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jazzy_daveThomas Penn "Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England" (Penguin)
Henry Tudor: Henry VII, perhaps best known as father of Henry VIII, but Thomas Penn's compelling biography places him not only as the founder of the Tudor dynasty, but of laying the ground rules for those that would follow him. Fear, manipulation and control were the watch words and if this sounds like a model for Machiavelli's [The Prince] published in 1513 just four years after Henry's death then it would not be very wide of the mark.
When Henry Tudor by good fortune emerged victorious at the battle of Bosworth field, he grasped the opportunity on behalf of the house of Lancaster to crown himself king. The Yorkist king Richard III had been killed as had the Duke of Norfolk, while his Lancastrian supporter the Duke of Northumberland had fled. Bosworth Field was the final pitched battle of the long running feud between the noble hoses for the crown, but this was by no means a certainty when Henry was crowned king. He had the opportunity to consolidate his reign following the deaths of the leading Yorkists, but he had to come up with different modus operandi to previous rulers. The problem facing him was how to maintain his authority when other nobles still craved to be king. Traditionally a king would buy his support by rewarding his supporters with land and wealth, usually from the spoils of war and when this wasn't enough crack down harshly on any opposition. Henry VII followed this well trod path, but he added another essential ingredient, he hit both friends and enemies where it really hurt, he hit them in their pocket. Gradually he instigated a system of fines and bonds for misdemeanours against the crown: past as well as present, backing this up with intelligence gathering machinery through informants and spies that was unprecedented. He rapidly became very rich, no longer needing parliaments agreement to raise taxes and his opponents became relatively poor, eventually reduced in circumstances to an extent where putting an army in the field against the king would have been extremely difficult. Fifteenth century knights and aristocrats were well used to living in fear of death, but living in fear of not being able to live in the proper style was an added incentive not to cause trouble.
Thomas Penn's well researched biography is written in a style that would be accessible to the more general reader. Penn has made a story of their lives that is both exciting to read yet still heaped in period detail and not straying too far from accepted facts. Other historical characters come alive; Catherine of Aragon and the Kings mother Lady Margaret and his wife Elizabeth and the Kings advisers and money men, but also the artists and men of letters that hovered around the periphery of the Kings court; for example Erasmus, Stephen Hawes and John Skelton. Prince Henry who became Henry VIII threatens to take over the biography in the latter chapters, but this provides the incentive that will keep the more general readers interested until the end.I felt entertained and informed in equal measure, and would recommned the book to readers whose knowledge of this period is less informed.
Henry Tudor: Henry VII, perhaps best known as father of Henry VIII, but Thomas Penn's compelling biography places him not only as the founder of the Tudor dynasty, but of laying the ground rules for those that would follow him. Fear, manipulation and control were the watch words and if this sounds like a model for Machiavelli's [The Prince] published in 1513 just four years after Henry's death then it would not be very wide of the mark.
When Henry Tudor by good fortune emerged victorious at the battle of Bosworth field, he grasped the opportunity on behalf of the house of Lancaster to crown himself king. The Yorkist king Richard III had been killed as had the Duke of Norfolk, while his Lancastrian supporter the Duke of Northumberland had fled. Bosworth Field was the final pitched battle of the long running feud between the noble hoses for the crown, but this was by no means a certainty when Henry was crowned king. He had the opportunity to consolidate his reign following the deaths of the leading Yorkists, but he had to come up with different modus operandi to previous rulers. The problem facing him was how to maintain his authority when other nobles still craved to be king. Traditionally a king would buy his support by rewarding his supporters with land and wealth, usually from the spoils of war and when this wasn't enough crack down harshly on any opposition. Henry VII followed this well trod path, but he added another essential ingredient, he hit both friends and enemies where it really hurt, he hit them in their pocket. Gradually he instigated a system of fines and bonds for misdemeanours against the crown: past as well as present, backing this up with intelligence gathering machinery through informants and spies that was unprecedented. He rapidly became very rich, no longer needing parliaments agreement to raise taxes and his opponents became relatively poor, eventually reduced in circumstances to an extent where putting an army in the field against the king would have been extremely difficult. Fifteenth century knights and aristocrats were well used to living in fear of death, but living in fear of not being able to live in the proper style was an added incentive not to cause trouble.
Thomas Penn's well researched biography is written in a style that would be accessible to the more general reader. Penn has made a story of their lives that is both exciting to read yet still heaped in period detail and not straying too far from accepted facts. Other historical characters come alive; Catherine of Aragon and the Kings mother Lady Margaret and his wife Elizabeth and the Kings advisers and money men, but also the artists and men of letters that hovered around the periphery of the Kings court; for example Erasmus, Stephen Hawes and John Skelton. Prince Henry who became Henry VIII threatens to take over the biography in the latter chapters, but this provides the incentive that will keep the more general readers interested until the end.I felt entertained and informed in equal measure, and would recommned the book to readers whose knowledge of this period is less informed.
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