'The greatest threat faced by Henry VII was that of the nobility'
Assess the validity of this view
Henry faced many di erent problems at the beginning of his reign in 1457. These include the
uncertain peace of England and the many rivals he possessed for the throne -especially from
Yorkist supporters. His rule was also at threat due to foreign powers looking to gain in uence
over England and his lack of personal wealth, especially compared to some of the nobles.
Some historians agree that of the threats faced by Henry ‘The most serious were those with
dynas c inten ons’ (John Guy, Tudor England 1986). This highlights that the most prevalent
threats for Henry came from par es wishing to remove him from the throne.
A threat Henry VII faced during his reign was that of the nobility. The nobility had immense
wealth and with this wealth they possessed great regional power. The nobles could u lise
this power in order to create a rebellion against the monarch. In order to prevent this from
happening Henry employed a number of tac cs, such as using lesser magnates and awarding
limited peerages. The reduced number of peerages meant that there were less ‘Overmighty
nobles’ (K.B Mcfarlane The Nobility Of Greater England ) for Henry to control. Nobles could
also draw on their private armies to create a rebellion against Henry. In order to avoid such a
fate, Henry enforced an act in 1504 which imposed a £5 penalty per month for illegal
retainers. He applied this rule to Lord Burgavenny in 1506 with a ne of £70,550. Although
in prac ce this was seldom enforced it limited the power the nobility had and therefore the
threat that they could pose for Henry. Certain nobles with Yorkist predilec ons would also
want Henry to be removed from the throne and thus cause a threat. To minimise this threat
Henry backdated his reign a day before the ba le of Bosworth. As a result of this Henry
could label any supporters of Richard III as traitors and thus he had a right to seize their land.
From all these measures it is clear to see how the nobility caused a great threat for Henry
and how he understood the signi cance of controlling the nobility.
Pretenders to the throne also posed a great threat for Henry. The most serious of which was
Perkin Warbeck who claimed to be Richard of York. Between 1491 and 1497 Warbeck sought
to claim the throne by capitalizing upon Henry’s unpopularity, seen when he tried to exploit
the uncertain es created by the Cornish rebellion. Although ul mately Perkin Warbeck was
unsuccessful in seizing the throne, he was a great threat as he was backed nancially by
nobles such as Lord William Stanley and he was also reinforced by foreign powers such as
Margaret of Burgundy. Also Warbeck was a threat as he ‘Reinvigorated Yorkist sympathisers’
(Susan Brigden, The Rule of the Tudors) this shows that he promoted threats against Henry.
However, it can be argued that without nobles such as Lord Stanley that Perkin Warbeck
would have not gained as much power as he did, thus highligh ng another reason why
nobles were the greatest threat to Henry.
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