HENRY VII HAD BEEN OVERTHROWN?
Why, early in his reign, are there so many attempts to depose Henry VII?
Perhaps amongst all the medieval kings of England, Henry VII was the unlikeliest figure to ever sit upon the English throne. A minor noble of Welsh, French and English extraction, he was forced into exile as a boy, and though directly descended from Edward III, by the back-end of the 15th century this was hardly exceptional amongst his peers.
Even as late as the morning of the Battle of Bosworth on 22 August 1485, Henry remained a figure of convenience for many rebels in the struggle to overcome the royal forces of Richard III, who had risen to the throne just two years prior amid allegations he had murdered his nephews, the so-called Princes in the Tower. Certainly the odds of Henry succeeding at Bosworth with his disparate force of
