rendezvoused near the large greek island of crete it was clear that dozens of ships had either been lost or had gone astray in their navigations and these included one of the royal ships transporting richard's would-be bride berengaria and his sister joan this particular ship could not simply be abandoned and a wide-ranging search throughout the eastern mediterranean was now undertaken to locate it eventually it was discovered to be at anchor in the port of limassol on the island of cyprus cyprus had long been a possession of the eastern byzantine empire and was governed by isaac ducas comnenos com nenos had recently developed delusions of grandeur and had proclaimed himself emperor of cyprus independently of constantinople now in the summer of 1191 he seized several of the scattered crusader ships and was considering doing the same with the ship on which joan and berengaria were travelling it would prove a fateful mistake in early may richard arrived in cyprus when the self-proclaimed emperor komnenos refused to release the captured ships and prisoners richard decided on immediate military intervention and attacked the city of limassol a surprise night attack quickly saw the capital completely overrun although the emperor managed to escape this effectively robbed him of his treasury and military support and in the weeks that followed further resistance was mopped up and cyprus was brought under the control of the crusaders much of this was achieved by richard linking up with the leaders of the crusader states in the holy land one of their primary leaders gui de lucian having received word of events in cyprus arrived with several contingents of hardened crusader warriors de lucio was the titular king of jerusalem albeit he was a king without a city since the fall of the holy city to saladin several years earlier and he was challenged amongst the nobles of the crusader states for primacy notably by conrad de montferra a claimant to the kingdom of jerusalem ghee and conrad would prove to be the most significant figures other than richard and saladin in the events which followed in the holy land by the beginning of june richard had seized control over the entirety of cyprus a rich island nation with notable trade links and one which would serve as a crucial base for the crusaders in years to come in the broader term cyprus became an independent christian kingdom one which was ruled by the lucinors for decades to come and as an independent christian kingdom down to the late 15th century making its conquest arguably the most tangible result of richard's entire crusade the conquest of cyprus and the subsequent sojourn there during the summer of 1191 also provided the opportunity for richard to finally wed berengaria the wedding ceremony was held at limassol on the 12th of may 1191 at the chapel of saint george there the marriage was designed to potentially unite navarre and the duchy of aquitaine and thus make it part of the wider ongevin empire in the long run but this plan would prove elusive richard and berengaria never had any children they would remain distant from one another and it has even been questioned whether the marriage was consummated at all nevertheless the union was celebrated with great fanfare and ceremony throughout cyprus in the early summer of 1191 overall these events would foretell great success for richard when he finally reached the holy land a great kingdom had already been won for the crusaders and the new leader arrived as a successful warrior newly married the reality though would prove more complex richard finally landed near the city of acre on the 8th of june 1191 over a year after he and king philip had first left france on the crusade the crusader states had been sieging acre one of the key cities of the holy land in what today is northern israel since 1189 this siege was the first major counter-attack undertaken by the crusaders since their defeat by saladin at the battle of hattin in 1187 and the fall of jerusalem the siege was largely driven in its early stages by gui de lucion the king of jerusalem and his primary rival for power amongst the crusader noble households conrad de montfora they had been joined in april by the king of france now with richard's additional strength added to their efforts the siege finally proved too much to withstand for the arab holders on the 4th of july the defenders surrendered terms were negotiated in the days that followed which allowed much of the arab garrison to leave unharmed in return for a substantial bounty and the provision of prisoners as sure it is for payment of the same the end of the siege also led quickly to philip's decision to return to france he had nearly died of dysentery outside acre and was willing to return to western europe ahead of richard where he could make major efforts to undermine richard while his rival for power in france remained absent in the holy land richard was now the undisputed leader of the third crusade but he had yet to meet saladin openly on the field of battle this would soon come as richard continued his efforts to secure the coastline of palestine in order to use it to solidify the crusader position and to use it for a fresh drive to retake jerusalem and as he prepared to move towards jerusalem a notorious atrocity was committed near acre in late august by this time saladin had missed the payment of the first installment of the ransom which he had promised for the safe passage of the arab defenders from acre weeks earlier and it was owing to this and the difficulties of transporting large numbers of prisoners inland towards jerusalem that richard and his fellow crusader leaders such as ghida lucio and conrad de elected in late august to summarily execute upwards of 3000 muslim prisoners before leaving acre richard was evidently heavily involved in this decision although there is significant debate down to this day as to what extent the action violated the laws of war as practiced in the late 12th century this done richard led his forces south towards jaffa on the 22nd of august with his army staying close to the coast where they could be reinforced by the crusader fleet and its ample resources in the eastern mediterranean this latter movement would finally lead to richard meeting saladin in the field in the foremost direct engagement between the two leaders of the third crusade the battle of arsuf was fought on the 7th of september on the route to jaffa for days saladin with a force of some 25 000 men largely light cavalry had been harrying richard's numerically inferior but better equipped and trained force of roughly 10 000 infantry and upwards of 1500 heavy cavalry the latter were the foremost fighting forces in the holy land during the crusades but they lacked the maneuverability of saladin's light cavalry a fact exacerbated by richard's unwillingness to move far from his baggage trains and risk losing their water supplies when on the 7th of september a full-scale battle was finally entered into saladin's troops succeeded in breaking the crusaders formation early on however a counter-attack in the afternoon by richard roused the christian lines opening gaps in their infantry lines for the heavy cavalry to strike forward at the much more vulnerable light cavalry after three charges of this kind the arab armies were broken and fled into the adjoining hills and forests contemporary accounts of the casualties are wildly exaggerated but it is estimated that as many as five or six thousand of saladin's men were killed for under a thousand of richards our soof was the foremost victory in the field for richard during the third crusade it opened the route to jaffa which the crusaders reached three days later the walls had been dismantled on saladin's orders a decision which effectively surrendered the city to the christians but which also ensured that richard had to spend weeks here until makeshift walls were erected to protect the town for the crusaders it was while he was here that richard began envisaging that the key to securing the holy land might lie in striking at saladin's core dominions in egypt and in particular by seizing cairo and this was a strategy which was eventually widely accepted as being the best available to the crusaders many years later during the 13th century but for now richard was overruled by ghee conrad and his fellow crusaders who wish to strike directly at jerusalem thus the early winter was spent seizing and garrisoning several castles on the route inland from jaffa to jerusalem consequently by the end of 1191 richard's crusade had succeeded in conquering cyprus for the christian cause as well as retaking the palestinian coast from acre to jaffa with the route to jerusalem being prepared for a strike at the holy city the latter campaign though would never be undertaken by richard early in 1192 richard's role in the crusades began to inexorably wind down on the 20th of january 1192 he reached ascalon where plans were initiated to begin re-fortifying the site as a base from which the muslim powers caravans traveling across the holy land between syria and egypt could be attacked yet when disputes broke out here amongst the leading crusaders about how this should be funded richard withdrew to acre here further disputes arose between the crusader contingents particularly the merchants representing the major trading powers of italy on whose financing and supply much of the crusader states depended about how to proceed consequently by the late spring richard was increasingly faced with the futility of trying to motivate the disparate leaders and groups involved to act in concord moreover it was while at acre that he received disconcerting news from western europe that fresh unrest had arisen back home in his dominions his brother john was now openly plotting with the french monarchy and richard's continued presence in the holy land on the crusades threatened his position as king of the orjvin empire back home it was these combined factors which in the spring of 1192 led him to take the decision to return home without capturing the ultimate prize of jerusalem there remained a number of things which needed to be resolved in the holy land before richard could leave first and foremost amongst these was the issue of the leadership of the crusade after the english king left would gi delusion the acknowledged king of jerusalem or conrad de montfort his would-be challenger succeed richard as the head of affairs in an effort to resolve this richard summoned a council where he attempted to establish conrad as the next head of the crusader states in return richard sold cyprus to gee for a sum of sixty thousand peasants but no sooner had this arrangement been loosely worked out then conrad was killed by a pair of assassins in late april it is unclear to this day who had hired these assassins with everyone from richard to saladin being suspected for varying reasons what is clear is that this cast affairs into further chaos then saladin's recapture of the town of jaffa the end of july before richard himself could relieve the siege sealed his decision to leave the holy land on the 2nd of september a three-year truce was agreed between richard and his mortal foe richard would surrender ascalon but the entirety of the coast from jaffa to acre was back in christian hands as well as cyprus and christians were guaranteed free access to jerusalem hence it was that richard departed the holy land on the 9th of october having failed to achieve ultimate success by capturing jerusalem but having achieved a great deal richard's return to europe was not straightforward by november 1192 he had reached the greek island of corfu and at this point elected to travel back to western europe through germany rather than westwards through italy richard was conscious in all of this that he was passing through the territory of several princedoms which were opposed to him notably leopold of austria leopold was a staunch ally of henry vi the holy roman emperor a would-be leader of any future crusades and he consequently viewed richard as his enemy aware that to pass through leopold's territory would involve the threat of falling into henry's hands richard hired several galleys at corfu and headed north accompanied by a relatively small retinue of his most trusted followers hoping to avoid detection while pretending to be travelling pilgrims on their way back from the holy land but the subterfuge did not work their ships crashed on the austrian coastline and while heading for moravia in austria they aroused suspicion as a result they were finally apprehended near vienna while passing through leopold's country in december 1192 within days news had been sent to the emperor henry that king richard of england had been apprehended and was being held by leopold in the castle of dernstein northwest of vienna the emperor had more than one reason to have apprehended richard for henry was also loosely allied with king philip of france accordingly we find the emperor writing to philip within days to inform the french king of the good news that he had apprehended the english king back in england john also became aware of this and moved to pay homage to philip in an effort to bolster his claims to succeed his brother however the church authorities which maintained that all crusaders were protected against attacks or seizure when traveling to or from the holy land on crusade were less impressed and extensive pressure was now applied on leopold and henry to release richard hence it was that weeks of protracted negotiations to see whether richard would be released by his german capitals and on what terms were entered into finally in late february 1193 terms were concluded in spair after richard successfully defended himself against trumped-up claims of having abandoned the crusade nevertheless richard still had to pay a ransom of 100 000 marks and promised to supply the emperor with 50 galleys and the service of 200 knights annually resources which henry utilized to launch his own crusade in the years that followed further negotiations on these terms ensued such that richard was unable to depart germany until early in 1194 well over a year after first leaving the holy land richard now set off on the last leg of his journey home not everything which had occurred during his absence had disadvantaged his position with regards to john in 1192 king philip had stirred up a rebellion in the duchy of aquitaine but this event had demonstrated the strength of some of richard's alliances on this occasion his wife bedingaria's brother sancho of navarre to the south and the basque region intervened during richard's absence to suppress the revolt indeed sancho went even further and launched a punitive raid against toulouse to demonstrate that richard's french possessions were not open targets while he was in the holy land or making his way home and back home in england many senior officials who had been loyal to richard before he departed on the crusade remained so and did their best to thwart john's efforts to undermine his brother nevertheless other developments did not bode well for richard in april 1193 king philip finally inflicted a considerable defeat on richard's cause when he seized gessor in normandy perhaps because the castellan a senior official there had proved willing to surrender in the belief that john would soon succeed richard as duke of normandy all of this indicates that there was fresh unrest as richard arrived back to western europe in the early months of 1194. richard left germany in february 1194 and reached england on the 13th of march he passed through the rhineland on his way on which journey he renewed some alliances with the princes and lord of western germany and the low countries around modern day belgium having landed in england resistance to his resumption of the crown was strikingly limited a result perhaps of john himself being overseas in the duchy of normandy richard first visited the religious shrines of canterbury amberis and edmunds before proceeding to the famous nottingham castle to confront the center of john's supposed rebellion fighting did occur before the castle surrendered on the 28th of march thereafter richard resumed the full regalia of his english kingship and presided over several meetings of the government at winchester before departing for france in early may to confront john head on in normandy he left the government of england to hubert walter who had accompanied richard on crusade and who had been made archbishop of canterbury in 1193 richard would never return to england an indication of the degree to which he viewed france as the core component of his dominions much as his ancestors as far back as william the conqueror had where england had seen little resistance to richard's return as king and had been quickly stabilized the crusader king's return would prove far less seamless in france john had dug himself into normandy where he relied on a close alliance with the french king to cement his position thus by the time that richard arrived in northern france in the early summer of 1194 john and king philip had flooded the region with french troops holding a number of key strategic sites across normandy as well as other sites and the french king proved the more loyal and reliable of richard's opponents conversely no sooner had the english king landed in normandy than his brother and would-be rival quickly rushed to beg forgiveness from his brother this richard agreed to claiming john had been ill-advised by his counselors for his part john would remain loyal to richard for the remainder of his reign thereafter thus within just days of his arrival the conflict switched from a pseudo-civil war between richard and john to a more traditional war between the king of england and the king of france and in this richard was quickly aided by his familial allies from navarre and by mid-june tour in central france had been retaken by richard the campaign then moved into the loire river valley and after a swift campaign here he moved south into aquitaine by late july he had captured tayburg and marzilak the city of angulem montenegres thus largely completing richard's reconquest of his western french territories three months after sailing to france from england richard's conquest of his french territories though would prove more ephemeral than first appeared in particular his hold over normandy was tenuous and his efforts to fully re-establish his control over the duchy would dominate much of his subsequent reign in his drive southwards to restore control of aquitaine and the summer of 1194 richard had left several castles in the hands of king philip several of these were major strongholds that had been heavily garrisoned in such a way which would require extensive and costly sieges to remove the french accordingly in the late summer of 1194 a truce was agreed whereby these sites would be allowed to remain in the french king's hands until the winter of 1195 but there would be no fighting between richard and phillips troops on the surface this arrangement provided both monarchs with advantages it gave phillip time to rethink his strategic stance now that the chances of replacing richard with john altogether seemed implausible while for richard this new arrangement would give him a period of 15 months to cement his newly resumed rule and deal effectively with those who had supported john in his attempt to usurp richard the truce of 1194 between richard and the french king proved short-lived within weeks of it being agreed board attentions and skirmishes were breaking out in places throughout france while by the summer of 1195 full-scale war had effectively recommenced richard's approach to this resumed conflict was to concentrate his forces on seizing control of the yovern and berry towards central france in the border region between richard's french territories and those of the french monarchy an approach which quickly bore fruit by the early autumn of 1195 philip had indicated that he would relinquish control of any of richard's territories which he had seized during the king's absence on crusade in return for a marriage alliance between richard's niece eleanor and philip's son and heir louis this proposal though proved abortive and as fighting continued to rage richard made further conquests ensuring that philip had to agree to a treaty in january 1196 then under the terms of this treaty of luviere philip relinquished all of his major gains from richard's period of absence except the vexa in northwestern france and a handful of border castles this ended the conflict in central france to an extent that fresh tensions would continue elsewhere in the country in the years ahead as 1196 progressed the war between richard and philip changed dramatically as philip built up a new alliance of powers to combat richard's rapid ascendancy on either side of the english channel these included several major lords from the low countries notably the counts of flanders pontia and bologna who were joined in the north atlantic by the duchy of brittany in northwestern france and this new confederacy was now able to apply extensive pressure on richard's shipping lines and logistical supplies in the english channel in order to offset this threat richard needed to divert much of his land forces to an invasion of brittany in mid-1196 yet even this setback was only temporary eventually richard was able to force count baldwin of flanders to change sides firstly by launching a massive embargo on trade on the supply of goods and then by offering a favorable alliance of his own thus baldwin went from blockading orangevin shipping in the channel to invading artois in northeastern france on richard's behalf and seizing the considerable french town of doue then in a remarkable course of events an alliance of german princes petitioned richard that they would put forward richard's nephew otto son of richard's sister matilda and her husband henry of bavaria and saxony as a potential successor for the office of holy roman emperor an astonishing diplomatic coup for richard while 1197 and 1198 had seen these further successes for richard he would not be alive long enough to enjoy their fruits in the autumn of 1198 richard elected to complete the final reduction of the vexa a small county near paris itself from philip following the expiration of a new truce with the french king pressured by the count of flanders in the north east and by richard in the west phillip twice came perilously close to being captured in the campaign which followed including nearly drowning on one occasion this virtually completed the conquest of the vexa bringing richard back into possession of all the lands he had previously held before heading to the holy land and placing him in the strongest position any english monarch had held with respect to the french monarchy for decades this conquest also initiated a major building program in the region notably the chateau gayar 95 kilometers northwest of paris and one of the most impressive medieval castles ever built in northern france along with major work to develop the port of portsmouth it constitutes one of the only major acts of administration and government which can be associated with richard's kingship a reign which was ultimately characterized almost entirely by war whether in the holy land or back in western europe in january 1199 king richard met with his french counterpart king philip in a meeting brokered by pope innocent iii a five-year truce was now agreed to one which would see richard's dominions entering into an unprecedented period of peace and stability it is entirely peculiar that it was during this period of harmony that richard would be killed while still in his early forties on the 26th of march 1199 he was shot by a crossbow boat while campaigning to put down a small regional revolt by vikant aymar v of limoges in the days that followed without the benefits of modern medicine the wound turned gangrenous and on the 6th of april he died from the illness he was subsequently buried at fontesvro richard was succeeded by john whom richard named as his successor during his final illness the would-be usurper's accession would spell the end of the conflict with philip when in 1200 the treaty of lagule saw john confirmed in his french territories in return for acknowledging philip as his liege lord in france itself however it would prove a short-lived piece and in the years that followed the french crown would begin to reconquer several parts of the orangevin empire from the english monarchy the beginning of a long process which ultimately would take until the 1550s to complete overseas richard's efforts proved just as transiently successful further crusades followed in the years and indeed decades to come into the late 13th century some of these produced variable levels of success in places other than the holy land for instance in 1204 a christian army seized the byzantine capital of constantinople and established a western roman catholic christian state in the balkans for decades to come others attempted to seize egypt as the strategic key to the holy land much as richard had envisaged in 1191 the sixth crusade in the late 1220s finally succeeded in capturing jerusalem richard's ultimate goal which he had been unable to achieve nevertheless this was a fleeting success and within 15 years the holy city was back in muslim hands thereafter the fate of the crusader states dwindled despite efforts by major european monarchs to undertake fresh efforts to reclaim the holy places for the christian cause with the fall of the city of tripoli in 1289 and the siege of acre in 1291 100 years after richard had landed there in 1191 the crusader cause was extinguished in the holy land it was due in some considerable way to richard's efforts though that these christian kingdoms lasted here for as long as they did richard the lionheart is one of england's most acclaimed kings a somewhat strange development given the shortness of his reign he ruled for just 10 years half of which period was spent far overseas in sicily cyprus the holy land and germany yet it is this period which has also gained him his reputation and made him most famous for two years in the mediterranean world richard led the crusader effort in the wake of years of losses for the christian states there as well as successive defeats to saladin it is unsurprising that richard has captured the imagination in this way not least because he finally offered a counterpoint to the seemingly invincible muslim warlord after the stalemate of the second crusade in the middle of the 12th century richard was depicted as the first major crusader leader to have made significant conquests and territorial gains in the holy land since the first crusade over 90 years earlier for successive generations of chroniclers and historians since the late 12th century itself this appearance of the valorous crusader warrior named the lionheart for his courage was made all the starker when contrasted with the supposedly scheming specter of his brother john who back in western europe conspired with the french to usurp richard while his brave brother was away but while this is the idealized version of richard and the basis for so much of his legacy there is also much to criticize about the lionheart criticisms which have dominated studies of the king by historians in recent decades first and foremost his reign was dominated by warfare this had started long before his own accession with the conflicts with his father in the 1170s and 1180s it continued through his involvement in the crusades and eased after returning from the holy land while much of the latter conflict can certainly be blamed on others for having usurped some of his territory while he was absent in the east the reality is that richard could have negotiated a peace settlement with king philip long before 1199 if he had been willing to compromise slightly on how many castles in france he wanted to hold by way of contrast there is little else of interest within richard's reign other than his wars he did build some castles which again had a military purpose and left plans when he left england in 1194 for some work to be carried out in his name but his reign is remarkably bereft of any signature efforts to reform the judiciary introduce new taxation systems other than those designed to fund his military endeavors or offer any form of civil government policy which might have substantially improved the administration of his dominions or the lives of his subjects perhaps the most balanced appraisal of richard the lionheart is one which takes stock of both extremities of his reign richard can certainly be criticized for having done little other than make war throughout his life but that was after all substantially perceived to be the duty and responsibility of a european monarch during the high middle ages moreover while it is fair to suggest that he could have established peace with france more quickly in the mid 1190s and moved on from there to working on taxation and issues of noble rights which plagued john's subsequent reign it is also only fair to note that richard was responding to aggression which was committed by others the third crusade was launched in response to saladin's conquests in the holy land and richard's wars in france were the result of philip and john's conspiracies while richard was away on crusade finally while there is no doubting that richard was over lionized by historians and chronicles for centuries after his death it is also true to say that he was the most successful leader of the crusades in over 90 years when he arrived the crusader states were facing extinction in the holy lands but when he left in 1192 the christian cause had been rejuvenated and expanded ensuring its survival for another century perhaps in this respect his most exaggerated legacy is also paradoxically his most genuine what do you think of richard the lionheart does his brief reign constitute one of the great missed opportunities of english kingship or are his abilities as a king exaggerated please let us know in the comments section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching the man known to history as edward plantagenet who would become king edward iv of england was born on the 28th of april 1442 in roar normandy he was the third of 12 children seven of whom survived to adulthood and the eldest surviving son and heir of the third duke and duchess of york richard plantagenet and cecily neville at the time of his birth edward's father richard duke of york held command of the french campaign in normandy on behalf of king henry vi edward lived in his parents lavish establishment in rua until he was three years old with his elder sister anne their younger brother edmund and their younger sister elizabeth only three of the seven children whom duchess cecily gave birth to between 1446 and 1455 survived their infancy margaret and edward's most famous younger brothers george and richard less than a year after elizabeth's birth in 1444 the family departed roma and returned to england taking up residence at fatheringhay castle in northamptonshire over the next few years the family divided their time amongst their various estates but likely lived most consistently at fatheringhay and at ludlow castle in wales next to the king himself richard plantagenet was the greatest landowner in england with estates in more than 20 counties as well as estates in ireland his annual income is estimated to have been about seven thousand pounds equivalent to approximately four point three million pounds today very few specifics are known about edward's childhood at early education but much can be