London History (1420-1553)

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Henry V and the Campaign in France

Henry's aim was to regain the territories in France that had previously been lost and where possible bring further areas under English control. He also believed that a decisive campaign against France would cut off French support to Scotland and Wales.

France at this time was seriously weakened by internal conflict between Burgundy and French royalists. Henry's army landed in France without much opposition but, after some success in the field, was struck by disease and he promptly decided to return to Calais with around five thousand troops, mostly longbow-men. However, the French, with a force perhaps six times larger, intercepted the English at Agincourt. Considered by military historians to be one of the greatest English battlefield successes, Henry's use of longbow-men was hugely influential. By the end of the battle thousands of French, including a large number of nobles were slaughtered, with comparatively few losses on the English side.

Henry continued his withdrawal to Calais and returned to England. Although he had not gained much in the way of territory, his heroics on the battlefield served to enhance his standing both at home and abroad. Henry did campaign in France again and, by his marriage in 1420 to Catherine, daughter of the French King Charles VI, became next in line to the French throne if Charles died. Sadly, two years later Henry was dead. However he had left a useful legacy for his successor, a united England and a France in disarray. Succeeding him was his son Henry VI, who was only nine months old. It therefore fell upon the King's brother Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester to rule as Protector, until such time as Henry VI could assume the mantle of King. However, as Humphrey did not have the full powers of Regent, the country was effectively under the influence of the more powerful nobles.

The War in France continued, with some success for English forces. However, the territories captured were, by and large, impoverished. Therefore, as Treasury coffers back home were not replenished, the war had become a severe drain on the nation's finances. It was during this period that Joan of Arc, the famous Maid of Orleans, inflicted a series of defeats on the English. Although she was later burned at the stake (in 1431), the French rallied around their new King Charles VII, to progressively push back the English to their last remaining stronghold at Calais.

With this reversal of fortunes, the unity that had existed in England evaporated and the country descended into near chaos. Nobles fought against one another, with some even laying claim to the throne itself. In 1450, there was also a popular Kentish rebellion led by Jack Cade against high taxation. Cade and his followers then marched upon London where for three days, general lawlessness reigned. Although the rebellion ended with Cade's beheading at the Tower of London, it served to illustrate just how anarchic English society had become. Consequently, the country drifted listlessly without any authority being shown by the King (who by now was 30 years old).

After losing its remaining footholds in France, the English nobility could take no more and plotted to overthrow the King. However, in 1453, Henry suddenly went mad and it quickly became apparent that he was unfit to rule. This prompted a bitter fight for the succession and, although Henry had a son, Edward, he was only a few months old. In 1454, the Duke of York, a powerful noble became Protector. However, in 1455, Henry VI regained his sanity. Although his recovery should have meant the crown reverted back to the King, he was instead taken prisoner and held in London. Thus, the scene was set for a confrontation between the King (the house of Lancaster) and the house of York. This struggle is recorded in English history as the War of the Roses.

The Yorks and the Lancasters were both descendents of the Plantagenets. The Yorks had considerable power and vast holdings of land, though not on the scale of those of the King. Numerous nobles allied themselves either with the King or the Yorks and the struggle raged on and off for the best part of thirty years. During the King's captivity, the Lancastrian banner was maintained by his wife Queen Margaret who gathered powerful forces that routed the Yorkists at Wakefield in 1460. Indeed, Margaret showed far more determination and will than her husband ever would in fighting for the throne.

However, despite successes, the Lancastrian forces had not inflicted a decisive coup de grace and the Yorkists swiftly recovered under the leadership of Edward, Duke of York. Not long afterwards Edward, aided by the Duke of Warwick, arrived in London and seized the throne. Although the Yorkists were now in the ascendancy, the Lancastrians fought on under Margaret. Eventually she was forced to flee to France and Henry VI was imprisoned in the Tower of London again in 1465. Edward was now ruling as Edward IV, but following his marriage to the Lancastrian Elizabeth Woodville, he faced rebellion in 1469 from within his own camp; namely the Duke of Warwick, who was outraged that a Yorkist should marry someone from the house of their bitter enemy.

Warwick faced Edward IV at the Battle of Edgecote in 1469 and captured the King. There was now an absurd situation where two kings were now in captivity, with one of them effectively held prisoner by a noble supposedly from his own side.

