As Henry VII, the new King spent a troubled quarter-century on the throne convincing his subjects that the decision in 1485 had been God’s, though well aware that he needed to exercise his considerable personal talents to sustain that notion. His victory at Bosworth did suggest divine favour to pious contemporaries, but Henry backed up God’s choice by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of King Edward IV. The Tudor dynasty was henceforward slightly more plausible in terms of royal descent. Henry’s surviving son, eighth Henry on the English throne, grew up with a profound sense of divine
...more