inferred based upon the historical documents from his reign the instructions edward gave for his own son's education and based on what is generally known about the child rearing and educational practices of the english aristocracy during the 15th century duchess cecily may have taken aspects of her children's early education in hand personally such as religious instruction and basic literacy cecily however was engaged in the near-constant business of child bearing until her eldest children including edward were well into their adolescence additionally she was the duchess of york the lady and the chatelaine of great estates and might presumably have relied more heavily on nurses instead had she not had the time to see to her children's daily needs and early education herself this is quite likely as edward reportedly formed a strong bond with his childhood nurse in normandy anne of co and often spoke warmly of his young childhood under her care during his later reign he granted her an annual pension of 20 pounds edward and edmund were sent to live at ludlow castle under the care of a governor or male guardian and began lessons with a resident private tutor around the ages of six or seven all of the york boys studied latin and french showing impressive proficiency in both languages later in life they also most likely studied arithmetic history and literature as well as music dance and social etiquette which were important accomplishments for courtly life they received extensive military training including riding swordplay and jousting these martial skills would have had to be mastered with the boys fully armored adding another layer of required skill altogether military strategy and maneuvers may well have been part of their history lessons or military training as edward later demonstrated consistent success and a talent for leadership on the battlefield edward likely also received training in property law and estate management which might demonstrate that the duke of york had not yet begun to envision either himself or his eldest son taking the throne until the late 1450s estate management was the province of a nobleman rather than a king and such training might explain edward's notably active personal engagement with the law justice and the royal finances during his reign which was not typical of medieval kings as a young man edward was noted for his charm charisma and his sharp intelligence but for all his fine education edward did not prove to be an academic or an intellectual he enjoyed reading and commissioning printed and exquisitely illuminated books bound in silk and velvet for his personal library a large portion of which has survived and been preserved edward's personal literary taste ran heavily toward chevalric romances and popular histories of great men great deeds and glorious battles written mostly in french and english which he read for his own pleasure however he owned few texts in latin the language of european intellectualism and showed little interest in the emerging philosophical currents of humanism or in any other particularly scholarly pursuits edward naturally also owned several religious texts but he does not seem to have been particularly devout in his religious sensibilities his mother cecily neville was known to have been a devotedly pious woman with a strong scholarly interest in the writings of female christian mystics such as bridget of sweden and catherine of siena edward however seems not to have heavily absorbed the intellectualism of the age or his mother's reportedly notable piety and consistently demonstrated his interest in more worldly pursuits he was described by his contemporaries as eminently able cheerful gallant and generous with a good and even temper edward was well liked for his friendly engaging manner and his ability to be at ease in any company not typical of young men raised to be kings which of course edward was not he was also exceptionally daring and confident even to the point of vanity both regarding his abilities and the plantagenet good looks he had inherited multiple observers and chroniclers remarked upon edward's exceptional handsomeness the most well-known portrait of edward iv which hangs in london's national portrait gallery shows a rather tired middle-aged man with more than a few extra pounds on his frame with dark brown hair and light brown eyes however this portrait was painted circa 1540 nearly 60 years after edward's death documentary sources from edward's time do suggest that he gained a great deal of weight as he approached middle age thanks to his prodigious indulgence in fine wine and food when edward's tomb at windsor was opened in 1789 visitors reportedly left with locks of his hair several such swatches and strands of brown hair purporting to have been edwards have been sold at auction in recent years however it is now known that some of edward siblings were fair-haired and blue-eyed and he himself reportedly had several fair-haired or red-haired children it is therefore possible that edward was born with blonde or reddish-blond hair which darkened as he aged and he may have had lighter coloured eyes than his portraits depict we do know for sure that edward stood at least six foot three inches or centimeters tall which was quite exceptional for medieval europe where the average adult male was usually no taller than roughly five and a half feet little more than 160 centimeters sir thomas moore later described edward as strong and clean-made or well-proportioned with broad shoulders in his youth the tall handsome charming and vigorous edward must have cut quite an impressive figure on horseback predictably not the least notable of edward's qualities was his love for the company of women which his conduct throughout his romantic life even as a married man makes plain left to his own devices edward almost certainly would have lived a predictable life as the fourth duke of york willingly serving the king inheriting the bulk of his father's estates marrying having children and likely supporting a score of mistresses and their illegitimate children until his death as it was he was the firstborn son of a family with a legitimate claim to the english throne in a country where the royal succession was dangerously murky what made the situation more unstable was the perceived weakness of the reigning king henry vi whose precarious health and reluctance to rule in the traditional fashion of medieval warrior kings forced the nobles surrounding him to exercise power in his name the growing influence of the king's few favored ministers fostered competition and enmity amongst other prominent members of the english nobility as a result of these conditions almost from the very beginning edward's life and duty was given over to the advancement and indeed the survival of his family through his mother richard duke of york was the legitimate great-grandson of lionel of antwerp first duke of clarence the second surviving son of the last undisputed king of england edward iii through his father richard was also descended from edward the iii's fourth surviving son edmund first duke of york edward iii's eldest son also named edward and known as the black prince had only a single male heir richard ii who subsequently had no children of his own the yorks later claimed that the closest male heir to the throne after the death of richard ii was actually the one-year-old infant roger mortimer the grandson of lionel and the grandfather of richard duke of york the duke would come to emphasize this lineage heavily by 1460 when the crown was within his grasp up until then richard plantagenet had been content to emphasize his lineage only from the first duke of york this was most likely due to two factors first richard was descended from the mortimus not through his father but through his mother which weakened claims of inheritance in a society which favored sons additionally lionel duke of clarence had had no sons but only a daughter philippa while john of gaunt the third surviving son of edward iii had borne a legitimate son henry bolingbroke interestingly while primogeniture remained overwhelmingly prevalent for centuries within english laws of inheritance edward iv was not the first king of england to stake a claim to the throne based upon the inheritance of a female ancestor and neither would he be the last nonetheless richard duke of york seemingly came to believe that his line had a claim to the english throne as good or better than did the reigning king henry vi of the ruling house of lancaster whose grandfather henry bolingbroke had usurped the throne from his cousin richard ii as we can see a large part of the problem was that edward iii and his queen philippa of henolt had had so many children most crucially five sons who survived to adulthood most medieval kings were lucky to have an heir and a spare during the lifetime of edward iii and those of his many sons there was little indication of the turmoil in which their increasingly numerous descendants would become embroiled overlapping with the hundred years war with france this period of roughly a century of major competition for the throne of england has been called the wars of the roses after the badgers worn by the opposing branches of the royal family the white rose of york and the red rose of lancaster tensions rose between the ruling house of lancaster and the house of york during the late 1440s and 1450s edward's father richard found himself frequently sidelined in favour of the lancastrian dukes of suffolk and somerset who not only held the king's ear but also received positions and performance not extended to the duke of york in 1446 the duke of york's command post in roar was given instead to edmund beaufort duke of somerset which some historians see as the beginning of the bad blood between york and lancaster what made this situation more problematic was that by the 1450s the crown was deeply in debt to the duke of york to the tune of almost 100 000 pounds about 20 percent of this debt comprised loans the duke had made to the crown which remained unpaid but the bulk of it represented unpaid wages for the duke's several years of service in france meanwhile the king's lancastrian ministers regularly received repayment of loans made to the crown including interest the increasingly precarious state of england's economy by the early 1450s sparked rebellion in kent and the southeast of england rebels led by the irishman jack cade demanded the removal of the king's evil greedy and spendthrift advisors in favour of a broader representation of those men of good and noble birth the dukes of york exeter norfolk and buckingham were the names put forward most prominently by the rebels naturally the lancastrian suspected york of fermenting the rebellion to facilitate his own advancement especially since jack cade took on the name of john mortimer during the rebellion to associate himself with the duke's perceived legitimacy as a prince of the blood however studies of the kentish rebellion indicate that local political and judicial corruption was viewed by the rebels as manifestations of similar corruption at king henry's court and the tendency to demand the removal of evil counselors in favor of others was fairly typical in past rebellions until the birth of king henry's son edward of westminster the duke of york was technically the nearest claimant to the throne and thus the most prominent man of good and noble birth in england next to the king himself this should not suggest however that the english people would support henry's removal in the duke's favor which richard plantagenet would eventually discover to his own detriment king henry had been just a baby when he became king later his lack of interest in government and his delegation of responsibility for his french territories to his lancastrian favorites eventually resulted in the loss of all french lands won by his father henry v save for kalei this contributed to massive resentment of the king's lancastrian advisors and of the king himself many english people looked bitterly upon the many decades the vast sums of money and the countless lives which appeared to have been wasted conquering france only to lose almost all they had gained to the ineptitude of the king and his closest ministers when henry vi began to suffer mental health crises during the 1450s the duke of york was twice declared lord protector during the kings incapacity parliament and many of york's contemporaries distrusted the notion of a regency controlled by king henry's queen margaret of on you queens of england often perceived such wariness from the english people because they were frequently foreigners foreign members of court were always suspected of being spies and queens who attempted to exercise power were invariably accused of wrongfully usurping kingly prerogatives in reality any move queen margaret made to help secure her husband's throne or her son's inheritance would be viewed with hostility by the great men of the realm margaret observed the growth of the yorkist cause with alarm and a determination to defeat the man who seemed bent on taking her own son's place as heir to the throne noble families equally dissatisfied with the influence of queen margaret and the king's lancastrian ministers at court joined the yorkist cause most particularly duchess cecily's clan the powerful northern neville family represented by her brother richard earl of salisbury and his highly charismatic son also named richard earl of warwick as the yorkist faction cultivated support primarily in london and the southeast of england and secured foreign strongholds in france and ireland as effective springboards for invasion queen margaret strove to rally support in the lancastrian strongholds in the midlands the first battle of saint albans in may of 1455 was little more than a skirmish but it set the english people on the path toward a series of internal conflicts which would cause the crown to change hands no less than six times in the next 30 years the beginnings of the civil war in england which developed over roughly a decade and a half encompassed virtually all of edward's childhood he was most likely at ludlow castle in 1452 observing the duke of somerset presiding over the trials of those who had served edward's father who took part in an attempted coup after which the duke of york had fled to ireland at the age of 11 edward accompanied his father to london in his role as lord protector to open parliament where edward was formally recognized for the first time as the earl of march and his father's heir at the age of 12 he reportedly led a force of ten thousand men from ludlow in a march on london to liberate his father from prison the yorkist advance was swiftly reported and the duke was released before their arrival as the lancastrian and yorkist factions edged closer towards open warfare edward and his younger brother edmund were increasingly involved in politics and military mobilization and were already expected to take on leadership roles a letter written in june 1454 from the two boys to their father assured the duke that edward and edmund were being dutiful in their studies and their military training we trust to god the boys wrote that your gracious lordship and good fatherhood will be pleased following the first battle of saint albans in 1455 the recovered henry vi who desired peace above all else sought to reconcile the great men of england and end the factional fighting but the next four years were nonetheless fraught with open hostility at court and the recruitment of ever more armed retainers by both the lancastrians and the yorkists in june of 1459 there was a meeting of the great council at coventry to which no member of the york faction was invited the lancastrian attendees emerged with legal indictments for the duke of york and his cohorts who immediately organized themselves to march in force on the capital it was their intention to attempt a peaceful settlement with the king who desired the same but the queen's lancastrian forces intercepted the earl of salisbury's forces at ludford bridge following this struggle the yorks were attainted for treason which basically forced them into open rebellion after the route at ludford in october 1459 edwards family and supporters were separated as each fled the country the duke of york fled to ireland with his son edmund earl of rutland while duchess cecily and her younger children were taken into custody of king henry they were exempted from the attender however and treated kindly and generously meanwhile edward took shelter with his uncle salisbury and his cousin warwick in devon later they covertly made their way to calais warwick had been appointed captain of calais during the duke of york's second stint as protector and thanks to warwick's charisma and his skill at diplomacy in public relations this last english stronghold in france was well reinforced with yorkist supporters and sympathizers duke richard likewise cultivated support for the yorkist cause among the irish earls and within six months the york faction were able to mount a successful invasion of england from both ireland and france prior to the invasion the earl of warwick spearheaded a widespread pr campaign to clarify the rebels motives he wrote dozens of letters and sent them to all regions of england he also penned a manifesto to which he edward and their respective fathers the dukes of salisbury and york all signed their names the manifesto assured the people of england that the york faction were interested only in banishing corruption and restoring order and good government to the realm they swore their loyalty to king henry and their commitment to serve him but protested that his evil counselors had passed the sentence of attender against the yorks in order to profit from their loss and death edward and warwick landed at sandwich in late june of 1460 accompanied by 2 000 men they began their march to london gathering supporters as they went they knew that king henry was marshaling his troops and reinforcing his position at northampton and that even now queen margaret's forces were advancing on london margaret's army however had earned a fearsome reputation among the merchant class as well as the common people news of the pillaging and burning of towns along their route to london terrified the people of the capital and the city decided to keep its gates fastened against the lancastrian army this course of action proved preferable when it became known that the earls of march and warwick would arrive in london at any moment queen margaret betrayed by the english people many of whom hated and feared her and unwilling to force her way into the capital retreated north once again on the 2nd of july edward and warwick were warmly welcomed into the city by london's mayor the archbishop of canterbury and other assembled dignitaries and spectators while the weary and outraged lancastrian garrison withdrew into the tower it seems highly unlikely that deposing king henry and taking the throne for themselves was the goal for any of the yorks at this point it certainly does not seem to have been so for edward and warwick they explained again that they desired above all else only to meet with and assert their loyalty to the king whom they were certain would lift their sentences of attender and restore their titles fortunes and inheritances which had been revoked by the charges of treason they promised then to help restore good government of the realm under king henry if however the king's counselors persisted in setting him against the house of york his loyal subjects they would have no choice but to fight a corporate loan of one thousand pounds was extended to edward and warwick from the merchants of london to pay the soldiers who would fight in the coming battle this relatively modest sum is somewhat telling it suggests that the people of the capital trusted edward more than queen margaret but probably not by much further it illustrates that the people of london believed edward and warwick when they insisted that they had no plans to depose the king for why would they fund such a venture and if they were willing and desirous to have henry deposed why would they not have given the yorks a more generous loan two days after his arrival edward led his army out of london arriving at northampton on the 9th of july warwick was sent to negotiate with the duke of buckingham who was quite unwilling to allow warwick to see the king there seemed to be no other course but to fight edward warwick and warwick's uncle william neville lord folkenberg each led one of three troop columns the yorks seemed to be facing an uphill battle at northampton they were outnumbered at least two to one the king's forces occupied a reinforced position and had the use of several large cannon the battle of northampton was in fact the first military engagement in english history in which field artillery was actually present on the battlefield unfortunately for the lancastrians the 10th of july 1460 was an excessively rainy day rendering their cannon useless further the vanguard commanded by lord edmund gray defected to the yorkist side early in the battle shifting the momentum quickly in the favor of york with these rather fortunate advantages the struggle lasted little more than half an hour the number of casualties were not reported on the york side which might suggest that they were minimal 300 men fell on the lancaster side including the duke of buckingham and all of the other high-ranking royalist captains edward and warwick found king henry in his tent having been captured and detained by a yorkist archer they greeted him respectfully and informed him that they had come to escort him back to london though he was still the king henry was now effectively edward and warwick's prisoner the yorks entered london once again on the 16th of july in triumph after the lancastrian garrison that the tower surrendered the yorks issued ritz summoning parliament for the 7th of october where they planned to reverse the attainers of treason cast upon them by the coventry meeting of june 1459. this was indeed the first act of the parliament which met in october of 1460. edward warwick and all the rest of the yorkist supporters seemed content with this state of affairs and it seems doubtful that any of them would have considered that deposing the king would be a good idea king henry was their greatest political asset and as long as they could keep the most powerful and troublesome lancastrians from court and sufficiently intimidated their influence and prosperity was assured richard duke of york however seemed recently to have developed much loftier ambitions than simply regaining his former titles and properties or contenting himself with the position of second most powerful man in england documentary sources confirm that as early as the 8th of september 1460 only three weeks after the ritz summoning parliament had been issued the duke of york had dropped king henry's regular year from all of his correspondents dating all of his communications instead using this year of grace which was highly unusual when he arrived in london for the parliament in october he rode like a king at the head of his retainers his sword unsheathed and held upright before him in unmistakably royal fashion his banners proudly displaying the royal arms of england when he strode confidently into parliament laid his hands upon the throne and declared himself king by virtue of his descent from lionel duke of clarence elder brother of king henry the sixth great-grandfather john of gaunt he was greeted with stunned and uneasy silence duke richard's claims were apparently a step too far what is noteworthy about the reaction to these proceedings is that the parliament and its attendees were overwhelmingly pro-yorkist yet they clearly still had no desire to revisit the instability of a usurpation nor were they willing to repudiate solemn oaths of loyalty which they had all sworn to king henry edward was almost certainly present at this historic parliament and one can only imagine what he thought of his father's actions in that moment but if the reactions of york's neville relations are any indication it is possible that he was as embarrassed and taken aback as they for whether or not they knew of the duke's intentions neither salisbury nor warrick spoke a word or made any gesture in support of the duke's claim the commons declined to deliberate on such academic matters of succession leaving it to the lords to decide most of the power brokers present distrusted and disliked margaret of aunjou and had clearly bought into the convenient rumors that her son edward of westminster was not king henry's son and was therefore illegitimate with the act of accord parliament ultimately recognized the duke as the legitimate heir to the throne upon henry's death but would not consent to the deposition of the king parliament and the yorks had reckoned without queen margaret however whose suspicions that the duke of york sought to dethrone her husband and disinherit her son had now been totally confirmed she began to marshal her forces in the north of england and loyal lancastrians flocked to join her army at hull most problematic for the yorkist cause was that their main holdings and properties were in the north and many of them were now being raided and despoiled by the lancastrians in early december the duke of york departed for the north at the head of his army together with his son edmund and his brother-in-law salisbury meanwhile edward was sent to wales to recruit troops and warwick stayed behind to hold london then at the news of his father's death at the battle of wakefield edward prepared to depart for london but changed his plans to meet the advancing forces of jasper tudor at mortimer's cross following edward's victory he learned of the unfortunate losses suffered by warwick and his men at the second battle of saint albans warwick had been wounded and king henry had been recaptured by the lancastrians but the city of london had shown her yorkist colours once again and shut their gates to margaret of anjou now that his father was dead the 18 year old edward was the heir to the house of york they had secured the capital and still had the support of many in parliament but they had lost king henry who had been the pivot around which yorkist authority had coalesced it may be convincingly argued that edward believed that the only option now was to assume the throne himself he had not been the one to set his family upon this path but they must seemingly stay on it or be destroyed edward almost certainly understood as did the rest of his family and his supporters that if they yielded the throne back to king henry none of them would be likely to survive the wrath of margaret of aung zhu or other loyal lancastrians he had not intended to assume the throne but the fact that he acted quickly and decisively when he believed it necessary testifies to his confidence given the popular disaffection with the regime of king henry vi as well as popular dislike of his queen perhaps edward believed that he could only do better the fact that edward was essentially thrust upon the throne by the actions of his father and the vagaries of circumstance should not suggest however that he found becoming king unwelcome or that he in any way hesitated to exercise the powers and prerogatives of a king when the opportunity arose edward's entry into london on the 26th of february 1461 and the events of the next nine days were carefully choreographed both he and warwick were warmly received by the people one chronicler reported a verse being sung in edward's praise among londoners and the days following his arrival let us walk in a new wine yard and let us make a gay garden in the month of march with this fair white rose and herb the earl of march edward's lineage and its superiority to the lineage of the lancastrian usurpers was emphasized in public speeches on the 3rd of march the new great council thrown together rather quickly met and agreed to accept edward as king on the morning of the fourth of march he attended mass at st paul's before processing to the great hall at westminster there the archbishop of canterbury administered edward the oath he was draped in royal robes crowned with the cap of a state and took his seat upon the king's bench scepter in hand after this rather rapid coronation the more formal incarnation of which would come a few months later edward iv was proclaimed king throughout the capital just two days later dozens of proclamations writs and letters were sent out to help consolidate the new yorkist regime the english people were invited to pledge their loyalty to the new king all who had served in the lancastrian cause against the yorkists were promised a full pardon and the retention of their property on condition they submit to the new monarchy except for a short list of roughly two dozen high-ranking lancastrians and anyone with an income of more than 100 marks per year which was virtually all of the nobility and gentry using this strategy edward placed far more pressure on the english elite to support his right to rule further it was decreed that anyone who killed or captured and handed over a high-ranking lancastrian enemy to king edward would receive a reward of 100 pounds these measures were effective to a point but there was still far more to do to bring england under edwards control the yorkists held london and the southeast and were steadily cultivating greater support in the south but wales and the north of england remained a patchwork of lancastrian yorkist and regional loyalties which would take more time and effort to subdue and stabilize additionally the general instability wrought by civil war in england had emboldened the scots to begin raids and hostile incursions over the northern border edward had less than three weeks in london to plan his next move before he went out on campaign again on the 13th of march he departed london leading an army headed for yorkshire the battle of tautan fought on the 29th of march 1461 was the bloodiest of the entire civil war with likely the highest casualties of any battle ever fought on english soil estimates of those killed at titan range from as few as 9 000 to 28 000 roughly 75 of the english peerage had at least one family member present at the battle and based on the number of retainers each was capable of putting into the field a maximum estimate of 50 000 men engaged at the peak of battle is not far-fetched edward's forces were significantly outnumbered but his typical approach of bold courageous offensive and conscientious use of every advantage eventually routed the main lancastrian forces the armies of lancaster occupied the higher ground but the yorkist archers took advantage of the harsh bitter winds and snow blowing into their enemies faces unleashing a barrage of arrows into the lancastrian ranks meanwhile the high winds and reduced visibility rendered the lancastrian archers nearly useless incensed they charged down the hill towards the enemy and edward's army rushed out to meet them the battle raged all day but despite their superior numbers the lancastrians were eventually defeated and the survivors were routed by nightfall tauton constituted a major consolidation of edward's power he precipitated the flight to scotland of henry vi margaret of anjou and their son edward of westminster it had cut a swathe through the english nobility and crippled their ability to resist the new yorkist regime it had loosened the lancastrian grip on the north of england by removing the royalist northern earls leaving the region open to greater control by the yorkists some