The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - May 10, 2026


PREVIEW： Epochs #262 ｜ The Life of Henry VII


Episode Stats


Length

19 minutes

Words per minute

159.95863

Word count

3,145

Sentence count

19


Summary

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

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
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.