Thomas PennCritiques

This is the book for those interested in the nitty-gritty of history. The story carries itself, intrigue and mental fears, romance, life and death in intimate detail with excellent research. However, if you are not familiar with this time and these people...oh boy. The parade of characters will keep you on your toes, trying to remember who is who and what they did to whom is mental exercise for sure. The author recreates this story in a compelling manner making this non-fiction read like a novel.

Thomas Penn has written a very good book about the last half of Henry VII's reign. Henry was a man consumed with his finances, and gradually retreated from public life into a rather paranoid shell. But, the legacy of his predeceasing monarch, Edward IV had been renewed civil war when he demonstrated more lenient behaviour. The work includes some information on the early life of Henry VIII, and, is a detailed study of the protracted diplomacy regarding the marriage between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. The reader will get insights into the relationship between the emperor Maximilian and Henry, as well as stuff on Ferdinand of Aragon. It is much more informative than the more flattering biography written by Francis Bacon for James I, about that Scots king's great grandfather. Sadly, the first half of Henry's life is not very well covered, and perhaps, the information just does not exist.

Skimmed. I found that I didn't have the patience for what often seemed like a laundry list recitation of people and events. But there is plenty of good stuff in the book. It kept surprising me with scenes and actions that I never imagined before. When Henry VII died his armor was put on a young warrior who rode an armored horse into the cathedral. The armor was then offered to God on the altar as part of the funeral service. Dramatic (Ladyhawke anyone?) and pagan and Christian all together. Henry VIII was a fiend for jousting which was a sport to train him for battle. I can't imagine risking the heir's neck in anything as likely to cause death as a joust. But as my husband pointed out there were was plenty of death lurking around every corner in 1504, a little jousting was just one risk of many.

Henry VII hasn't had the greatest biographers over the years. Shakespeare snubbed him almost entirely. That treasured almanac of our nation's monarchs, [b:Horrible Histories: Cruel Kings and Mean Queens|120971|Cruel Kings and Mean Queens (Horrible Histories)|Terry Deary|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1305220020s/120971.jpg|116486], gives him a couple of pages and calls him “tight-fisted” and “poorly”. With Thomas Penn's rather excellent Winter King, Henry does at least now have a good biography. But by jove was he tight-fisted and poorly.

The reason for Henry VII's relative obscurity is fairly obvious. Compared to his son and granddaughter his interest isn't so immediately clear. He was the puppet-master, sitting in dark corners and pulling strings; and fascinating as that role is, it doesn't really stir up the imagination like Henry “marry-anything-with-a-pulse” VIII, or Elizabeth “take-that-Spaniards” I. Or, as one of my friends put it: “he's the least interesting Tudor king called Henry.” You almost start to feel sorry for the man.

Except it's not easy to feel sorry for Henry VII. He may have been the progenitor of the famous House of Tudor, but as Thomas Penn doesn't put it: the man was a manipulative bastard. The opening and closing chapters of Winter King deal briefly with Henry's early life and the aftermath of his death; his unlikely return from exile in Europe to beat Richard III at Bosworth and take the crown, and twenty five years later how the key characters who had surrounded him during his reign fit into Henry VIII's new rule. The brunt of the work concerns the reign itself, especially Henry's final decade at the start of the sixteenth century.

The picture painted is of a man who knows his claim to the throne is tentative at best, a trait he shared with numerous men scattered across Europe. We see a man who deals with this not with military might, but with careful manipulation of his European peers, and with a system of financial bonds taken out against his own people that – together with his dabbling in the illegal alum trade – made him perhaps the wealthiest monarch England has ever had. But also one of the least popular by the time of his death. Maybe obscurity is a blessing after all.

Henry VII hasn't had the greatest biographers over the years. Shakespeare snubbed him almost entirely. That treasured almanac of our nation's monarchs, [b:Horrible Histories: Cruel Kings and Mean Queens|120971|Cruel Kings and Mean Queens (Horrible Histories)|Terry Deary|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1305220020s/120971.jpg|116486], gives him a couple of pages and calls him “tight-fisted” and “poorly”. With Thomas Penn's rather excellent Winter King, Henry does at least now have a good biography. But by jove was he tight-fisted and poorly.