The Yorkists now sought to free Edward and this was achieved. However, the situation remained fluid. Warwick fled to France, where he entered into negotiations with the exiled Queen Margaret. As a result, Warwick returned to England, gathered forces and marched on London, whereupon he freed Henry VI from captivity and restored him to the throne. And yet the intrigue had still not finished for Warwick now found his allies turning against him and was defeated and killed in battle. Queen Margaret returned with an army, hoping to re-establish Lancastrian superiority to bolster Henry VI's position, but her forces were routed at the Battle of Tewkesbury and her son, the Prince of Wales was executed. To cap it all, Henry VI was beheaded and Edward IV was regained the throne.

Edward IV reigned until 1483, when he suddenly died of illness. Until his young son Edward V was ready to take the throne, Edward IV's brother Richard was to rule as Protector. However, Richard had greater ambitions and quickly moved against a number of influential nobles, either executing or imprisoning them. Moreover, he also imprisoned the young Edward V and his younger brother the Duke of York in the Tower of London (they were supposedly murdered although there has never been conclusive proof to support this).

Most important of all, he moved to convince both laymen and Parliament that Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodeville was invalid (so that his brother's sons had no legitimate claim to the throne). Once this was achieved, no other obstacles barred him from taking to the throne and he was subsequently crowned Richard III in 1483.

Richard's reign was cursed with problems almost from day one and he faced rebellion which he brutally suppressed. In 1484 his son and only male heir died and Henry Tudor, who was being groomed as a rival claimant, was garnering support from both Yorkists and Lancastrians alike.

In 1485, Richard moved against Henry Tudor with a strong army and the two sides faced each other at the Battle of Bosworth. At first, things went well for Richard, but following the intervention of forces led by Lord Stanley in favour of Henry, the tide turned and Richard was defeated and killed. So began the Tudor dynasty.

Henry Tudor

The reign of the Tudors began with the crowning of the victorious Henry as Henry VII. This coronation brought the War of the Roses, which had destabilised England for three decades, to an end. Henry sought to consolidate his power base by marrying Elizabeth of York in 1486, a union which aimed to bring the Yorkists on side. This support was soon to be tested however, with rebellions in support of the two pretenders, Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck, who were supported by the remaining disaffected Yorkists and Scots. However, Henry VII saw both pretenders to the throne off without great difficulty.

Henry also moved to try and head off the age-old threats from Scotland and France. To bring peace with the Scots, his daughter Margaret wed the Scottish King James IV in 1502, whilst Henry nullified the French threat by the marriage of his son Arthur to Catherine, the daughter of the Spanish King Ferdinand. The threat of attack from both England and Spain, as well as further threats from other Kingdoms in Europe, was enough to curtail French meddling. Henry had therefore used diplomacy rather than force of arms to achieve his aims.

In addition, he sought to improve England's poor finances by re-establishing an efficient administrative structure. The overall result of Henry's policy was a real strengthening of the Crown's position with the nobility now (largely) behind him. By the time he died in 1509, he had left a stable legacy for his son, Henry who would rule as Henry VIII.

Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries

In comparison to his father, Henry VIII was a much more flamboyant character. Soon after his coronation, he married Catherine of Aragon, the widow of his elder brother Arthur (who would have succeeded Henry VII had he outlived him) who had died earlier in 1502. Henry thoroughly enjoyed all the trappings that went with being a monarch and spent lavishly on his Court.

Where his father had used skilful diplomacy to fulfil his aims, Henry wanted to reconquer some of England's lost possessions in France by sending an expedition across the Channel in 1512. Though the campaign was a major failure, the following year - after joining forces with Maximilian, the Holy Roman Emperor - Henry inflicted a heavy defeat on the French at the Battle of the Spurs.

However, while Henry was overseas the Scots took the opportunity to invade England. Catherine, who had been left to act as Regent, sent an army north to confront them led by the Earl of Surrey. The two armies met at the Battle of Flodden on September 9, 1513. Whilst the influence of the English longbow-men had lessened in campaigns abroad (following the introduction of the canon to the battlefield), the Scots had no artillery, and so faced the murderous volleys of English arrows. By day's end, thousands of Scots lay dead, including the Scottish King James IV and many prominent nobles. Fortunately for Henry, the new King, James V was barely a year old, so Henry's sister Margaret became Regent. This stroke of good fortune brought peace between the two "auld enemies" for a long period.

The Church had been very supportive of Henry's campaigns in France and Thomas Wolsey in particular had been a prominent supporter. Consequently, Henry asked the Pope to make Wolsey the Papal Legate to England. Now, as Cardinal Wolsey, he was the most powerful religious figure in England. In 1515, Henry made him Lord Chancellor which gave the monarch increasing influence over both Wolsey and the Church. With Wolsey in place, Henry disengaged from many of the daily affairs of state to indulge in more leisurely pursuits. The Lord Chancellor was to act on behalf of the King and he seems to have been only too happy to do Henry's bidding. Under Wolsey's stewardship, the influence of Parliament was rather negated. Indeed, with Wolsey's star in the ascendancy he began construction of Hampton Court Palace to serve as a grand residence worthy of his stature.

