The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - May 10, 2026


PREVIEW： Epochs #262 ｜ The Life of Henry VII

Hosted by
Callum Edmunds Carl Benjamin Connor Tomlinson Harry Robinson John Wheatley Joshua Ferme Edward McLaren Elizabeth Heverin
Mentioned
Henry VII King Henry VII Henry Tudor Richard Duke Richard III Margaret Beaufort Elizabeth Woodville Lambert Simnel Hastings Yorkist Henry Quote Valois Catherine Edward Edward Charles Oman Churchill Bosworth Burgundy
PREVIEW： Chronicles #46 ｜ Euripdes' Medea with Stelios Panagiotou PREVIEW： Realpolitik #46 ｜ Europe’s Slow Motion Collapse

Episode Stats


Length

19 minutes

Words per minute

159.96

Word count

3,145

Sentence count

—


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Henry VII was a Tudor monarch who ruled England between 1485 and 1495. He was the son of an old Yorkist nobleman and a young noblewoman, and he was the heir apparent to the throne of England. But he was also a usurper and a murderer, and his name was Henry Tudor.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome back to Epochs. If you remember last time we left off just where
00:00:25.560 Henry Tudor the Earl of Richmond to become Henry VII King Henry VII had just won at the Battle of
00:00:33.960 Bosworth Field against Richard III who himself is a usurper or a lot of people thought he was a
00:00:39.760 usurper and a regicide a murder of his own nephew the legit King Edward V whether you believe that
00:00:46.000 or not he lost two years later less he lost the battle at Bosworth Field and it brings in a new
00:00:53.380 era right the Tudor era and so we're on a new timeline and it's really really perhaps the two
00:00:59.760 most pivotal battles in the last thousand years or so was Hastings and Bosworth because both times
00:01:06.840 it just brings in just a whole new set of people entirely new set of people are now the royal
00:01:14.100 family are now the rulers you know if you were on the winning side at Hastings you and your family
00:01:20.560 got to be among the elite for the next 500 years same goes for bosworth even to this day there are
00:01:28.320 some eminent families that were on the right side of the battle at bosworth field in 1485
00:01:34.800 that to this day are still like the eighth duke of something the 12th duke of something right so
00:01:41.440 so it's really really really pivotal and important and of course it brings in
00:01:45.440 the the few tudor kings and queens who are arguably the most some of the most famous
00:01:51.060 henry the eighth elizabeth the first right many people say that elizabeth the first
00:01:55.620 who's a granddaughter of our henry we're going to talk about today that she resided over a golden
00:02:02.300 age perhaps the greatest golden age england has ever known arguably maybe some say and so
00:02:09.560 this henry the seventh is uh historians you can't fail but to look at it like it's a page has been
00:02:17.480 turned it's a new thing so as always i should be reading from professor sir charles oman late
00:02:24.180 19th century early 20th century professor of history at oxford university and from the history
00:02:29.840 of the english-speaking peoples by sir winston chuchill published in the middle of the 20th
00:02:34.540 century both of them obviously completely pre-woke so we don't have to worry about all that sort of
00:02:39.140 thing and both of them start a new chapter when they start talking about Henry VII because sort
00:02:43.880 of obviously it's a new chapter after that day in 1485 when Henry wins and is crowned on the
00:02:52.160 battlefield Richard III himself is cut down in battle and killed all right so I think I'll start
00:02:58.820 with a few paragraphs from Churchill so he says this about the Tudor dynasty and Henry VII
00:03:05.780 Quote
00:03:35.780 era in English history began. Henry's first task was to induce magnates, church and gentry to
00:03:43.000 accept the decision of Bosworth, i.e. that he is now the legit king and none others of the old
00:03:48.340 Yorkist family are, and to establish himself upon the throne. He was careful to be crowned before
00:03:54.120 facing the representatives of the nation, thus resting his title first upon conquest and only
00:04:00.260 secondly on the approbation of parliament at any rate parliament was committed to the experiment
00:04:06.020 of his rule then he married as had long been planned the heiress of the rival house elizabeth
00:04:12.660 of york end quote so she is the daughter of the old edward edward the fourth edward of york
00:04:20.080 and elizabeth woodville the white queen so if you remember where i've talked before about henry
00:04:26.000 Tudor's background and family he was a Lancastrian basically his mother Margaret Beaufort was a
00:04:32.960 staunch Lancastrian and various other people in his family had all been Lancastrians basically
00:04:39.280 and now he marries the heiress of the house of York because there's no more boys because they
00:04:46.680 got murdered remember the two boys that would have been the head of that household both disappeared