lancastrian loyalists had escaped but many had fled the country with the royal family finally tauton had allowed edward to cover himself in glory and legitimate his claim to the throne not just by right of birth but by right of conquest as well edward's reign lasted roughly two decades and is unique in english history he is the only king of england to have ever won the throne to have lost it and to have later won the throne a second time consequently his reign is typically organized historically into two periods his first reign and his second reign edward's rule was strengthened after his victory at towton that lancastrian resistance remained a pressing issue for the next three years the regions of northumberland and wales proved to be particularly staunch supporters of lancaster and difficult to subdue edward largely delegated the quelling of these ongoing regional rebellions to his lieutenants particularly during his first year as king when he was busy taking the reigns of government and management of the kingdom's legal and financial infrastructure in hand edward presided over his first parliament in november of 1461 at which his legitimate right to the crown was proclaimed the lancastrian line was characterized as one of usurpation and the increasing degeneracy of the realm was noted as far as conditions surrounding england's economic and local judicial affairs were concerned edward was not exaggerating under henry the sixth government royal revenues had fallen to less than a quarter of what they had been at the end of the previous century the constant wars with france and the instability of english politics had taken their toll on the 15th century economy in england worse still justice was just as uneven inefficient and as tainted by corruption as it had been during the kentish rebellion a decade before edward vowed to take this disastrous situation firmly in hand to a significant extent edward did endeavor to keep these promises his repeated attendance in the court of the king's bench was remarkable enough behavior for a king to be discussed amongst contemporary london commentators he exhorted the great men whom he generously gifted with duchess and earldoms to oversee the equitable and ethical dispensation of justice but in reality local control was almost complete and the king's control of individual regions was tenuous held together only by the strength of edward's personality and the loyalty he strove to cultivate through generosity and magnanimity edward was also the first king to introduce the methods of privatization to the management of royal lands and finances although the tudors beginning with henry vii tend to get most of the credit for this kind of innovation the fact that edward iv was never raised or groomed to be king explains much about his approach to royal revenues which he handled as if they were a privately owned estate rather than continue the medieval practice of collecting fixed rents from tenant farmers who were typically allowed to keep any profits edward instead hired stewards and receivers to whom he paid wages in order to collect all profits further royal revenues were now paid to the king's personal household account rather than the royal exchequer edward was also the first king to invest his own money in various business and finance ventures in much the same manner as any merchant in this manner he reduced the likelihood that he would have to rely on parliamentary taxation for funding and by the middle of his second reign he had managed to chip away at most of england's debts unfortunately he had also piled up some of his own edward understood that he was expected to fit the image of the splendid medieval warrior king he had displayed impressive bravery and skill on the battlefield and now he was determined to outshine henry vi in every other way as well edward therefore spent consistently and lavishly on fine clothes rich jewels exquisite tapestries plate and fine furnishings for his palaces he succeeded in cutting an immensely impressive figure especially compared to the notably frail confused and shabby king henry when his power was at its final ebb for edward it was crucial that both his subjects and foreign dignitaries should see him as the ideal king he understood that the image of prosperity would make loans far more accessible to the crown and that the valuable assets he was accumulating could serve two purposes as financial collateral and as a means to impress visitors the expense that it took to secure such magnificence meant that by the time of his death edward left the treasury only marginally better off than he found it edward was barely 19 years old when he assumed the throne and as a young man he was sometimes more apt to pursue his pleasures than immerse himself in the day-to-day nitty-gritty of governing edward was fond of riding hunting jousting and feasting and drinking with his friends luckily his love of the table did not affect him adversely as a young man since he was highly active and athletic edward also kept quite a few mistresses during his reign although only a few are known by name lady elizabeth lucy was edward's mistress for many years both before and after his marriage and he had two illegitimate children by her whom he acknowledged arthur and elizabeth other well-known mistresses of edwards include the married lady butler eleanor torbert and elizabeth shaw known more popularly as jane shaw in the first few years of edward's first reign when he seemed to want to play rather than work he had the habit of delegating many political duties to the highest ranking and most trusted great men in the yorkist faction principally richard neville earl of warwick wanik was highly intelligent capable and had been crucial to both the military and propaganda campaigns and the yorkist cause edward had been exceedingly generous to all of his family and supporters and this was no less true of warwick he had rewarded this most important of his lieutenants with the stewardship of the duchy of lancaster the post of lord high admiral of england and many other officers and performance for the first few years of edward's reign the king was largely approachable only through warwick this contributed to the conviction of many contemporary observers and almost certainly warwick himself that he rather than edward was the real ruler of england his active involvement in the success of the yorkist cause and his execution of edwards policies and administration during the early years had earned him the label the king maker no doubt warwick had been pivotal to edward's accession to the throne and to the consolidation of yorkist power during edward's first reign but perhaps these facts caused warwick as well as some of edward's biographers and historians to forget the reality that edward was not his puppet but very much his own man with a mind and a will of his own chief among warwick's early grievances with edward involved the king's marriage warwick had in mind a prestigious royal marriage to a french princess for edward and he also favored a pro-french trade policy which he worked assiduously to cultivate when edward declined to follow wary's advice in these matters it drove a wedge between them which steadily worsened during the later 1460s the first blow came in the summer of 1464 when to forestall any arrangement of a royal marriage edward abruptly announced that he had wed elizabeth woodville the widowed lady grey in secret at her family's home some weeks previously not only did this inconvenience and embarrass warrick who had been negotiating for a french princess on the king's behalf but it showed that the still youthful 22 year old edward was far less pliable than warwick had believed the king's marriage was controversial to most of his court elizabeth was not only a widow with two young sons but her late husband had died fighting for the lancastrians her father sir richard rivers was not a nobleman but a common knight who had wed the noble widow of the duke of bedford jaketta of luxembourg elizabeth was critics said distastefully no fit consort for a king more troubling to warwick and other high-ranking yorkists was the large family that the new queen brought with her her numerous siblings and later her many children were soon betrothed in the most prestigious matches that the english nobility could offer stimulating much jealousy resentment and concern that there would be far fewer advantageous marriages to be arranged for the children of the yorkist peerage elizabeth and edward however showed every sign of their happiness and obvious love for one another despite the ferrari that they had wrought in the court and across the country with their unconventional and socially unequal marriage reportedly edward was immediately smitten with elizabeth in portraits and illustrations she seemed to have had golden or reddish blonde hair and one chronicler described her as the most beautiful woman in the island of britain with lovely heavy lidded eyes the most famous portrait of elizabeth woodville displayed at queen's college at cambridge shows a face with very fine features and what appear to be warm light brown eyes the painting is believed to be a copy of one painted from life in 1471 but again the details of her appearance like those in edward's portraiture might not be quite accurate edward a notorious libertine with women at the best of times was said to have propositioned elizabeth very soon after their first meeting when she had petitioned him for the return of her husband's property following his death the story goes that elizabeth had initially refused to submit to edward's desires defending her honor quite literally with a knife obsessed and unable to forget her the young king then offered her marriage what is remarkable about this particular royal marriage is the ease with which edward could have bettered and discarded elizabeth he could easily have denied or repudiated a marriage conducted in secret had he wanted to especially one so disadvantageous and guaranteed to be opposed by almost everyone the most reasonable explanation for the fact that he did not was that he loved elizabeth and had no wish to marry anyone else their marriage was a prolific one producing 10 children over 14 years eight of whom survived infancy and five of whom survived their adolescence nonetheless edward continued to take mistresses with regularity even after his marriage to elizabeth woodville which no doubt strained their relationship but which did not appear to unduly upset the close and happy family life which both edward and elizabeth worked to cultivate edward's marriage had alienated and inconvenienced warwick but he was perhaps made angrier by the king's decision in 1467 to pursue a burgundian trade policy rather than a french one to warwick's dismay edward cemented his new alliance with duke charles of burgundy by giving him his sister margaret in marriage warwick grew sullen and resentful in the ensuing years and began to look to edward's younger brother george duke of clarence as a more promising replacement for the king he could not control in 1469 warwick and clarence began circulating a rumor on the continent that edward was illegitimate in order to plant the seeds of doubt which might clear george's path to the throne against edward's strict refusals warwick and clarence slipped away to calais where warwick wed his daughter isabelle to george subsequently rebellions broke out in the north of england which some historians consider to have been fermented by warwick and clarence but which could just as easily have been the result of ongoing economic difficulties and local corruption which the conspirators exploited for their own purposes when they attempted to deal with the northern rebels edwards forces were intercepted by warwicks at edgegood moor where they suffered a terrible defeat edward subsequently fell into warwick's hands and in the ensuing months warwick attempted to force his abdication or failing that exercise power in edward's name he did not have sufficient support to buttress either his own or clarence's authority however and was soon forced to release his outraged king and cousin edward was reportedly deeply shocked and hurt by the betrayal of his brother and his cousin two people he loved and had trusted implicitly the years 1469 to 1470 must have been a time of enormous stress and dejection for edward who had to confront the mistakes he had made as king the duplicity of his family and the grief and rage of his wife whose father and brother warik had executed after the battle at edgegood edward demonstrated his constructive spirit and magnanimity by forgiving warwick and clarence organizing a public reconciliation in parliament and restoring them to favor but by 1470 it was clear that warwick and clarence had not abandoned their schemes to unsettle edward's reign when both were implicated in facilitating a rebellion in lincolnshire to avoid edward's roth the two fled once again to calais which shut its doors to warwick at this point warwick and clarence were short on both options and supporters and they had little choice but to throw in their lot with the exiled lancastrians the king of france helped organize a reconciliation between warwick and margaret of anjou together they planned an invasion of england and arranged the marriage between warwick's daughter and neville and margaret's son edward of westminster unfortunately edward was in yorkshire dealing with another rebellion when warwick invaded the capital queen elizabeth and her three young daughters elizabeth mary and cecily fled into sanctuary at westminster abbey and henry vi was released from the tower where he had been imprisoned since his capture in 1465 and was reinstated as king the second reign of henry vi was short and turbulent the terribly fractious mix of lancastrians and yorkists made the imperial center weak and inefficient within less than a year in exile in holland and flanders respectively edward had gathered sufficient strength to retake england once more edward arrived in london in early april of 1471 where he reconciled with his brother george had been alienated by the plan to reinstate henry vi most likely because he saw no profit in it for him his mother and sisters had assured him in secret communications that if he threw himself on edward's mercy he would be welcomed back into the family fold edward then marched his men out of london to face warwick and margaret of anjou on the morning of easter sunday under a near impenetrable fog which he used to his full advantage edward's forces defeated worlex at the battle of barnet warwick was killed on the battlefield and mere days later edward's armies confronted those of margaret of aung jou at tewksbury where despite their superior numbers edward once again prevailed margaret's son edward of westminster was killed in battle while the lancastrian queen herself was taken prisoner edward re-entered london in triumph on the 21st of may 1471. he went immediately to westminster to be reunited with his wife and children there he discovered that during her time in sanctuary queen elizabeth had given birth to their first son prince edward the king's happiness was described in a contemporary poem the king comforted the queen his sweet baby full tenderly he did kiss the young prince he beheld and in his arms did bear thus his baal turned him to bliss after sorrow joy the course of the world is the sight of his baby released part of his woe thus the will of god in everything done edward had survived his deposition fought the final battles of his military career regained the throne and thankfully his family had been kept safe but the ugliness necessary to preserve his power was not yet complete that very night king henry vi was murdered in the tower most historians agree that it was most likely done on edward's orders by means of a hard and swift blow to the back of the head while henry's son edward of westminster was still alive there was no point to killing henry an action which would remove an imprisoned heir and create a new one who was already walking free now that his son was dead henry could be safely removed some historians believe that this dark deed was carried out by edward's younger brother richard duke of gloucester intelligent ambitious and reputedly ruthless richard had remained steadfastly loyal to edward which makes his later alleged crimes against his nephews remembered as the princes in the tower all the more heinous and puzzling now edward iv was king indeed his second reign which lasted for the remaining 12 years of his life was somewhat more placid than the first and greater domestic peace allowed him to focus more intently on the reforms he had not fully achieved during his first decade on the throne edward continued his work to improve the rule of law making a point of accompanying officials to oversee the reform and administration of justice particularly in regions where unrest and rebellion had penetrated while perhaps no medieval king could have succeeded in entirely banishing the phenomenon of local corruption england under edward iv had at least attained a greater stability and institutional efficiency than had ever been the case under henry vi edward also continued to work to make the crown financially solvent once again in addition to his innovative strategy of privatization of royal lands and finances to increase profits sometimes edwards methods of revenue raising were less than honest the confiscation of lancastrian lands and assets were par for the course with any regime change and these brought in a great deal of revenue but the king frequently had to award them to his brothers and supporters to keep them happy edward frequently made use of benevolences which were payments to the king to avoid military service further edward made sure that when the english coinage was revalued during his reign he raised the minting fees on gold and silver coins which brought him a handsome profit the king was also not above petitioning parliament for funds in order to go to war but then promptly making peace with his supposed enemies and appropriating the parliamentary grant to swell the royal coffers this is precisely what he did in 1475 when he undertook an invasion of france it does not appear however that this was his intention from the beginning edward was a military man and a great general and no doubt he was attracted to the idea of victory and martial glory in france which would ensure his fame and immortality alongside henry v and edward iii he spent years cultivating military alliances with burgundy and brittany against the french king and made great efforts to foster peaceful relations with the scots so that they would not invade england in france's favor yet by the time edward finally made it to france accompanied by all his nobility and their retainers his allies had deserted him his subsequent decision to sue for peace was a pragmatic and intelligent decision which secured the best possible outcome edward could have wanted given the circumstances no money was wasted in any protracted campaign and the king louis x had been so anxious for the english to leave that he agreed to a generous tribute of fifteen thousand pounds and an additional ten thousand pounds per annum and a marriage between the dhofar and edward's eldest daughter elizabeth who would receive a joint year of sixty thousand pounds an absurd and unprecedented some for a royal marriage edward's captains and the english people however saw it very differently many were alienated by edward's decision not to fight the french and viewed his peace strategy as a sign of cowardice and a cause for shame the nobility was soon pacified by the economic advantages of the peace from which they benefited but edward's broader popularity suffered a significant dip after 1475 and he began to gain a reputation for avarice and greed still the results of the french campaign ensure that edward never again had to petition parliament for funds and it ensured that when the king died he would not leave his heir with a mountain of debts however thanks to his own profligate spending the royal treasury only had about 1200 pounds in cash upon edward's death worse still edward's relationship with his brother george deteriorated significantly in the ensuing years edward refused to allow his brother to marry the heiress of burgundy as he was still fearful that given the power and the opportunity his brother might still challenge him for the throne resentful george sought to revive not only the old rumors that edward was the bastard son of a common archer but that he had been previously wed in secret prior to his marriage and therefore all of his children were bastards as well he was also said to have paid a seer to foretell the king's death far from being forgiving this time edward presided over georgia's trial for treason himself and the duke of clarence was executed in the tower on the 18th of february 1478. some discussion of edward's legitimacy is merited here for it has been a significant source of contention among historians in the last two decades in 2002 historian michael k jones uncovered evidence which he believed provided conclusive proof that edward iv was in fact illegitimate the parish records of ruan cathedral indicate that roughly nine months before edward's birth in april 1442 during a crucial five-week period when edward was likely to have been conceived richard duke of york was on campaign in pontos however this evidence also rests on several assumptions none of which can be verified for certain first jones assumes that duchess cecily remained in royal for the entirety of the period or that duke richard did not return at any point during the pontois campaign neither of which can be confirmed further we know that duchess cecily had just lost her second child a son named henry who lived only a few days cecily and richard had departed england for raw shortly after the child's death the duke and duchess had grown up together in the same household and while their marriage had been arranged since they were children their relationship was as close to a love match as an arranged marriage in the medieval period could possibly have been the notion that cecily would have had an affair betraying the husband she ostensibly loved while still grieving for her dead son strains credulity somewhat even more unlikely is the possibility that the duchess who would have been constantly surrounded by servants in her daily life could have done something as so scandalous as to have an affair with a common archer without anyone ever finding out while the wrong cathedral register is a compelling piece of historical evidence it is far from conclusive and most historians still continue to accept edward iv was of legitimate birth after all the rumors of edward's illegitimacy first appeared in 1469 when warwick was attempting to place george on the throne in edward's place in the spring of 1483 edward became seriously ill observers and chroniclers differ on the cause of his illness one stated that he had caught a chill while fishing on the river thames which later developed into a fever others claimed he had been poisoned yet another claimed that the king had suffered a fit of apoplexy or a stroke considering edward's lifestyle and weight gain in later years this is probably the most likely scenario the king lived for only 10 more days after the onset of his mysterious illness but it was long enough to revise his will and arrange for governance and stability during his son's minority his brother richard duke of gloucester was to be appointed lord protector until the twelve-year-old prince edward came of age while he was only 40 years old edward was lucky enough to die in his bed with his family and his dearest friends at his bedside assured and comforted that his son would succeed him these were luxury's afforded few medieval warrior kings some historians assert that edward's legacy is not as celebrated as it deserves to be he was undoubtedly one of the greatest generals ever to sit upon the english throne having never lost a battle at which he had been present yet his name is almost never mentioned alongside england's greatest warrior kings such as henry v or edward iii the most likely reason for this is that all of edward's victories were against his own countrymen rather than against foreigners and many historians have likely found it difficult to celebrate the abilities of a man whose military genius resulted in the shedding of so much english blood and the destruction of the flower of english chivalry in the mid to late 15th century moreover edward's legal and financial reforms laid the groundwork for the later tudor regime which allowed for greater ease of centralization facilitating england's journey to eventually becoming great britain edward was well liked by the english people for much of his reign which is apparent in the public outpouring of grief and national mourning which followed his death he was in many ways a far more approachable king than the english people had ever had he was warm friendly likable forgiving brave and confident he was also probably the most english king that the realm had had since the norman conquest a quality that the english people who distrusted most foreigners undoubtedly appreciated edward's parents grandparents and great-grandparents were all born and bred english moreover edward married an english woman himself rather than a foreign princess which was almost never the case for english royals some historians consider edward iv to have failed as a king because of the chaos violence and upheaval which followed his death with the imprisonment of his sons the usurpation by his brother richard and his subsequent war with henry tudor for the throne however this perspective fails to take into account that had edward lived his children would have dominated the royal marriage market of europe by marrying into the royal families of france spain scotland and denmark and quite possibly other royal houses as well moreover had edward iv lived longer his son would have succeeded to the throne and the tudor dynasty might never have appeared yet thanks to the clever and skillful negotiations of elizabeth woodville with henry tudor's mother margaret beaufort the eldest child of edward iv did in fact succeed to the throne when elizabeth of york married henry tudor and was crowned queen of england she became the progenitor of her father's legacy a long line of kings and queens of england what do you think of edward iv please let us know in the comments below and in the meantime thank you very much for watching the man known to history as henry tudor king henry vii of england was born in pembroke castle in western wales on the 28th of january 1457. henry's father was edmund tudor first earl of richmond he was the son of catherine of valois and owen tudor who queen catherine married when her husband henry v died this made edmund tudor a half-brother to the reigning king of england henry vi henry's mother was lady margaret beaufort a descendant of john of gaunt and catherine swinford through her father john beaufort duke of somerset she was born at bledsoe castle in bedfordshire henry's beginnings were fraught with danger as would be the rest of his life as three months before he was born his father edmund tudor died of bubonic plague his mother lady margaret beaufort who was only 13 years old and six months pregnant at the time fled kamathen where her husband had been imprisoned following a welsh feud and sought refuge at pembroke castle with her brother-in-law jasper tudor who would become a surrogate father to his newborn nephew it was the middle of winter and the plague continued to sweep mercilessly across wales and southern england margaret thin short and far too young to give birth struggled so intensely throughout her labor that her attendants thought it likely that both she and her child would die miraculously henry survived and margaret recovered although it is likely that childbirth at such an early age may have done her severe physical damage because despite being married twice more throughout her life margaret would have no more children and her only child henry remained the center of margaret's world she both loved and defended him fiercely nurturing great ambitions for his future margaret had been betrothed to edmund tudor at age nine three years prior to her marriage at the age of twelve and at the time of the betrothal the reigning king henry vi had no heir though a son edmund of westminster would be born to heaven his queen margaret of anjou in 1453 nonetheless this precarious dynastic position had to be quickly rectified and the english throne safeguarded with more lancastrian airs the richest heiress in england with an annual income of one thousand pounds margaret beauford was not only a lancastrian she was also of royal blood she was the great granddaughter of john of gaunt duke of lancaster the third son of the last undisputed plantagenet king edward iii whereas the rival house of york was descended from the second and fourth sons of edward iii illustrating why the early conflicts of the wars of the roses became known as the cousins war margaret beaufort's family was descended from john of gaunt's third marriage to catherine swinford who had been the duke's mistress for 25 years and whose children had all been born before their marriage making them of royal blood but illegitimate the yorks had a better claim to the english throne at least as good as the lancastrian king henry vi the tudors however had no seemingly legitimate claim to the english throne at all henry vi had conferred titles on his two half-brothers and had always shown edmund and jasper tudor kindness and favor even though they were the children of king henry v's widow the dowager queen catherine of valois through her marriage to a common guard and servant in the queen's household owen tudor whom the queen secretly wed after henry v's death the lineage of his father edmund tudor gave henry vii no direct claim on the english crown and indeed parliamentary decree during the reign of henry iv had legitimized the beauforts but barred them from ever inheriting the crown considering these circumstances henry's chances of ever becoming king seemed unlikely however those who believed this to be the case reckoned without henry's mother lady margaret margaret beaufort who was married off when she was little more than a child herself proved to be far more than the bargaining chip of english power brokers the eventual ascension of henry vii to the throne was jew in large part to his mother who was as ambitious and strong-willed as her son would prove to be indeed a 16th century welsh chronicler claimed that jasper tudor had first had his newborn nephew christened owen tudor but that margaret had ordered the officiating bishop to perform the christening again this time giving her son the name associated with the english throne henry if true this anecdote demonstrates that margaret must have nurtured the hope from the very beginning that one day her son might be king of england few specific details are known about henry's childhood and education as a lancastrian second in line to the throne he would have been entitled to a royal education including grammar rhetoric arithmetic history languages geography religious studies and military training it is highly likely also that lady margaret would have involved herself personally in henry's studies however henry's guardianship and place of residence changed several times during his childhood and adolescence and often under strained circumstances with little warning so his education would have been disrupted frequently