Henry Tudor's usurpation points

How did Henry Tudor become King through Foreign Support?

Henry spent fourteen years of his childhood living in exile in Brittany, which at the time was still independent from the government of France. Without being able to live in Brittany, Henry would most likely not have survived as he was being sheltered by the country, which some would argue is the most vital reason as to why Henry Tudor was able to take the throne. However, after Richard III’s usurpation to the throne in 1483, the Duke of Brittany began to assist Richard III by giving him men and ships. Due to this alliance, the King of France, Charles VIII decided to back Henry Tudor in case he also joined with them to attack France. Moreover, Charles VIII thought that by helping Henry Tudor, it would also help weaken Brittany, the place Henry had been living in for most of his life. Charles VIII lent Henry 60,000 francs and nearly 2000 mercenaries. Some would argue that Charles VIII also saw Henry as a useful diversion to stop Richard III invading France and in addition, never expected Henry Tudor to become King of England due to his age and his right to the throne. By this point however, in the summer of 1485, Richard III was aware that Henry was coming and landed in Milford Haven on the 7^th August. The foreign support that Henry received was pivotal in starting Henry Tudor’s second attempt at invading England because otherwise he would never have been able to land and gather troops for the Battle of Bosworth and Henry would have been  undoubtedly captured and killed for plotting to overthrow Richard

How did Henry Tudor become King through his mum?

it was at Margaret’s urging that 14-year-old Henry should flee abroad following the Lancastrian defeat at Tewkesbury in 1471 and didn’t return home until 1485 (to take the throne) that allowed Henry to actually survive in exile, whether foreign support or Richard III’s failures were present or not. Furthermore, when Edward IV became king in 1461, Margaret, for the sake of helping Henry take the throne, submitted to the House of York by laying low and keeping in Edwards good books. This showed how loyal Margaret was to her son, Henry, because she was originally part of the House of Lancaster but saw the greater success in supporting York to benefit Henry in the long term. Margaret also began to play an increasingly prominent role at the Yorkist court in the 1470’s and at the christening of Edward and Elisabeth’s last child, Margaret carried her to the front, suggesting that Elizabeth Woodville had come to trust Margaret.  This alliance was further confirmed when their secret talks together continued and soon grew into a plot to drive out Richard and replace him with young Henry Tudor, with both women agreeing to betroth Henry to Elizabeth Woodville’s daughter, Elizabeth of York. The common aim being to bring both the Lancastrians and Yorkists together, in order to end the War of the Roses.                                                                                           

How did Henry Tudor become King through the weaknesses of Richard III?

His short reign was clearly dominated by the consequences of his usurpation, the assumption that he had murdered his own nephews and the negative outcomes of the Buckingham rebellion. For example, when he claimed the throne as his own in 1483, he swiftly took the young Edward V into custody and gained possession of Richard, Duke of York whom he both supposedly killed in secret. It could be said that one of Richard’s biggest mistakes was not addressing the disappearance of his two nephews or even hinting that Henry Tudor was behind it all. This already shows that even at the beginning of his reign, Richard was not strategic on his claim to the throne, and by allowing rumours to circulate, ironically helped Henry Tudor gain support back in Brittany. A weakness of Richard III that ultimately led to his death and the victory of Henry Tudor was that he was seen as a usurper to the throne, and so faced a growing public disaffection, making his clench on power tense and unnerved. He became increasingly more unpopular as allegations swept around England, including him poisoning his wife and potentially taking Elizabeth of York as his new queen, his niece. He sent instructions to Southampton, Windsor and York that the city authorities should repress and punish those who repeated these rumours, consequently making him look guilty and adding to the amount of people opposed against him.                                                                                                                           Moreover, the Treaty of Arras in 1482 had ended the payment of the French pension awarded to Edward IV and he had been unfortunate in inheriting a depleted treasury. This meant that he increasingly depended on forced loans to pay for the Buckingham Rebellion, the war in Scotland and to protect himself against Henry Tudor’s impending invasion. These loans led to further unpopularity and with the growing lack of support from the South after the Buckingham Rebellion, it seemed as though Richard III had lost all chances of staying King, purely due to his own reputation. Therefore, some would argue that Henry Tudor became King due to the weaknesses and mistakes of Richard III. Even if Charles VIII hadn’t helped Henry, it seems as though Richard III was fighting a losing battle to his right to the throne

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