00:04:52.160 in the tower in 1483 so this elizabeth of york is sort of the main she is the heiress of the house
00:05:00.040 of york so if he essentially a lancastrian king and she marry then right their children will be
00:05:09.400 the perfect physical embodiment of both york and lancaster that's the idea and it works out quite
00:05:16.680 well actually so instead of having the red flower of lancaster and the white flower of york you now
00:05:23.940 get the tudor flower the tudor rose which has got both white and red petals you get it okay
00:05:31.640 churchill goes on saying quote lack of money had long weakened the english throne but military
00:05:37.920 victory now restored to henry most of the crown lands alienated during the 15th century by
00:05:43.240 confiscation and attainder and many other great estates besides he already possessed a valuable
00:05:48.800 nucleus in the inheritance of the lancastrian kings whose heir he was the north country estates
00:05:54.920 of richard duke of gloucester richard iii who he's just beaten in battle were his by right of
00:06:00.580 conquest and later the treason and execution of sir william stanley who had been contented with
00:06:07.240 his rewards after bosworth brought spacious properties in the midlands into the royal hands
00:06:12.420 henry was thus assured of a settled income but this was not enough it was essential to regulate
00:06:19.220 the titles by which land was held in england the rapid succession of rival monarchs had produced a
00:06:24.840 feeling of insecurity and legal chaos among the landowners execution and death in battle had
00:06:30.980 scattered the power of the great feudal houses the survivors and the mass of smaller landed gentry
00:06:37.180 were in constant danger of losing their estates by actions in the law courts started by personal
00:06:42.660 enemies and based on a past allegiance or treacheries. It was difficult to find a man
00:06:48.440 whose family had not supported a losing side at some point or other during the civil wars. All
00:06:53.960 this was extremely dangerous to Henry for if the landowners were uncertain and insecure about the
00:06:59.140 legal possession of their property they might follow another usurper if one should appear.
00:07:03.860 legislation was therefore passed stating that all who gave their allegiance to the king for the time
00:07:08.980 being that is the king upon the throne should be secure in their lives and property this idea of
00:07:15.640 an actual king as distinct from a rightful king was characteristic of the new ruler sure of himself
00:07:21.860 henry did not shrink from establishing his power upon a practical basis that's something to say
00:07:27.420 Even though Richard III seems to have been roundly despised, largely disliked,
00:07:34.580 Henry VII still has only won by conquest, right, by main force, by the force of arms.
00:07:42.580 And so a lot of people, if you're a staunch, staunch Yorkist, might not like that, might not sort of ever accept it.
00:07:49.080 And whenever you win a throne by conquest or by usurpation, basically, another usurpation,
00:07:54.200 you've always got to be a bit careful because there will almost certainly be a bunch of people
00:07:58.440 that don't like it will never accept it will fight to the death against it etc etc you know
00:08:03.640 look at the example of william the conqueror right he spent the next the rest of his life
00:08:08.340 the next 20 years putting down revolts and rebellions and his children had to keep doing
00:08:13.680 the same because he only won it through a battle same goes for henry the fourth remember
00:08:19.600 bolingbroke henry v's father he came along and usurped the throne it wasn't a big battle but
00:08:27.000 usurped the throne off of richard ii and for generations people wouldn't accept it well
00:08:34.380 in the end that's what the whole wars of the roses was about wasn't it in the end
00:08:38.620 because if you just take power it's you know it's not legit and so as i said despite how
00:08:45.160 disliked richard the third was and the fact that he himself was a usurper henry the seventh fills
00:08:50.980 the need and i'm sure of course he was right to fills the need to have to shore up his position
00:08:57.320 as king because his claim his actual sort of legal hereditary claim is not bad but it's not
00:09:05.640 amazing it's not like he's obviously obviously the rightful claimant to the throne and there's
00:09:11.300 no one else out there with a better claim no no if you remember his family come from ultimately
00:09:19.040 welsh knights like very very middling welsh nobility barely even nobility right you remember
00:09:27.760 henry v's widow catherine of valois catherine of france after henry v had died she goes off and
00:09:34.840 goes off and lives a life of her own and falls in love with some some welsh squire some lowly welsh
00:09:40.800 knight and she has a child with him another tudor and he shacks up with margaret beaufort he's like
00:09:47.520 a half-brother of the king i mean the sick he allows he doesn't murder his half-brother or
00:09:53.200 anything keeps him in and around court seems to have quite liked him favored him a bit lets him
