The House of Tudor by Alison Plowden Read Free Book Online Page A

could count on the support of the business community and, indeed, of the population at large.
    Not that the Yorkist cause was dead - far from it - and Henry, reviewing the serried ranks of his cousins, had no reason to feel complacent. Richard’s son had, providentially, predeceased him, but there were too many Yorkist males still very much alive for the peace of mind of the only surviving Lancastrian. There was the ten-year-old Earl of Warwick, son of Edward IV’s brother George; there were the de la Pole brothers, sons of Edward’s sister Elizabeth, and there was also the young Duke of Buckingham, son of the Duke executed in 1483 and a four-times great-grandson of Edward in. Then there were the girls, whose marriages and progeny could (and did) provide further complications. Henry’s fiancée, Elizabeth of York, had four sisters; the Earl of Warwick had a sister and so did the Duke of Buckingham.
    Henry’s awareness of the danger is demonstrated by the fact that within hours of Bosworth a messenger was on his way from Leicester to the castle of Sheriff Hutton in Yorkshire, where both Warwick and Elizabeth had been lodged for safe-keeping by Richard. Both were now brought to London, the unhappy Warwick to the Tower and Elizabeth to be returned to her mother pending her marriage. Marriage, though, would have to wait a little - at any rate until the most pressing business of the new reign had been disposed of.
    One thing which could not be postponed was the King’s coronation. Preparations for making this a truly memorable occasion were put in hand at once, and Sir Robert Willoughby, Steward of the Household, sent his staff round London to buy up all the scarlet cloth, crimson satin, purple velvet and cloth of gold they could lay hands on. Other items on Sir Robert’s shopping list included silk fringe for trumpet banners, silk tassels for trimming caps, ribbon of Venice gold for the King’s gloves, ostrich feathers and Spanish leather boots for the henchmen and footmen, seventy-one ounces of ‘hangyng spangels of silver and double gilt’ at eight shillings an ounce, quantities of powdered ermine and miniver for furred robes and mantles, harness and ceremonial trappings for the horses, four-and-three-quarter yards of fine russet cloth for the King’s confessor, twelve coats of arms for the heralds, ‘wrought in oyle colors with fyne gold’ and costing thirty shillings each, two pairs of gilt spurs for the King and a considerable number of assorted cushions of red and blue damask and cloth of gold. It was all meticulously entered in the wardrobe accounts, down to the last quarter pound of thread, the yard of buckram for lining the collars of the henchmen’s doublets and, fascinatingly, three-quarters of a yard of red velvet for dragons! It all cost a great deal of money, but Henry Tudor knew the value of putting on a good show - especially when it was a question of promoting public confidence.
    The coronation date was set for the end of October and, while a small army of tailors and embroiderers, upholsterers and carpenters laboured to get everything ready, the King was quietly consolidating his position - appointing a Council from the hard core of his fellow exiles, reinforced by men like the Stanleys, Reginald Bray and, before the end of the year, John Morton; installing trusted supporters in strategic posts round the country; and issuing writs for the summoning of Parliament.
    A few days before the coronation, the Court, following established practice, moved into the Tower and Henry marked the occasion by conferring the dukedom of Bedford on faithful uncle Jasper, without whom none of it would have been possible. Lord Stanley became Earl of Derby and William Courtenay, another of those stalwarts who had known exile with the Tudors, became Earl of Devonshire and was later further rewarded with a royal bride, the Yorkist princess Katherine. On 29 October came the traditional recognition procession through the city