The reason for Henry VII's relative obscurity is fairly obvious. Compared to his son and granddaughter his interest isn't so immediately clear. He was the puppet-master, sitting in dark corners and pulling strings; and fascinating as that role is, it doesn't really stir up the imagination like Henry “marry-anything-with-a-pulse” VIII, or Elizabeth “take-that-Spaniards” I. Or, as one of my friends put it: “he's the least interesting Tudor king called Henry.” You almost start to feel sorry for the man.

Except it's not easy to feel sorry for Henry VII. He may have been the progenitor of the famous House of Tudor, but as Thomas Penn doesn't put it: the man was a manipulative bastard. The opening and closing chapters of Winter King deal briefly with Henry's early life and the aftermath of his death; his unlikely return from exile in Europe to beat Richard III at Bosworth and take the crown, and twenty five years later how the key characters who had surrounded him during his reign fit into Henry VIII's new rule. The brunt of the work concerns the reign itself, especially Henry's final decade at the start of the sixteenth century.

The picture painted is of a man who knows his claim to the throne is tentative at best, a trait he shared with numerous men scattered across Europe. We see a man who deals with this not with military might, but with careful manipulation of his European peers, and with a system of financial bonds taken out against his own people that – together with his dabbling in the illegal alum trade – made him perhaps the wealthiest monarch England has ever had. But also one of the least popular by the time of his death. Maybe obscurity is a blessing after all.

This is more of a 3.5 star book, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt, and plumped for 4.

It covers the reign of Henry VII, from just after his battle with Richard, to his successful passing of the crown to his son Henry VIII, and the creation of the Tudor dynasty.

It is very comprehensive, covering all manner of details about the court of Henry VII, and the way he went about establishing his reign. It looks at the way he sidelined or eliminated his rivals, the way that he tried to build alignments with European monarchs.
Henry tried to raise capital by illegal smuggling of alum into the UK and Europe, which had been a source of income for the Vatican. Penn writes with incredible detail of the plotting and intrigue of court life, and writes of the tragedy that befell him, losing his wife and eldest son Arthur. The rise of his second son, Henry, is well documented as well.

Whilst it was well written, there is so much detail that you cannot always keep up with the characters in the narrative, and that is why I cannot give it 5 stars.

Enthroned as a baby Henry VI is a weak and powerless king. When his nobles kill his Uncle, the Duke of York, it sets off his demise because York's three remaining sons are out for vengeance. The eldest is Edward, tall, strong and a powerful leader in waiting, who takes the throne after the bloody battle of Towton in 1461. Over the next decade Edward fights to hold onto his throne as the supporters of Henry wage war but Edward has the support of his two younger brothers, Clarence and Richard. Between them these brothers direct the course of English history for a quarter century.
This is a masterly book. There is some criticism of Penn's portrayal of Richard but it is a balanced biography, Richard is shown as a capable administrator and soldier as well as a manipulative uncle. The mercurial nature of loyalties is shown brilliantly and the research is second to none. Unlike many worthy studies Penn has a modern writing style which draws the reader in and, by use of modern idiom, engages.

I have been wanting to read this book ever since I first heard about it, because for me, Henry VII had been a bit of an unknown quantity. Thoughtful and considered, I'm not sure how far this book managed to reach the inner depths but it certainly showed a thoughtful, practical and financially clever man. It was also a surprisingly quick read, even with me doing quite a bit in 15-minute chunks on the bus.½

Thomas Penn's biography of Henry VII, the first Tudor king, is well researched and competent, if not very exciting. Much of it focuses on his efforts to stabilize and consolidate his power and to rout out possible enemies at court. A pious and sickly man whose early life was dominated by his mother, the single-minded Margaret Beaufort, Henry's main contribution seems to have been bringing together two warring factions by defeating Richard III and marrying the daughter of the Yorkist King Edward IV and producing four children whose marriages united the Tudors to the crowns of Spain,m France, and Scotland. He was also known (and hated) for his stinginess and his continual efforts to raise revenues, usually by levying more taxes on an already overtaxed citizenry. Overall, a stolid but rather dull king; no wonder the kingdom celebrated the succession of his heir, Henry VIII.½

While I feel I know a fair amount about British history, I was not very familiar with this period. That said, I definitely wanted a readable history that focused on facts, not speculation. Penn manages to create a compelling narrative that also critically examines the evidence for various theories about what actually happened at various points. I was fascinated by the fact that due to conflicting accounts at many points, there are many events about which we will never have the "whole" story. Excellent book.