00:09:58.320 marry a noble woman margaret beaufort right and and that's who this henry is henry tudor is that's
00:10:03.760 that boy the fruit of that marriage so you know on the beaufort side of the family he's related to
00:10:10.320 to the royal family right but not incredibly so okay so on his mother's side a member of the
00:10:17.400 royal family but not first in line remotely and on his father's side sort of nothing sort of like
00:10:23.760 just just welsh knights although also descended down through the royal family of france through
00:10:29.060 catherine of valois but okay nonetheless so his lineage his blood if you like is royal but it
00:10:36.960 wasn't as royal as the Yorkists it's not as royal as a few other families the Poles the Della Poles
00:10:44.280 and and there's other families out there that are sort of kind of you might say on a level with the
00:10:49.640 Tudor family who think well if Henry Tudor can be king if a little bit of Beaufort blood is enough
00:10:56.380 to be king then you know why can't we you can characterize the Tudor claim in a couple of ways
00:11:02.300 you can say it's actually really quite strong there's there's so few people left after the
00:11:06.960 wars of the roses there's so few surviving members of the royal family left that the tudor claim is
00:11:12.780 actually quite strong quite good what else do you want what more do you want or you could characterize
00:11:17.340 it you could argue it's really weak there's barely anything there at all people do argue that both
00:11:23.280 ways okay well after richard iii is killed at bosworth there's no more plantagenets the last
00:11:30.680 true plantagenet was richard ii right and after he's gone it's then cadet branches right from
00:11:37.760 then on from him in the fourth on it's all just cousin branches and cadet branches of the
00:11:43.360 plantagenets but you can still say can't you can still argue they're still basically plantagenet
00:11:48.300 well now you can't right richard iii was the last one of those even of those the tudors are just
00:11:55.340 not plantagenet they're just not a tiny sliver okay a tiny sliver of it but basically not so
00:12:02.980 henry vii feels the need that he's got to shore up his position well he does doesn't he
00:12:07.800 it's all very well to win a battle against the royal armies and kill the king on the field and
00:12:13.540 lots and lots of the nobles and lots and lots of the country do recognize you
00:12:17.280 but not everyone will and not everyone's happy with it there's there's the church the nobility
00:12:22.860 just the people themselves foreign powers all sorts of people that need to be brought round
00:12:28.840 and convinced that you're the legit king and in fact tiny bit of a spoiler alert although it's
00:12:36.500 probably not a spoiler alert for the for the audience of this show who are very learned
00:12:40.800 that even into the age of uh henry the eighth the next the next generation and even his children
00:12:47.880 you'll still get claimants coming up here or there trying to point out um actually the tudor
00:12:53.600 claim isn't the greatest unassailable claim in the world so to begin with at least henry tudor
00:13:00.560 himself henry the seventh needs to uh try and cement his rule as king because he only really
00:13:07.240 has it due to the fact that he won at bosworth field all right churchill goes on here saying
00:13:13.340 quote then there were the frontiers of england of the english kingdom throughout the history of
00:13:19.620 medieval england there runs a deep division between north and south in the south a more
00:13:24.980 fully advanced society dwelt in a rich countryside with well-developed towns and a prosperous wall
00:13:31.220 trade with flanders and and italy the walls of the roses had been a serious threat to this
00:13:37.580 organized life and it was in the south that henry found his chief support in the words of a chronicler
00:13:43.660 he could not endure to see trade sick money you see money makes the world go round he secured
00:13:50.140 favorable arms for english merchants who traded with the netherlands commerce was a suckered by
00:13:55.640 peace he put down disorder in the countryside and representatives of the merchant classes
00:14:01.420 cooperated with him in parliament henry's careful attention to the body sprang from a real community
00:14:07.680 of interests the need for settled government if this was despotism it was despotism by consent
00:14:14.780 end quote that's obviously churchill's opinion but it's a it's a fair one i think i think most
00:14:20.180 people think churchill goes on the north was very different great feudal houses like the purses
00:14:27.160 dominated the scene the land was mountainous and barren the population lawless and turbulent
00:14:32.700 communications were slow and the king's authority was often ignored and sometimes flouted the long
00:14:39.580 tradition of border warfare with the scots the figures of the moss troopers and ballads of cattle
00:14:46.220 raids and the burning of villages still survived richard duke of gloucester had been popular in
