Artie Mead: ‘Hi guys, welcome back to the History Buff. So you’re here today with me, Artie, and a fellow History Buff and a familiar voice.’
Anna Morris: ‘Anna Morris.’
Artie Mead: ‘So, she actually joined me on the episode that we did about Sissi, the Empress Elisabeth of Austria. And if you haven’t checked that out, please do go and check it out. But today we are starting a series of about the Tudors that we have called The Tudors: A Real Game of Thrones. So yeah, and this is something that actually Morris knows something quite a bit about because you did it at Uni, right?’
Anna Morris: ‘Yeah, I am definitely a Tudor buff. It’s like been a fascination of mine throughout all my history learnings. I focused on, especially in my last year of Uni, a kind of focus was like overseas exploration, European diplomacy and the rise of Tudor England. So, I mean, it’s something that’s always really fascinating me because it’s so much to unpack and it was, you know, it’s the start of early modern history in England as we see it, like the close of the medieval times, and it was just scandalous as we’re going to unpack over the next few episodes.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yeah. And I mean, I, so I was actually inspired to make this series after doing the episode on Jane Grey, which I released a couple of weeks ago. So again, if you haven’t checked that out, please do go and check it out. It’s very interesting. She was also known as the Nine Days Queen. Yeah, the Tudors are by far Britain’s most famous royal dynasty. They included consequential monarchs such as Henry VIII and Elizabeth and they are remembered for their drama intrigue, treachery, and beheadings. Hence the name of the series.’
Anna Morris: ‘That’s putting it lightly.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yes, putting it lightly. So yeah, in this series, we’re going to cover the Tudors from beginning to end, starting in this episode with how the Tudors managed to win the English crown. So yeah, I mean, Henry VIII, I think, does overshadow the whole dynasty, but people forget that it was actually started by his father, Henry VII. Well, he was Henry Tudor, but he would become the first Tudor monarch, which was Henry VII. So I guess first of all, what we need to do is give a bit of background to how the Tudors, to the time leading up to when The Tudors won the English crown. So Morris, do you wanna start with that?’
Anna Morris: ‘Absolutely. I think it’s important to give Henry VII a little bit of airtime. Because as we know, it’s a big focus on the very scandalous, chaotic, and ever changing reign of his son. But to kind of set the scene a little bit, you are looking at a large period of the 1400s. Now, the end of the wars, Wars of the Roses, as it was called, it was called the Wars of the Roses because you had the House of Lancaster versus the House of York.’
Artie Mead: ‘House of York being the White Rose and House of Lancaster being the Red Rose.’
Anna Morris: ‘Exactly. So we basically see a series of like a domestic war. That went on for—’
Artie Mead: ‘Otherwise known as a civil war.’
Anna Morris: ‘Otherwise known as a civil war. An in house war.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yes. They kept it very much in house. Although the thing is that this is what also people forget is that the House of Lancaster and House of York were two divisions of the House of Plantagenet.’
Anna Morris: ‘Exactly. So the rule of the Plantagenet, still the longest ruling dynasty in English history, 331 years. And It all starts with Edward III, who is arguably the most successful of English medieval kings. A huge amount of military success abroad, a lot of kind of big rise in what we maybe see today as the first movements towards kind of modern bureaucracy. And He luckily, or unluckily, had nine children. Now, it kind of starts with the fact that he had five sons. And what you see is a very successful king and long reigning king at, for the time, he was on the throne for 50 years. Yeah, so he ruled from 1327 to 1377, and we are then left with nine children, five sons, all highly competitive, highly ambitious, inspired by a father who had a very long and successful reign. So, he also did a very good job of marrying off all his children to European royalty. So we have a very strong bloodlines throughout, you know, throughout the family and actually what we can see is that his—’
Artie Mead: ‘So, all stems from this guy, Edward III. And so his two sons, first Duke of York, Clement of Langley, as you said, the fourth surviving son of Edward II, and he had adopted the white rose. And then the first Duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt, the third surviving son of Edward III, who adopted the red rose. And that is where obviously you get the term the Wars of the Roses. Obviously, we’re not going to go into too much detail about the Wars of the Roses because I have been watching so many documentaries on it. And it is just—the amount of times that people are just like, so the Duke of Anjou married the Queen of—’
Anna Morris: ‘And everyone’s mother, sister, uncle, aunt gets involved.’
