19. Henry VII

The Kings and Queens podcast

According to the chronicler Vergil, ‘Henry VII's (1485-1509) spirit was distinguished, wise and prudent; his mind was brave and resolute and it never, even at moments of great danger, deserted him’.

He was the last king to win the crown on the battlefield in one of the most significant moments in English history. But history does not remember him as a warrior but as a rather grey miser, as Vergil added, ‘all his virtues were obscured by avarice’.

He was the only Tudor to be omitted from Shakespeare’s plays yet by combining the white and red roses of York and Lancaster he brought an end to over 30 years of brutal civil war, to create a new flourishing hybrid, the Tudor rose, consolidating perhaps the most famous dynasty in English history.
CHARACTERS

Henry VII – King of England
Elizabeth of York – Queen of England
Prince Arthur – son of Henry and Elizabeth
Prince Henry – son of Henry and Elizabeth, future Henry VIII
Princess Katherine – daughter of Henry and Elizabeth
Margaret Beaufort – Mother of Henry VII
Edmund Tudor – Father of Henry VII
Jasper Tudor – Uncle of Henry VII
Owain Tudor – Grandfather of Henry VII
Catherine of Valois – Grandmother of Henry VII, former Queen of England and wife of Henry V
John de Vere, earl of Oxford – general loyal to Henry VII
William Stanley – general sometimes loyal to Henry VII
Henry Percy, the earl of Northumberland
Edward Plantagenet, earl of Warwick – son of George, duke of Clarence
Lambert Simnel – pretender to the throne, impersonated Edward Plantagenet
Perkin Warbeck - pretender to the throne, impersonated Richard of Shrewsbury
Margaret of Burgundy – sister of Edward IV, Richard III, duke of Clarence, aunt of Edward Plantagenet and Richard of Shrewsbury
John de la Pole – cousin of Edward Plantagenet

John Fisher – bishop of Rochester
Edmund Dudley and Richard Empson – financial agents of Henry VII
John Morton – financial agent and Archbishop of Canterbury

Francis II, duke of Brittany
Ferdinand II of Aragon
Isabella of Castile
Catherine of Aragon – wife of Prince Arthur
Maximilian – Holy Roman Emperor
James IV of Scotland
Gerald Fitzgerald, earl of Kildare and Lord Deputy of Ireland

Erasmus – Dutch philosopher and scholar of the Renaissance
John Colet – scholar and Renaissance humanist
Christopher Columbus – Italian explorer and navigator
John Cabot – Italian explorer and navigator

Vergil - Chronicler
Edward Hall - Chronicler
William Shakespeare - playwright
Edward III – King of England (1327-77)
Henry IV – King of England (1399-1413)
Henry V – King of England (1413-22)
Henry VI – King of England (1422-61, 70-71)
Edward IV – King of England (1461-70, 71-83)
Edward V – King of England (1483)
Richard III – King of England (1483-85)
John of Gaunt – son of Edward III
George, duke of Clarence – brother of Edward IV and Richard III
Richard of Shrewsbury – son of Edward IV
Richard, duke of York – Yorkist claimant and father of Edward IV
Owain Glyndwr – Welsh leader during War of Independence
Elizabeth Woodville – Queen of England, wife of Edward IV
Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham – one-time ally of Richard III

CREDITS

John Dowland – Mistress Nichols Alman Lachrimae
Byrd – Ave Verum Corpus
Jergonda – hand mans rope
Falconbeard – short toed eagle call
Hazure – seagull
Jordishaw – stabbing sound
Tim Kahn – footsteps
liamg sfx – battle cry 4
soundmary – wild horses running