Ranking History: The Wars of the Roses Historical Figures: Henry Tudor

Today is the eighth and final day of my eight day series where I rank a group of eight historical figures on a scale of S to D (superb to terrible) based on how well they succeeded in their duties and/or goals, their skill in battle, and by what we know (if anything) about their general personalities as normal people.

Previously, we have covered  Henry VI, Edward IV, Queen Margaret, Richard, Duke of York, Somerset, Warwick, and Richard III. Today, I’m going to be covering the ultimate victor of the Wars of the Roses and the first Tudor monarch, Henry Tudor–or Henry VII. As always, these are just my opinions. You may have an entirely different perspective–and if you do, feel free to share it in the comments!

Henry Tudor

Henry Tudor is, well, to put it lightly, not a huge favorite of mine. I don’t dislike the guy, but I find his claim to the throne fragile at best, and behavior later on in his reign essentially tyrannical, attempting to wipe out anyone with a better claim than him.

But of course, this guy had a lot of decent qualities about him too, and, probably the most important one–he won. Maybe he didn’t have the best birthright claim to the throne of England, but he won it by right of conquest. (Even if that conquest was sort of a fluke and depended more on his step-father’s decision of backing him than anything Henry himself did). But I’ve got to give the guy credit. Unlike his rival Richard III, he didn’t die. He survived and came out victorious on his first ever battle. And he has military success later on, such as at the battle of Stoke Field.

He also successfully fended off not one, but two supposed imposters to the throne, Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck. Then there were the de la Pole family, the senior Yorkist line, who pressed their claim to the throne, although nothing ever came from it.

So when I’m considering Henry’s success, I’ve got to consider what his goals are, and I think his main one was to stay on the throne and pass it to his son when he died. And seeing as he did this spectacularly, even if his methods were sometimes questionable (Tudor propaganda, I’m looking at you!) I’ve got to give him a ten out of ten. This guy held onto his throne, never had to flee it, to my knowledge, and beat back every single other claimant and imposter. And most importantly, unlike Edward IV, Henry Tudor actually passed the throne to his son (albeit, not his firstborn who died suddenly before his father).

As for his skill in battle, Henry seemed to be a pretty good leader, even if his first ever battle was the Battle of Bosworth where he almost lost his life (and only won because of his stepfather joining his cause over Richard’s). But Henry also won the Battle of Stoke Field and launched a successful mini campaign into France which resulted in France promising not to harbor any claimants to the throne. So this guy knew what he was doing.

But since I’m not aware of too many battles that he fought in, I’m going to give him an eight out of ten. Because it would just be unfair to rank him so highly compared to the other members of this series who fought in tons more battles and therefore ha a higher risk of losing battles too.

Finally, personality. Honestly, if we look at the start of his reign, he’s a pretty decent guy. One thing notable about Henry Tudor was that he was extremely devoted to his wife and never had any affairs on her. That alone raises him in my opinion. He also seemed to truly love his family, grieving when he lost his eldest son, for example.

But after his wife and son died, Henry started becoming more paranoid and ruthless, including killing many people who he thought posed a threat to him. I mean, I suppose some of it is understandable because of the Wars of the Roses, but still. Also his skill at weaving propaganda to tell the narrative he wanted annoys me a little, but it was a smart move politically, so I can’t entirely fault him for that.

So I have to give his personality a six. It would be higher if he didn’t turn so paranoid and ruthless in his later reign, but he also wasn’t as horrible as his jerk of a son. And his actions, even if paranoid, did somewhat make sense based on what surrounded him his entire life, so I’ve got to give him credit for that.

Success: 10

Warrior Skills: 8

Personality: 6

Honestly, I’m going to have to rank him in the A category. I mean, he won. Even if his claim wasn’t the strongest, he survived, he won the battles, and he held onto the throne. And he was a decent family guy, so hugely better than Edward IV. Even if I can’t believe I ranked him higher than the Yorkist dudes.

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Well, that’s it for the series! I hope you enjoyed it and maybe earned a thing or two! What do you think of my ranking of Tudor? Do you think it’s accurate, or would you have placed him somewhere else? What fact do you find the most interesting? And how did you enjoy this ranking series, and would you like me to do another? Let me know in the comments below! ~ Kay Adelin