henry grew up in an england torn by civil war and even though he may have been second lancastrian in line for the throne this very fact ensured that his life was frequently endangered a life of constant instability probably meant that his education was missing significant gaps moreover it probably made his childhood lonely difficult unpredictable and confusing the lifelong bond between henry and his mother would remain strong but sadly they would be separated before henry's first birthday during february in march of 1457 margaret remained with her baby and brother-in-law jasper at pembroke mourning her late husband and caring for her son however in order to protect him she knew she must marry again and into a family as powerful as possible this would not be a difficult task for margaret now countess of richmond and still the wealthiest heiress in the country by april the now 14 year old margaret beaufort was betrothed to henry stafford second son of the duke of buckingham and 15 years older than herself the two were married on the 3rd of january 1458 and from all accounts margaret's second marriage was a happy one her new husband loved and doted on her and her in-laws treated her kindly whilst her one-year-old son henry was left in the care of his uncle jasper at pembroke castle not as harsh in action as it seems all evidence indicates that jasper adored his nephew was highly active in his upbringing and education and thought of him as the son he had never had moreover while convention dictated that margaret must not bring her baby to live with her new husband and family both she and stafford visited henry and jasper at pembroke castle periodically but young henry's life like most others in england at the time was inextricably bound to the changing fortunes in the walls of the roses each shift in power brought abrupt changes to his status his security and his daily life king henry vi had ascended to the english and french thrones when he was nine months old thanks to his father henry the fifth's victory over the french most notably at the battle of ajinko henry viii's reign was marked by both regencies as well as a decline in english power as the heads of noble families sought to rule through the king or to press their own family claims to the throne in order to be declared the king's heirs to make matters worse as henry viii approached adulthood he suffered from periodic mental health issues frequently lapsing into bouts of dementia-like confusion and sometimes near catatonic behavior the king's precarious health and long periods of unresponsiveness resulted in a breakdown in governance and authority and allowed the opening of a power vacuum power now rested with those closest to this weakened king and the orcs would grow resentful of what they viewed as the corrupt exploitation of henry's vulnerable state by his lancastrian ministers and advisers they would also blame the steady losses of henry v's gains in france on the lancastrians and distrusted henry's queen margaret of anju whom they resented for taking an intensely active role in governance and military matters on her husband's behalf meanwhile the lancastrians actively worked to keep the yorks their plantagenet cousins from reaching for the throne themselves as several of their forebears had done in the previous 80 years since the death of edward iii tensions between those surrounding the king rose throughout the 1450s breaking out into violent hostility by the spring of 1455 and over the next five years hostilities would continue to escalate leading to the yorks being accused of treason leaving them with little choice but to fight to win the throne the leader of the yorkist faction richard duke of york had declared his claim to the crown but when he died at the battle of wakefield on the 30th of december 1460 his eldest surviving son and heir the 18 year old edward took up his father's claim and his cause ultimately winning a crushing victory against the lancastrians at the battle of towton on the 20th of march 1461 which is believed to be the single bloodiest conflict ever to have taken place on english soil with approximately 50 000 troops engaged at the peak of the 12-hour battle at about 20 000 killed on the 28th of june 1461 edward of york was crowned king edward iv at westminster abbey and four-year-old henry tudor's life changed forever the first years of edward the fourth's reign saw his attempts to consolidate his rule by removing or disempowering other claimants to the english throne henry vi and queen margaret fled first to scotland and after edward captured henry his queen margaret fled to france with her young son edward of westminster the lancastrian prince of wales king edward imprisoned henry vi in the tower and meanwhile four-year-old henry tudor was stripped of his estates and title earl of richmond which king edward iv gave to his own brother george duke of clarence henry's uncle jasper a loyal lancastrian general whose life was now in danger bid a brief and sad farewell to his nephew before fleeing into exile in france subsequently king edward iv granted both jasper tudors earldom of pembroke and wardship of henry tudor to the york loyalist sir william herbert and henry remained at pembroke with herbert for the next eight years while henry's position had changed substantially he was likely too young to understand edward iv had assigned him a yorkist guardian in order to watch him to ensure that he did not develop any conviction concerning his right to be king and to ensure that no lancastrian could use the child to depose edward placing young henry on the throne instead although the boy was technically a prisoner there was no evidence that sir herbert mistreated henry who continued to live in the home he knew and continued to receive regular though closely supervised visits from his mother and stepfather whilst in his position as the new earl of pembroke herbert brought his family including his two young sons to live at the castle and henry at last had other children to play and study with henry's life changed abruptly once again in 1469 when richard neville earl of warwick known as the king maker for his role in engineering the rise of edward iv to the throne rebelled against the king attempting to depose edward and place his younger brother george duke of clarence on the throne clarence himself had already begun attempting to clear his own path to the throne by reviving old rumors that the king had been secretly married to another woman before his marriage to his queen elizabeth woodville making the union illegal and all of their children bastards young henry's guardian sir william herbert fought for king edward as a loyal yorkist but after their loss at the battle of edgecut moore in july 1469 herbert was captured by warwick denounced as an evil advisor to the king and execute it and with his protector dead the 12-year-old henry sought refuge with his mother and stepfather at their estate at woking by 1470 it was clear that warrick had failed to gain support to place the duke of clarence on the throne and having gone too far to reconcile with edward now he instead threw in his lot with the lancastrians traveling to france and making a deal with margaret of anjou to place her husband henry vi still imprisoned in the tower back on the throne and so in october of 1470 warwick returned to london in triumph having driven king edward and his family into hiding and liberated a confused henry vi from the tower jasper tudor returned from exile and promptly brought the thirteen-year-old henry to court where he was restored to the line of succession an uneasy peace reigned for less than a year before edward iv returned defeated the forces of warwick at the battle of barnet on the 14th of april 1471 and then defeated the combined forces of margaret of anju and the lancastrians at the battle of tukesbury on the 4th of may after this he resumed the throne officially on the 21st of may and that very night henry vi was murdered in the tower most likely by a hard blow to the back of his head and some historians believe that the murder ordered by king edward was actually carried out by his younger brother richard later the reputedly ruthless richard iii most lancastrians fled england believing that edward to avoid being deposed again would execute them all and fearful that henry's life would be in danger margaret beauford advised her 14 year old son to leave the country having fled defeat at tewksbury jasper tudor collected his nephew and the two boarded a ship at tenbi in pembrokeshire setting sail for brittany and exile where they would remain for the next 14 years margaret's husband and henry's stepfather henry stafford had been killed at the battle of barnet and one year later in 1472 margaret married again this time to the yorkist lord thomas stanley some historians claimed that this was a marriage of political expediency that margaret viewed the marriage as a way of staying safely close to the york court of king edward iv and queen elizabeth woodville and with henry safely away in brittany she would be able to monitor the political situation and promote her son more easily henry and jasper journeyed to the city of nont to seek asylum at the court of francis ii duke of brittany the duke graciously received the two as his guests and they accompanied the court and their progress to va the following year however duke francis was in a difficult position as he had given his word to shelter protect and provide for his guests but two far more powerful men than he also took a keen interest in the fate of henry and jasper king edward iv continually demanded that the duke extradite them back to england edward's goal was undoubtedly to eliminate the last living lancastrian claimant to the throne now that henry vi was dead and his son edward of westminster had been executed following edward's victory at the battle of dukesbury duke francis also had to consider the wishes of king louis xi france who was first cousin to jasper and second cousin to henry and two also wanted to keep the tudors safe as potential bargaining chips with england duke francis therefore had to maintain a delicate balancing act he needed to keep his word to shelter and protect his guests continually resist the bribes of king edward iv and beg his indulgence in not sending henry back to england and promised both king edward and king louis to keep the tudors closely guarded to prevent their escape and so it was that henry and jasper's initially comfortable haven began increasingly to take on the feel of a prison when the breton court returned to nod in the autumn of 1472 henry and jasper were sent to the duke's exquisite chateau de socino overlooking the gulf damobian the estate was fortified and well-guarded but with extensive grounds at henry and jasper no doubt would have enjoyed the endless opportunities for riding hunting and fishing off the coast however they would spend less than two years at cesinio the demands on duke francis by both edward iv of england and king louis x of france had grown more urgent apparently sousino's proximity to the coast made edward fear that henry and jasper could easily escape and made louis fear that it left them open to easy kidnapping both demanded of duke francis that the tudors be moved and more greatly restricted duke francis was forced to separate jasper and henry sending jasper to the chateau de josela in the heartland of brittany and henry to the chateau lajo originally a military fortress in the town of alvin for the first time in his life henry now 17 was left alone and for three lonely years he was well guarded and hells in a small narrow room in the chateau's highest tower in fact the tallest dungeon in france measuring six stories and was permitted supervised activity on the grounds of the estate his guardian lord jan of rio who was an ally and supporter of henry's showed him kindness and deference and expressed pride and devotion to his duty to ensure that henry would be kept safe and that he would not lose the boy to kidnapping or escape but in the meantime edward iv continued to press for henry's extradition in 1476 the english changed their tactics edward iv now invited henry to return to england so that his marriage to a yorkist woman could be arranged edward may have been sincere in this offer and may have had his own eldest daughter elizabeth of york in mind the king further promised that if henry returned now he would inherit the vast beaufort fortune and estates currently held by his mother margaret but if henry did not return edward iv declared he would receive nothing and his exile would be permanent during the winter of 1476 duke francis weakened by illness and swayed by councillors who thought it expedient to a seed to king edward's wishes finally capitulated and handed the now 19 year old henry over to english envoys the english envoys carried their prisoner to the port town of san marlo where their ship bound for england was docked and waiting henry's panic at that moment can only be imagined thinking quickly he feigned illness and managed to slip away from his captors disappearing into the labyrinth of twisting streets running through san marlo henry ran until he found a church saint vincent's cathedral where he sought the age-old mercy of sanctuary in the meantime duke francis feeling guilty had a change of heart and the duke's retainers arrived in san marlo just in time to intercept the english envoys and inform them that the deal was off the english envoys bitterly disappointed but unwilling to violate the conventions of sanctuary and enter the church armed to extract henry for instead forced to leave brittany empty-handed duke francis was contrite and apologetic when henry returned to his court at naught and renewed his promise to keep his word and shelter henry from harm the duke must have done so quite admirably but there is little historic evidence over the next four years to indicate just where henry's next place of residence was but by 1480 he was housed at the chateau lamine in van where he was finally reunited with his uncle jasper after six years apart in june 1482 edward iv renewed his offer to arrange henry's marriage to a woman of the house of york promising him his mother's inheritance and much more if he would only come home some historians believe that lady margaret may have even supported this course of action perhaps believing that marriage to the house of york and a favored position at court might be the best that henry was ever going to achieve edward iv had after all presided over a decade of peace thus far and the wars of the roses seemed to have come to an end yet henry and jasper still distrustful of king edward's repeated appeals remained in exile however the following spring everything changed on the 9th of april 1483 the obese edward iv whose health had been failing throughout the preceding year died he was survived by his widow now the dowager queen of england elizabeth woodville and seven children five daughters and importantly two sons his eldest son edward was promptly proclaimed king edward v but there was disagreement within the house of york over whether the boy was old enough to govern in his own name queen elizabeth believed so and the former king's council agreed that edward should be crowned without delay the boy's uncle edward iv's younger brother richard evidently saw it differently richard was now the preeminent son of york the last of king edward's brothers since his brother george duke of clarence had finally been executed for treason five years before now richard managed to have himself named lord protector until the boy king came of age and he intended to exercise his new role within only a few days of his father's death edward the fifth left ludlow castle in the welsh marches accompanied by two thousand men and began his journey to london for his coronation he was intercepted on the road to london by his uncle richard accompanied by 600 of his own men richard told his young nephew that there was a plot afoot to deny richard as lord protector of the realm he then had the prince's uncle earl rivers and several of his retainers arrested took edward into custody brought him to london and placed him in lodgings in the tower his coronation was postponed until the 22nd of june this was the beginning of a fragmentation in the house of york which spiraled out of control the longer edward v remained uncrowned supposedly for his own security and to help his brother prepare for his coronation richard demanded that edward's younger brother richard be handed over also queen elizabeth woodville who had fled into sanctuary in westminster abbey with her other children when richard seized her eldest son was forced to comply and ten-year-old richard joined his brother edward in the tower on the morning of the 22nd of june a sermon was preached outside saint paul's cathedral which revived the same rumors once stirred by the duke of clarence that the marriage of king edward iv and elizabeth woodville had been illegal and their children illegitimate the same day a petition was submitted by citizens nobles and commons in the city of london asking richard the lord protector to assume the throne as king of england three days later on the 25th of june parliament declared king edward and queen elizabeth's marriage null and void and their children bastards accepted the petition to assume the throne the very next day and on the 6th of july 1483 he was crowned king richard iii in westminster abbey parliamentary recognition of his right to the crown followed early in 1484. richard's coup against his nephews was complete the fate of the boys who history would remember as the princes in the tower remains a mystery apparently after richard's coronation they were seen with less and less frequency around the tower until they seemed to have vanished completely and writing decades later sir thomas more claimed that king richard had ordered the constable of the tower to murder the princess but that he had refused to do so more asserted that conspirators hired by richard had smothered the boys to death with pillows in their sleep whether the rumors were true or not most believed that richard had indeed murdered his two nephews to gain the throne and disgusted yorkists began to quietly depart england for exile many of them now began to look to the 26 year old exile henry tudor still sheltering in brittany as their hope for the future for the next two years disaffected englishmen unhappy with richard's regime flocked to brittany to join henry's growing number of supporters indeed henry's prospects had been looking brighter since the death of edward iv and with the extradition pressure eased temporarily duke francis had permitted henry a great deal more freedom and as opposition to richard iii grew henry starr began to rise meanwhile back in england henry's mother margaret beaufort was serving at the york court as lady in waiting to richard's queen and neville as she had previously served queen elizabeth woodville and as opposition to richard's rule crystallized over the disappearance and assumed murder of the princes in the tower margaret realized that her son's path to the throne of england might have opened up at last she entered into secret negotiations with elizabeth woodville still in sanctuary with her daughters proposing that margaret's son henry should marry elizabeth and edward iv's eldest daughter also named elizabeth the two warring houses of york and lancaster would be united bringing england's struggles to an end at unseating the treacherous richard iii from the throne later that year margaret was instrumental in organizing a rebellion and attempted coup with the duke of buckingham she wrote to henry about the negotiations for his marriage and told him to prepare an invasion to coincide with the planned rebellion with ships men and supplies loaned from the duke of brittany henry attempted to sail for england but was prevented for several days by inclement weather conditions on the channel richard promptly crushed the rebellion having buckingham executed confiscating lady margaret's estate and income and gifting them to her husband lord stanley whom richard commanded to keep his wife under permanent house arrest richard immediately demanded of the duke of brittany that he extradite henry tudor back to england but henry promptly escaped to france where he was warmly welcomed by king louis xi and was provided with more men and financial support and although forbidden from doing so margaret continued to write secretly to her son keeping him informed of developments in england those who had survived buckingham's failed rebellion had joined the growing numbers of supporters surrounding henry in france and although the cruelty of richard iii had made him unpopular that had not altered the fact that henry tudor's claim to the throne was tenuous at best and that he was still a lancastrian the yorks supporting him might not continue to do so for long after richard's removal if they felt that the crown would simply be handed to a lancastrian with no guarantee of concessions to the yorks on christmas day 1483 henry addressed his supporters at wren cathedral swearing an oath to lead them to victory against richard iii and to marry elizabeth of york as his mother and elizabeth woodville had planned marriage to elizabeth not only appeased the yorks who had known peace under her father and with the false reign it also added legitimacy to his kingship by ensuring that any children born of their marriage would be the grandchildren of edward iv this notion was not lost on richard iii after his queen anne neville died in march of 1485 rumors began to circulate at richard's court that he intended to marry elizabeth himself despite the fact that she was his niece and therefore the union would doubtless not receive dispensation from the church such an action however would prevent henry from gaining legitimacy by marrying her this development lent urgency to henry's second attempt at an invasion of england and he finally set sail for england on the 1st of august 1485 accompanied by only a few thousand men a small and not very unified force henry's army was comprised of englishmen welshman and french mercenaries they landed quietly in wales hoping to raise additional support locally before confronting richard iii's forces they dropped anchor on the 7th of august at mill bay and struggled ashore near the town of milford haven in henry's native pembrokeshire from which he had fled seemingly never to return 14 long years before henry overcome with the motion fell to his knees and kissed the soil beneath his feet quoting the biblical psalm 43 judge me o lord and fight my cause he then rose to his feet and cried out in a loud voice for his men to follow him in the name of god and saint george henry was able to raise additional military support in wales marching over the english border with about five thousand men they met with richard iii's significantly larger force of between 10 000 and 15 000 at bosworth field in leicestershire richard's army held the high ground on ambient hill as well as it seemed all other advantages including superior cavalry artillery and reserves however the considerable forces of lord thomas stanley henry's stepfather had not yet committed for either side despite the fact that richard was holding stanley's son lord strange hostage to ensure stan lee's military support henry's infantry advanced first under an intense exchange of artillery fire and to reduce the damage of the barrage they spaced themselves out across the field as they advanced the vulnerability of those lines encouraged richard's infantry to charge at which point henry's infantry reformed into a dense wedge-shaped formation against which rich's attack collapsed richard then attempted to send in his reserves the men of the earl of northumberland henry percy it is unclear why they failed to charge northumberland may have been hesitant to send his men into battle because he was waiting to see what lord stanley would do it is also possible that he and his men may have been constrained from mobilization by the marshy ground but richard it seemed had grown too impatient to wait any longer he had cited henry at the rear of his army with a small cavalry contingent assembling a retinue of his household nights richard led a charge down the hill towards the bodyguard surrounding henry judah richard in full plate covered by a light royal robe and wearing a golden battle crown atop his helmet charged boldly or perhaps desperately across the field on his horse he killed henry's standard bearer coming within inches of henry himself the moment of richard's attack however was the same moment lord stanley gave his men the order to join the battle on henry tudor's side richard and his men were immediately overwhelmed not only by the quick reformation of henry's infantry but also by the cavalry charge led by lord thomas stanley's brother william richard was isolated surrounded his own troops cut down around him brandishing his sword he cried out that he would die a king on the battlefield or win richard iii was knocked from his horse impaled by an unknown welsh pikeman and was then viciously beaten to death by henry's men lord stanley who had not fought at all at the battle of bosworth rode across the field toward henry stopping to collect the battle crown from the mutilated and stripped body of richard iii before placing the crown on henry's head the odds against henry had seemed nearly insurmountable but he had achieved what no one except perhaps his mother thought he would he had won the throne of england by right of conquest he would be king but of course becoming king was only the beginning of henry's challenges he now had to establish and build a stable regime into a dynasty that would outlast him a daunting task in a time in which the last king to come to the throne with his claim unchallenged had died more than a hundred years before and so one of henry's first actions was to imprison the nine-year-old earl of warwick son of george duke of clarence and the last known male york claimant to the throne henry also issued pardons and favors to his supporters he conferred the high honor of the title my lady the king's mother on margaret beaufort who did not fail thereafter to sign herself margaret r even though she had never been crowned queen he also made his stepfather lord thomas stanley earl of derby and his brother lord william stanley is lord chamberlain henry was crowned king at westminster abbey on the 30th of october 1485. only a few days later henry vii held his first parliament taking the opportunity to rework and indeed rewrite the events of his accession to the throne of england the records of henry's first parliament show that he made efforts to invalidate the claims of richard iii to the crown and legitimize his own he overturned the decree which had declared the marriage between edward iv and elizabeth woodville illegal and their children bastards thereby legitimizing his future bride elizabeth of york and ensuring the legitimacy of any children he might have with her finally and most shockingly henry rewrote the history of his fight for the throne he backdated the battle of bosworth field to the 21st of august 1485 when it had actually taken place on the 22nd of august 1485. by dating the beginning of his reign one day earlier henry gave himself the ability to accuse anyone who had fought on richard's side at bosworth or who had failed to fight for henry of treason by way of failure to support the rightful king this caused much disquiet and fear but at this early stage this action by the new king was likely little more than a threat a simple reminder that all was spared and made prosperous only by henry's grace and favor this tactic would fail to ensure domestic peace in england and henry would have to face no less than four rebellions in the next 12 years henry vii delayed honouring his previous promise to marry elizabeth of york until the following year on the 18th of january 1486 the reasoning is still unclear but the fact that elizabeth gave birth to their first child less than seven months after her marriage suggests that she was already pregnant when she was brought to the altar this would suggest that henry had made his final decision to marry elizabeth contingent on a demonstration of her fertility but despite this no doubt unpleasant and distrustful beginning henry and elizabeth's marriage developed over time into a partnership of genuine love and respect it was not only elizabeth's bloodline but also her popularity with the yorkist nobles and the english people and her loving devotion to henry and their children which propped up henry's rule their marriage is unique in the annals of british and indeed european royal history as henry vii is one of the few kings not believed to have ever taken a mistress during his marriage henry and elizabeth's union produced seven children in 17 years four of whom survived to a marriageable age the next 24 years of henry vii's reign would be marked by rebellions challenges to his rule by rival claimants to the throne and various efforts on henry's part to preserve and strengthen his hold on england in april 1486 he put down a rebellion organized by yorkists the two remaining stafford brothers and the vikout level before it could get off the ground besides this hiccup 1486 seemed promising for henry's reign under his own roof he appeared to have reconciled the two warring houses of york and lancaster and later that year on the 19th of september the houses of york and lancaster were truly united with the birth of prince arthur at winchester a supposed location for legendary camelot for whose king arthur the prince was named the prince's birth promised the coming of a new age of wise rule peace and prosperity for england and for a time all seemed united in this vision henry's mother-in-law elizabeth woodville was godmother to baby arthur at his christening this picture of a close family atmosphere in henry's household was shattered only a few months later when elizabeth woodville was stripped of her estates and sent into forced retirement at birmingham it is unclear exactly why henry vii would have treated his mother-in-law in such a way but the cause likely lay with his own mother margaret beaufort margaret was now my lady the king's mother but this title was not quite so exalted as dowager queen of england the title held by elizabeth woodville perhaps for margaret having to continue to defer to this woman whom she had previously served and who continued to outrank her despite margaret's own position as the mother of the king was more than she could bear indeed for the rest of her days margaret continued to assert herself as a royal personage wearing royal robes strictly reserved for crowned individuals and walking only half a step behind her daughter-in-law the actual queen of england elizabeth of york and indeed the strain that lingered between the two royal houses would spark more rebellions in the coming years in 1487 john de la pole the yorkist earl of lincoln led a rebellion in support of an irish peasant boy named lambert simnel although most historians doubt that this was the child's actual name lincoln and his rebels claimed that this boy was actually the young earl of warwick whom they intended to place on the throne but the real earl of warwick was still imprisoned in the tower of london henry crushed this rebellion on the 16th of june 1487 at the battle of stoke during which the earl of lincoln was killed afterwards henry showed notable mercy to the rebels pardoning most of them including the boy lambert simnol whom he brought to