Artie Mead: ‘It’s just too much.’
Anna Morris: ‘It’s so chaotic.’
Artie Mead: ‘It’s so chaotic.’
Anna Morris: ‘And then, as well, there’s all the aristocracy in, like, in England gets involved as well. Half of them are beheaded, the other half are exiled, return to then behead and exile the other side. It would take like—’
Artie Mead: ‘It would take us, I think, the whole series to actually just cover the War of Roses. So, we’re actually just going to give you the basics and then skip to the end when obviously the—’
Anna Morris: ‘We bring in our main man, Edward Tudor. Edward Tudor? Henry Tudor.’
Artie Mead: ‘Henry Tudor, yes. So, the reason why there is a succession crisis is because they’ve basically killed each other. And that’s why there is, because basically the man that we’re going to talk about, Henry VII, Henry Tudor at that point, He actually has a pretty tenuous claim to the throne.’
Anna Morris: ‘Very tenuous. ‘
Artie Mead: ‘So we’re going to go over that in just a sec. So basically, the Wars of the Roses began in 1455 and actually went on until 1487. You had a guy on the throne called Henry VI, okay? He was from the House of Lancaster. Now, it’s important to remember that you didn’t just have this war between the branches of the families trying to get their branch on the throne.’
Anna Morris: ‘It’s the whole court.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yeah. And you had other disagreements amongst the nobility. You had a weakened economy as well, and actually, also disagreements over England’s relationship with France. So, basically, you just had quite a unstable position and it’s just important to remember that the Wars of the Roses really was a very unstable period.’
Anna Morris: ‘And pre Wars of the Roses, there was something known as the hundred years war and the constant battle between France and England. That’s actually where Edward the third gained a lot of his kind of, you know, appreciation and position was his successes in France, like the very classic English enemy at the time. So England’s already, it’s rural coffers very much down from a hundred years of war.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yes.’
Anna Morris: ‘And then you enter a civil war. So, it’s a period of real destruction, bearing in mind that the whole of, the kind of 13th and 14th century as well, you’ve been absolutely destroyed by the Black Plague. It’s really the country is in tatters.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yeah, it’s in a real state. And so Henry VI, House of Lancaster, he is born in 1422 and ascended to the throne at just one year old. And a council actually ruled in his name until his 21st birthday. But of course, as what usually happens with regents is that they wanted the power themselves.’
Anna Morris: ‘It goes to their heads.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yes, goes to their heads. And so, Henry VI married the niece of the King of France, Margaret of Anjou. And this pissed off the Barons who wanted to continue waging war with France, okay? And it’s also important to remember that Henry VI, he was prone to periods of mental instability. And that obviously, you know, affected his governance.’
Anna Morris: ‘He kind of gave way to these very ambitious individuals acting in his name, acting as regent to seize power and to, you know, rally troops and act in their own interest. And actually, this is very evident over the next few years when you see young kings step onto the throne, because the problem with the Wars of the Roses is as soon as someone was on the throne, they would be contested and they would probably die. And then as soon as the king dies, it goes to their children. Now, the life expectancy in the Tudor times wasn’t that high anyway, so you kind of had a lot of infants being natural heirs to the throne, which gave way for protectors or, you know, regents to take over act in their name. So, hugely unstable. And in the meantime, there’s no money, the country is suffering. I mean, it’s just horrendous.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yeah, so the Wars of the Roses started on Henry VI’s watch. Now, with the Battle of Towton in 1461, the Yorks crushed the Lancastrians in the bloodiest conflict on English soil. 20, 000 people were killed and they then installed Edward IV as a Yorkist king and he ruled until 1470. So, Basically, now I guess that gives you a little bit of context of the Wars of the Roses. We’re now going to talk about the central character. Do you have anything else to add?’
