The Black Adder TV - Thomas Penn TV - Jonathan Foyle TV - Peter Ackroyd - David Starkey TV - Dan Jones TV -
History has known many great liars. Copernicus. Goebbels. St Ralph the Liar. But there have been none quite so vile as the Tudor King Henry VII. It was he who rewrote history to portray his predecessor, Richard III, as a deformed maniac who killed his nephews in the Tower. But the real truth is that Richard was a kind and thoughtful man who cherished his young wards, in particular Richard, Duke of York, who grew into a big, strong boy. Henry also claimed he won the Battle of Bosworth Field and killed Richard III. Again, the truth is very different: for it was Richard, Duke of York, who became King after Bosworth Field, and reigned for thirteen glorious years. As for who really killed Richard III and how the defeated Henry Tudor escaped with his life, all is revealed in this, the first chapter of a history never before told: the history of ... the Black Adder! The Black Adder: The Foretelling, opening commentary, BBC 1983
Henry VII remains obscure ... An ‘infinitely suspicious’ ruler ... His murky story ... This manipulative King who created one of the strangest regimes in history. Thomas Penn, Henry VII: Winter King, BBC 2013
‘Judge me, O Lord, and favour my cause’ ... He wanted to slip in undetected. ibid.
John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln v Henry Tudor: the first serious rebellion ... in the East Midlands. ibid.
Perkin Warbeck: impersonation of the Princes in the Tower ... A threat Henry had to diffuse. ibid.
Henry was obsessed with control ... Henry was building up a dense network of spies and informers. ibid.
A royal marriage: Arthur was to marry a great Spanish princess: Catherine of Aragon. ibid.
Prince Arthur was laid to rest ... A funeral befitting a prince, reflecting the scale of the tragedy ... The political impact of Arthur’s death was immense. ibid.
Henry saw conspiracy at every turn ... If his subjects would not love him they would be made to fear him ... Henry’s subjects were scared and they were resentful. ibid.
1509: Henry VII died. ibid.
April 1509: Henry VII has died. His twenty-four-year reign has been marked by profound unpopularity. Dr Jonathan Foyle, Henry VIII: Patron or Plunderer? I, BBC 2012
Henry VII had reigned for twenty-four years ... Henry had restored peace and stability within the realm ... His close supervision of all aspects of administration, financial and political, suggested that in a real sense all authority now radiated from the monarch; he was the central symbol of power and unity of the nation. Peter Ackroyd, The Life of Thomas More p125
Henry [VII] was a man who should never have been King at all; he seized the throne against all the odds … His enemies, three brutal brothers, tore themselves apart through murder and betrayal. Monarchy by David Starkey s2e1: The Crown Imperial, Channel 4 2005
The two sides came face to face at Bosworth in the Midlands … Henry was crowned Henry VII two months later promising to restore the glory days of his namesake King Henry V. ibid.
Arthur, Henry’s son and heir, died. ibid.
Henry Tudor, a minor noble and rank outsider, beats the infamous Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth and becomes Henry VII, the first Tudor King. Dan Jones, Britain’s Bloody Crown IV, Channel 5 2016
Margaret Beaufort’s story spans the whole of the Wars of the Roses. She works in the shadows through three decades of turmoil to protect her only child … This woman ends the conflict. ibid.
Henry Tudor is the most wanted man in England. This 27-year-old Welsh exile is about to make a claim for the English throne. And it’s all thanks to his mother, Margaret Beaufort. Royal Bastards: Rise of the Tudors III, History 2021
Behind Stanley’s back, Margaret joins a plot to free the two princes and put Edward V on the throne. ibid.
Noblemen begin to turn against Richard and flee England. ibid.
With Buckingham in her back pocket, Margaret plans a war. Henry and Jasper will land in England with a fleet of fifteen ships and five-thousand men. ibid.
Richard issues a statement denouncing Margaret … Everything that she has fought for has been taken away. But she is alive. ibid.