How did Henry VII solve his problems?
After Henry VII defeated Richard III in the Battle of Bosworth, he had himself crowned the new king on the battlefield. This was probably because he had a very weak claim to the throne, and did not want anyone to interfere. He was probably also scared of the remaining Yorkist family, who had a much stronger claim to the throne than him. In order to settle the feud that started a very long time ago, Henry VII married Elizabeth of York, who was also the daughter of Edward VI. This marriage now meant that The Lancastrian family had a king in their family, and the Yorkists’ had a queen. To further symbolise the two families coming together, he took the emblems from both families (the red rose and the white rose) and put them together making and red and white rose, also known as the Tudor rose.
This, however, did not completely qualm the threat of a rebellion or a Yorkist attack, if they were to be backed up by a larger force. In order to do this, Henry had to convince England’s neighbouring countries that Henry VII was the rightful king and that he had the right to rule. He mainly did this by crushing the French and Scots in battles. This ensured that they would be in no shape to help support any Yorkist cause. To go even further on this issue, Henry had one of his daughters marry the King of Scotland. At that time, marriage in the higher ranks was usually symbolic rather than for love. Henry’s daughter had secured him a lasting alliance with the King of Scotland.
Henry VII wanted to make sure that his family would be the next in line to the throne when he died. To make sure there would not be any threats from either the Yorkists or other parties, he had a very large family, which included two sons. This meant that Henry’s family was very likely to be selected to be the next monarch, and he had ‘an heir and a spare’ – It would have been alright if one of his sons died before he did as there was another one to fill the gap.
Henry VII was a fairly good fighter – he was able to ‘crush’ Yorkist attempts to take him of the throne in 1487 and 1497. After these battles, Henry VII was very likely to stay as the king of England – he had already managed to beat the Yorkists, and his alliance with Scotland made England a very powerful nation. It also meant that the Yorkists