Anna Morris: ‘No, I think we should wind forward to kind of pre Henry VII, what the situation was with Richard III, the last Yorkist king. And so, they say the worst Ruler in history.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yeah. Well, Richard the third. Yeah. Well, for reasons which will soon become apparent.’
Anna Morris: ‘No publicity is bad publicity.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yeah, exactly. Well, you mean all publicity is good publicity.’
Anna Morris: ‘Well, yeah. Yeah, basically.’
Artie Mead: ‘Love that.’
Anna Morris: ‘Would you rather be a forgotten King like Edward, like Edward the IV or do you want to be the world’s worst King?’
Artie Mead: ‘That’s very true.’
Anna Morris: ‘Richard III, he was riddled with evil.’
Artie Mead: ‘Also, like Jane Grey, you know, she only ruled for nine days, but I guess she’s famous for—’
Anna Morris: ‘Your podcast.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yeah, exactly. To be fair, I actually thought she was famous, and actually she’s not that famous. Not a lot of people know about her.’
Anna Morris: ‘Artie was like, “Morris, do you want to do an episode on Jane Grey?” I was like, “No.”’
Artie Mead: ‘She was like, “Nah, she’s kind of boring.”’
Anna Morris: ‘Yeah.’
Artie Mead: ‘Well, I find her interesting. So, Henry Tudor, the main character of this part of our story. So, he was born at Pembroke Castle in Western Wales.’
Anna Morris: ‘Welsh bloke.’
Artie Mead: ‘Welsh. Exactly. On the 28th of January, 1457. That’s something that not a lot of people know, is that the Tudors were actually Welsh.’
Anna Morris: ‘Yup.’
Artie Mead: ‘And actually I think Tudor is the English spelling of a Welsh, well, Tudor is basically—Tudor is a Welsh name, basically.’
Anna Morris: ‘10 points if you can pronounce it in Welsh.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yeah, exactly, which I can’t. I’m not going to try and butcher it myself. No, I’m not going to bother. So, he was son of the first Earl of Richmond, Edmund Tudor, who was half brother to the reigning Plantagenet king at that time, which was Henry VI.’
Anna Morris: ‘Very tenuous link.’
Artie Mead: ‘Very tenuous link. And that’s the thing.’
Anna Morris: ‘His actual, like, his—I think his most legitimate claim was actually through his mother.’
Artie Mead: ‘Who’s called Margaret Beaufort.’
Anna Morris: ‘Margaret Beaufort who had a much stronger lineage. Edmund Tudor actually was—’
Artie Mead: ‘His father was Owen Tudor, who was an ambitious Welsh commoner and actually the son of an outlaw, but who had actually managed to become a servant at court and eventually married Catherine de Valois, who had actually been Queen of England, but only for two years. So their marriage hadn’t been official, Owen Tudor and Catherine de Valois, but they had had five children, including Edmund. Okay, so Edmund being Henry Tudor’s father. So, but as we said, Henry’s mother was Margaret Beaufort, who was a descendant of John of Gaunt.’
Anna Morris: ‘Yeah, exactly.’
Anna Morris: ‘Okay, so related to—’
Anna Morris: ‘The Son of Edward the III.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yes. And obviously, linked to the house of Lancaster. So, his father died of the bubonic plague just three months before he was born. So Margaret, his mother was left six months pregnant at just 13 years old. She struggled through, but managed to birth Henry. His mother was very ambitious. And apparently, his christening ordered her son to be rechristened Henry from the more Welsh sounding, Owen, demonstrating her hope Henry might one day become king of England. So from a very early time, she harbored hopes that her son might be able to one day assume the throne.’
