Henry VII

Under ordinary circumstances, Henry Tudor would never have become king.

Henry's claim to the throne was as the great-grandson of a bastard son of a younger son of King Edward III. Furthermore, the bastard line (the Beauforts), though officially "legitimized" when their father married their mother, had been expressly barred from the throne by Henry IV. But at this stage in the Wars of the Roses, there were no Lancastrians left who had any better claim, so opponents of the Yorkist king Richard III threw in their lot with Henry Tudor.

When the Yorkists had won the crown and the wars had grown particularly dangerous for Lancastrians, Henry's uncle Jasper Tudor had taken him to Brittany to keep him (relatively) safe. Now, thanks to the French king, he had 1,000 French mercenary troops in addition to the Lancastrians and some Yorkist opponents of Richard.

Henry's army landed in Wales and on August 22, 1485, met Richard at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Richard's forces outnumbered Henry's, but at a crucial point in the battle, some of Richard's men switched sides. Richard was killed; Henry claimed the throne by right of conquest and was crowned at the end of October.

As part of his negotiations with his Yorkist supporters, Henry had agreed to marry the daughter of the late King Edward IV, Elizabeth of York. The joining of the House of York to the House of Lancaster was an important symbolic move, signifying the end of the Wars of the Roses and a unified leadership of England.

But before he could marry Elizabeth, Henry had to overturn the law that had made her and her brothers illegitimate. Henry did this without allowing the law to be read, giving Ricardian historians reason to believe the princes might have still been alive at this time. After all, if the boys were legitimate again, as a king's sons they had a better blood right to the throne than Henry. They would have to be eliminated, as many other Yorkist supporters were, to secure Henry's kingship -- if, that is, they were still alive. (The debate continues.)

Henry married Elizabeth of York in January of 1486.

Next: Elizabeth of York

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