Who was Henry VIII's father

A. The simple question came from fank52 and the equally simple answer, Henry VII, came from AdminMan. Beerman expanded it with: Henry VII also known as Henry Tudor. He was married to Elizabeth of York. Their marriage ended the Wars of the Roses.< xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Q. Pretty important English king, then

A. Yes. But Henry was Welsh. He was born on 28 January, 1457, succeeded on 22 August, 1485, and died on 21 April, 1509. His claim to the English throne was tenuous. His father was Edmund Tudor, a Welshman of Welsh royal lineage. His mother, Margaret Beaufort, was a descendant of Edward III, through his third son, John of Gaunt. John's third wife, Catherine Swynford bore him several children before he married her. The children born before the marriage were later made legitimate, but barred from succession. Margaret Beaufort was descended from one of the children born before the marriage.

Q. Phew! So how did he get on the throne

A. Henry Tudor was born almost two years after the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses conflict between the rival houses of York and Lancaster. His father had died only shortly before his birth, and his mother was only 13, so his paternal uncle, Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, became his guardian. Jasper was a commander in the Lancastrian army, and when Henry was only four, a Yorkist force attacked the fortress and Henry vanished.

Q. Vanished

A. It's not clear what happened. He may have been seized him by his enemies, or he may have been spirited away by his uncle. Jasper escaped to fight another day, but it seems likely that Henry was taken into his enemies' custody. By 1468 he was certainly in the care of the Yorkist Lord Herbert's family, only to be released the next year when the Lancastrians seized power.

Q. So that was good for Henry's cause

A. Yes, Henry's half-uncle, Henry VI, was restored to the throne. But it was a short-lived reign. The king was captured in May, 1471, after his defeat at the Battle of Barnet, and later murdered. Other Lancastrian claimants to the throne had been wiped out. It was just a matter of those Yorkists.

Q. Then

A. In 1483, the Yorkist King Edward IV died and his small son Edward V succeeded until his uncle Richard seized the throne from him. On 7 August, 1485, Henry Tudor landed in Wales and marched to Bosworth in Leicestershire to confront Richard III's army.

Q. A result for Henry, then

A. Yes, even though Richard was an experienced commander and Henry had not even witnessed a battle. A confident Richard made a dash directly at Henry but was beaten back and then killed by the contingent of one of his own men, Lord Stanley, who had just defected to Henry's side.

Q. And the crown was found among the bramble bushes

A. Apparently. Stanley retrieved it and placed it on Henry's head.

Q. That was it, then

A. Not so simple. To rule, a king needed money. To get money, he had to call parliament. To call parliament he had to be king. So he sent legal documents to all MPs and had himself crowned a week before Parliament met on 7 November, 1485. All the MPs were required to do was to pass a statute which 'ordained, established and enacted' that the Crown 'be, rest, remain and abide in the most royal person of our now sovereign lord King Henry VII and in the heirs of his body.' This left Henry's title open to no lawful challenge.

Q. So, he got away with it

A. Yes. And then he kept a promise he had made in 1483, that he would marry Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter and heiress of the Yorkist King Edward IV. The rival families were united at last.

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By Steve Cunningham