Creating an English Sovereignty

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Creating an English Sovereignty

• From Heptarchy to the Tudors, 600-1485

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Pre- and Roman Britain

• Neolithic and metal-age culturesSkara Brae in
  Orkneys
• Romans invade in 55 B. C. E. and 43 C. E.
• Deep cultural influences, especially in south.
• Hadrians Wall122-130
• Roman garrisons leave Britain ca. 400-410.

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Skara Brae
Hadrians Wall
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After Roman Britain

• Angles, Saxons, Jutes settled Britain and
  dueled for its control with Celts, Picts, and
  Welsh.
• From about 600 to 871, England was really seven
  fluid kingdoms Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy
• Alfred (871-899), King of Wessex, asserted
  control over most of heptarchy

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The Heptarchy
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Saxon to Norman Britain

• Alfreds descendants and Danes struggled for
  control of English Kingdom
• Edward the Confessor allegedly promised throne to
  William, Duke of Normandy.
• William defeated Anglo-Saxon Barons candidate at
  Battle of Hastings in 1066.

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William I(1066-1089)

• Norman Feudalism strengthened position of Crown.
• Created Curia Regisvery distant forerunner of
  Parliament
• Domesday Survey

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Plantagenets 1154-1399

• Henry II (1154-1189) by marriage to Eleanor of
  Aquitaine possessed much of present-day France as
  well as throne of England
• His son, John, a weak king, was forced to sign
  the Magna Carta (1215)
• Edward I (1272-1307), HIIs great-grandson, not
  only fought William Wallace, he reformed English
  law (Statute of Mortmaine) and during his reign
  the Model Parliament met.

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Henry II Eleanor
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Later Plantagenets 1327-1399

• Edward III (1327-1377) and his son, Edward The
  Black Prince spent most of reign fighting the
  100 Years War with the French House of Valois.
• Richard II (1377-1399) became king as a youth,
  real power rested in hands of Lords Appellant.
• Richards attempt to rule in his own right led
  him to seized the estates of Henry of
  Bolingbroke.
• Bolingbroke (House of Lancaster) forced Richard
  from the throne and claimed the throne as Henry
  IV.

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Edward III1327-1377
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Problem of Succession

• Henry IV could not claim to rule by hereditary
  right
• Values of bastard feudalism unsettled nobility
  and created a sea of uprisings
• 100 years war provided a major distraction.
• Indeed, Henry V (1415-22) almost became King of
  England and of France at same time.

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House of Lancaster

• Henrys usurpation bypassed the Yorks who were
  next in line to Richard II.
• As long as Lancasters were successful rulers, as
  Henry IV and Henry V essentially were, there was
  no real problem with usurpation.
• But Henry VI was another matter (1422-1461
  1471) he was 6 months old when he became king.

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Henry VI and the Wars of the Roses

• Henrys reign coincided with the gradual defeat
  of England in the 100 years war English lands
  came to be seen as Lancastrian and Henrys
  advisorsand his French wifewere blamed for
  misspent treasure and blood.
• In 1453, Henry went mad.

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The Lancastrian Kings Henry IV, Henry V, and
Henry VI
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The Yorks

• Richard, Duke of York, actually served as
  guardian for Henry VI twice in 1450s
• He and Henrys French wife Matilda dueled over
  power
• Richard attempted to seize throne in 1460 but was
  slain his son, Edward, with the aide of Richard
  Neville, the Earl of Warwick, became Edward IV
  (1461-1483)

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Edward IV
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Wars of the Roses

• White Rose of York and Red Rose of Lancaster
• Dated variously from 1455 (St. Albans) or
  Wakefield in (1460) to Bosworth Field (1485) or
  the defeat of Lambert Simnel at Stoke (1487)
• At least 49 of the 60 noble families took part
• 38 peers were killed or executed in wars
• Approximately 400 landowners forfeited their
  landstemporarily or permanentlyas a result of
  these wars.

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Wars of Roses

• Didnt have to end with Tudor Succession.
• Edward IVs death in 1483 left throne to Edward
  V, who was 12 and Richard, Edward Vs uncle,
  acted as regent after ousting the Woodville
  relatives.
• Richard declared Edward V a bastard and seized
  throne on July 6, 1483, as Richard III.
• Tudors in behalf of Lancastrians and exiled
  Woodvilles intrigue to oust Richard.
• August 22, 1485Battle of Bosworth Field.

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It Mattered

• War discredited feudal nobility in public mind
• Served as a vital grist for Shakespeare and other
  Tudor propagandist War of the Roses was a bad
  thing and Henry VIIs (Tudor) victory at Bosworth
  restored order and prosperity to the English
  nation.

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So who were the Tudors Isnt this about
Lancaster and York

• Yes, but many Lancastrians were eliminated early
  when Edward won at Towton in 1461 and cemented
  his claim as Edward VI
• Other Lancastrians died when they supported
  Edwards erstwhile ally, Warwick, in rebellion
  against Edward, at the Battle of Tewkesbury in
  1471.
• But the Lancastrian women married Tudor men, who
  were minor Welsh nobles.

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Marrying Up The Tudor Strategy

• Owen Tudor married Katherine of Valois, the Widow
  of Henry V.
• Their child, Edmund Tudor, married Margaret
  Beaufort, a member of the legally-legitimate but
  really the bastard line of John of Gaunt
  (Lancasters descendents)
• Edmund and Margarets son was Henry, who became
  Henry VII (1485-1509)

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So whos claim to the throne was correct?

• Its all an exercise in mythmaking
• While the Lancastrians were successful, no one
  fretted about how Henry IV got the throne.
• Lancastrian failures permitted Yorkists to raise
  the issue about how the Lancastrians violated the
  rules of hereditary succession.
• Tudor victory on the battlefield and the equation
  of further disputes with further war led
  political nation to accept the outcome of
  Bosworth Field.
• Tudors knew, too, that successnot legal
  claimlegitimated ones title.