Serious documentary but eminently readable. The only thing left unmentioned was the Star Chamber.

Occasionally brilliant - occasionally frustrating. Straddles a line between dry academic and popular history writing. The long lists of courtiers and their backgrounds does drag a bit, but I learned a lot about a period of history that's often overshadowed by the preceding and subsequent years. The stuff about Henry's control through debt finance was fascinating.½

This was an interesting look at the transitional King Henry VII. It was nice to find something well researched on this King who is usually overshadowed by his notorious son in the realm of history. Overall, I did not find Penn's approach or presentation of the facts as reader friendly as say Alison Weir's writing, but I might be a bit biased.

I found this to be a highly readable account of the early days of the Tudor dynasty. This well researched history provides good insight into Henry VII’s machinations to maintain his hold on the crown by ruthlessly defeating his opponents and amassing great wealth at the expense of his subjects as well as detailing his interactions with Spain, Philip of Burgundy and the Papacy. Additionally, it provides an interesting view of the formative years of Henry VIII and the early years of many of his courtiers, including Thomas Cromwell, Thomas More and Erasmus. There is also some fascinating information about Catherine of Aragon during the years she was left to flounder in England between her marriages to Arthur and Henry VIII. I found it a little difficult to keep track of all the people and titles during the first part of the book; it helps to have a little familiarity with the time period.

I part read this and part listened to the audio version--Simon Vance gives a great narration.

Overall, I found this disappointing. I had really looked forward to this one and really enjoyed the opening quarter or so. (I remember describing it to my brother as almost like a Tudor-era version of a top-notch Cold War thriller.) But then I found it dragging when it went into the meticulous detail of how Henry's court, and his totalitarian 'Council Learned' operated. I confess that I lost interest in the various methods of taxation and extortion that the king's courtiers and subjects were controlled and oppressed by. Henry VII (like many of his predecessors and successors) was a cruel and ruthless monarch, but his Machiavellian machinations really set the template for how to be the complete bastard dictator. Perhaps this made him a great king? I'm not sure, but it certainly proved a tough act for Henry VIII to follow. Josef Stalin himself would have learnt a lot from reading this. It takes a certain type of tyrant to establish a royal dynasty in late-medieval Europe.

"In London, the information-gathering and persecution, the arrests and financial penalties continued unabated."

To its credit, the author does an extremely thorough job, and his book is obviously a consummate piece of research, but I have to admit that I found it verging on the boring in long stretches. That said, it is without doubt a fascinating period of English history and there was much here that I did relish. The later chapters on the youthful heir Prince Henry were of particular interest. It was compelling to read of how the King's young son was gradually groomed for his kingly role, and how young Henry saw the world around him come into focus as he matured.

Henry Tudor's entire world from the court rulings to the court gossip, and from every show trial to each and every royal jousting tournament, it is all bought painstakingly to life within the covers of this book. One for the enthusiasts undoubtedly.

This was an excellent book to bridge the gap between Richard III's downfall and Henry VIII. Of course, to do this it focuses on the reign of Henry VII. The majority of the book is focused on the middle and end of Henry VII's reign; there is not much in depth exploration of how he actually gained the throne. This book focuses on how he keeps the throne and how he sets up Henry VIII.

To seal his authority on the throne, there were three things that stood out to me. One was that Henry VII ruthlessly hunted down any other people with royal blood and made sure they were not a threat, either by imprisoning or executing them. Second, he made a ton of money in the buying and selling of alum. Alum had been used for its medicinal properties for some time, but it had recently started being used as a dye-fixer in the textile industry and was in high demand. The money Henry made from buying and selling alum made him the richest King in Europe and money does always help in keeping power. Third, Henry made sure to keep everyone guessing and never feeling secure by using his closest circle to demand money, make arrests, and bring legal charges to people of all ranks, creating something close to a reign of terror.

