The Final Years of Henry VII’s Reign (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes

The Final Years of Henry VII's Reign

Context: Henry's position by 1502

By 1502, Henry appeared to have accomplished most of his objectives as king. He had successfully established his dynasty through the marriage of his eldest son Arthur to Catherine of Aragon in 1501. He had defeated rivals who challenged his throne, strengthened the institutions of government, restored the crown's finances to a sound footing, and reduced his dependence on the nobility for support. England was better governed, more prosperous and more peaceful than at any point during the previous fifty years.

Nevertheless, when Henry died in 1509, his passing was greeted with relief rather than sorrow. His ministers, Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley, had become so deeply unpopular that the young Henry VIII gained immediate favour by moving against them. They were arrested just two days after Henry VII's death, before it had even been publicly announced, and executed the following year. This dramatic response revealed the extent of resentment that had built up during the final phase of Henry VII's reign.

Renewed instability: the succession crisis (1500-1503)

By 1500, Henry had four children, including three sons: Arthur, Henry and Edmund. The prospect of a smooth succession to his eldest child Arthur, then fourteen years old, appeared certain. However, a sequence of unexpected family tragedies transformed the situation entirely.

In 1500, his youngest son Edmund died. This was followed in 1502 by the death of Arthur, aged fifteen. Then in early 1503, Henry's wife Elizabeth of York died shortly after giving birth to a daughter. This daughter did not survive infancy.

This sequence of deaths devastated Henry both personally and politically. The loss of two sons meant that the future of the Tudor dynasty now depended entirely on the life of Prince Henry, his only surviving male heir. Elizabeth's death removed the Yorkist loyalty that Henry had gained through their union of the Lancastrian and Yorkist houses. It also eliminated the possibility of further children being born who could strengthen the succession.

The renewed danger to the dynasty was highlighted when Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, departed for Burgundy in 1503 to seek refuge and potentially gather support. As a Yorkist claimant with royal blood, de la Pole represented exactly the kind of threat that Henry could no longer afford to ignore.

The Spanish alliance

Arthur's death in 1502 threatened to damage England's relationship with Spain. Henry was determined to maintain good terms with the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, because they shared a common distrust of France. To secure this diplomatic relationship, he had negotiated Arthur's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, daughter of the Spanish monarchs, in 1501.

Arthur's death threatened to disrupt the alliance that Henry had worked hard to establish, but he was able to arrange a new royal marriage between Catherine and Prince Henry. Because Catherine was marrying her deceased husband's brother, Henry needed to obtain special permission from the Pope. He considered this a worthwhile price to pay in order to protect the Anglo-Spanish alliance and to retain the money and gifts that Catherine had brought with her to her first marriage.

Harsh policies and the transformation of royal control

The shift in approach

The sudden deaths of Henry's wife and two sons had exposed a dangerous weakness in the Tudor dynasty that enemies might exploit. To prevent this, Henry appears to have spent his final years employing the powers at his disposal to ensure that the nobility was not in a position to threaten him or his only surviving son.

Earlier in his reign, Henry had exercised his powers with flexibility. He had used punishments such as placing nobles under a bond or recognisance sparingly, often showing leniency or reversing a fine after a few years in order to win gratitude and secure loyalty. His skill in manipulating the powers available to him lay in using them just enough to maintain the threat of penalties for disloyalty or the promise of rewards for service, whilst avoiding overuse that might create resentment and open opposition.

The Council Learned in Law

The most prominent source of resentment was the activity of the Council Learned in Law — a special council employed by Henry, working alongside other courts such as Star Chamber, to maintain his feudal rights over his leading subjects.

Bonds and recognisances were financial instruments through which individuals promised to pay sums of money to the Crown each year as a guarantee of their future good behaviour. In 1493, bonds from the nobility brought in £3,000 in cash, although substantially more had been demanded and promised. By 1505, the equivalent sum had risen to £35,000. This represented not merely an increase, but a transformation in the scale of financial pressure applied to the nobility — more than a tenfold increase in just twelve years.

Empson and Dudley

To some extent, this escalation may have reflected a change of personnel following the death of Sir Reginald Bray. His replacement as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1504 was Sir Richard Empson. Empson, working closely with Edmund Dudley, created a system of spies and informers who searched for signs of misdeeds among wealthy people.

During Henry's reign, 46 out of 62 noble families suffered financially for one reason or another, and the level of activity increased rapidly during the final years. Royal demands were increased and enforced far more rigorously than in earlier years. The process typically worked as follows: someone might be fined for an alleged offence, but then forced to sign a bond promising to pay a sum of money to the Crown each year as a guarantee of their future good behaviour.

Edmund Dudley confessed in 1509 that in at least 84 cases he had extracted money illegally. This information was revealed after he had been arrested by Henry VIII, which makes it difficult to assess how accurate it is; Dudley might have been pressured into exaggerating the scale of his crimes. Even allowing for this possibility, it remains clear that the Council Learned in Law was conducting its activities in a manner likely to cause resentment, and it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Henry VII was aware of this.

Death of Henry VII

Henry VII died in April 1509, aged 52. He had been visibly ailing for the previous few months and had scarcely been seen in public since February. Despite his illness, he had continued working, planning ahead and especially taking measures to secure the future of the Tudor dynasty.

Assessment of his reign

Henry had achieved stability for England, defeated those who challenged his authority, controlled the nobles, improved the crown's finances, and successfully passed all of this on to his eldest surviving son, who became Henry VIII. His secure foundations made possible the achievements of the later Tudor monarchs.

However, as the evidence from his final years demonstrates, he died more respected than loved. The immediate arrest and subsequent execution of Empson and Dudley revealed the depth of hostility towards the methods Henry had employed during his last years.

Historiographical debate

Historians have reached different conclusions about Henry VII's success as king and the methods he employed, particularly in his final years.

Colin Pendrill offered a more critical judgement, arguing that Henry's reign was unstable because he had no legitimate claim to the throne, and he over-reacted to the threats he faced.

Students must analyse the evidence carefully and form their own judgement about the extent of Henry's achievements and the methods he employed, particularly during the final years of his reign.