Creating an English Sovereignty

From Heptarchy to the Tudors, 600-1485

Pre- and Roman Britain

• Neolithic and metal-age cultures—Skara Brae in Orkneys

• Romans invade in 55 B. C. E. and 43 C. E.

• Deep cultural influences, especially in south.

• Hadrian’s Wall—122-130

• Roman garrison’s leave Britain ca. 400-410.

Skara Brae

Hadrian’s Wall

After Roman Britain

• Angles, Saxons, & Jutes settled Britain and dueled for its control with Celts, Picts, and Welsh.

• From about 600 to 871, England was really seven fluid kingdoms: Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy

• Alfred (871-899), King of Wessex, asserted control over most of heptarchy

The Heptarchy

Saxon to Norman Britain

• Alfred’s descendants and Dane’s struggled for control of English Kingdom

• Edward the Confessor allegedly promised throne to William, Duke of Normandy.

• William defeated Anglo-Saxon Baron’s candidate at Battle of Hastings in 1066.

William I—(1066-1089)

• Norman Feudalism strengthened position of Crown.

• Created Curia Regis—very distant forerunner of Parliament

• Domesday Survey

Plantagenets: 1154-1399

• Henry II (1154-1189) by marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine possessed much of present-day France as well as throne of England

• His son, John, a weak king, was forced to sign the Magna Carta (1215)

• Edward I (1272-1307), HII’s great-grandson, not only fought William Wallace, he reformed English law (Statute of Mortmaine) and during his reign the Model Parliament met.

Henry II & Eleanor

Later Plantagenets: 1327-1399

• Edward III (1327-1377) and his son, Edward “The Black Prince” spent most of reign fighting the 100 Years War with the French House of Valois.

• Richard II (1377-1399) became king; as a youth, real power rested in hands of Lords Appellant.

• Richard’s attempt to rule in his own right led him to seized the estates of Henry of Bolingbroke.

• Bolingbroke (House of Lancaster) forced Richard from the throne and claimed the throne as Henry IV.

Edward III—1327-1377

Edward IV (1483) Richard III (1485)

Edward V (1483)

Richard, Duke of York

Philippa Henry IV (1415)

Henry V (1422)

Henry VI (1461)

Roger Mortimer

Anne Mortimer

Richard II (1399)

William Lionel

Richard, Earl of Cambridge

Edmund

EDWARD III's Descendents

John of Gaunt

Edward III (1377)

Edward, Black Prince

Problem of Succession

• Henry IV could not claim to rule by hereditary right

• Values of bastard feudalism unsettled nobility and created a sea of uprisings

• 100 years war provided a major distraction.• Indeed, Henry V (1415-22) almost became

King of England and of France at same time.

House of Lancaster

• Henry’s usurpation bypassed the Yorks who were next in line to Richard II.

• As long as Lancaster’s were successful rulers, as Henry IV and Henry V essentially were, there was no real problem with usurpation.

• But Henry VI was another matter (1422-1461 & 1471); he was 6 months old when he became king.

Henry VI and the Wars of the Roses

• Henry’s reign coincided with the gradual defeat of England in the 100 years war; English lands came to be seen as Lancastrian and Henry’s advisors—and his French wife—were blamed for misspent treasure and blood.

• In 1453, Henry went mad.

The Lancastrian Kings: Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI

The Yorks

• Richard, Duke of York, actually served as guardian for Henry VI twice in 1450s

• He and Henry’s French wife Matilda dueled over power

• Richard attempted to seize throne in 1460 but was slain; his son, Edward, with the aide of Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, became Edward IV (1461-1483)

Edward IV

Wars of the Roses

• White Rose of York and Red Rose of Lancaster• Dated variously from 1455 (St. Albans) or

Wakefield in (1460) to Bosworth Field (1485) or the defeat of Lambert Simnel at Stoke (1487)

• At least 49 of the 60 noble families took part• 38 peers were killed or executed in wars• Approximately 400 landowners forfeited their

lands—temporarily or permanently—as a result of these wars.

Wars of Roses

• Didn’t have to end with Tudor Succession.• Edward IV’s death in 1483 left throne to Edward

V, who was 12 and Richard, Edward V’s uncle, acted as regent after ousting the Woodville relatives.

• Richard declared Edward V a bastard and seized throne on July 6, 1483, as Richard III.

• Tudors in behalf of Lancastrians and exiled Woodvilles intrigue to oust Richard.

• August 22, 1485—Battle of Bosworth Field.

It Mattered:

• War discredited feudal nobility in public mind

• Served as a vital grist for Shakespeare and other Tudor propagandist: War of the Roses was a bad thing and Henry VII’s (Tudor) victory at Bosworth restored order and prosperity to the English nation.

So who were the Tudors: Isn’t this about Lancaster and York

• Yes, but many Lancastrians were eliminated early when Edward won at Towton in 1461 and cemented his claim as Edward VI

• Other Lancastrians died when they supported Edward’s erstwhile ally, Warwick, in rebellion against Edward, at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471.

• But the Lancastrian women married Tudor men, who were minor Welsh nobles.

Marrying Up: The Tudor Strategy

• Owen Tudor married Katherine of Valois, the Widow of Henry V.

• Their child, Edmund Tudor, married Margaret Beaufort, a member of the legally-legitimate but really the bastard line of John of Gaunt (Lancaster’s descendents)

• Edmund and Margaret’s son was Henry, who became Henry VII (1485-1509)

Edmund Tudor = Margaret

Henry VII (1509)

Henry VI (1461)

Blanche = John of Gaunt -> Catherine Swinford

Henry IV John Beaufort

Henry V = Catherine = Owen Tudor John Beaufort, Somerset

Tudor Claim to the Throne (Tie to House of Lancaster)

So who’s claim to the throne was correct?

• It’s all an exercise in mythmaking• While the Lancastrians were successful, no one

fretted about how Henry IV got the throne.• Lancastrian failures permitted Yorkists to raise the

issue about how the Lancastrians violated the rules of hereditary succession.

• Tudor victory on the battlefield and the equation of further disputes with further war led political nation to accept the outcome of Bosworth Field.

• Tudor’s knew, too, that success—not legal claim—legitimated ones title.