It is the night before the battle.
You’re in your camp, sharpening your sword in preparation.
You know full well that tomorrow will bring you one of two different outcomes.
Either you will win and conquer the throne to become the next king of England or you
will die trying.
This is as an all or nothing fight in a very high stakes gamble.
You know your fleet is small compared to the current King Richard III’s army and the
odds are stacked against you.
But you’re in way too deep now and there’s no turning back.
All you can do is hope and pray that fate is on your side.
This is exactly what Henry VII went through on his quest to claim the English throne during
The Battle of Bosworth and he would later come to be known as a very dark, paranoid
king.
The Battle of Bosworth would be one that would alter the course of history forever.
On the day that we are writing this, it is the 534th anniversary of that fateful battle,
August 22.
Funny enough, this was by coincidence, not by design.
The Battle of Bosworth can be better understood by explaining, as briefly as we can, the history
of the War of The Roses, a conflict which took place from 1455 until The Battle of Bosworth
in 1485.
Before that, there was another war, known as The Hundred Years War, fought between England
and France from 1337 to 1453 – longer than a hundred years as its name implies.
Now, this long-term conflict is very complicated and can probably only be summed up in its
entirety through its own episode.
Basically, all you need to know for the sake of this episode is that there was a long,
drawn out civil war between two different groups, the Yorkists represented by a white
rose and the Lancastrians represented by a red rose.
The main reason for the formation of these two different groups had to do with the family
line that was split between the sons of King Edward III’s reign back in the 1300’s.
For a long time, there was a fluctuation between the two groups, a sort-of tug-of-war over
who claimed power.
Towards the end, it seemed that the Yorkists had won and Edward IV secured the throne a
second time after having lost it before.
He was king from April 11, 1471 until his death in 1483.
Now, let’s talk a little about Edward IV’s successor and Henry VII’s foe, Richard III,
so we can know more about what Henry was dealing with.
King Richard III was the brother of the late king, Edward IV, so he was a Yorkist king.
The rightful heirs to the throne, however, were actually Edward’s two sons but they
were not yet of age when their father died so Richard stepped in to act as regent.
Wanting to claim power for himself, he had the two young princes locked away in the tower
of London, where they disappeared.
Many historians suspect they were secretly killed by order of Richard.
It sort-of-kind-of reminds you of Scar from the Lion King, doesn’t it?
An evil uncle willing to kill to consolidate power.
Well, Richard III was actually a big source of inspiration for Shakespeare, including
the play Richard III as well as Hamlet.
And as many of you might already know, Shakespeare’s Hamlet was what greatly inspired The Lion
King.
So, in a way, Scar was designed based off Shakespeare’s depiction of Richard III – just
to add a little, interesting tid-bit of information for you.
Henry Tudor, otherwise known as Henry VII, had spent most of his life in exile and did
not have a strong connection or claim to the throne.
He was related to Lancastrian royal blood only through his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort.
She was the daughter of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, who was the great-grandson of
King Edward III through his third surviving son, John of Gaunt by Katherine Swynford.
Typically, those proclaimed kings were the eldest son and the one secured through male
issue.
So not only was Henry’s royal line far diverted down the family tree, but it was also carried
by a thread through a woman, which wasn’t considered strong since the male line was
more favorable back then.
He was, however, the last remaining Lancastrian by that time.
Some followers of Henry included those who resented Richard III for the disappearance
of the true heirs, the princes in the tower.
Because Henry’s claim to power was very weak, the loyalty of his other followers relied
on the intent for Henry to marry Elizabeth of York, daughter of the dead King Edward
IV, in order to secure a tighter claim to the throne.
This union would also bring together the red and white rose of Lancaster and York, which
was meant to bring peace to the long dispute.
Richard had only been king for two years when Henry VII challenged him for the crown.
He had a force of infantry around 3,000 in number.
Many nobles supporting Richard only did so because their children were being held hostage.
Henry’s forces, on the other hand, included 1,800 troops gifted by the French king who
was on the side of the Lancastrians though they were also considered the worst of the
French troops.
Among those also fighting alongside him were a number of Welsh and Englishmen who had joined
Henry during his time in exile.
A third army included that of the Stanley brothers who refused to commit to either side.
Instead, their strategy was to watch from the sidelines and join forces with the winning
army.
Luckily for Henry, they jumped to his defense while he had the upper hand.
Some of Richard III’s army also turned on Richard in betrayal.
It was a vicious battle with which Henry’s forces won.
Richard III was struck down from his horse and brutally killed.
When his skeleton was finally found and unearthed by archeologists from beneath a parking lot
in 2012, Richard was shown to have a lot of slash wounds to his skull and throughout the
rest of his body.
The discovery of his remains showed that he wasn’t killed instantly and that he was
still probably alive while being battered to death by men with swords.
Upon defeat, his dead, naked body was then paraded on a donkey in a humiliating manner.
Though Henry VII won the throne by right of conquest, which was an enormous achievement,
he may have been scarred from witnessing the death and undignified treatment of Richard’s
body.
He was more than fully aware that if it could happen to King Richard, it could happen to
him too.
Thus, winning The Battle of Bosworth was only the first hurdle in a long, difficult reign
that would be filled with nonstop paranoia and anguish.
One may wonder whether it was worth the trouble.
One of the first courses of action that Henry took as king was to date his reign starting
on August 21st, 1485.
As we already discussed, the Battle of Bosworth didn’t take place until August 22.
This was purposefully done.
He wanted to emphasize that he was king before the battle over the throne even took place.