his court and employed as a spit boy tasked with turning the slow-roasting meats in the king's kitchens these responses to the uprising were meant to portray henry not only as merciful and magnanimous but powerful also in the same year henry commissioned a new royal crown to be made a fabulous new symbol of the monarchy studded with elaborate jewels and featuring the royal symbols of both england and france the ostentatious crown reflected the growing ambition of henry vii to establish a glorious and enduring monarchy the crown imperial which was later reconstructed after being destroyed during the english civil war more than a century later is one of the most recognizable symbols of the english monarchy today other innovations of henry's include the first creation of the gold sovereign or one pound coin other medieval coins typically featured an image of the monarch on one side and a cross of the other henry's gold sovereign however instead of a cross featured the tudor rose the combined white and red roses of the yorks and lancastrians and the emblem of his monarchy the rose was set against the coat of arms of england in the background clearly communicating henry's message that his would be an enduring dynasty henry also invested heavily in architecture and ornamentation to bolster his rule building the impressive palace of richmond along the thames which was completed in 1500 and the magnificent chapel at westminster abbey which he also plastered with his royal emblems the red rose of lancaster the white and red tudor rose and his mother's family badge the beaufort portcullis all of these efforts proved to have minimal impact in shoring up henry's power king henry and queen elizabeth's family continued to grow throughout the first decade of their marriage and on the 28th of november 1489 elizabeth gave birth to their second child the eldest daughter margaret two years later on the 28th of june 1491 their second son prince henry was born elizabeth was delivered of another daughter also called elizabeth in july of 1492 who tragically lived only three years but four years after the ill-fated elizabeth smith on the 18th of march 1496 elizabeth was delivered of her last child to survive to adulthood mary while henry vii was widely known as a friendly but nonetheless sober cautious and reserved personality he thawed considerably with his wife and children and apparently encouraged a close family life in the early years of his reign he was reportedly a doting father and husband lavishing affection and gifts on his family and was described as most relaxed and happy in their company out of the public eye opportunities to enjoy his family however grew fewer in the face of a war with france and the rise of yet another rebellion in 1491 the french invaded brittany henry's former home and the seat of his closest allies during his exile henry responded by declaring war on france parliament was reluctant however to vote funding for this venture and made their grant conditional on a promise that the war would be of short duration henry was therefore delayed from setting sail for france until october nearly the end of the campaigning season and after only three weeks on campaign the french offered henry terms of peace on the 3rd of november 1491 henry agreed to withdraw in exchange for an annual tribute of 12 500 pounds from the french king the half-hearted attempted war and the modest payoff which henry had accepted soured many englishmen on his regime once their armies had commanded fear throughout western europe now they seemed to sling home after being bought off with a relatively small bribe in 1493 the stability of henry's rule began to crack word reached the king of a young man called perkin warbeck claiming to be the son of edward iv richard the younger of the two princes of the tower this young man sheltering at the core to the countess of burgundy who also happened to be the sister of edward iv added potentially deadly consequences for henry vii's reign support for henry's kingship was after all based not only on his marriage to edward's daughter elizabeth but also on the notion that edward iv sons had died before henry's victory at bosworth support for this man claiming to be the rightful heir to the throne of england would grow alarmingly over the next four years the possibility that there might be a legitimate challenger for the throne still out there unnerved henry and convinced him of the need for regular intelligence he began to build a comprehensive network of spies and informants infiltrating suspects homes secretly interrogating their servants and their confessors to learn their secrets to his horror he uncovered a traitor at the very heart of his court his lord chamberlain the man most responsible for the safety of the king's person lord william stanley who was brother to henry's own stepfather and who had helped him win the crown less than a decade before in stanley's house henry spice had found a livery collar studded with the white roses of the house of york and ten thousand pounds in ready cash enough money to finance a major coup stanley was promptly charged with treason and executed in 1497 england was threatened with war once again as the man calling himself richard duke of york the son of edward iv known as perkin warbeck had acquired more powerful allies the scots who had not only arranged his marriage to lady catherine gordon a scottish royal but who had also provided him with troops which threatened to invade england this time parliament readily provided funds to meet the emergency granting 120 000 pounds to england's defense and so mobilization began this new tax however sparked outrage and rebellion in cornwall the cornish who did not see why they should be taxed or forced to fight the distant scots swiftly assembled into a rebel force which marched unopposed across southern england while the bulk of henry's forces were far away in the north terrified of being taken prisoner queen elizabeth collected her younger son prince henry from the palace at altum and sought refuge with him in the tower on the 17th of june 1497 henry vii defeated the cornish rebels at the battle of blackheath and four months later on the 5th of october the man claiming to be richard duke of york was captured in hampshire and imprisoned in the tower after his interrogation he signed a full confession stating that his claim to the throne of england had been fraudulent and that his real name was indeed perkin walbeck a common flemish man from turn i after a failed attempt to escape in november 1499 perkin warbeck was executed this four-year episode ended up costing henry over thirteen thousand pounds the equivalent of over ten million us dollars today this enormous loss and the efforts it had taken henry to secure his reign soured him he had aimed for glory in war to unite the houses of york and lancaster decisively and he had apparently failed to fully achieve both goals henry now began to turn to more bureaucratic methods to strengthen his grip on power these methods would make his subjects hate him far more than they already did but henry pressed ahead if he could not make his subjects love him he would rule them through fear instead to do so henry vii would take a page out of edward iv's book during his reign edward iv had retained the services of the highly learned former chief justice under henry vi sir john fortescue who established himself as one of england's first political and constitutional analysts he wrote a highly influential book on statecraft often referred to simply as the governance of england but whose original title was the difference between an absolute and a limited monarchy fortescue had spent his life observing the differences between english governance and that of a rival france he had concluded that the english king's inability to impose taxes without the consent of parliament was the crucial difference between the monarchies of england and france the french king could levy taxes on his people whenever he wanted making him rich and powerful but keeping his people poor the common people of england on the other hand were far more prosperous than their french counterparts but the limits to the english king's ability to tax his subjects left him poor and weak this fortescue asserted had been the primary cause of the ruinous wars of the roses the solution he believed would be for the king to acquire lands and annual revenues which would make him rich and less dependent on parliament the king of england in fortescue's estimation should not embody the medieval ideal of being the first among equals but should be the greatest and richest man in the kingdom which would help prevent his nobles who often commanded as much wealth and military might as the king himself from becoming too powerful and after stanley's betrayal and the war back episode henry resolved to do just that henry heavily restricted the court and drastically reduced the number of people who had access to the seat of power previously the goings-on in the privy chamber had been fairly transparent but going forward henry himself innovated the practice of keeping all government matters under lock and key behind heavily guarded doors while dozens of hopeful petitioners waited outside in the presence chamber hoping to be granted a moment with the king or one of his advisors henry strengthened his network of surveillance and spies he also began to acquire more lands and revenues by pressuring his nobles to sell their property to him wherever he could and he took personal charge of england's finances each entry into the financial ledgers of england was checked and signed personally by henry who was increasingly coming to view the accumulation of wealth as the best source of security for his rule he was so successful in this pursuit that during the last 12 years of his reign he had no more need of funding from parliament summoning them only once between 1497 and 1509 the 12th of november 1501 was cold and drizzly but london was gayly decorated and its people in a festive mood eagerly anticipating the beginning of a two week long series of events celebrating the wedding of prince arthur to the spanish princess catherine of aragon the crowds cheered as the 16 year old catherine proceeded with grace and poised to the palace at westminster accompanied by the 10 year old prince henry smiling and waving at those cheering for him as well two days later on the 14th of november arthur and catherine were married at st paul's cathedral in london departing after a further 10 days of feasting tournaments and entertainments for ludlow castle and their married life in the welsh marches having cemented such a prestigious marriage for his eldest son and heir with the rising royal house of spain which had brought with it a dowry of 100 000 pounds henry's legacy now seemed secure but then less than six months later disaster struck in march 1502 prince arthur fell ill possibly with the sweating sickness a mysterious disease that regularly swept through tudor england and on the 2nd of april he died two days later a messenger arrived at the palace at richmond to deliver the dreadful tidings henry and elizabeth were grief-stricken by arthur's death henry screamed and sobbed openly upon hearing the news shocking his courtiers at arthur's funeral while magnificent was observed rather quietly at worcester cathedral far from the crowded streets of london the political fallout from the boy's death was immense now prince henry was the only remaining male heir to the throne queen elizabeth was deeply grieved but summoned her resolve to reassure henry that they were both still young enough to have more children within a few months elizabeth did indeed become pregnant entering her confinement in january 1503 but sadly it proved to be a difficult pregnancy resulting in a premature birth and in the grip of fever and agony elizabeth of york succumbed to what was then known as bed fever or peripheral fever on the 11th of february 1503 on her 37th birthday her child a girl named catherine lived less than eight days the death of elizabeth of york brought on an outpouring of grief across the length and breadth of england she had been well loved by the people at her very presence had softened the hard edges of henry's tendency towards autocratic rule her funeral procession and ceremony were among the grandest and most expensive events staged during henry vii's reign costing in excess of three thousand pounds but neither henry himself nor his children attended elizabeth's funeral henry had suffered a complete physical and emotional collapse at the news of his wife's death they had come a long way together despite a rocky and distrustful beginning and the family they had built together in love and happiness had softened the harsher edges of henry's personality following elizabeth's death henry shot himself away for days refusing to see or speak to anyone and when he emerged all tenderness seemed to have departed from him and he became harder more autocratic and more ruthless than ever in his grief for his wife he seemed to have withdrawn from the hearts of his own children he took his remaining son prince henry at his training and education closely in hand this development stimulated a frequent clash of wills between father and son henry was now consumed with keeping his last son and heir safe from harm he therefore kept henry close monitored his education and training closely criticized him constantly and provided him a long list of now forbidden activities particularly participation in extreme sports like jousting which prince henry loved more surprising king henry with the notable lack of emotion arranged the marriage of his 13 year old daughter margaret to king james iv of scotland a bear six months after his wife's death henry vii it seemed drifted further away from everything except the imperatives of securing his legacy and acquiring wealth following arthur's death the king and queen of spain had begun to demand the return of princess catherine's dowry of 100 000 pounds a hefty sum which henry desperately did not want to give back he considered marrying catherine himself now that his own wife was dead but he did not seem to have considered this very seriously in the end he sought a papal dispensation for the betrothal of catherine to his second son henry on the grounds of non-consummation of the marriage between arthur and catherine in order to retain his daughter-in-law's dowry in the autumn of 1503 henry recruited an experienced london lawyer named edmund dudley to assist him with his unscrupulous revenue raising activities and they became more unsavory than ever not satisfied with simply pressuring landowners to sell their estates and give their annual revenues to him king henry now enlisted dudley to transform the privy chamber and royal treasury into somewhat of a racket like a modern day organized crime syndicate dudley revived laws long unenforced in england in order to impose fines on those who broke them if anyone refused to pay these fines or protested the injustice of them they were imprisoned many chose to pay the fines rather than risk dying in prison or being accused of treason and forfeiting all of their property and wealth to the king anyway and henry levied fines against his nobles for keeping private armies despite the fact that this had always been the practice in medieval england king henry assembled a small group of hand-picked lawyers to serve as his council learned in the law this body had no official power but worked directly for henry they frequently lifted various legal proceedings from england's official courts and privately adjudicated the matters themselves then proceeding to appropriate all fines for the king's treasury eventually all pretense was dropped and henry and his council simply began inventing laws and crimes to charge people with for the last six years of henry's life this process accelerated as henry's wealth increased to unimaginable levels so too did the virulent hatred and intense resentment of his subjects in only a few short years time when his son henry viii ascended to the throne one of his first acts was to have edmund dudley whom most people blamed for henry vii's cruel system of revenue raising arrested on trumped up charges of treason and executed by 1507 it was clear that the most popular person in england was prince henry his father the king glad to show off his son's abilities tasked him with organizing and staging the spring tournaments that year the 15 year old henry literally shone during the ceremonies and events presiding over the tournaments greeting dignitaries chatting with both noblemen and commoners with friendliness and charm and graciously presenting the tournament's victors with expensive trinkets everyone present could see the glaringly clear distinction between the dower serious detached and tyrannical figure of henry vii and the smiling gregarious openness of his well-loved son prince henry the people believed would be a different kind of king one who thirsted for honor and glory rather than gold who would extend privilege and favor to his nobles and his loyal subjects rather than suspicion and extortion the effigy sculpted for henry vii's funeral and the portraits painted of him late in his life show the ravages of his life and position his high cheekbones nose and cleft chin which were always prominent seemed to protrude even more in his increasingly thin pale face the deep lines in his forehead and down the sides of his nose and the hollows beneath his seemingly cold blue eyes tell the story of a man whose early life had been full of promise but whose constant companions in the years since had been anxiety suspicion disappointment tragedy illness and grief henry's health had begun to deteriorate in the years following the deaths of his wife and eldest son in january 1509 his condition worsened and he withdrew from the court into seclusion at richmond palace and on the 21st of april 1509 henry vii king of england died he was 52 years old and had ruled england for 24 years for two days his death was kept secret from everyone except those who had been present at his bedside for more than a century no king had ascended the throne of england without struggle or challenge and henry's council members were determined that this would not happen again quickly acting to secure and smooth prince henry's path to the throne before informing england of the king's death henry vii died a thoroughly hated man or at least deeply resented by his subjects and his family members alike he seemed to be little missed by most of the court with the exception of his mother margaret beaufort had remained her son's closest and most trusted advisor to the very end and her love and support for her son had never wavered it was margaret who had scrambled to secure the accession of her grandson prince henry temporarily repressing her grief for her son until the succession was assured and with the rest of the court in formal mourning it was she who organized her son's funeral and her grandson's coronation it had been margaret who would advise the young king henry viii on selections for his privy council and henry adheeded her every recommendation the day after her grandson's 18th birthday on the 29th of june 1509 less than two months after her own son's death margaret beauford followed henry vii to the grave henry was buried next to his wife in the chapel he had built and plastered with his family's emblems in westminster abbey their effigies lying in peaceful repose with their hands clasped in prayer margaret beaufort was laid to rest in her own impressive tomb only a few feet away from the graves of henry and elizabeth the reign of henry vii brought to an end a period of massive political instability a series of civil wars fought over three decades for the english throne extremely ambitious intelligent and lucky in many respects henry would nonetheless have to fight and scheme for the rest of his life to both maintain the stability of the english throne and to keep himself on it an impressive achievement in such tempestuous times especially considering that four out of the last seven kings before him had been murdered either openly on the battlefield or secretly by their successors henry vii is also remembered for his close personal management of the political and economic affairs of england resulting in practices broadly viewed as absolutist and oppressive which made many of his subjects grateful to see the end of his reign and hopeful at the rise of his more popular son henry viii yet it was henry vii's tight grasp on the governance of england and his harsh policies which laid the foundations for the greatest consolidation of royal power in english history under the tudors whose rule was to last for more than a century for centuries the reign of henry vii was eclipsed by his more famous descendants but in more recent years historians have begun to re-examine and investigate the impact of his reign more closely many of them have concluded that the rule of henry vii was instrumental in the strengthening of monarchy and the development of english might and wealth in europe for which his later descendants have traditionally been given full credit the terrors trials and disappointments of his life made him hard cruel and oppressive making his subjects want to forget him as quickly as possible his reputation as a tyrant however cannot mask his singular achievements of winning the throne against all the odds maintaining his grip on it through numerous rebellions and successfully passing it on without challenge to his son and heir henry vii was the only king for more than a century who had achieved all three goals what do you think of henry vii does his reign deserve the same level of notoriety as his more famous children and grandchildren was he vicious and tyrannical at heart or was his heart and humanity slowly eroded by years of danger loss and tragedy please let us know what you think in the comments below and in the meantime thank you very much for watching the man known to history as king henry viii of england was born on the 28th of june 1491 at greenwich palace just outside of london his father was king henry vii the first monarch of the house of tudor king of england and lord of ireland who reigned from 1485 when he seized the throne of england to his death in 1509 when he was succeeded by his second son and namesake henry he was the last king of england to secure his succession on the battlefield which he achieved by defeating king richard iii at the battle of bosworth field the final battle of the wars of the roses henry viii's mother was elizabeth of york the daughter of king richard iii's brother edward iv and as a yorkist princess her marriage to henry vii allowed reconciliation and healing between the two great houses of york and lancaster following years of civil war she bore her husband seven children and their marriage was both happy and successful born the second son of his parents henry vii and elizabeth of york henry was never expected to be king which his upbringing and education would reflect whereas henry's older brother arthur would be sent to ludlow castle in the welsh marches at the age of six where he would spend most of his time with his tutors whose job it was to educate him to be king this was because as his father's heir and prince of wales he was expected to rule wales in his father's name as well as become king himself eventually meanwhile henry being the spare rather than the heir received a much less rigid and rather more liberal education henry had several tutors who taught him grammar rhetoric history philosophy logic arithmetic geometry and languages including french spanish italian latin and greek henry especially enjoyed his lessons in astronomy navigation and cartography interests which would fuel his later interest in naval expansion the young prince not only excelled at his academic studies but showed an equal facility for both athletics and music he was even said to have composed music of his own at various times throughout his life henry's education also featured the markers of catholic renaissance europe humanist principles which dominated intellectual life at the time with its resurrection of the greek and roman classics and the application of both knowledge and reason towards progress were often part of his everyday curriculum as was catholic observance and theology brought up with his sisters margaret mary and elizabeth at the palace at eltom henry had little contact with his brother arthur and it was the poet laureate john skelton who educated henry in moral duties but it was his mother elizabeth of york who was to teach him to write from an early age this is evidenced by the similarities in handwriting style of mother and son such as the written r which they both wrote like a modern day zed and which differed from that of henry's tutors henry was the subject of exceptional admiration as a boy as some of the most celebrated intellectuals in europe including sir thomas moore and the dutch philosopher erasmus marveled publicly at his intelligence charm confidence and charisma and henry as a young boy corresponded with both of these scholars occasionally in fact thomas more wrote about henry in his poetry calling him a savior and a new messiah but the compliments may have been given to gain his favor especially in light of his great generosity playing on the young king's vanity he writes that henry has the virtue of a devoted husband brilliant sportsman and scholar as well as being a chivalrous prince in 1499 henry received thomas more and the poet erasmus at elton palace moore presented henry with a gift on their meeting but erasmus had no gift so henry teased him to create some poetry which erasmus sent to henry with a flattering covering letter stating that the intellect of scholars attains immortality henry spent a largely happy childhood surrounded by admiration not only from his tutors and mentors but from his mostly female family and being the second son henry unlike arthur was allowed to remain at home with his mother his sisters and his paternal grandmother margaret beaufort all of whom openly adored him indeed some historians speculate that it was henry's childhood spent in the center of a circle of adoring women which made him the passionate romantic he became but whatever the reason henry would marry no fewer than six women in pursuit not only of a male heir but also of love in 1502 henry's older brother arthur died possibly of tuberculosis or perhaps of the sweating sickness a mysterious disease which various historians speculate might have been either anthrax influenza or possibly hunter virus also within less than a year henry's beloved mother would follow her eldest son to the grave dying of what was known as childbed fever or preparal fever only a week after giving birth to her last child a girl who would only live eight days young henry's world was now turned upside down henry vii took his 11 year old son at his education firmly in hand now that it was clear that the boy would be king this was the beginning of a battle between father and son as while arthur was still alive henry could be safely ignored but now that arthur was dead and henry was the prince of wales the dower forbidding henry vii became heavily involved in his son's daily life which resulted in many a tussle of wills between the two chief among them concerned his father's prohibition of henry's participation in extreme sports the life of the prince of wales being too valuable to risk henry's desire to engage in competitive sports particularly warriors tournaments and jousting was understandable for a young member of the elite raised in the age of the idealized warrior king his hero and model of ideal kingship being his ancestor the conqueror of france and the hero of agincourt henry v and young henry was embarrassed at being restricted to compete in unarmed training exercises only whilst his friends were able to both exhibit their skills and defend their manly honor in the joust as well as this henry vii had taken personal charge of the disastrous state of england's finances after the ruinous wars of the roses this earned him a reputation for penny pinching henry also shared the widespread resentment of the people towards his father whom many considered moroccan to a landlord than a great king however his careful personal keeping of accounts during the last years of his reign ensured that he would leave his heir a mighty fortune and in the coming years henry did not hesitate to spend it henry's father gave him many titles when he was still very young to keep the most lucrative and powerful appointments within the royal family for example in 1493 he was made constable of dover castle and lord warden of the sank ports followed by earl marshall of england and lord lieutenant of ireland at the age of just three he was then appointed a night of the bath and shortly after his father made him duke of york and warden of the scottish marches and then in may 1495 he was appointed to the order of the garter when henry vii died on the 21st of april 1509 his son was immediately proclaimed king henry viii to an atmosphere of hope and joy among nobles courtiers and the english people alike and many predicted the beginning of a golden age for england as the tall athletic handsome redhead henry was already widely popular for his sunny personality his humor his intelligence and his confidence his father's reign had been continually unstable and he had never quite been able to banish the label of usurper which continued to be whispered among disaffected sections of the nobility these elites hated not only the manner in which henry vii ruled but how he had become king killing the youngest king richard iii at the battle of bosworth field and so ending the wars of the roses victory by feet of arms was one of the recognized methods of gaining the throne in the medieval world but the tudor's claim to rule england due to their lineage was never as strong as either the previous lancastrian king henry vi or their rivals the house of york as although henry's mother margaret beaufort was a direct descendant of john of gaunt as were the yorks the tudor branch was descended from john's third marriage to the widow catherine swinford the children of which had been conceived on the wrong side of the blanket or out of wedlock henry vii would never feel fully secure in his right to the crown as although the children were legitimized in 1397 they were barred from inheriting the throne however henry viii unlike his father never had any personal doubts about his right to a seed to the throne and thanks to his popularity nor did anyone else for example in his coronation ode for king henry and his new wife queen catherine henry's old mentor and friend thomas moore wrote quote this day is the beginning of our freedom the end of sadness the source of joy this day consecrates a young man who is worthy not merely to govern a single people but singly to rule the whole world but in the fullness of time thomas more would likely come to regret ever putting the notion of absolute power into the young king's head only three weeks after his father's death on the 11th of june 1509 the 17 year old king henry married the spanish princess catherine of aragon his brother arthur's widow and six years his senior in a brief private ceremony at the church of the observant friars just outside of greenwich palace at this time next to france spain was the most powerful country in europe and a spanish marriage brought significant financial political and military advantages to henry's reign however many historians agree ad henry's