Anna Morris: ‘And then, she actually sent him very early on to support Henry VI, spend a lot of time with Henry VI, who was his uncle. This is where he, you know, got a lot of, I suppose, kingly training as such, but also very much the Lancastrian cause was embedded into him.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yeah, Margaret had to be married again. And so, she left Henry in the care of his uncle Jasper at Pembroke Castle while she remarried. So, yeah, Henry’s early life was dominated by the Wars of the Roses, and Jasper was actually forced to flee to France after the accession of Edward IV. And Edward IV assigned him a Yorkist guardian. And that was William Herbert.’
Anna Morris: ‘Yup.’
Artie Mead: ‘And so kept him at Pembroke Castle.’
Anna Morris: ‘He was essentially locked up several years because he couldn’t go anywhere.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yeah. But then in 1471, he was forced to flee to Brittany after the Lancastrian defeat in the Wars of the Roses. And he sought refuge at the court of Francis II, the Duke of Brittany, who provided him actually with a lot of protection from Yorkist forces.’
Anna Morris: ‘I think, as well, that explains his very sensible foreign policy later because he did, obviously, he really benefited from the protection of the French king and he spent time in France, which—yeah, he compared to a lot of monarchs at that time. He didn’t, you know, exert himself internationally. He definitely had a more humble policy and sought peace with the French, something which previously hadn’t caused, you know, we said how peace with France made the Duke really unpopular. But yeah, so he is definitely—he kind of stays away, rallies the troops, comes up with a game plan.’
Artie Mead: ‘And he formed alliances with disaffected Yorkists.’
Anna Morris: ‘Exactly.’
Artie Mead: ‘He lived in exile for over a decade during which, as you said, yeah, he is gathering support and he plots his return to England and, yeah, forms alliances with disaffected Yorkists, French supporters, including Margaret of Anjou, widow of Henry VI and Charles VIII of France. So, he also engaged in diplomatic efforts to secure military assistance and financial backings for his claim to the English throne. Now, when he was in exile, he actually lived quite a modest life. He relied on the generosity of his hosts and supporters.’
Anna Morris: ‘He was really, really smart in that sense. Like, before he was taken to France, he was waiting on a message from French viscount, and then the messenger hadn’t arrived yet, so he feigned stomach cramps to miss the tides so that he could wait for this viscount to deliver or like the messenger to deliver the viscount’s approval that, you know, Henry can come and stay with him and that, you know, he has support. So therefore, he kind of kept himself safe and, you know, found sanctuary, you know, with various different people, which was probably a lot smarter than going head on like a lot of the other monarchs who didn’t make it through. So, we already see here his high intelligence.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yeah.’
Anna Morris: ‘So Henry VII in exile, not much he can do at the moment in terms of, you know, seizing the crown. He has to plot, he has to plan, but in this period in 1483, you have Margaret Beauford, Henry VII’s mother, who is very actively promoting him in England as an alternative to the very evil Richard III. So although she was married to a Yorkist, I think Lord Stanley, she—you know, is doing a lot of PR and coming from her with her strong claim to the throne, maybe this—I think this really, really helped, to be honest, because it wasn’t a huge shock when, you know, people had heard of him. Let’s just say he wasn’t a randomer. And this was also the connection where Margaret Beaufort essentially said, “My son, Henry VII, will marry Elizabeth of York”, so that was actually pre-arranged. So, you kind of see progress being made in terms of them linking themselves to Yorkists, which would definitely later help against enemies and fundamentally ending the Wars of the Roses to bring us into, you know, the early modern period. But before then, we just mentioned Richard III, the last Yorkist King. Highly, highly unpopular. And she was from the get-go, it was a very shady rain.’
Artie Mead: ‘An asshole.’
Anna Morris: ‘It was a very shady, shady reign. Because he was actually employed as Lord protector to Edward the V. So, Edward the V was a very young king. I think he was about 13 years old. And then, you have someone who’s—Richard III, or the Duke of Gloucester, who he was at the time, the Lord Protector.’