This meant that anybody who fought against Henry on that day could be treated as traitors.
Doesn’t sound fair, does it?
Well, it wasn’t meant to be fair.
This was by design so that Henry could imprison many of the Yorkists who had a better claim
to the throne than he did.
Out of fear, he figured it was better to get them all out of the way so that he wouldn’t
end up being overthrown and killed like Richard III.
Upon becoming king, Henry VII married Elizabeth of York out of obligation to fulfill his promise
to his followers.
This was also a propaganda move to fuse the two roses of the different houses together
and create the Tudor rose that was both red and white.
Elizabeth was probably not too happy with this arrangement.
Since her loyalties were tied to the Yorkist side, she could not have been thrilled that
a Lancastrian mutt won the throne in the end.
In her book, White Princess, author and historian, Phillipa Greggory, depicts the marriage as
being a rocky one in the beginning.
Henry VII would remain suspicious of her for a long time, wondering if Elizabeth secretly
planned to overthrow him.
Maybe she would assassinate him in the night while he was asleep, crush a cold, hard pillow
against his face.
He couldn’t be too careful.
Thus, the marriage started off brimming with mistrust and resentment.
Henry couldn’t trust his own wife and there were very few people in his court that he
felt he could trust.
The one person he could confide in was his mother who proclaimed herself My Lady the
King's Mother, and she had great influence over his governing.
In this way, Henry VII was one of history’s biggest momma’s boys.
Soon after he took power, Henry needed a son and heir as quickly as possible.
This was vitally important for securing the Tudor dynasty.
He also wanted to prove to his kingdom that God was on his side and that he was the rightful
king.
Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait long because Elizabeth soon gave birth to a boy
named Arthur.
They would have more children, including another son, the future King Henry VIII.
It was probably around this point that their marriage grew a little easier.
Henry was grateful to his wife for giving him the sons that were desperately needed
to secure his position on the throne.
At the same time, Elizabeth was probably more open to the idea of Lancastrians winning the
rose battle since, as a good mother, she desired to see her sons in power.
Still, life was not without its difficulties for the king.
With threat of rebellion around every corner, Henry utilized many propaganda techniques
to try to force his rightful claim onto the minds of the English people.
He had his face plastered across the currency on coins along with the Tudor red and white
rose being displayed everywhere in full view.
He was constantly working to push the idea that he was their lawful king.
He had dealt with many rebellions and pretenders during his reign but one that lasted a long
time was the threat of a man named Perkin Warbeck.
Perkin Warbeck would end up costing Henry a great deal of money because he was persistent
in his cause and had a lot of support from the English people.
The reason for this was that Perkin claimed to be Richard of York, one of the two princes
lost in the tower by Richard III, Edward IV’s son and rightful heir to the throne.
He was a plausible pretender because he looked and dressed just like one of the two princes.
Thus, many of those who believed Perkin was really one of the lost princes, stood by him
and wanted to see a Yorkist take back the throne.
While all of this was going on, Henry and Elizabeth also wanted to secure an alliance
with Spain because, frankly, they needed all the friends they could get.
Thus, they tried to procure a betrothal of their son, Prince Arthur, to the Spanish princess,
Catherine of Aragon.
The King and Queen of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, denied the initial request since
Henry VII’s position on the throne was precarious at best.
He would need to eliminate any and all threats against him, anyone who could potentially
overthrow him.
There could be no question or shadow of a doubt that Henry’s reign was legitimate.
This would have to be done before Spain would agree to marry their princess to Arthur.
Thus, Henry VII had Perkin Warbeck executed before an army could be raised against him.
He also had Elizabeth of York’s cousin, Edward Plantagenet, executed at the age of
24, after he’d been locked away in the tower of London since the age of 10.
Because he’d been arrested at such a young age, it was said that the boy had developmental
deficits and wasn’t quite sure what was going on when he was placed under the axe.
It was a pretty ruthless and heartless solution to the impending threat.
At last, Arthur would be betrothed to Catherine of Aragon, but the marriage would not last
because he would die early of the sweating sickness.
Arthur’s death would shatter the hearts of his parents.
Henry became overprotective over his second son now that he only had one heir left.
Elizabeth assured Henry that she would give him another son, but then she died from childbirth
complications and the baby would not make it.
Henry was heartbroken over his wife’s death, as he had grown to love her madly in the end.
He sheltered himself in seclusion, desiring to be left alone with his grief while his
mother mostly took over with governing for the most part.
At the end of Henry VII’s reign, he was a broken and disheveled man.
He was skinny, pale and had white hair from a life full of never-ending stress.
He was nothing but an empty shell, a man who had never known a moment’s peace.
Paranoia had been his constant companion throughout the years.
He was constantly on edge, looking over his shoulder, never trusting anybody.
Perhaps he wished he had never won the Battle of Bosworth.
Henry was planning on remarrying his son’s widowed wife, Catherine of Aragon, but died
of tuberculosis on April 21st, 1509 before this happened.
He was buried next to his beloved wife, Elizabeth of York, in the chapel that he commissioned
for her.
He had ruled over England for 23 years, but England wasn’t too saddened by the loss.
Henry VII’s reign had been a dark and paranoid one and the people now had hope for a brighter
future with the promising, new King Henry VIII.
Catherine of Aragon may have also been relieved by his death because she was then able to
marry a much younger and more attractive king in his son.
Was Henry VII’s victory during the Battle of Bosworth worth the trouble?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called The Worst Breakup In HistoryX!
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