surviving letters testify that the appeal of the marriage went beyond political advantage and that henry and catherine truly loved and admired one another two weeks after their wedding on the 24th of june 1509 henry and catherine were crowned king and queen of england in westminster abbey the procession route from the palace of westminster to the abbey was decorated with cloth of gold and exquisite tapestries and both henry and catherine were resplendent in their rich costumes henry in a jewel-decorated cloth of gold coat with a red velvet hermine trimmed robe and catherine dressed in a rich mantle of cloth of tissue with a silk circlet of gold and pearl on her head and her long auburn hair unbound the archbishop of canterbury william warrum anointed the royal couple with holy oil and crowned them both to cries of viva viva rex or long live the king and after the wedding two days of feasting and armed tournaments followed the first years of henry's reign in marriage appear to have been happy active and ambitious ones for both king henry and catherine their court was purposefully modeled after those of the warrior kings of the medieval period and henry and his courtiers enjoyed both watching and participating in the frequent rounds of jousts and tournaments and in true chevalric fashion henry publicly lavished attention on his queen wearing her favors prominently over his armor during the joust and declaring himself her loyal heart the english court under henry viii was exceptionally decadent henry himself spent extravagantly on clothing jewels and fine furnishings the richest foods were served daily at the royal court often with as many as seven courses served at meal times and even more amazing each so-called course might consist of as many as 20 different dishes in january of 1510 a mere seven months after her wedding the queen was delivered of her first child sadly a stillborn daughter and one year later in january of 1511 catherine gave birth to a son prince henry who tragically survived for less than two months this tragedy for the royal couple was followed by another stillbirth in 1513 and yet another short-lived son in 1515. henry's famous reputation as a tyrant might lead some to believe that catherine's initial failure to produce an heir for england may have been a point of contention between the queen and her husband in fact henry and catherine's marriage continued in a seemingly warm and supportive state for several years henry appears to have been both patient and understanding with catherine's struggle to give him an heir indeed it is important to note that in 16th century england a high rate of child mortality was much more common than it is today and a wife especially a noble or royal wife might have up to 14 children to compensate for this sad fact and depending on circumstances between one-third and one-half of pregnancies would result in miscarriages stillbirths or infant mortality and whilst these occurrences were considered tragic catherine's demonstrated ability to conceive easily was actually an encouraging sign that she would eventually give birth to a son and air in the meantime the young royal couple demonstrated impressive collaboration in the governance and management of england's affairs henry forgave many of his father's debtors and made efforts to bury the enmity with those who had clashed with his father his charm and magnanimity won him the support of both the nobility and the people as well as this catherine was also beloved for her intelligence strength piety and devotion to the english people and when henry launched a joint invasion of france with the holy roman emperor maximilian the first in the summer of 1513 he left catherine to serve as regent in his absence a clear sign of the love trust and faith he placed in her pope julius ii and king louis the 12th of france were at war over the italian states ruled by the papacy pope julius excommunicated louis forming a coalition of nations and to sway the young henry to join them in the league he sent him barrels of italian wine a gold covered rose and a shipment of parmesan cheeses and in 1513 the venetian ambassador also appealed to king henry to aid them in the threat of war against france however archbishop warham preached for peace and against the evils of war as well as this thomas walsey henry's lord chancellor who was low-born but hugely intelligent educated at modeling college oxford also advised against war with scotland that was until he came to realize that his future lay in liberating henry from the influence of his advisers those who counter signed with seals any royal grant or law and with the support of wallsey henry could free himself from the control of his councillors and so on the 28th of june 1513 the decision for war taken the king and queen arrived at dover castle before henry crossed the channel the following day to join the fight against king louis of france and for the first time in a hundred years an english king sought to extend his dominion on the continent which after the losses in the hundred years war had been reduced to a small enclave around calais henry's first victory was at terroir followed by a triumph at the battle of the spurs so named because the mounted french knights fled the field so quickly and whilst henry pursued his dreams of english martial glory in france catherine was busy confronting an invasion of england by the scots under king james iv and within two months of henry's invasion of france king james invaded england in support of his french allies catherine however proved equal to the challenge in henry's absence as the daughter of queen isabella and king ferdinand not only had she been exposed to court politics and intrigue since childhood but she had also spent a good portion of that childhood exposed to the strategies of warfare and in a letter written on the 13th of august 1513 to margaret of savoy daughter of the emperor maximilian catherine humbly joked that she was busily involved in the virtuous woman's work of sowing banners for the campaign against the scots in fact catherine was personally involved in the military mobilization and strategy for england's defense when the english heavily represented by longbowmen and led by thomas howard the earl of surrey defeated the scots at the battle of flodden when they invaded in accordance with their alliance with france which at first come into being in the reign of edward the first 200 years earlier at the battle the english forces were victorious over a greater scottish force and the scottish king james iv perished on the battlefield along with as many as seventeen thousand of his forty thousand strong army whilst the english in contrast lost only 1500 of their 26 000 strong host the queen in writing to henry after the victory praised him for his successes abroad and sent as a token of her own triumph a shred of the scottish king's coat to add to the king's banners as his army carried on to take parts of flanders as well as tourney where he built a great castle a symbol of his burgeoning empire three years later and seven years into their marriage henry and catherine's patience was rewarded when on the 18th of february 1516 catherine gave birth to a daughter princess mary the future mary the first who would be the only child of the king and queen to survive into adulthood england rejoiced mary's birth and survival contained the promise eventually of a male heir at the time no woman had ever been queen of england in her own right but regardless in the absence of a son henry appeared to treat his daughter as a true princess of wales he even sent her to live at ludlow castle as was the tradition for the english king in waiting and he also ensured that she was educated as carefully as any prince mary was loved and doted on by both of her parents catherine took her early education in hand personally and henry was openly affectionate and indulgent with his daughter whom he called my pearl in the world however by the 1520s it would become apparent that catherine's failure to produce a sun and air would make the ground she stood upon shakier every year as because catherine was more or less constantly pregnant for the first decade of her marriage henry began to take mistresses with more regularity such behavior was not necessarily an indication of his waning interest in his wife however as it was commonly believed in the medieval world that sex during pregnancy was potentially dangerous to the health of the baby and it was also commonly believed that regular sex was essential to a man's overall health as according to the prevailing humoral theory of health and disease any buildup or imbalance of any kind in the body's fluids or humors could cause illness indeed with catherine so frequently pregnant it might have been strange had henry not taken a mistress yet it could not have failed to pain catherine when in june of 1519 elizabeth blount one of the queen's ladies in waiting gave birth to henry's son whom henry even acknowledged as his own child the boy was named henry fitzroy literally meaning son of the king and henry lavished attention and wealth on his son intending him to have a life of privilege if not legitimization in dignified fashion catherine honorably retired bessie blount from her service but continued to respectfully receive her still it must have saddened her to have henry's mistress and illegitimate son celebrated so publicly at court especially as in medieval europe women were frequently blamed for their inability to have children and it was generally believed that miscarriages and stillbirths were largely caused by the actions of the mother perhaps through careless behavior or eating habits and with the birth of henry fitzroy henry had proven that he could father a son and while henry never openly blamed catherine for her failure to produce a boy it is likely that the continued absence of legitimate heir some 10 years into his marriage stoked resentment as well as anxiety in him henry was now 27 years old and catherine was 33 the time left for her to conceive was growing short indeed following the birth of princess mary catherine would become pregnant and give birth only once more to a stillborn daughter in 1518 and within a decade henry's attempts to address this shortcoming would change the face of england forever his dynastic troubles aside the first 10 years of henry's reign clearly reflected his ambitious pursuit of glory fame and virtue henry set out to make england the equal of both france and spain in wealth power and prestige and early on in his reign he sponsored the construction of dockyards warehouses and shipyards in coastal ports and sourced huge amounts of timber from the forests of sussex and kent for the construction of ships henry's father had become king in the very infancy of europe's age of exploration and not to be outdone by the spanish he had begun a process of naval expansion however upon the death of henry vii england could boast a navy of only five ships but by the time of henry viii's death england's navy would comprise 50 ships in 1518 with the threat of a turkish invasion of southeastern europe looming a prospect which alarmed all christendom henry signed a non-aggression pact with charles v the new holy roman emperor and francis the first king of france the agreement was the beginning of several such summit talks which took place over the next two years between the three european powers largely planned and orchestrated by henry's lord chancellor and papal leggett in england cardinal wongsi the most impressive of these diplomatic meetings would be the field of cloth of gold which took place in france near calais from the 7th to the 24th of june 1520 at the summit henry and francis signed a pledge of perpetual friendship and peace princess mary was betrothed to the dopha of france and all in attendance enjoyed a week of feasting drinking entertainment international tournaments and jousting contests amid the exquisite cloth of gold tents and cleverly constructed canvas pavilions painted to look as if they were built of stone however despite the pomp ceremony and elaborate rituals of the field of cloth of gold the alliance between henry and francis would be a fair weather one over the next few decades as shortly afterwards cardinal wallsey would sign an alliance with charles v of spain who declared war on france later in 1521 starting the italian war of 1521-1526 henry was determined to be remembered as a prince of intellect and virtue as well as one skilled at statesmanship indeed when the publications of martin luther beginning in 1517 had scandalized catholic europe and outraged henry himself he personally wrote and published in 1521 a response to luther's attack on the church called the assertio september sacramentorum or defense of the seven sacraments in this document henry attacked luther's ideas defended sacred catholic practices and affirmed in all religious matters the supremacy of the pope to whom henry dedicated his book and in recognition of his service to the church pope leo the tenth gave henry the title fide defensor or defender of the faith some historians suggest that henry's mentor and friend sir thomas moore may have assisted in the writing of the historic document which was only the second book to be written by an english king and reportedly during the editing process moore suggested that henry might want to state the broad scope of the pope's power more lightly but henry was adamantly against softening either his condemnation of luther or his defense of the pope's right to rule god's church on earth ironically it would be this very issue that would undermine henry's bond of friendship with more and for which more would eventually lose his life culturally henry was a devout catholic and evidence suggests that he essentially remained so throughout his life however his commitment to the pope's right to govern the church would present him with perhaps his greatest dilemma when his views conflicted with both his desire to remarry and his increasingly desperate need for a son and heir the one thing that seemed to be out of his reach by the mid-1520s the situation became more strained henry was no longer the popular teenage king but was still a fairly young man in his early 30s and never having abandoned his athletic lifestyle and pursuits he had kept his trim handsomeness and vigor catherine however was nearing 40 and had gained a great deal of weight in the years since her marriage as well as this six pregnancies in nine years had wreaked havoc on her body and catherine now past childbearing age was losing both the love and interest of her husband in 1526 and berlin came to the tudor court as a lady in waiting to queen catherine the daughter of thomas berlin henry's ambassador to france and had recently returned from the french court with her father and was much admired for her cosmopolitan air her style wit and charm and still in her mid-20s she was fashionable and attractive with dark hair and eyes and commanded attention at court and henry longing for a younger more vivacious wife who might give him a son fell deeply in love with her initially for the first few months of their courtship there seemed to be no question of henry casting off his wife he frequently begged dan to become his mistress which she refused to do insisting that she would give her virginity only to her husband henry's letters to anne some of which survive are full of passionate declarations of his love and desire for her henry continually commissioned new jewels and trinkets for her and publicly showed her favor and faction in historical terms ann berlin has been given the reputation of the other woman at worst a grasping political climber and conspirator who usurped the place of a legitimate wife and queen much loved by the english people however there is no evidence that she encouraged henry's interest in her initially indeed she reportedly made an abrupt departure from court in the spring of 1527 returning to her family's home at heaven castle and the letter that henry wrote to earn soon after her departure conveys the impression that she might have left simply to avoid henry's arter and avoid turning down a king who held power over the livelihood and lives of the entire court the letter from henry reads quote in turning over in my mind the contents of your last letters i have put myself into great agony not knowing how to interpret them whether to my disadvantage as you show in some places or to my advantage as i understand them in some others beseeching you earnestly to let me know expressly your whole mind as to the love between us too it is absolutely necessary for me to obtain this answer having been for above a whole year stricken with the dart of love and not yet sure whether i shall fail finding a place in your heart an while some might accuse her of playing a skillful game of manipulation it seems unlikely that a young woman like anne from a respectable but not a powerful family would imagine that she could be anything more than henry's temporary mistress it is difficult to believe that anne might be presumptuous enough to think that she could take henry from his legitimate wife or that she might emerge victorious from a battle with the queen of england moreover a liaison with the king would no doubt place her marriage prospects and future prosperity at great risk and it is far more likely that she came to love henry as he loved her but after her abrupt departure from court henry continued writing to anne and sending her gifts and in time and began to respond to henry with feelings and gifts of her own and the two carried on their relationship quite publicly at court there is of course no way to know whether anne and henry maintained their abstinence azan had insisted she must however the fact that anne did not become pregnant throughout the nearly seven years of their courtship suggests she stayed chaste methods of contraception were available at the time but were extremely unreliable so while henry and anne were likely intimate with one another there is no evidence which suggests that they slept together prior to late 1532 at the earliest by 1527 a year after anne's arrival at court henry determined to seek a divorce from catherine so he could marry anne henry's rationale for the divorce has been argued by some to illustrate the fundamental flaws of his personality a tendency towards cold abandonment and indifference towards those he had no more useful as well as a willingness to interpret facts to suit himself when henry had first married catherine he had done so against objections from all sides because he loved her the pope issued a special dispensation to allow henry to marry catherine since she had been wed first to henry's brother arthur and henry and catherine's marriage according to catholic doctrine could otherwise have been considered incest based on a provision in leviticus 20 21 quote if any man should take his brother's wife it is an unclean thing they will be childless and so when teenage henry had wanted to marry catherine he readily accepted both the pope's dispensation and catherine's claim that her six-month marriage to arthur had never actually been consummated due to arthur's continual ill health and it was not until years later when henry had fallen in love with anne and the possibility of having a son had become realistic again that henry decided that catherine and arthur's marriage may actually have been consummated he reasoned that the pope had overreached his own authority and that the very reason he had no son was because his current marriage was a sin against god for which divorce was the only remedy henry's ambition for love and an heir changed everything the king would spend the next few years pursuing the great matter of his divorce he began with a direct appeal to pope clement vii hoping that his noted devotion to the catholic church would secure him an annulment a prospect which at the time was not as outrageous a request as it seems today as for literally centuries various successive popes had dissolved literally dozens of royal marriages even marriages of relatively long duration which had already produced children most of which were annulled for political reasons although official annulments always cited some biblical or doctrinal explanation for the dissolution of these marriages however henry was about to find his dreams of a quick and easy divorce dashed when in 1527 emperor charles v sacked rome and took the pope as his prisoner in addition to being arguably the most powerful man in europe charles was also queen catherine's nephew and by this point even if the pope had wished to grant henry his divorce he would have been unable to henry then turned to cardinal wallsey who had never failed him and who owed literally all he had to the king thomas walls he was not born to the nobility like most clergymen of the day who became archbishops cardinals and papal leggetts instead walsey was the son of a butcher from ipswich originally an obscure chaplain until under henry's patronage he was made bishop archbishop and cardinal in fairly quick succession wallsey had not only been henry's lord chancellor he'd also been his mentor as a young king still finding his way but whatever the reason for wallsey's failure to procure the divorce whether inability or reluctance it would lead to his ruin the cardinal working with cardinal campegio a special leggett appointed by the pope set up a legacy in court to determine henry's great matter but the court was unable to reach a decision with regard to the merit of henry's claims for an annulment and ruled that the matter should be decided by the college of cardinals in rome it is unclear whether wallsey truly wanted to give henry his desire or if like his ecclesiastical counterparts he saw the danger of allowing the king to divorce his famously pious catholic wife and marry anne who was reliably rumored to be a lutheran reformer but whatever his intentions the failure of the legateen court led to wallsey's downfall as henry commanded his arrest an imprisonment citing the treasonous tone of letters walsey had written to vatican officials however the cardinal in fact died of natural causes on his way to london before henry could behead him adding insult to injury henry took possession of hampton court the fabulous palace which wolsey had personally transformed from a more modest country house he had intended it as a venue from which to entertain the king the nobles and prominent foreign visitors but henry and his court took residence there only months after the cardinals death in 1530 the king continued to improve upon it over the years and whilst henry maintained more than 60 residences hampton court palace remained his favorite and he would spend a great deal of time there throughout the remainder of his reign henry did not sit idly by waiting for the college of cardinals of the pope to decide the fate of his marriage instead he began to canvass the opinions of theologians at europe's universities asking them to study deliberate and pronounce a verdict on the merits of his case for divorce however henry would be disappointed twice more as the majority of university theologians and later the college of cardinals would decide in favor of queen catherine declaring the king's first marriage valid after all it is unclear when henry first began to consider repudiating the pope's authority in england thus removing the obstacle to his divorce and berlin's influence as a lutheran sympathizer and reformer is entirely plausible as is the influence of thomas cromwell another reformer who was first henry's private secretary and later rose to become lord privy seal in fact there were quite a few reformers in the english parliament and it caught at the time and anticlericalism was rife among them but perhaps it was his introduction to the little known clergyman and theology professor from cambridge thomas cranmer which truly planted the seed in his mind according to cranmer who was a passionate reformer kings anointed by god answered only to god and therefore henry should not have to pursue his divorce through legal means this atmosphere and these ideas may have emboldened henry to formally break with the catholic church and pursue one of the most radical bids for power ever made by a european monarch the claim to the absolute powers of both king and pope it would take nearly two years for henry to establish the fulfillment of his will over both parliament and the english clergy but by 1532 henry had what he wanted he was the supreme head of the church in england and parliament had legislated a full break with the pope stopping virtually all payments to rome and because he wanted his great matter decided by the english church which was much better from a public relations standpoint than declaring it himself he made thomas cranmer archbishop of canterbury empowering him to lead the clergy to the right decision in other words to vote in henry's favor with regard to his divorce in april of 1533 archbishop cranmer declared henry's marriage to catherine invalid but by that time henry had already been remarried for four months having wed and berlin in a secret ceremony on the 25th of january 1533 and some historians suggest that when she came to the altar and was already pregnant as on september 7th 1533 just over seven months after their marriage and gave birth to princess elizabeth the future elizabeth the first of england henry well understood the enormity of what he had done and he moved swiftly to consolidate his new powers and impose his will implacably upon the english people catherine of aragon was still widely popular and the new queen in was widely resented but more importantly the majority of the english people still identified closely with roman catholicism henry knew he would have to establish control quickly before the foreign influence and support of catholic europe emboldened an easy catholic englishman to act and his answer was the act of supremacy which he proposed following his marriage to earn and which parliament passed in 1534 the act required all the king's subjects to swear an oath recognizing henry as supreme head of the church and affirming the legality of the king's marriage to ambulan refusal to swear the oath was considered treason the punishment for which was death for devoted catholics the oath of supremacy was seen as a referendum on morality most chose to swear the oath and escape with their lives no matter how painful the cost to their beliefs others like henry's old friend and mentor sir thomas moore would not moore had largely retired from court and public life in general following the death of thomas wallsey henry had named moore lord chancellor a post which he resigned from only two years later in 1532 alienated and demoralized by the erosion of papal authority he had witnessed at court he had never spoken publicly against the king or against his marriage to anne but as of 1535 he remained one of only a few of henry's subjects who still had not taken the oath moore's refusal to do so resulted in him being imprisoned in the tower and at his trial when it was clear that he would be found guilty he'd loudly affirmed the authority of the pope over all matters religious and denied the ability of parliament to declare the king head of the church moore was immediately sentenced to death for treason a crime which carried the penalty of hanging drawing and quartering henry had already demonstrated that he was not averse to removing his subjects when they failed to deliver challenged his power or acted contrary to his will but perhaps it is a small testament to his remembrance of moore's friendship and service to him that henry commuted his sentence to beheading on the 6th of july 1535 thomas more went bravely to the scaffold he jokingly asked the executioner to hold on a moment while he shifted his beard from the edge of the block saying that after all he not it had committed treason and in a loud clear voice he declared that he died the king's good servant and god's first henry and anne had finally removed all who seemed openly opposed to the new order the death of catherine of aragon from natural causes on the 7th of january 1536 appeared to remove the last barrier to the legitimacy of their marriage but a dark cloud still hovered and had become pregnant twice following the birth of elizabeth but both pregnancies had resulted in miscarriages additionally some historians have speculated that henry and anne's relationship was growing increasingly strained due to anne's failure to adjust to a new role of wife as henry's mistress she might have been allowed a certain amount of license to speed connect is she pleased her prolonged refusal to sleep with henry likely put her in a rather dominant position however as henry's wife she would be expected to be far more submissive but of course a lack of submissiveness would likely have been overlooked had she not committed the unpardonable sin of failing to produce a son in the spring of 1536 after her final miscarriage accusations of adultery were leveled a tan and henry chose to believe them private interrogations of the queen's household elicited far more fantastic claims of her degeneracy accusing her of incest and witchcraft in addition to adultery at a speedy trial for which she was not permitted to be present she was found guilty and on the 31st of may 1536 anne berlin was taken to the scaffold with dignity she spoke briefly and movingly of her love for the king her sins of pride and her desire that the people pray for her but within 24 hours of his second wife's execution henry was already betrothed to anne's lady in waiting and the woman who had become his third wife lady jane seymour while lady jane like her family had sworn the oath of supremacy she was rumored to be sympathetic to the old religion of catholicism some expected that perhaps now with anne boleyn gone henry would backtrack on some of his radical religious policies however the reforms if anything accelerated and henry ordered thomas cromwell to begin the dissolution of england's monasteries after anne's death in 1536 abbeys shrines and monasteries throughout england were purged of religious relics such as fragments of the true cross and viles supposedly containing the blood of christ which on one occasion proved to be the blood of ducks this statewide systematic clampdown was not only undertaken for theological reasons but also largely because the seizure of church property brought in a colossal amount of revenue to the royal coffers and so throughout the realm abbeys were reduced to ruins and their contents plundered whilst anyone who resisted henry's will was put to an agonizing death be they familiar to the king or be the humble peasant in short henry now demanded nothing less than total unquestioning submission from every man woman and child whose bodies and souls he now held in the palm of his hand however henry's new order was not implemented without resistance as in the autumn of 1536 a massive uprising broke out in the north of england known as the pilgrimage of grace which henry only quelled through attempts at appeasement followed by brutal reprisals marching in the name of the king carrying banners depicting the five wounds of christ the rebels demanded the return of the abbeys the revival of sacred catholic ceremonies and holidays and the dismissal of the king's devious ministers especially cromwell whom they blamed for the new religious policies the rebels numbered an incredible 40 000 strong the largest army on english soil since before the reign of henry vii to appease the mob henry viii promised them a pardon and to negotiate a fair