Henry's reign was interesting to me, but what I found most interesting was the set up of Henry VIII's reign. Of course, Henry was never meant to be King; he had an older brother, Arthur, who was reared to rule. Arthur's sudden death put Henry in place as his father's heir. In this book we see a lot of the familiar faces from Henry VIII's reign get their start - men like Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Charles Brandon, etc. I found all of this fascinating since most of the reading I've done about Henry VIII starts at the end of his marriage to Catherine.

There is a lot more in this book (Henry VII is humanized by his love for his Queen, Elizabeth of York) but those are the main things I took away from this very readable but still scholarly account of Henry VII.

This is not a typical biography that commences with a birth, life events in order, finishing with a death. The author does state at the beginning that the latter stages of Henry VII’s life are the book’s focus, which is fair enough, though this way the narrative is less varied.

Having been engaged by the intro and the prologue I thought I was onto something riveting here. However, soon after beginning the first chapter my interest wavered. The first part proved too slow-paced and a little too “back and forth” in regards of the chronology for my liking.

Thomas Penn is one of those authors with a writing style that detracts from the content. For example, he uses ten words when one will do, keeping long-winded sentences stretched into infinity with an army of punctuation. There are more colons and semicolons here than in most pre-Victorian novels. It’s as though it hasn’t been copy-edited or if it has then the advised edits have been ignored.

The book does improve in the second of three parts in terms of content but the clunky style remains throughout. However, there were still many paragraphs that I skimmed over because they failed to hold my attention.

I’m not a fan of bios that try to namecheck every other person that the subject – wrong word for a king, I know – encountered during their lifetime. This seems to be the case here. This has a tedious flavour to it, like a novel with too many characters.

I’ve been particularly interested in John, Edmund, and Richard de la Pole for some time, thus I enjoyed the sections about events concerning these brothers. The shipwreck and subsequent events if Philip of Burgundy and his unloved wife Juana was another theme that appealed to me. It’s also interesting to see the future Henry VIII growing up.

I do admire the efforts Mr Penn has gone to in bringing this tome to light. This, plus the positive aspects I’ve picked out, is why I’ve rated “Winter King” three stars instead of two.

Incidentally, I had watched the BBC documentary based on this book before reading it, featuring the author as the programme’s presenter. Mr Penn did a fine job in that role.

This is an interesting and well constructed history of Henry VII. He tends to get defined in relation to the events before and after his reign, rather than his reign itself. So the beginning of his reign is all bout bringing an end to the Wars of the Roses, marrying Elizabeth of York and overcoming the usurper Richard III. All spring and new beginnings. The end of his reign is the coming of the glorious Henry VIII and the end of the miser, he's moved from Spring to Winter in the intervening years. This looks at how he came to take the crown and what he did with it when he got it. Lots of detail to bring the thing to life, lots of characters and bit players, some of whom play greater roles in the near future as well.
Very well done.

As I understand it, Henry VII is not as well remembered among the English kings in spite of the fact that he united the York and Lancaster houses and brought a measure of peace from the decades of wars, murders, and coups. Shakespeare apparently skipped him, perhaps because most would rather forget his reign.

After exile in France he returned and claimed the throne by defeating his rivals. Henry was from the Lancaster line but his wife, Queen Elizabeth, was from the House of York, and their union quieted some old animosities. But he was still ruthless with any other claimants or pretenders to the crown, and they usually found themselves wasting away in prisons under his watchful eye. He arranged for his oldest son Arthur to marry a Spanish princess for political alliances, and was left devastated when he died shortly thereafter. But what surprised me most was how manipulative Henry was and how he used his initially limited power to amass more power and wealth - and the way he did it using complex financial means to blackmail and extort every last bit of gold from those who soon found themselves hopelessly in his debt.