00:14:52.040 these parts his spirit was in harmony with the surroundings in a rough and ready fashion he had
00:14:57.820 governed well and the city of york remained faithful to his memory even after bosworth
00:15:03.000 henry had not only to preserve order and authority in these regions but also to establish a secure
00:15:09.660 frontier against the scots remember the trouble with the scots doesn't really end until the 18th
00:15:14.840 century so as the new owner of the gloucester estates he had acquired a strategic base in the
00:15:20.200 north. It was impossible to govern England from London in the 15th century. The machinery of
00:15:25.500 administration was too primitive and it was essential to delegate authority. Councils were
00:15:31.440 accordingly established to administer the northern parts and the Welsh marches. Trusted servants were
00:15:37.780 given wide powers of administration and new officials who owed everything to their master
00:15:42.820 and were trained in the law now began to play a decisive part in the work of government.
00:15:47.620 they had always been active in the king's household and the courts of law now for the first
00:15:52.940 time they had the ascendancy over the old nobles of the feudal age such were men like henry wyatt
00:15:59.420 the king's trusted agent in the north and captain of the key castle of berwick and edmund dudley in
00:16:05.540 the south and from them and their like the sydneys herbert's cecil's and russell's were descended
00:16:11.760 the threat of internal disorder marched with the menace from beyond the sea
00:16:16.260 Henry had to keep ceaseless watch for the invasion of pretenders
00:16:20.100 Supported by foreign aid
00:16:21.760 See, there are pretenders
00:16:23.740 I.e. other claimants to the throne
00:16:26.000 The Tudor claim is far from unassailable
00:16:29.140 His position depended upon his own political skill and judgement
00:16:33.660 And not on any hereditary sanction
00:16:36.320 The court of Burgundy was a centre of plots against him
00:16:39.940 The Duchess being the sister of Richard III
00:16:42.700 and twice she launched pretenders against the Tudor regime the first was Lambert Simnel who
00:16:50.220 finished ingloriously as a scullion in the royal kitchens Lambert Simnel very kind of in hindsight
00:16:57.180 a funny figure he claimed to be is that instead of just having him killed Henry Tudor seemed to
00:17:05.340 have maybe liked him by rights you would have thought on paper you just definitely have him
00:17:10.400 executed but he didn't he allowed him to live and even made him like a servant basically lambert
00:17:16.580 was okay with that he was a pretender it wasn't really all that much of a serious claim a serious
00:17:23.040 attempt at a coup d'etat really churchill goes on the second and more formidable was perkin warbeck
00:17:28.660 the son of a boatman and collector of taxes at tournoi put forward as the younger of the princes
00:17:35.080 murdered in the tower so yeah perkin warbeck said you know that richard duke of york the nine-year-old
00:17:41.460 ten-year-old who was supposed to have disappeared in the tower one of the two princes the younger
00:17:47.120 brother of the legit edward v yeah well uh that's me i wasn't killed i escaped and i've grown up now
00:17:55.060 and that's me a changeling sometimes in history people that claim that sort of thing they were
00:18:01.160 changing you were changed out there's some other body of some other little child but that's not
00:18:06.180 the real one the real one's me perkin warbeck no one no one bought it then or now really it's
00:18:12.360 obviously a walter mitty obviously you know a chancer a liar well not obviously some people
00:18:18.340 do argue some people do argue that perkin warbeck is the real richard duke of york um but i don't
00:18:24.920 by it hardly anyone does it's not likely goes on backed by discontented yorkist nobles in ireland
00:18:32.460 by burgundy money austrian and flemish troops and scottish sympathy warbeck remained at large for
00:18:40.280 seven years plotting openly thrice he attempted to seize the english throne but the classes who
00:18:47.180 had backed the king since bosworth were staunch warbeck's invasion of kent was repulsed by the
00:18:52.580 yokels before the military arrived his attack from scotland penetrated only four miles across
00:18:58.680 the border and a cornish rising in 1497 which he joined melted away he fled to sanctuary whence he
00:19:06.660 was taken to london and kept in custody two years later after two attempts at escape he was executed
00:19:12.780 after confessing his guilt on the scaffold at tyburn hung like a common criminal the affair
00:19:19.440 ended in ignominy and ridicule but the danger had been a real one okay there you go the the figure
00:19:26.240 of perkin warbeck and lambert simnel um interesting kind of funny i mean it wouldn't have been all
00:19:31.600 that funny at the time but we hope you enjoyed that video and if you did please head over to
00:19:36.960 thelotasseaters.com for the full unabridged video.