Artie Mead: ‘He became the Lord Protector. Because, obviously, Edward V was so young, he couldn’t rule. So, the Lord Protector was someone who was appointed to basically rule on his behalf.’
Anna Morris: ‘And guide.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yes, and guide him.’
Anna Morris: ‘And develop. But he definitely did the absolute opposite.’
Artie Mead: ‘Absolute opposite, because he, Edward V was never crowned. So, he and his brother Richard were locked in the Tower of London by Richard.’
Anna Morris: ‘And they just disappear. And there were bodies found, but not confirmed to be theirs. They were presumed dead after a while, but there was no kind of evidence that they were. There was a lack of, you know, contemporary accounts because the room they were kept in was so heavily guarded that no one saw them. And it was just a bizarre situation that even to this day hasn’t really been solved. I mean, obviously he killed them. But there were, you know, I think there have been like DNA testings and stuff.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yeah, and it’s—and what’s crazy is that he was their uncle. So, he was their uncle. And the thing is, yeah, Richard sees power as Lord Protector, alleging that actually Edward IV’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville had been invalid. So that actually made Edward V illegitimate. Okay. And because of that, Richard, who, as we said was the Duke of Gloucester and the uncle and lord protector of the boy king, he actually was petitioned to become king and he was crowned on the 6th of July, 1583. So, yeah, but as we said, it was amongst all the suspicion and controversy with the disappearance of his nephews.’
Anna Morris: ‘It’s actually crazy, isn’t it? He just like declares this marriage invalid and then kind of kidnaps these two kids and locks them away. And they were never seen again.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yeah, Edward and Richard. And by the way, by the way, every male in this period is called either Richard, Edward or Henry.’
Anna Morris: ‘Yeah, it’s nuts.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yeah. Literally, those are the three names at this time.’
Anna Morris: ‘It’s like, yeah, names come in and out of fashion, but—’
Artie Mead: ‘And then women, Elizabeth, Mary, and maybe Margaret?’
Anna Morris: ‘Elizabeth, Mary, Margaret, yeah. Maybe Anne, 1400 Anne.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yes. So, there were three names for each gender.’
Anna Morris: ‘So, if you’re writing an essay, put any of them in because you’ve got—’
Artie Mead: ‘Because you’re bound to be right. Exactly.’
Anna Morris: ‘The chances are you’ll probably get it right.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yes, exactly. You know, pretty seedy start to his reign, and the thing is it put off a lot of Yorkists, didn’t it? And Richard was, you know—’
Anna Morris: ‘A Yorkist himself. So you had a lot of—you had two massive rebellions, even in his very, very short reign. Because he was only on the throne for two years. But even in that time, rebellions against him.’
Artie Mead: ‘And do you think most of that came from the fact that he murdered his—I think a lot of it did.’
Anna Morris: ‘I personally don’t think it did. I don’t think in those days it was probably seen as scandalous.’
Artie Mead: ‘What, murdering your nephews?’
Anna Morris: ‘Because he didn’t technically murder them. They were just never seen again.’
Artie Mead: ‘That’s it, they’re never seen again.’
Anna Morris: ‘They were never seen again. And he was very much kind of promoting this idea that actually the claim of Edward V was illegitimate. And therefore he was kind of, I think he was hoping to kind of Brush past it, like, this kid is illegitimate, he’s out of the way, obviously he never admitted to killing him. I think he was trying to like, dissolve, you know, just let them be part of history, essentially.’
Artie Mead: ‘Right, okay. So theycyeah, fade into history.’
Anna Morris: ‘Exactly.’
Artie Mead: ‘But I think it did still cause a bit of division.’
Anna Morris: ‘I mean, definitely, because he declared himself the rightful king, but at this point people were like, there was a rightful king two minutes ago, and before that there was like a rightful king.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yes, exactly. So, it’s just a continuation of the chaos.’