Leaving Wolsey to effectively run the Kingdom, Henry settled down to more pleasurable pastimes and the extravagance of his Court and entourage matched that of any royal household in Renaissance Europe. However, there was one issue that was to increasingly trouble Henry - his inability to produce a male heir with his wife Catherine.

Catherine had already given birth to a daughter, Mary, but by the time she turned forty in 1525, it was clear to Henry that his wife would not be the mother of a boy. He therefore sought a way out of his marriage, arranging for Wolsey to have the union annulled on the basis that Henry's original dispensation from the Pope should not have been granted (as he claimed that Catherine's previous marriage to his brother Arthur had been consummated after all). The King hoped that the annulment would allow him to take Anne Boleyn as his wife. However, things did not go to plan and a number of bishops subsequently ruled that the dispensation remained valid. The Pope was also resolutely against the annulment, although he was heavily swayed by the Hapsburg Emperor Charles V who had occupied Italy (Catherine was Charles's aunt and so he sided with her). The Pope, Clement VII, who was at the mercy of Imperial troops was therefore hardly in a position to defy the Emperor and support Henry.

The difficulties surrounding the situation with Catherine also brought about the end of Wolsey. The Lord Chancellor had already lost favour with Henry over his dealings with France and he had now failed to secure the swift annulment of Henry's marriage (negotiations with the Pope had dragged on and achieved nothing because of Charles V's hold over him). By 1529 events had conspired to seal Wolsey's fate. Henry realised that he could not annul the marriage by legal means and looked for another solution. Wolsey, who was stripped of his position as Lord Chancellor, was banished to York and died the following year on his way to the Tower of London (after being arrested on charges of treason).

Wolsey was a tough act to follow and the position of Lord Chancellor was given to Sir Thomas More. Henry continued to try and find a way to escape his marriage to Catherine and More played a peripheral part in these proceedings. For the next two years little was achieved. Then a Parliamentarian, Thomas Cromwell suggested that a divorce not need require authority from the Pope and that Parliament could decide the matter as England was an "Empire" and as ruler, Henry did not recognise anyone on earth as his superior. Therefore, provided he had a Parliamentary Statute to support his actions, Henry could do as he saw fit. Although this was a dramatic and ingenious way forward, there were many pitfalls, not least the inevitable conflict with the Catholic Church.

In 1532, Cromwell and Parliament forced the clergy to surrender its authority over law (the ecclesiastical courts) to the Crown. The following year, Parliament passed the Act in Restraint of Repeals to Rome which effectively ended any interference by the Papacy in judicial matters. Then, in 1534, Parliament transferred all remaining church powers to the Crown. Henry VIII was now effectively head of the Church in England and this was confirmed by the Act of Supremacy. During this great upheaval, Henry had secretly married Anne Boleyn and she was now pregnant. Her child, a daughter named Elizabeth (the future Elizabeth I) was born in September 1533. Thomas Cranmer, the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury had already granted a divorce for Henry's marriage to Catherine in May 1533 and the King and Anne Boleyn had married the following month.

In light of the events, The Pope could only issue a feeble statement declaring the proceedings to be invalid - as the damage had already been done and there was now a clear schism with Rome. The statutes that had passed through Parliament now confirmed that the English monarch derived his supremacy from God, effectively becoming God's representative on Earth. To cement his position still further Parliament passed the Treasons Act which meant that that anyone denying the King's supremacy was committing a treasonable offence (punishable by execution). Two notable victims of this Act were the Lord Chancellor, Thomas More and the Bishop of Rochester, John Fisher. Both were executed in 1535.

While all this took place Anne Boleyn had given birth to another daughter so Henry was still without a male heir. Henry then fell in love with Jane Seymour and in order to marry her, Anne was accused of treason and executed at the Tower of London. Henry married Jane Seymour in 1536 and she was to provide him with the male heir he so desperately craved, but at tragic cost. Jane died in childbirth, although the son she bore would grow up to become Edward VI.

In 1536 Parliament had passed an Act allowing the dissolution of the monasteries. This Act, as well as weakening a number of religious orders that were heavily influenced from abroad, brought Henry much needed revenue - for the monasteries were wealthy both in treasures and land. Having worked effectively in Parliament on behalf of the King, Cromwell also improved the administration of Government too, laying the foundations for many of the organs of Government that still exist today.

