ENRICO VII, king of ENGLAND. - First king of the Tudor dynasty, b. at Pembroke Castle on 28 Jan. 1457, d. at Richmond on 21 Apr. 1509. Descended on his mother’s side from the Lancasters, having defeated and killed Richard III at Bosworth, he was crowned king on 30 Oct. 1485. The following year he married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV of York, thus ending the War of the Two Roses.
His constant aim was the strengthening of the throne, thwarting the intrigues of the Yorkists, supported by the Irish and Scots, reducing the powers of Parliament in favour of the privy council, and removing the nobility from power. To counter French expansion he allied himself, in 1496, with Spain; but, in order not to endanger the throne, he did not engage in open conflict and preferred, through skilful marriage policy, to secure friendship.
BIBLI: A. F. Pollard, The reign of Henry VII, from contemporary sources, Londra 1914; G. Temperley, Henry VII, ibid. 1917; C. H. Williams, England under the early Tudors, ibid. 1923; K. Pickthorn, Early Tudor government, Henry VII, Cambridge 1931; H. M. Smith, Pre-Reformation England, Londra 1938, passim. On the society of his time: G. M. Trevelyan, Storia della società inglese, Italian trans., Torino 1948, pp. 129-130.