Anna Morris: ‘Yeah, for sure. I mean, it’s just—yeah, it’s insane. But there were a lot of, there was a lot of unrest in that time. I think the economic situation at this point was like, horrendous.’
Artie Mead: ‘And I think this is all what helps to get some disaffected Yorkers to start turning towards Henry Tudor.’
Anna Morris: ‘Yeah. I mean, there was definitely the—I think they were probably just done. I know that.’
Artie Mead: ‘They were fully over it.’
Anna Morris: ‘Yeah, for sure. Like everyone’s either just dying or, I mean, this is—but this is only—this is also, in those times, the printing press had not yet been released. So, how much of this was made public in the sense that the vast majority of the English population will have no idea what’s going on.’
Artie Mead: ‘They didn’t have OK magazine by then?’
Anna Morris: ‘No, they didn’t. They had a pamphlet.’
Artie Mead: ‘The OK pamphlet.’
Anna Morris: ‘The OK Gazette, like, inked with quill.’
Artie Mead: ‘On Christmas day 1483, Henry, still in exile at this point, and he actually pledged in Rhen to defeat Richard III and to marry, crucially, Elizabeth of York, who is obviously a Yorkist. And this actually is an order to sort of placate the restless Yorkists who are turning towards him. So, it’s basically to try and get their support. So, he promised this on Christmas day, 1483. And Richard III actually wanted to stop this, so he actually was going to marry Elizabeth of York, despite the fact that she was his niece.’
Anna Morris: ‘Just to add another layer of chaos and, yeah, just general—’
Artie Mead: ‘Just general craziness. Craziness and just—’
Anna Morris: ‘It’s like as if it wasn’t bad enough someone’s coming for your throne, you’re also going to make it even more chaotic by going after the same woman.’
Artie Mead: ‘It does sound like HBO Game of Thrones. Like this is really the real Game of Thrones.’
Anna Morris: ‘Yeah, it’s not.’
Artie Mead: ‘So, Henry Tudor finally gets a small army together.’
Anna Morris: ‘Funded heavily by France as well.’
Artie Mead: ‘Funded heavily by France and they set sail on the 1st of August and they landed at Milford Haven in Wales on the 7th of August, 1485. So yeah, he was basically accompanied by a small force of French and Breton mercenaries. Now, he chose Wales, I think, because it was obviously symbolically very important to sort of capitalise on his Welsh heritage. He knew that if he, you know, marched through Wales, he would probably get a lot of support because he was Welsh. So, he aimed to rally support from local—nobles and troops loyal to the Lancastrian cause. Now, when he landed at Milford Haven, he was reportedly very emotional because don’t forget, he’d been exiled for 14 years by this point. So, you know, basically half of his life. Landed at Milford Haven, he came ashore, and he fell to his knees, kissed the soil, and said in Latin, “Judge and revenge my cause, O Lord.” So yeah, he was very, very emotional to be back in his homeland. And, yeah—’
Anna Morris: ‘You also have to remember that Richard’s army.’
Artie Mead: ‘Was a lot bigger.’
Anna Morris: ‘Three times bigger.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yeah, he manages to get, I think, after his march through Wales, he has 5,000 men, I think, as in Henry.’
Anna Morris: ‘Henry does. Henry Richards is obviously, he’s the king at the time, he has three times more, but I—he’s actually split up his army into three subsections and Henry kept his. But one of them, I can’t remember which, I think the Duke of Norfolk. When Richard III said, “Attack Duke of—”
Artie Mead: ‘William Stanley.’
