Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England

398 Pages·2011·3.95 MB·English

by  Thomas Penn

THOMAS PENN
Winter King
The Dawn of Tudor England

ALLEN LANE
an imprint of
PENGUIN BOOKS
Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Maps

Genealogical Table

Introduction

Prologue: Red Rose, Avenger of the White

PART ONE
Blood and Roses

1. Not a Drop of Doubtful Royal Blood

2. Richmond

3. He Seeks in All Places to Destroy Me

4. Now Must You Supply the Mother’s Part Also

PART TWO
Change of Worlds

5. No Sure Way

6. Council Learned

7. Our Second Treasure
8. Null and Void

9. This Day Came de la Pole

10. New Heaven, New Earth

PART THREE
A State of Avarice

11. Extraordinary Justice

12. Courage to be Bold

13. Savage Harshness Made Complete

14. The Art of Dying

15. Rich, Ferocious, Thirsting for Glory

Illustrations

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography
For Kate
‘I love the rose both red and white.
Is that your pure, perfect appetite?’
Thomas Phelyppes,
‘I love, I love and whom love ye?’ c. 1486

‘Since men love at their own pleasure and fear at the pleasure of the prince, the
wise prince should build his foundation upon that which is his own, not upon
that which belongs to others: only he must seek to avoid being hated.’
Machiavelli, The Prince
List of Illustrations

1. Frontispiece of the ‘Liber de optimo fato’, or ‘Book of Excellent Fortunes’, by William Parron. (By
permission of the British Library) 2. Henry VII. Terracotta portrait bust by Pietro Torrigiano.
(Copyright © Victoria and Albert Museum, London) 3. Elizabeth of York, Henry’s queen. (Copyright
© National Portrait Gallery, London)
4. A laughing boy, thought to be Prince Henry, by Guido Mazzoni. (The Royal Collection, copyright ©
2011 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II) 5. Lady Margaret Beaufort. (By permission of the Master and
Fellows of St John’s College, Cambridge)
6. Catherine of Aragon, aged about twenty, by Michael Sittow. (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)
7. Richmond. Drawing by Antonis van Wyngaerde, c. 1562. (Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford) 8.
‘Score cheque’ from the first day of the November 1501 jousts at Westminster, celebrating the
marriage of Prince Arthur to Catherine of Aragon. (The College of Arms, London) 9. A group of
plate-armoured jousters arrives at a tournament. (The College of Arms, London)
10. Informer’s report by John Flamank, detailing the secret conversation among Henry VII’s officials at
Calais, September 1504. (The National Archives) 11. Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester, lord privy
seal and Henry VII’s diplomatic mastermind. Portrait by Hans Corvus. (Copyright © Corpus Christi
College, Oxford, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library) 12. The death of Henry VII. Drawing by Garter
king-of-arms Thomas Wriothesley. (By permission of the British Library) 13. From Thomas More’s
coronation verses, on the rainstorm that disrupted Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon’s procession
through London, 23 June 1509. (By permission of the British Library) 14. Henry VII’s accounts.
(The National Archives)
Map 1
England c. 1500
Map 2
Western Europe c. 1500