settlement with them if they dispersed and put a stop to any further rebellion however when further disturbances broke out in the north henry unleashed a brutal repression and hundreds of rebel leaders were arrested and executed after which henry proclaimed that quote our pleasure is that dreadful execution be done on a good number of the inhabitants of every town village and hamlet that have offended in this rebellion indeed even his own family were not spared henry's wrath as when the wife who replaced anne boleyn james seymour begged him on her knees to restore the abbeys he exploded with quote get up do not presume to meddle in my affairs remember anne the desecration of the monasteries continued to pace for four more years the confiscated wealth made henry one of the richest monarchs in europe and in disgust the pope excommunicated henry in 1538 which meant that england was now surrounded by hostile powers the king resolved to use his newly appropriated fortune to build up the country's defenses with the construction of hundreds of forts and gun emplacements along the english coast the materials for which often came from the monasteries and abbeys themselves making england a veritable island fortress which combined with the growing english navy formed the blueprint for english defensive and offensive strategies over the next 300 years between 1536 and 1539 henry also pursued other avenues to reinforce the new religious life of england the 10 articles of faith were published in 1536 an english translation of the bible appeared in 1537 as well as the institution of the christian man or the bishop's book as it was more commonly known and by 1539 it was clear to henry that the theological and doctrinal differences between catholics and protestants had hardened and the situation had grown even murkier which religion demonstrated the correct christian observance and perspective henry realized that preserving his supremacy and securing peace and religious life was going to require uniformity if he could not simply proclaim it he would have to impose it by law henry first established a special committee of clergymen to deliberate on six doctrinal questions the answers to which would form the basic articles of faith for the church of england naturally the committee knew what was expected of them and they produced six articles of faith which essentially preserved the catholic doctrines and observance with which henry and many other conservatives in england were comfortably familiar english protestants were crushed and it seemed that the only aspect of catholic doctrine which the six articles had left out was allegiance to the pope henry was never a protestant but he was unwilling to have anyone reign supreme above him but worst of all the act of six articles passed in 1539 required a public endorsement by everyone and to deny any one of the six articles was to be labelled a heretic and to face trial and execution by burning at the stake henry's actions could be considered incredibly merciless but this callous reputation deserves some special attention an explanation as a young man henry was widely known as generous kind and good humoured but later in life he was often regarded as an irratible personality with a hideous temper who delighted in terrorizing anyone who displeased him this dramatic shift in personality is plain to see and there is a fairly concrete explanation for it which is that henry was in almost constant pain with an ongoing disability on the 24th of january 1536 two days before anne boleyn miscarried her last child and five months before her execution the still vigorous 45 year old henry suffered a terrible accident in the jousting lists when he fell from his horse the heavily armoured horse then fell on henry nearly crushing his leg and he was unconscious for several hours when he awoke he would find that his life had changed forever his accident had opened an older wound on his leg which over time became ever more ulcerated and severe part of the problem was the 16th century physicians who believed that wounds should be left open to allow pus to continue draining the build-up of which according to the humeral theory could cause illness and many of the treatments henry was subjected to over the remaining 10 years of his life probably did more harm than good causing increasing infections and inflammation which could not have failed to be excruciatingly painful from 1536 onward a vastly different henry emerged one racked by constant pain given to furious rage and increasingly fade for his unpredictable moods and behavior his marriage to jane seymour later that same year and her pregnancy seven months later likely brightened henry's hopes for the future but the new restrictions on his life and activities took their toll on him no longer could he engage in his usual vigorous athletic pursuits and he was forced to confront physical decline loss of independence and depression as always henry remained fond of wine and food and continue to eat the extravagant multi-course meals served twice daily at the tudor court henry would steadily gain more and more weight over the next decade and by the last year of his life henry was close to 400 pounds with a waistline of 54 inches and unable to walk he had to be carried about the tudor court in a reinforced litter his injuries from the jousting accident in 1536 did not discourage his pursuit of a male heir of love glory and fame but it did completely change his daily life and undeniably his personality also henry and jane had only been married about 15 months when she gave birth to prince edward which seemingly set the seal on all of henry's ambitions but tragically jane would only live for another two weeks dying of peripheral fever just as henry's mother had as childbirth in renaissance europe was a dangerous business killing approximately one in three women in 16th century europe it was beset by emergencies which midwives and physicians often handled improperly or did not know how to handle with numerous opportunities for life-threatening infections to set in while overjoyed at the birth of a son henry was crushed by jane's death whether it was because she had given him the male heir that he had so long desired or because they had not been married long enough for henry's love to fade the king went into deepest mourning and seclusion he would not marry again for more than two years however both henry and his courtiers understood that just one son was not enough to guarantee the security of the throne and they began urging him to remarry and produce another heir soon after jane's death henry's fourth wife was anne of cleves a german princess and sister to the duke of cleves henry had commissioned the great tudor court painter hans holbein to paint her portrait and had admired anne's beauty and poise as depicted in holbein's painting he expressed intense disappointment upon meeting her however screaming abuser thomas cromwell who had been so eager for the marriage alliance with the protestant cleaves henry was bitterly disappointed exclaiming i like her not but because he had already alienated predominantly catholic europe henry did not wish to offend his new german allies and so he duly married anne of cleves on the 6th of january 1540 but immediately began to seek avenues to have the marriage annulled she has evil smells about her henry insisted after the wedding night seemingly ignoring his own hideous stench from his constantly ulcerated leg he also claimed that the looseness of her breasts and other tokens indicated that she was not a virgin within six months henry had his marriage to anne arnold on the grounds of her supposedly binding pre-contract to marry the son of the duke of lorraine and fared better than most of henry's wives as because she accepted the annulment with grace henry gifted her with an estate and an annual income inviting her to think of herself as his majesty's sister henry then imprisoned his lord privy seal thomas cromwell in the tower for his mishandling of the king's marriage and for his radical reformist sympathies cromwell was beheaded on the 28th of july 1540 and on the same day henry married one of anne's ladies in waiting the great niece of the duke of norfolk seventeen-year-old catherine howard like anne berlin catherine howard receives a somewhat tarnished reputation in history for her flightiness and her adultery with the king's groom thomas culpepper her behavior does however tell us much about the marriage to the king henry was 51 years old when he married catherine and growing older sicker and heavier all the time there were rumors also of his impotence which considering his health and the constant pain he endured would have been understandable and some historians have speculated that such sexual problems might have formed the basis of henry's failure to consummate his marriage to anne of cleves as well the years of 1540 and 1541 were also busy ones for henry he was consumed with the reconquest of ireland and under these circumstances it is hardly surprising that the teenaged catherine might have found her new role as queen tedious unrewarding even lonely she began her affair with thomas culpepper arranging clandestine meetings writing him love letters and sending him gifts the rumors of her behaviour soon began to circulate and it eventually came to light that she had also engaged in a sexual relationship with her private secretary francis dearm before marrying the king catherine would pay the ultimate price for the mistakes of her tragically short life as she was beheaded on the 13th of february 1542 at the age of 19 the day after the executions of both culpepper and dirham the following year on the 12th of july 1543 henry married his sixth and final wife catherine parr she was attractive wealthy twice widowed educated and highly intelligent the 31 year old catherine seemed a good match for henry despite her tendency to be exceptionally outspoken she made a marked effort to be a mother to henry's three children and encouraged a much closer family environment it was at this time that henry decided to reinstate his daughter's mary and elizabeth whom he had previously declared to be bastards to the line of succession after his son edward many historians attribute this decision to catherine parr's influence henry and catherine seemed to enjoy both a cooperative and companionable marriage and when henry launched yet another invasion of france in 1544 attempting to stem french support for the scots with whom england was also at war henry made catherine regent in his absence a clear endorsement of her intelligence competence and his trust in her while they were a seemingly good match they did clash largely over religious matters catherine parr was a committed protestant reformer she published no less than three books all of which testified to her religious convictions her second book prayers and meditations published in 1545 was the first book published by an english queen in her own name her writings would not endear her to the more conservative religious elements had caught many of whose prejudices henry himself shared and henry even went as far as to issue a warrant for catherine's arrest for her heretical opinions but the warrant was never carried out and the couple eventually reconciled their differences catherine did not publish her third book the lamentation of a sinner until after henry's death by late 1546 henry had become increasingly ill and after making a few final adjustments to his well he withdrew from his family into seclusion at whitehall palace his condition deteriorated steadily over the month of january yet henry's physicians failed to inform him of their strong suspicion that he was dying since imagining or discussing the death of the king was considered treason and so henry's doctors summoned one of his quarters instead to give him the news and on the evening of the 27th of january 1547 archbishop thomas cranmer was summoned to hear henry's last confession by the time cranmer arrived he found the king's condition was such that he was unable to speak cranmer comforted the king by asking if he trusted in god in reply the king squeezed grandma's hand henry died in the early hours of the morning of the 28th of january 1547. henry's life and reign was a fascinating mixture of both the best and the worst of kingly behavior seen by some as an elaborate pageant featuring high hopes hideous crimes and a fevered search for love glory and fame by an increasingly tyrannical king many of his decisions could be seen as impulsive short-sighted or selfish although whether intentional or not the medium to long-term effects of henry's decisions were to make him arguably the most powerful monarch in english and british history as he was both head of state and church next to his daughter elizabeth henry viii remains england's most iconic monarch one who permanently changed the religious life and culture of england his assumption of the role of supreme head of the church caused a veritable earthquake whose aftershocks would continue to be felt for nearly two centuries after his death causing 200 years of religious turmoil in england the resulting break with the roman catholic church paved the way for england and later britain to forge their own destinies in centuries to come like the other protestant nations of europe and to embrace new scientific methods and forms of government which would enable them to eclipse the catholic powers and make england and the royal navy which henry is credited in part with founding dominant on the global stage expanding the powers of the monarchy to a peak never surpassed by any other english king or queen what do you think of king henry viii was he merely a tyrant whose cruelty was unremarkable for a european king during the renaissance or was he a strong iconic monarch determined to rule over the entirety of his own country on his own terms please let us know in the comments section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching the man known to history as edward tudor was born at hampton court palace in london on the 12th of october 1537 he was baptized by archbishop thomas cranmer in the chapel of the palace on the 15th of october and was proclaimed duke of cornwall his father was an immense figure henry viii who ruled england for the better part of 40 years from his accession in 1509 he was the second tudor monarch the first to succeed to the throne after henry's father henry vii largely usurped the crown from the yorkist monarchs in 1485. the tudors being a relatively obscure family of welsh origin with a tenuous claim to the throne of england the frail basis for the tudor rule haunted henry viii he needed to secure the line by siren a legitimate male heir and his efforts to do so would have enormous consequences unleashing a torrent of political religious social and economic change across england in the process edward's mother was jane seymour in 1536 at about 28 years of age she was married to henry she was his third wife in an increasingly speedy succession of them throughout the 1530s but unlike many of henry's other wives jane was not murdered or simply discarded by the king but rather she died on the 24th of october 1537 less than two weeks after giving birth to edward her first son the birth was difficult the labour lasting nearly three days and nights and jane never recovered dying from complications 12 days later the world which edward was born into was experiencing momentous change and although the infant edward would have been entirely unaware of the fact much of the change was the direct result of his father's effort to produce edward a legitimate male heir henry had first married in 1509 his first wife catherine of aragon was born in spain she produced just one child during their long marriage which lasted until 1533 a daughter mary who was born in 1516. despite mary's birth what henry really needed was a legitimate male heir born in wedlock and a clear successor to the throne of england who could cement the tudor dynasty's grip on the country his desire to do so partially explains henry's increasing infatuation from the mid-1520s with ann berlin a daughter of thomas berlin an english diplomat and knight of the garter henry's obsession with marion anne in the late 1520s and early 1530s led him to seek to divorce catherine by securing a dispensation from the pope in rome and then splitting with rome altogether declaring himself supreme head of the church of england and in doing so he began flirting with the new protestant faith which had emanated out of germany in recent years but henry was no doctrinal protestant a traditional catholic he split with rome in order to further his marital desires and to acquire the riches of the church in england wales and ireland and so having successfully split with a papacy henry quickly divorced catherine in may 1533 and married amberlynn five days later anne's reign as queen of england lasted almost exactly three years her crime in the end was similar to catherine's a male heir did not result from the marriage when a child came in september 1533 it was another girl elizabeth when her son did not arrive henry had his second marriage annulled on trumped up charges of adultery and other crimes and anne was beheaded on the 19th of may 1536 yet again henry did not wait long to acquire a new wife he married edward's mother jane seymour 11 days later and thus jane was henry's third wife in three years and the quest for a legitimate male heir had seen england split with rome as well as the first tenuous moves towards the adoption of protestantism in england as an infant edward would have been surrounded by women his wetness and dry nurse his rockers and various other ladies would have taken care of his every need all over seen by lady margaret bryan the mistress of not only edward but of his half-sisters mary and elizabeth also and in late 1538 his portrait was painted by hans holbein the younger who presented it to the king as a new year's gift in january 1539 being given a gold cup in return from the painting we see the prince had blue gray eyes and fine blonde hair edward's early years were spent at various royal palaces in and around london such as hampton court his chamberlain was sir william sydney and his steward was sir john cornwallis sydney's task was to quote have the keeping oversight care and cure of his majesties and the whole realm's most precious jewel the prince's grace and to foresee all dangers and adversaries of malicious persons and casual harms to edward to the young edward was highly restricted with no strangers ever allowed to see him and access being granted according to social rank and no rank less than a night was permitted in his presence as well as this visitors would be expected to kiss the young boy's hand as his safety was paramount to protect the young edward further his servants were banned from visiting london in case they would bring back the plague but overall from lady brian's writings it seems that edward was a happy healthy and very lively toddler new apartments were built at hampton court palace for the young edward complete with several different chambers and a dedicated kitchen and bathroom however as was the custom of the time edward lived apart from his father and visits would have been seen as special occasions the court would travel around different houses according to which was seen as best for the time of year or occasion but hunsden in hertfordshire would have been one such house that would have been familiar to edward as he spent much time there with lady brian as he was growing up his education was entrusted into the hands of two men richard cox and john cheek cox was his senior tutor the headmaster of eaton and a tough task master used stern discipline to educate his charges the more significant however of edward's tutors was cheek appointed as the first regious professor of greek at cambridge university cheek was the greatest classical scholar of his day in england who did much of the work of reviving the interest and scholarship of greek classical writers in tudor england under his tutelage edward began his education in greek latin grammar and philosophy this was the standard curriculum of the new renaissance humanist education which had been developed in italy in the 14th and 15th centuries on which it spread to northern europe in the early 16th century some of this involved reading works which would be familiar to any school child today such as the fables of the ancient greek writer esop but also works by other more obscure classical writers such as the roman poet dionysus and cato but most significantly edward would have been made familiar with the philosophical and political writings of the two foremost thinkers of ancient greece plato and aristotle as well as learning the art of rhetoric which all children and royal a noble birth learned through the writings of the roman authors cicero and quintillion this was an education for a royal prince given to prepare him to rule england for many years we also know about edward's friendship circle growing up his closest friends were henry and charles brandon the sons of the first duke of suffolk and it was charles brandon who was also henry viii's closest friend throughout his lifetime two fur the childhood companions of edward curiously hailed from ireland these were thomas butler the future tenth earl of ormond a great lordship in the south of the country and barnaby fitzpatrick the son of an irish lord who had recently accepted a title of english lordship from henry viii in an effort which was being undertaken to anglicize the irish lords by having them accept english titles of nobility butler and fitzpatrick were in england to be raised as english gentlemen who would return to ireland as adults and anglicize their lordships in the years ahead while edward was growing up the world he inhabited continued to be destabilized by his father's actions despite having many of the trappings of a renaissance prince henry viii was a product of the middle ages and viewed his most important role as being at war with england's ancient enemies france and scotland after yet another bout of conflict with scotland in the early 1540s henry agreed to the treaty of greenwich with england's northern neighbour on the 1st of july 1543 this sought to facilitate a sustained peace between the two countries by arranging a marriage between edward the heir presumptive to the throne of england and mary stewart popularly remembered as mary queen of scots and the new queen of scotland since the death of her father james v on the 14th of december 1542 at the time the treaty was signed however mary was less than one year old and the marriage to edward five years her senior would not be put into practice for many years to come henry's desire was to see scotland united with england through the union thus making edward the future king of england and scotland however the scots who had agreed to the terms of the treaty of greenwich during a period when their military fortunes were particularly precarious quickly reneged on the terms of the treaty as a result henry commanded edward's uncle edward seymour the earl of hartford to campaign north into scotland in 1544 with the goal of making the scots abide by the terms of the treaty of greenwich including edward's marriage to mary the result was a lengthy war with scotland and their perennial ally the french which dragged on for many years into edward's reign this conflict known as the rough willing not only had a bearing on edward's future marriage prospects but would shape england's foreign policy throughout edward's reign edward's father's long and tumultuous reign came to an end on the 28th of january 1547 henry had suffered a serious injury from a jousting accident in 1536 and experienced many ailments in his later years brought on by a chronic leg ulcer from his earlier accident and aggravated by clinical obesity he was probably also suffering from gout as such his death at the age of 55 was ultimately due to many health complications henry left his nine-year-old son as king of england in ireland despite marrying three further times following the premature death of edward's mother henry had never been able to produce another legitimate child consequently the security of the tudor regime now rested to a great extent on edward's shoulders henry would have been distraught to have learned that his son's reign would prove short although in many ways it was just as eventful and turbulent as henry's own owing to his youth at the time of his accession edward's reign was dominated by senior political figures who ruled in his stead between 1547 and 1549 one man above all others was the young king's most powerful subject at a meeting of the most senior political figures and nobles in england held in the tower of london on the 31st of january 1547 just days after the death of henry viii it was decided that the new king's uncle edward seymour would be given this position of seniority within the government during his nephew's youth he was to be appointed as both governor of the king and protector of the realm [Music] seymour was created first duke of somerset on the 17th of february 1547 to mark his position of preeminence within the realm the extent of his power in the early years of edward's reign can be glimpsed from his array of titles by the late spring of 1547 seymour was duke of somerset earl of hartford vi count b chimp lord seymour governor of the king protector of his people realms and dominions lieutenant general of his majesty's lands and sea armies treasurer and high marshal of england and a knight of the garter yet despite his titles and power somerset's authority was still derived from the privy council the governing body of over a dozen senior ministers who ran the government and whom henry viii had appointed as the executors of his will these ministers had granted somerset his authority in january 1547 and as seymour would learn in time these same men could take it away a number of serious issues confronted england at the outset of edward's reign foremost amongst these was the ongoing war with france and scotland which had commenced in 1544 with the rough wing somerset had led the invasion of southern scotland early in the conflict and in the summer of 1544 had attacked and burned much of edinburgh however thereafter the conflict had stagnated into an occupation of parts of the border regions of scotland in france the english had in 1544 taken control of the coastal city of bologna to add to the english possession of calais however these english outposts in northern france have been under nearly continuous siege from the french in the years that followed a period of renewed military activity commenced in the summer of 1547 shortly after edward succession again overseen by somerset who led an army of nearly 20 000 men north a significant victory was won over the scots at the battle of pinky nine kilometers east of edinburgh itself on the 10th of september 1547 with thousands of scots killed or captured in contrast to just a few hundred of somerset's men however the effect of the battle of pinky was to encourage the french to commit to significant military aid to be given directly to scotland resulting in a further stalemate in the years ahead when peace was finally concluded in 1550 with france with the treaty of bologn and with scotland in 1551 through the treaty of norham both sides effectively returned to their pre-war borders and the proposed marriage of edward and mary stewart which had first provoked the war back in 1544 was abandoned and even beloin on which enormous amounts of money had been spent building elaborate fortifications between 1544 and 1550 was relinquished back to the french equally edwards government had inherited a rapidly shifting situation in the second tudor kingdom across the irish sea in ireland after years of neglect henry viii had begun to pay much greater attention to his irish possessions than many of the english kings had in the 15th century and owing to that earlier neglect the crown's position there was quite weak its authority extending little beyond the city of dublin on the east coast and its hinterland beyond this pale or march region ireland was largely governed by several dozen independent irish and anglo-irish lords who paid little he to the english crown's authority and often conducted raids against english possessions near dublin in an effort to reverse this situation henry had made himself king of ireland in 1541 and sought to reform the country through a cheap policy of voluntary anglicization but this proved ineffective and by 1546 the administration in dublin was embarking on a costly policy of regional military conquest in the irish midlands where england was soon establishing its first major colonies of the early modern period somerset's regime was hugely supportive of this strategy and as with the wars against scotland and france he pumped money into the erection of military outposts in ireland in the late 1540s however the results were mixed and the government in dublin was soon overseeing a number of costly military conflicts which were proving impossible to win against an enemy that engaged in guerrilla-style warfare nevertheless edward's reign is notable for seeing the introduction of increasingly aggressive strategies of conquest and colonization in ireland which would see the country fully reduce the english rule over the course of the 16th century this aggressive foreign policy during somerset's protectorate had major implications at home henry viii wars had ensured that edward inherited a very poor financial situation in england and wales the cost of maintaining large armies on the scottish border and particularly in france had led the regime to begin debasing the english coinage by reducing the silver purity in english coins this did not go unnoticed either at home or abroad and by edward's reign it was well known that english coins were no longer worth their face value consequently by the late 1540s inflation was rising at home and internationally the value of english sterling against other major currencies such as the venetian duckett were declining considerably somerset's regime made some effort to address this problem but the continuation of the wars until 1550 meant that there was little that could be achieved by somerset in this respect and the economic reform would have to wait until the early 1550s more pressing was the issue of the agrarian reform the early 16th century witnessed the expansion of the enclosure movement where landlords and major land holders were enclosing the common lands which had been available to peasants and farmers in every hamlet of england and wales during the late middle ages however by the 1540s this process had accelerated to a point where it was creating considerable tensions between the landlord class and the commons while illegal enclosures were now being created throughout england turning his attentions to this matter on the 1st of june 1548 somerset issued a proclamation prohibiting illegal enclosures however this and the efforts to tackle the problem through parliamentary legislation did little to solve the issue and agrarian unrest continued to grow the most striking aspect of england's domestic policy during somerset's tenure as lord protector though was unquestionably the religious policy introduced in edward's name henry viii's quest for a divorce from catherine of aragon and subsequent marital difficulties in the 1530s had driven him into associations with a number of english protestant theologians at this time who had exploited henry's desire to split with the papacy