Anna Morris: ‘Oh. There you go, William Stanley. Son of Lord Stanley, married to Margaret Beauford, Henry VII’s mother. So we see that everyone is done with battle, everyone is done with Richard III, and now you see the Yorkists and Lancastrians almost working together in like small sections, because, you know, otherwise Henry Tudor probably wouldn’t have won, you know, if he’s being attacked from all sides. But luckily, his mother’s link to the Yorkists and his promise of marriage to Elizabeth of York, actually turned Yorkist supporters swung in favour towards him rather than the Yorkist King, King Richard, who—this just goes to show again how awful he was as a person, he had a lot of people beheaded, he locked his nephews in the tower, he had a terrible policy with pretty much everything and is therefore known as the worst king ever, so big up Henry VI.’
Artie Mead: ‘Henry VII. Because there’s so many kings and so many nobles, so many Henry’s, so many Richards, so many Edwards. And yeah, it’s just, it’s a lot. Okay. So, Henry marches through Wales. So on the 22nd of August, he arrives near market Bosworth in Leicestershire. And this is where you have the kind of climactic battle of the Wars of the Roses, the Battle of Bosworth Field. So, this is where he meets Richard’s army, which as we said, yeah, was three times larger than his, about 15,000 men. Now, Richard actually crowned himself symbolically again before the battle. And so—’
Anna Morris: ‘Massive PR stunt.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yeah, exactly. And also a really good way to sort of, you know, single yourself out to the enemy. Like, he was obviously not meant to be king if—’
Anna Morris: ‘Good riddance.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yeah, exactly.’
Anna Morris: ‘I think he was very slight as a person, Richard III. So I think he just had to do all this, like, surrounding stuff, put on loads of pearls and glamour and whatever to try and reclaim himself.’
Artie Mead: ‘Serve kingly diva realness.’
Anna Morris: ‘Serve kingly diva realness. Exactly.’
Artie Mead: ‘Diva realness. You had Henry having a smaller army, but these nobles, Thomas and William Stanley, who had said that they weren’t going to support anyone until they could see essentially where the wind was blowing. So, they decided to not get involved until they could tell who was going to win because obviously—well, yeah, because they wanted to be—’
Anna Morris: ‘I would definitely have done that.’
Artie Mead: ‘Exactly. Because they wanted to make sure that they were on the winning side so that they wouldn’t, you know, lose your head in case they’re on the wrong side. Henry obviously had significant support from Wales. So actually, a lot of his army was Welsh commoners. A substantial portion of his army was also French forces as well. So the battle began with initial skirmishes between the sort of vanguard forces on both sides and Henry’s forces, even though they were outnumbered, they were actually pretty effective.’
Anna Morris: ‘Yeah, they were. I think the French mercenaries did a really good job. And obviously, Stanley backing out, supporting the king. And he actually also—So Henry actually didn’t have any military experience. That is something which is relevant later when we talk about his rule, but Henry VII did not actually have fighting experience. So he hired, I guess, or got the Duke of Oxford, a very experienced military man, to lead his army. Very unkingly not to have military experience and not to be a fighter, but Henry VII, you know, this wasn’t his pride as such, stepping in. He hired an excellent militant to lead and, you know, consequently win with his army.’
Artie Mead: ‘And yeah, he had also picked up key Welsh supporters, such as someone called Rhys ap Thomas, who was a prominent Welsh noble, and he actually had pledged significant military support. So yeah, he had very—’
Anna Morris: ‘It was a mixed bunch.’
Artie Mead: ‘It was a mixed bunch, but obviously one that functioned very well together and it was determined and very well led. The climax of the battle happened when Richard III saw an opportunity to strike directly at Henry. He soared Henry across the field and led a cavalry charge aimed at killing him and ending the battle swiftly. And this is, obviously, when you have Stanley’s intervention, because as we said, Stanley said he wasn’t going to get involved until he could see which way the battle was going. So at the critical moment, the forces of Thomas Stanley and his brother, William Stanley, they’ve been watching from a distance.
