29.3 Europe: a.d. 1401 to 1500  (Page 12/16)

British isles

England

Among the great powers rising on the Atlantic seaboard, England came last. From about 1350 to 1450 the English had had a drastic population reduction from the Black Death, prolonged economic stagnation and sporadic outbursts of the Hundred Years War against France. As noted above, Henry V took most of France for a short period and his death may have saved that continental country, but he almost ruined England because the treasury sank into irremedial debt. Henry VI went mad and there followed the famous War of the Roses, lasting from 1454 to 1485, in which the nobles of the House of York battled those of the House of Lancaster for the throne. It was a suicide of the Anglo-Norman aristocracy and England was left impoverished, destitute and desolate, as the

Lancastrians were scattered or destroyed and many of their nobles decapitated

Some would say that his debauchery and promiscuity caused his early death in 1483, but actually he may well have died of appendicitis. His son Edward V, the apparent heir, was immediately imprisoned and his uncle took over the crown as Richard III, claiming that the boy Edward was a bastard and not entitled to succeed. But Richard, himself, ended up without an heir and the rival claimant to the throne became Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, a Welshman, who had been forced to flee to Brittany many years before. Now both Yorkists and Lancasters left England to join him as he prepared an expedition at the mouth of the Seine. In late summer of 1485, Richmond, with his English supporters and a body of French troops landed at Milford Haven, near the southwestern tip of Wales. The Welsh were more than happy to have the prospect of having one of their own on the throne of England and many Welsh gentry joined his forces so that he had about 5,000 men as he moved through Shrewsbury and Stafford. In the last of what should be called the "nobility wars", on Bosworth Field, Richard III was slain and Henry Tudor (Tydder) became Henry VII, a wise, sad, careful monarch, who reformed the administration, centralized the government and finally left the state respected, orderly, solvent, united and at peace. Henry's claim to the throne was through his mother, from John of Gaunt, founder of the House of Lancaster. He married Elizabeth, a princess of the House of York and thus united the two rival houses. When his first son, Arthur, who had married Catharine of Aragon, died, Henry arranged for his second son Henry (later Henry VIII) to marry the widow, thus strengthening the alliance with Spain. (Ref. 50 , 29 )