At the same time, an English translation of the full Bible text was published and Cromwell ordered that certain passages, such as the Ten Commandments, be taught to people in English rather than Latin (so as to make them more accessible). Interestingly, this measure caused unrest among the very people that it would have benefited the most, the common people. In 1537, a number of peasants in the north of England rebelled and attacked Crown tax officials. However this rebellion was short-lived and Henry dealt ruthlessly with the main agitators, with over two hundred of them being executed.

Henry's campaign against the monasteries continued at a pace with even Cromwell becoming uneasy at the turn of events. The King married again, this time taking Anne of Cleaves as his wife. Cromwell had played a leading role in arranging this marriage (for political reasons) and Henry was not taken with his new bride. Indeed, the marriage was never consummated. Not long after, Henry divorced Anne. At the same time, enemies of Cromwell persuaded the King that he was guilty of heresy and therefore treason. Cromwell soon paid with his life.

In July 1540, Henry married yet again, to Catherine Howard. However, this marriage failed early on too, as Catherine was having an affair with one of her cousins. Her punishment was swift, as she became the second of the King's wives to be beheaded. Yet this still did not curb Henry's appetite for marriage. By 1543, Henry was betrothed yet again to Catherine Parr.

In the same year Parliament passed an Act for the Government of Wales. This brought Wales under full English rule and was the first step in the creation of the 'United Kingdom'. Representatives from Wales would now sit in Parliament for the very first time. But, while Wales was taking its place in the Union, Scotland was once again at war with England. This time though, the campaign was a disaster for the Scots. Not only was their army routed at Solway Moss, but also roughly half of their number (some 7,000 men) had been killed. News of this defeat destroyed King James' health and he died that same year. The throne therefore passed to a child less than a month old, Queen Mary.

Soon after this defeat, Henry set off across the Channel to campaign in France in cahoots with the Hapsburg Emperor, Charles V. However, Charles made a peace treaty with the French King so Henry was immediately left isolated, with only the capture of Boulogne to count as spoils of war. Meanwhile back home, the Scots had rallied following an English assault on Edinburgh, so Henry was now at war with both of his traditional foes, Scotland and France. For a time, there was real fear of a joint invasion, which would have presented a serious challenge to Henry, but although the French did land troops on the Isle of Wight, the threat gradually subsided.

By now, Henry was becoming increasingly ill and his thoughts turned instead to the question of succession. His son Edward would become King, but would not be old enough to rule in his own right. Unfortunately, when Henry did pass away in 1547, there was nobody to act as a dominant protector until Edward could take on the full role as monarch.

Without Henry's formidable presence, different factions came to the fore and the relative stability that had existed swiftly disappeared. Rebellions occurred, which the weak Protector, the Duke of Somerset failed to deal with decisively. A general malaise in the cities and countryside further underpinned this unrest. Kets's rebellion in Norfolk was perhaps the most serious threat and thousands of peasants rallied to him. However, the rebellion was suppressed not by the Duke of Somerset, but one of his adversaries, the Duke of Warwick.

Flushed with this success, Warwick became influential in Parliament. He then moved against Somerset, who now commanded little support. Somerset was executed in 1552 for treason and the Duke of Warwick became Protector, awarding himself a new title in the process - that of the Duke of Northumberland. One of his first acts was to extract English armies from Scotland and France. He then allied himself with the increasingly powerful Protestant movement, primarily to move against the still powerful and wealthy Catholic bishops. In 1552 Thomas Cranmer produced a new prayer book which marked an almost total shift from the old Catholic traditions. An Act of Uniformity meant that other forms of worship other than those held in "State" churches were punishable. And in 1553, Cranmer introduced Protestant based articles of faith. The Church now effectively relied on Parliament for its authority.

The relatively smooth transition from Catholicism to Protestantism was to be rudely interrupted when the infirmed Edward VI died in 1553. This left the country with a real problem over the succession. Constitutionally, the successor was Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. However, Mary was a Catholic and with all the sweeping religious changes that had so recently taken place, it would have been impossible for her to take the crown. The Duke of Northumberland had therefore persuaded the King, on his deathbed to disinherit his sisters Mary and Elizabeth. Edward consented and the throne passed to Lady Jane Grey who was the granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary. Her claim to the throne was therefore rather weak and when she was crowned, there was little popular enthusiasm for her. Shortly after the coronation in London, Mary and Elizabeth arrived and the city authorities sided with them. Queen Jane was imprisoned in the Tower and Northumberland paid for his scheming with his life.

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