“Henry VII’s sole achievement was to pass on the throne peacefully to his son.’ To what extent is this a fair assessment of Henry’s reign?
One of Henry VII’s main achievements was creating the Tudor Dynasty. He then secured it by marrying Elizabeth of York, Edward IV’s daughter. By marrying Elizabeth of York, Henry had united the houses of Lancaster and York. Another way that Henry secured his throne was saving as much money as possible. He established a sense of economic order in the kingdom, which can be seen as another achievement, but to do this he enforced a lot of taxes and his council essentially stole money. This made him unpopular. Another reason that Henry VII was unpopular was because he was known to be greedy and cause tension.
By gaining finances and securing his dynasty he passed on the throne peacefully to Henry VIII.
Henry VII made many political developments during his reign. Source 6, say that Henrys reign ‘must still be regarded as one of the great landmarks in England’s political development’. It also says that it is the ‘watershed between the old and new pattern of political life’. Source 9 also mentions the attempt to ‘centralise’ English politics.
Henry was a stable leader. In source 8, it mentions his ‘steady purposefulness that saved England form mediocrity’. The source also says that he was a stabilizer, and that he stands out ‘pre-eminent among British monarchs’.
Henry withstood several attempts to challenge his crown. The experiences that he had had when he was younger made him able to recognise plots against him early on. Many Yorkist opponents created pretenders to take back the throne. One was Lambert Simnel, who was made out to be the Edward, Earl of Warwick. The real Earl of Warwick was locked up in the Tower of London, but the Yorkists took the risk of pretending that Simnel was the Earl because he had a better claim to the throne than Henry VII did. Simnel was used to try and knock Henry VII off the throne, but in 1487, Henry VII defeated the Yorkist army at Stoke to maintain his throne.
Henry made sure to avoid foreign conflict. He was very cautious about it because he knew that war was very expensive and he knew that England didn’t have enough resources compared to many other countries.
In conclusion, I think that this statement is not a fair assessment of Henrys reign, even though passing on his throne peacefully to his son was one of the most important achievements that he managed, it wasn’t his sole achievement. Henry VII managed to secure a dynasty that would rule over Britain for over 100 years. He also was a stable leader and was very intelligent. Henry VII managed to stop opponents from overthrowing him and he also united the houses of Lancaster and York.