They decided to intervene and their troops attacked Richard’s flank, and this turned the favour of the war in Henry’s favour. So, Richard was actually knocked off his horse, but he got up and still continued to fight, according to a lot of witnesses, like a lion. And he was really, really going for it. But obviously this didn’t last because, you know, he was pretty much surrounded and he was killed by being impaled by an unknown Welsh pikeman and then beaten to death. And so, yeah, his death obviously marked the sort of decisive moments of the battle, which led to the collapse of the Yorkist resistance. Because also that’s the thing, the Yorkists had a bigger army, but a lot of them were not trained.
A lot of them didn’t like Richard. And so—and a lot of them, especially, I think when you had the Stanley intervention, a lot of them—Yes, a lot of them fled. So, Richard is dead and Henry claims victory and Richard’s crown, his bloodied crown, is found underneath a bush in Bosworth field. And the crown is then symbolically placed on Henry’s head.’
Anna Morris: ‘Good. So, Henry VII has successfully taken, you know, taken the throne.’
Artie Mead: ‘He’s won the throne.’
Anna Morris: ‘Won the throne. This is 1485. This marks the last battle in the War of the Roses. It marks the end of the Plantagenet dynasty and it marks the end of the medieval era in English history. And we now, with the coronation, we now see the start of the early modern era. Out of the dark ages, out of the middle ages, into modern history.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yes, exactly. So, yeah, the Tudors have won the English crown. Yeah. And he was crowned on the 30th of October 1485 at Westminster Abbey in London in a very expensive and glittering ceremony, which is very un Henry VII, which we will talk about in the next episode. So, he then very soon afterwards married Elizabeth of York, as he said he was going to.’
Anna Morris: ‘Uniting the roses.’
Artie Mead: ‘Uniting the two houses, Lancaster and York. And this, obviously, ended the Wars of the Roses. And once married, this merged the houses. And so, this, obviously—it actually happened in a visual sense, because it merged the white rose of York was superimposed onto the red rose of Lancaster. And that’s how you got the Tudor rose.’
Anna Morris: ‘Which is actually quite bizarre, given they were all from the same family in the first place.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yes,exactly. I know. I know. ‘
Anna Morris: ‘The family’s made up.’
Artie Mead: ‘Exactly. But it’s important to remember, becoming king was just the beginning.’
Anna Morris: ‘Yeah.’
Artie Mead: ‘Okay. So, it was only now—he basically actually done the easy bit, essentially, winning the crown.’
Anna Morris: ‘It’s incredible that that was the easy bit.’
Artie Mead: ‘I know. Exactly. So, he had to bring an exhausted war ravaged country together and ensure that his dynasty would outlast him because it had been over a hundred years since a king had come to the throne unchallenged.’
Anna Morris: ‘Yeah. So, that brings us to, yeah, episode two next time. Plenty to unpack after a very, you know, chaotic explanation of chaotic times.’
Artie Mead: ‘And a rather chaotic episode.’
Anna Morris: ‘And a rather chaotic episode. I mean, it had to fit—like, we had to set the scene.’
Artie Mead: ‘Yes, we had to set the scene. And the fact that we were struggling so much encapsulates how chaotic it was.’
Anna Morris: ‘Absolutly. Edward VI, I mean, Edward IV.’
Artie Mead: ‘Just as a little sneak peek, so Henry had to suppress no less than four rebellions in the 12 years after he became king. And yeah, would eventually—and he would go on to rule for 24 years. So yeah, that’s what we’ll be covering in the next episode. So do you have anything else you’d like to add?’
Anna Morris: ‘No. I think it’s going to be really exciting series, I have to say. We’ve kind of got the—got everyone out of the way. We can focus solely on the Tudors.’
Artie Mead: ‘Exactly. Our sexiest royal dynasty.’
Anna Morris: ‘Sexiest royal dynasty.’
Artie Mead: ‘Well, guys, thank you so much for joining us today, talking about how the Tudors won the English crown. Please like and subscribe. Yeah, give us a follow on social media, rate us on your podcast streaming service, but otherwise, see you next time.’
Anna Morris: ‘See you next time.’
Artie Mead: ‘Bye.’