This is not a full biography of Henry VII and sometimes quickly skips over parts of his life. His exile is covered in some detail as is his assumption of power, but then it skips over the first ten years or so of his rule. The focus is more on the corruption of the latter years of his reign when he and his network of assistants had secured an iron rule over the people and used it ruthlessly. It's not an era of history that I was very familiar with and I found it tough reading - even stopping in the middle for a few months - but also strangely interesting in spite of that.

As I understand it, Henry VII is not as well remembered among the English kings in spite of the fact that he united the York and Lancaster houses and brought a measure of peace from the decades of wars, murders, and coups. Shakespeare apparently skipped him, perhaps because most would rather forget his reign.

After exile in France he returned and claimed the throne by defeating his rivals. Henry was from the Lancaster line but his wife, Queen Elizabeth, was from the House of York, and their union quieted some old animosities. But he was still ruthless with any other claimants or pretenders to the crown, and they usually found themselves wasting away in prisons under his watchful eye. He arranged for his oldest son Arthur to marry a Spanish princess for political alliances, and was left devastated when he died shortly thereafter. But what surprised me most was how manipulative Henry was and how he used his initially limited power to amass more power and wealth - and the way he did it using complex financial means to blackmail and extort every last bit of gold from those who soon found themselves hopelessly in his debt.

This is not a full biography of Henry VII and sometimes quickly skips over parts of his life. His exile is covered in some detail as is his assumption of power, but then it skips over the first ten years or so of his rule. The focus is more on the corruption of the latter years of his reign when he and his network of assistants had secured an iron rule over the people and used it ruthlessly. It's not an era of history that I was very familiar with and I found it tough reading - even stopping in the middle for a few months - but also strangely interesting in spite of that.

As I understand it, Henry VII is not as well remembered among the English kings in spite of the fact that he united the York and Lancaster houses and brought a measure of peace from the decades of wars, murders, and coups. Shakespeare apparently skipped him, perhaps because most would rather forget his reign.

After exile in France he returned and claimed the throne by defeating his rivals. Henry was from the Lancaster line but his wife, Queen Elizabeth, was from the House of York, and their union quieted some old animosities. But he was still ruthless with any other claimants or pretenders to the crown, and they usually found themselves wasting away in prisons under his watchful eye. He arranged for his oldest son Arthur to marry a Spanish princess for political alliances, and was left devastated when he died shortly thereafter. But what surprised me most was how manipulative Henry was and how he used his initially limited power to amass more power and wealth - and the way he did it using complex financial means to blackmail and extort every last bit of gold from those who soon found themselves hopelessly in his debt.

This is not a full biography of Henry VII and sometimes quickly skips over parts of his life. His exile is covered in some detail as is his assumption of power, but then it skips over the first ten years or so of his rule. The focus is more on the corruption of the latter years of his reign when he and his network of assistants had secured an iron rule over the people and used it ruthlessly. It's not an era of history that I was very familiar with and I found it tough reading - even stopping in the middle for a few months - but also strangely interesting in spite of that.

Despite the author's generally clear style of writing, and despite the wealth of detail so painstakingly researched, the more one reads this book, the more Henry VII recedes from view behind the mountain of money he spent his life amassing. If the author was trying to give a rounded portrait of Henry VII then he failed, but it is an honourable failure because Henry VII gave him absolutely no help at all.

I listened to this book as an audiobook. I've been fascinated by the Tudors ever since I took English history in school. Recently the books by Philippa Gregory about the War of the Roses have caught my interest and when I saw this book was narrated by Simon Vance, one of the preeminent narrators of audio books, I knew I had to listen to it.

This book didn't spend much time on the years before Henry VII took the throne and that was okay with me because of Philippa Gregory's books that have explored that time quite well. However, there is some and probably enough to give the background for the meat of the book which concerned Henry VII's reign. It seems that Henry was a very religious man but he certainly didn't let that stop him from accumulating great wealth by taxing and fining the citizens of England. He was helped in this by various men but he micromanaged all aspects of accruing money. So he was certainly aware that he was not popular. His son and heir, Henry VIII, appeared to be his exact opposite when he came to the throne and the populace responded to him with enthusiasm. However, many of the father's advisors were kept on by Henry VIII. Everyone knows the story of Henry the VIII's numerous marriages and break with the Catholic church. A king who was brought up in the belief that the sovereign could do anything he wished would easily accept the doctrine of the divine right of kings.