to introduce a number of church reforms in line with the teachings of martin luther and other continental reformers an english translation of the bible produced by william tyndale became the first bible printed in english in 1535 removing the need for reliance on the latin bible a core tenet of the european protestant reformers in 1533 thomas cranmer a prelit who had been to the fore in establishing the doctrinal and legal basis for henry's divorce from catherine of aragon was appointed as archbishop of canterbury as the years passed cranmer already a reformer gradually shifted further towards a position of evangelical or radical protestantism under cranmer's oversight of the church of england and the influence of henry's chief minister in the 1530s thomas cromwell liturgical and doctrinal changes were introduced such as the 10 articles of 1536 and the bishops book of 1537 which established many changes in how the people of england were to practice their faith in line with protestant thinking for instance the 10 articles established that images and iconography could continue to be used in english churches but worship of images was now forbidden while it was decreed that the concept of purgatory was biblically uncertain and the notion of papal indulgences being able to rescue individuals from purgatory was dismissed as doctrinally unsound thus protestant reforms were being introduced in the 1530s and yet henry himself was no protestant and the 1540s had actually seen some rolling back of these earlier reforms the beginning of edward's reign now offered an opportunity for advanced protestants such as cranmer to introduce a much more wide-ranging set of religious reforms and fully established the protestant reformation in england during the late 1540s under cranmer's oversight and with somerset's patronage english became the official language of religious services in england wales and ireland new liturgies were introduced which moved the church closer to standard practice in the reformed churches of germany switzerland and elsewhere where protestantism had taken hold an act of 1549 removed the prohibition on marriage for priests most significantly the manner of worship and the physical appearance of churches throughout england were altered dramatically in a wave of state-sponsored iconoclasm religious images were stripped from church walls and altars and the interior walls of churches were whitewashed to remove the trappings of wealth and ostentation which had come to characterize the mass under the influence of rome the vestments of priests and ministers were also reformed plain clothing rather than the ornate robes of the priests of the catholic church was now to be worn by the anglican clergy finally and most significantly early in 1549 cranmer oversaw the introduction of the book of common prayer a collection of prayer books for use in the new anglican church this contained clear instructions for how the mass was to be performed and how prayers should be offered throughout edward's domain further orders were given within it for the enactment of baptisms confirmation and marriage all of the rights and orders outlined leaned heavily towards evangelical or radical protestantism as it was being practiced amongst the second generation of protestant reformers in germany switzerland and the low countries by the 1540s taken together all of these measures are mounted to a complete introduction of the protestant reformation throughout edwards kingdoms between 1547 and 1549 this was unquestionably the most noteworthy development of edward's entire reign cranmer had hailed edward as a second josiah and had hoped that the new king would see idolatry destroyed and images removed upon his accession in 1547 such assertions do raise the question of where edward's own religious inclinations lay was the protestant reformation which occurred in england in the late 1540s and continued into the 1550s driven entirely by figures like cranmer and somerset or was edward a factor surprisingly there is evidence that by the age of 11 edward was showing clear signs of adherence to radical evangelical protestantism his writings from late 1548 exhibit personal denunciations of the pope in rome and belief in tenets such as justification through faith the protestant maxim which held that individuals would attain salvation through god's grace alone and that no measures such as a prayer or purchasing of indulgences could be used to attain salvation in the years ahead edward's household also became a regular resort for advanced evangelical protestant ministers who preached before the young king had he lived into adulthood edward would unquestionably have been an advanced protestant monarch viewed from the vantage point of the evangelicals within edwards government and the growing number of protestants in and around the court the religious reforms which have been undertaken during the first two years of edward's reign were a resounding act of progress but the wider country was not so happy england was still an overwhelmingly catholic country at the end of the 1540s and beyond london and its surrounding regions as well as some of the other major towns where protestantism had taken hold amongst the gentry and merchant and professional classes the reforms introduced by edwards government and overseen by cranmer met with fierce opposition in the summer of 1549 this discontent found tangible expression as rebellions shook england around the time of his succession edward had begun keeping a chronicle of his life effectively a diary though a highly enlightening one concerning how this child perceived events around him in a kingdom of which he was king but over which he did not yet exercise his own control this chronicle covers the years from 1547 to 1552 and provides a striking entry relating to the unrest which erupted throughout england in the summer of 1549 the people began to rise in wheelchair then they rose in sussex hampshire kent gloucestershire suffolk warwickshire essex hertfordshire a piece of leicestershire worcestershire and rutlandshire after that they rose in oxfordshire devonshire norfolk and yorkshire this was how the insurrections registered in the imagination of a child king and it gives a succinct view of how extensive the unrest was on the ground it was even more tumultuous the two most prominent regional revolts were in norfolk and in the english west country but there had been some unrest in cornwall as early as the spring of 1548 in opposition to the enclosures movement and the stripping of religious images from parish churches this expanded the following summer into a general rebellion throughout devon and cornwall in response to the publication of the book of common prayer and the liturgical and doctrinal changes it involved combined with discontent about the declining economic situation throughout edwards kingdoms as inflation skyrocketed and the purchasing power of english coins declined dramatically eventually after the rebels seized the town of exeter the prayer book rebellion as the revolt in the west country has become known was suppressed when somerset sent a large military force into the southwest in july of 1549 by the time it was fully suppressed in august over 5000 rebels had lost their lives the revolt in the west country mirrored others elsewhere in england in the summer of 1549 in being a popular revolt fueled by economic considerations and sparked by new measures to introduce protestantism across the country however the rebellion was exceeded for significance by a revolt in east anglia near london in july 1549 rebels formed camps in norfolk in opposition to landlords who defied somerset's efforts to limit the spread of enclosures the insurrection was let by robert kent a tanner from windham and has consequently become known as cat's rebellion it happened on the 22nd of july when kent and his followers occupied norwich at the time the second largest city in england at first somerset attempted to placate the rebels however when his approach to the problem engendered severe opposition within the privy council the law protect us in the earl of warwick john dudley north from london with an army of 14 000 men including regiments of experienced german mercenaries to suppress the revolt the rebellion was finally crushed on the 27th of august at the battle of dustindale near norwich with the loss of the lives of about 3 000 rebels thus the local revolts of the summer of 1549 have been suppressed by the early autumn but the unrest was the most severe bout of civil disobedience england experienced during the 16th century and the insurrections had seriously undermined somerset's authority as head of edward's government the revolt added to a growing list of problems confronting the law protector another complication facing somerset had been created by a close family member the protectors younger brother thomas seymour have been seeking a greater role in the running of the kingdom from early in his nephew's reign somerset had tried to placate his ambitions with offices and appointments to the privy council but thomas aimed higher incredibly his methods included bribing the impressionable young king to gain his adherence to thomas's demands in the spring of 1547 seymour then married henry viii's widow and edward's stepmother catherine parr this alone would have been enough of a controversy but the situation escalated further still in the summer of 1548 when catherine who had fallen pregnant by that time discovered seymour embracing the princess elizabeth edward's half-sister and the daughter of ann berlin the princess was only 14 at the time subsequently when catherine died in september 1548 after complications from childbirth seymour seems to have developed intentions to then marry the king's half-sister thus potentially placing him in line to become consort to a possible future queen however before his plan could fully materialize seymour's activities became public knowledge outraged the privy council had thomas arrested in january 1549 he was tried on various charges of misconduct including manipulation of the king and was eventually sentenced to death and beheaded on the 20th of march 1549 although somerset had not been involved in his brother's machinations and had tried to prevent his worst conduct the whole affair had further damaged somerset's authority as head of the minority government the combination of all these scandals and arrest was ebbing support for somerset compounding by reversals and fortunes in the wars with france and scotland as the french commenced a further attack on england's outposts in france at calais and beloin in 1549 moreover the near-continuous wars in the north on the continent and in ireland had stretched the finances of the edwardian government to breaking point consequently in the course of 1549 support for somerset's leadership simply began to melt away as the country lurched from one crisis to another this culminated in early october 1549 as the privy councillors many of whom were the executors of henry viii's will and the guardians of the kingdom during edward's minority made it clear that seymour no longer had their support in response somerset absconded with the king to windsor castle on the 6th of october trusting in the belief that if he had custody of edward he might retain his position of preeminence within the government edward himself recounted the events in his chronicle the council about 19 of them were gathered in london thinking to meet with the law protector and to make him amend some of his disorders he fearing his state caused the secretary sir william paget in my name to be sent to the lords to know for what caused they gathered their powers together and if they meant to talk with him that they should come in a peaceable manner a five-day standoff followed but somerset had miscalculated by leaving london for windsor the duke retained custody of edward but he had effectively left the privy council with control over the army and the crown ordnance in the tower of london eventually realizing his cause was lost somerset surrendered on the 11th of october somerset was confined to the tower in the aftermath of the events of october 1549. he was formally removed from his position as lord protector of the realm by an act of parliament in january 1550 and stripped of his other offices however despite some calls for him to be tried and executed for his actions he was given his freedom indeed in the course of 1550 and 1551 the duke was partially rehabilitated and restored to some of his lands and offices including membership of the privy council nevertheless doubts about his intentions were never fully delayed and in october 1551 he was arrested on suspicion of plotting a new rebellion against the council these later accusations were almost certainly fictitious but they were enough to do away with somerset permanently in december he was tried and found guilty of felony and he was executed on tower hill on the 22nd of january 1552 in the immediate aftermath of somerset's attempts to retain control of the government in the autumn of 1549 power had once again devolved to the collective authority of the privy council a power struggle amongst the varying factions within that body played out over the winter of 1549 largely between a religious conservative grouping and a group of reformed protestant councillors the latter would eventually win out and in the process one of their members emerged as the new head of the government during edward's minority this was the earl of warwick john dudley a privy councillor and the lord great chamberlain of england who had risen to become one of the foremost political figures in england on the back of his military service as governor of bologna in france in the mid 1540s in february 1550 dudley's role as a successor to somerset as head of the government was affirmed when he was granted the title of president of the privy council his pre-eminent status among the english nobility was subsequently affirmed on the 11th of october 1551 when he was created first duke of northumberland despite his rise to this office northumberland would never hold as much authority as somerset had between 1547 and 1549 this was partly the result of the council being unwilling to place as much trust in one individual as somerset had been granted in 1547 but also a change in the king himself there are signs that by 1551 as edward moved into his teenage years and developed his own awareness and determination to rule he increasingly began imposing his own stamp on the government there is for instance evidence of his disagreement with members of the privy council from this point onwards and letters in which he forthrightly rebuked senior officials and councillors for their conduct a demonstration of his increasing awareness of his own royal authority for instance when john hooper was being confirmed as bishop of gloucester in july 1550 edward personally crossed out all reference to the saints in the version of the oath of supremacy appended to the documentation as one of the foremost historians of tudor england darmod mcculloch has noted this was a henry viii in the making this new-found independence was mirrored in the images of edward at the time in 1551 he sat for a portrait painted by gwillum skrotz which is found in the louvre museum in paris today here edward's gaze is becoming more mature than in portraits of him from the late 1540s he stands confidently his hand resting on the pommel of his rapier his confidence in his monarchical authority beginning to show northumberland would have had a much more difficult time simply trying to act as though he could ignore edward in the early 1550s as somerset had been able to do just a few years earlier this increasingly personal rule was not as eventful as had been the years of somerset's protectorate with the end of the war with france and scotland and peace under the treaty of bologn in 1550 the wars which had lasted virtually without interruption through the 1540s came to an end the major concern in their aftermath was to get the government's finances back in order and to attempt to remedy the many economic and social problems which had caused the revolts in the summer of 1549 by the time northumberland took control of the government the crown had debts of 300 000 pounds an enormous sum for the time inflation had risen by about 75 percent since the start of edward's reign and the exchange rate of sterling had virtually collapsed to combat these problems northumberland with edward's backing took a multi-pronged approach firstly the treaty of berlin contained a clause that in return for relinquishing the town of berlin back to the french henry ii's government in paris would pay 180 000 pounds to england this made substantial inroads into paying for the wars which had ended in complete stalemate by 1550 and significantly reduced the national debt secondly efforts were made to reform the coinage and improve the currency valuation for this northumberland acquired the services of a brilliant young london financier thomas gresham who reformed the mint and thereafter coins were issued which were not seriously debased as they had become in the 1540s gresham also oversaw the implementation of various measures to improve the value of the pound sterling on the antwerp boss the main stock exchange of northern europe in the mid 16th century by employing these measures gresham the man who would go on to establish the royal exchange in london some years later did much to put the finances of edward's government back on track attempts to allay the social tensions which have partly caused the revolts of 1549 met with more mixed success while some efforts were made to reform county administration through measures such as regularization of the appointments of lord lieutenants it is hard to assess how effective these measures were it may simply have been the case that the worst of the unrest had already spent itself in 1549 and that the outbreak of severe bounce of the sweating sickness across england in 1551 and 1552 simply limited the capacity for the kind of social congress which was needed to produce further regional unrest and revolts closer to home for the king the outbreak of this sweating sickness most likely a hantavirus of some kind robbed edward of two of his closest childhood friends in 1551 as henry and charles brandon both succumbed to this disease on the 14th of july 1551. finally northumberland's tenure as head of the government was marked by a steady continuation of the protestant religious settlement arrived at during the summerset years as edward matured into adolescence it was increasingly clear that the radical protestantism which had characterized the early part of his reign was not something which had been foisted on an impressionable king by his elder advisors by the early 1550s it was evident that the young king was a committed protestant with perhaps puritan leanings and that england under his rule would follow the course cranmer and his associates had set it on in the late 1540s northumberland was no radical evangelical protestant but he was acutely aware that edward would attain his majority in october 1555 when he turned 18. if dudley wished to occupy a major place in the adult king's government he would need to further edward's aims of radical church reform accordingly in an effort to appeal to edward's religious sensibilities northumberland became a backer of evangelical protestants dudley promoted religious radicals such as john hooper and john ponte to the bishoprics of gloucester and rochester in 1552 a new version of the book of common prayer was issued this one rejecting the doctrine of trans substantiation in line with the most current continental protestant beliefs fresh doctrinal articles were issued in 1553 which denied the existence of purgatory in line with the thinking of jean calvin in his institutes of the christian religion and the writings of other reformers perhaps most eye-catchingly in the summer of 1553 an offer had been extended to appoint philip melanthon as regis professor of divinity at cambridge university melanthon was one of the four most protestant reformer leaders of his day and was second only to martin luther in the hierarchy of early german reformers in the end he never took up the post at cambridge but the fact that his appointment was nearly made is a striking statement concerning the drift of religious policy in england towards advanced evangelical protestantism during the years of northumberland's primacy within the government edward's court was also becoming a hub for renaissance learning during the years of northumberland's ascendancy continuing the tradition established by edward's father this would also flourish during the long reign of his sister elizabeth and one individual who's prominent in this regard was william thomas a welshman who had spent several years in italy had returned to england to take up a position of clerk of the privy council and during edward's reign he introduced second hand the writings of the florentine political writer nicolo machiavelli into england including his infamous work the prince william scrott was the established court painter under edward and his portraits of the king and other senior nobles there exemplify the latest mannerist style of european painters perhaps most striking was the patronage afforded to robert record a welsh mathematician and proto-scientist who would some years later invent the equal sign while his invention of mathematical and navigational devices made significant contributions to early english colonial activity in allowing for more sophisticated maritime navigation and map making such innovations in instrumentation map making and scientific inquiry were particularly timely the final years of edwards rain saw some of the first drives to expand england's overseas activity as the first colonies established by the tudors in ireland were established under somerset's regime but more elaborate initiatives were beginning to be conceived and executed in 1551 1552 and 1553 with the encouragement of edward's government thomas windham made three voyages to africa twice to morocco and finally to the gold coast of africa in what might well have been the first english voyage ever to the gulf of guinea in 1553 stephen burra also became the first english navigator to reach the white sea north of russia borough was backed by a group of london merchants whose goal was to find a northeast passage to china through the arctic they would fail in this endeavor but they did establish trade and political ties with the nascent russian state and set up the muscovy company which would operate until 1917 a major legacy of the overseas exploration and trade initiatives which edwards government was sponsoring in the early 1550s back at home though edward was coming ever closer to attaining his majority in advance of this one of the singularly most important decisions for the king had been reached in 1551 following the establishment of peace with france in 1550 negotiations opened to establish a marriage alliance between the newly at peace nations specifically for edward to marry elizabeth the six-year-old daughter of king henry ii of france in the early summer of 1551 the bishop of ely and the marquis of northampton have been dispatched to france to begin negotiations the french king was presented with the order of the garter the highest chivalric order awarded in england and the terms of a marriage agreement were worked out then a month later jacques del bon marquis de francais arrived in england where edward was made a member of the french order of saint michael and the terms of the marriage were finalized elizabeth would bring with her a dowry of 200 000 crowns a significant sum and the marriage agreement would only be finalized when elizabeth turned 12 years of age thus edward would not marry until 1557 at the earliest but in the summer of 1551 it had been agreed that it would be to the daughter of the french king perhaps allaying somewhat the chance of further conflict between england and france but edward was not to marry the french king's daughter nor anyone for that matter in 1553 his reign was cut short in his youth following the end of the christmas celebrations at court in january edward had fallen ill with flu-like symptoms his condition deteriorated over the coming weeks but by early march his health seemed to be improving and he resumed some work in the spring although not fully recovered this period of relative stability persisted until early may 1553 then however things deteriorated quickly by late may the king's hands and feet were swelling and he was coughing up large amounts of black bile historians have only been able to speculate as to the cause of edward's illness and eventual death some have argued that he had contracted tuberculosis in late 1552. and this began to manifest itself the following spring while others have suggested that he developed a chronic lung infection associated with the flu he developed in early 1553 and that he was also suffering from septicemia with kidney failure whatever the cause of edward's illness he was clearly dying by may 1553 and the rumors were rife not just in england but throughout europe to this effect the protestant king's death was imminent and the next in line to succeed him was his half-sister catherine of aragon's daughter mary a pious catholic yet mary's succession was not assured as sometime in the early spring of 1553 as his illness took hold edward had begun work on a short document with a major significance this was titled my device for the succession in it edward had outlined his desire that should he die his half-sisters mary and elizabeth would be passed over and the succession would descend on francis gray and her daughters francis was the daughter of charles brandon henry viii's lifelong friend and mary tudor the late king's sister and edward's aunt thus francis gray and her daughters had a strong claim to the throne yet there was a lot of politics to this beyond mere blood claims edward's government was clearly trying to prevent mary tudor from ascending to the throne if she did the protestant religious settlement which had been fought so hard for during edward's reign would be overturned and england's church plunged back under the control of the papacy in rome accordingly the grey family were identified as a means of blocking mary's route to the throne the situation evolved further in the early summer of 1553 as edward's illness became fatal on the 21st of may 1553 francis gray's eldest daughter the 12 year old jane gray was married to gilford dudley one of northumberland's sons just days later edward's device for succession was amended to now acknowledge jane specifically as his heir as a result the protestant regime would be secured and overseen by jane grey as queen of england and with northumberland leading the government despite northumberland's shadow hanging heavily over these developments edward's role in devising this succession arrangement cannot be overlooked the device is written and corrected in the king's own handwriting and by 1553 he was a 15 year old with his own thoughts and initiatives rather than the impressionable child of the late 1540s and so there is every reason to believe that it was edward's wish for jane grey to succeed him the device would quickly have to be consulted in june 1553 the king's health deteriorated rapidly on the 10th of june 1553 his doctors gave him three days to live he survived for four more weeks enduring a horrific final illness during the last two weeks of which his hair and nails were falling out and he had difficulty breathing when he finally died on the 6th of july 1553 it must have been a relief to the king himself and those who had watched him for weeks on his deathbed at greenwich palace in the aftermath of his death england was plunged into a succession crisis northumberland and his supporters now move to install jane grey's queen on the 9th of july she was proclaimed as edward's successor but dudley and his confederates had badly misjudged mary tudor's determination to claim the throne marching south from hertfordshire towards london mary gathered supporters for her proclaimed catholic cause it was successful on the 19th of july a faction within the privy council in london led by henry fitz allen 19th earl of arendelle switched their support from jane to mary on the basis that edward's device had not been fully established in law jane was imprisoned and northumberland was executed for treason in august jane suffered a similar fate the following year just as catholicism was being restored across england under mary's rule consequently the succession of mary which edward had strived to prevent ultimately resulted from edward's death in 1553 edward vi lived a short and somewhat tragic life he was the legitimate male heir which his father henry viii had torn england apart trying to produce he never knew his mother who died owing to complications associated with his birth consequently when his father also died in early 1547 edward became king of england an island at just nine years of age his youth ensured that his short reign was dominated by caretaker governments led first by his uncle the duke of somerset until late 1549 and then the duke of northumberland from early 1550 until edward's premature and ghastly death in the summer of 1553 while his short reign did not allow for edward to rule the tudor dominions in his own right it was nevertheless a highly significant kingship during edward's tenure england moved fully from a country which had flirted with protestantism under henry viii to a country which adopted radical evangelical protestantism fully the altars of churches throughout england and wales were stripped the walls were reduced to bare limestone and the mass was practiced in english according to doctrinal and liturgical practices advocated for by luther calvin melanthon and other continental reformers peace was also brought about with the french in 1550 and a marriage alliance between england and france had been negotiated finally in ireland a programme of conquest and colonization had been initiated in the late 1540s which would eventually see that country conquered and fully incorporated into the english state by the early 17th century while a number of overseas exploration initiatives to russia and africa in the early 1550s show that the state was taking a much greater interest in overseas exploration during the last years of edward's brief rule the boy king's reign was full of significance and yet ultimately edward the six years as king of england and ireland leaves more questions than answers what kind of ruler would edward have become had he lived to become an adult would he have lived up to the many expectations had of him and governed england as it began its long journey towards empire or would he have become a despotic tyrant like his father turned into later in life these are questions which no assessment of edward's actual reign can answer what do you think of edward vi was he merely a pawn of figures like somerset in northumberland who ruled england in his place or was he a strong figure who shaped the enormous changes which occurred across the tudor realms during his short reign please let us know in the comments section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching [Music] you

Channel: The People Profiles

Views: 514,180

Keywords: Biography, History, Historical, Educational, The People Profiles, Biography channel, the biography channel

Id: AHoTqs1CHe4

Length: 466min 55sec (28015 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 20 2021