Henry VII, king of England
- Henry VII, king of England
(Reigned 1485-1509)
First king of the
Tudor dynasty. His military victory over King Richard III brought an end to the 30 years of sporadic civil war known as the
Wars of the Roses. Henry was a shrewd and calculating politician, skilled at exploiting the traditional powers of the monarch in order to guard against anti-Tudor conspiracies and to keep the higher aristocracy under far closer control than any of his 15th-century predecessors had been able to do. He was also frugal in spending money and notoriously ruthless in exploiting the financial rights of the crown. Hence he placed his new dynasty on a sound financial basis that was one of the principal reasons for its survival.
Henry's reputation for stinginess was reflected in the modest scale on which he acted as patron to the new Renaissance culture. He employed one Italian
humanist of considerable talent,
Polydore Vergil, as historiographer and patronized a handful of other humanists, most of them Italian. One or two buildings were built under Italian inspiration, though none of these survives. His most significant surviving architectural monument is the beautiful royal chapel he built at Westminster Abbey, but it was constructed in the traditional English Gothic style. Henry also extended patronage to a limited number of English scholars, including the vernacular poet John Skelton and the Italian-educated humanist and physician
Thomas Linacre, who became physician to the king and also tutor to Henry's eldest son Arthur, Prince of Wales.
Historical Dictionary of Renaissance.
Charles G. Nauert.
2004.
Look at other dictionaries:
Henry VII, King of England — (1457–1509) First king of the house of TUDOR, Henry VII, the surviving heir of the house of LANCASTER, won the Crown from RICHARD III and the house of YORK at the Battle of BOSWORTH FIELD in August 1485. The son of Edmund TUDOR, earl of… … Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses
Henry II (King of England) — Henry II † Catholic Encyclopedia ► Henry II King of England, born 1133; died 6 July, 1189; was in his earlier life commonly known as Henry Fitz Empress from the fact that his mother Matilda, daughter of Henry I, was first married to… … Catholic encyclopedia
Henry VI, King of England — (1421–1471) Through his favoritism and inability to function effectively as king, Henry VI, third monarch of the house of LANCASTER, became a chief cause of the WARS OF THE ROSES. Born at Windsor in December 1421, the only child of Henry V… … Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses
Henry VIII, king of England — (reigned 1509 1547) Born the second son of Henry VII, the younger Henry became heir to the throne when his brother Arthur died. He also was married to Catherine of Aragon, the young widow of his brother, despite church laws forbidding such a… … Historical Dictionary of Renaissance
Henry VIII, king of England — ( 14 91 15 4 7 ) founder of the independent Church of England The instigator of the Protestant Reformation in England, King Henry VIII was born on June 28, 1491, the son of Henry VII. He ascended the throne in 1509 and immediately married… … Encyclopedia of Protestantism
Henry VIII, King of England — (1491 1547) Henry was born at Greenwich, near London, the son of Henry VII, and succeeded to the throne of England in 1509. He presided over the beginnings of the English Renaissance and the English Reformation, and in 1521 Pope Leo X… … British and Irish poets
Henry VII — Henry VII, King also Henry Tudor (1457 1509) the king of England from 1485. He defeated Richard III at the battle of Bosworth Field, and married to unite the families of York and Lancaster and so ended the Wars of the Roses between the two… … Dictionary of contemporary English
Richard III, King of England — (1452–1485) Richard III, the last king of the houses of YORK and PLANTAGENET, is the most controversial monarch in English history. By deposing and then perhaps murdering his nephew, Richard revived the WARS OF THE ROSES, thereby destroying… … Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses
Edward V, King of England — (1470–c. 1483) The eldest son of EDWARD IV and second monarch of the house of YORK, Edward V was the uncrowned king of England from April to June 1483, when he was dethroned by his uncle RICHARD III in an act of usurpation that reignited the… … Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses
HENRY VII — king of England from 1485 to 1509, son of Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, first of the Tudor monarchs, born at Pembroke Castle; after defeating and slaying Richard III. on Bosworth Field he assumed the crown, and by his marriage with Elizabeth … The Nuttall Encyclopaedia