Very interesting material and well read by Simon Vance.

Henry Tudor: Henry VII, perhaps best known as father of Henry VIII, but Thomas Penn's compelling biography places him not only as the founder of the Tudor dynasty, but of laying the ground rules for those that would follow him. Fear, manipulation and control were the watch words and if this sounds like a model for Machiavelli's [The Prince] published in 1513 just four years after Henry's death then it would not be very wide of the mark.

When Henry Tudor by good fortune emerged victorious at the battle of Bosworth field, he grasped the opportunity on behalf of the house of Lancaster to crown himself king. The Yorkist king Richard III had been killed as had the Duke of Norfolk, while his Lancastrian supporter the Duke of Northumberland had fled. Bosworth Field was the final pitched battle of the long running feud between the noble hoses for the crown, but this was by no means a certainty when Henry was crowned king. He had the opportunity to consolidate his reign following the deaths of the leading Yorkists, but he had to come up with different modus operandi to previous rulers. The problem facing him was how to maintain his authority when other nobles still craved to be king. Traditionally a king would buy his support by rewarding his supporters with land and wealth, usually from the spoils of war and when this wasn't enough crack down harshly on any opposition. Henry VII followed this well trod path, but he added another essential ingredient, he hit both friends and enemies where it really hurt, he hit them in their pocket. Gradually he instigated a system of fines and bonds for misdemeanours against the crown: past as well as present, backing this up with intelligence gathering machinery through informants and spies that was unprecedented. He rapidly became very rich, no longer needing parliaments agreement to raise taxes and his opponents became relatively poor, eventually reduced in circumstances to an extent where putting an army in the field against the king would have been extremely difficult. Fifteenth century knights and aristocrats were well used to living in fear of death, but living in fear of not being able to live in the proper style was an added incentive not to cause trouble.

Thomas Penn's well researched biography is written in a style that would be accessible to the more general reader. He has done for the first Tudor King what [[Ian Mortimer]] has done for the Plantagenet's, made a story of their lives that is both exciting to read yet still heaped in period detail and not straying too far from accepted facts. Other historical characters come alive; Catherine of Aragon and the Kings mother Lady Margaret and his wife Elizabeth and the Kings advisers and money men, but also the artists and men of letters that hovered around the periphery of the Kings court; for example Erasmus, Stephen Hawes and John Skelton. Prince Henry who became Henry VIII threatens to take over the biography in the latter chapters, but this provides the incentive that will keep the more general readers interested until the end. I felt entertained and informed while reading and would rate this a four star read.

I had just finished reading Wolf Hall when I came across this book on a remainder table in front of a Stratford bookstore. It occurred to me that I really didn't know very much about Henry VII other than that he had defeated Richard III at Bosworth Field and had sired Henry VIII, so I picked it up.

I have to agree with Hillary Mantel's blurb on the front of the book: "Compelling...Fascinating...I feel I've been waiting to read this book a long time."

Winter King actually has much in common with Wolf Hall in its depictions of the machinations of Henry VII's court and counselors. The first part of his 24-year (1485-1509) reign was absorbed by neutralizing threats against his claim to the throne by a variety Plantagenet claimants who were much more clearly in line to the throne and by the flamboyant Pretender, Perkin Warbeck. During the latter part of his reign, he was obsessed with gaining wealth using nefarious claims against and fines of the aristocrats and merchant princes of London, so that when he died, the English royal treasury was the wealthiest in all of Europe. Winter King as history is not as character-driven as Mantel's novels, but there are some touching portraits of Elizabeth of York, Henry's beloved queen, and the young Catherine of Aragon, ensnared in the web of diplomacy between her father, Ferdinand of Aragon and Henry.

Although it's meticulously researched and documented, the book does not read as dry history. Penn is an excellent stylist who makes the period come alive and offers another, earlier perspective into the Tudor Court. Highly recommended.½