Court of Henry VII

Some of the notable names and faces of the court of Henry VII. 

Lady Margaret Beaufort

Henry VII’s mother, Margaret Beaufort was a major figure in the Wars of the Roses. She was descended from Edward III on the Lancastrian side of the family and was married to Edmund Tudor, the half brother of Henry VI. She was 12 when the pair were married, he was 24. Edmund was taken prisoner and died less than a year after their wedding, leaving her a pregnant widow at 13. She was taken under the protection of her brother in law, Jasper Tudor, and gave birth to the future Henry VII at Pembroke Castle. It is thought that the traumatic birth caused permanent injury, as despite being married two more times, Margaret never conceived again. Jasper Tudor arranged another marriage for her, marrying her to Sir Henry Stafford, the son of the Duke of Buckinghamshire. The pair were second cousins and a papal dispensation was required for the marriage to go ahead. The pair were said to be happy and lived together at Woking Palace, though she left her son under the care of Jasper.

Jasper would later flee the country with the young Henry safe from the Yorkists who were dispatching any Lancastrian heirs. It would be 14 years before she and Henry would see each other again.

She became a widow for the second time at 28, after Lord Stafford died in battle fighting for the Yorkists. She later married Thomas Stanley, Lord High Constable and King of Mann, a marriage of convenience that allowed her to enter the court of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, even becoming a Godmother to one of their children and working as a lady in waiting. She even served Richard III’s wife, Anne Neville, carrying her train at their coronation.

She later conspired with Elizabeth Woodville to depose Richard and put Henry VII on the throne. He would defeat Richard at the Battle of Bosworth and married Elizabeth of York, uniting the family.

Elizabeth of York

Daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, Elizabeth of York was queen of England after marrying Henry VII. She seems to have had little to do in the politics of the time and despite earlier family disputes, it would seem that her marriage was a successful one. Together, she and Henry had seven children, though only four survived childhood. Their eldest son Arthur would die at 15, but Henry went on to become Henry VIII and her daughters Margaret and Mary became Queens of Scotland and France respectively.

Lambert Simnel

Simnel is a pretender to the throne of England, he claimed to be Edward Plantagenet, Edward V, one of the missing princes in the Tower. He became the figurehead of a Yorkist rebellion against Henry VII. His real name and details of his actual upbringing are mostly unknown. The story was that he had escaped from the Tower and gained support from Yorkist sympathisers. His army, mostly made up of mercenaries, fought the king’s army in Nottingham where they were defeated. Henry pardoned Simnel, partly because of his young age and because he noticed that he had been a puppet for others. He was put to work in the royal kitchen, before later becoming a falconer in the royal court.

Perkin Warbeck

Another pretender to the English throne, this time claiming to be Richard, Edward V’s younger brother and the other prince that disappeared from the Tower. Unlike Simnel, Warbeck was seen as being a credible threat. He made his way to Scotland where he was welcomed by James IV of Scotland, who allowed him to become part of his court and presented him as a special guest. The pair were planning to invade England together, however the Scottish king grew tired of him and pressured by Spain, signed a treaty with England, sending Warbeck away.

Warbeck would later return to England via Cornwall where he was captured and confessed to being an imposter. He was initially treated well by Henry, who gave him accommodation at court and was allowed to appear at royal banquets. He tried to escape and was put in the Tower of London, where he tried to escape again. This time he was executed and buried in an unmarked grave.

Edward Earl of Warwick

The son of the Duke of Clarence and nephew of Edward IV and Richard III. He was a potential claimant to the English throne, which led to Henry VII imprisoning him at the Tower of London, despite being only 10 years old. He was kept there as Henry’s ward and after Perkin Warbeck was moved into the Tower, he joined in a plot to escape. He was given a trial and was found guilty of treason. He was beheaded on Tower Hill, though Henry VII paid for his body and head to be taken to Berkshire for burial together, rather than displaying the head as is common for someone charged with treason. Upon his death, the House of Plantagenet became extinct in the male line, though some of his cousins continued to claim the throne as Yorkists. There is some debate over Edward’s mental capacity, with some claiming that he had an intellectual disability, something exacerbated by being kept in confinement from a young age. Historians argue that he was manipulated in the escape attempt with Perkin Warbeck.