Why did Henry VIII spend so much time at war against France?

Hello.

I'm Sue Doran,

professor of early modern British history at the University of Oxford,

And I teach at ST Benet's Hall, and I'm a senior research fellow at Jesus College,

Oxford.

Today we're going to talk about two to foreign policy,

and in my first talk, I'm going to consider why Henry the eight spent so much time

at war against France.

Well, perhaps I should modify that because Henry,

it didn't spend so much time at war against France.

There were long periods of peace, but he did have four expeditions to France,

and war against France was very much a centrepiece of his

foreign policy and indeed, of his reign.

We shouldn't be surprised that he went to war against France.

After all, it was a martial society.

A king was expected to go to war, not just in defence of his own country,

but in defence of his honour.

Why, against France? Well, France was the historic enemy

of England.

Henry wanted to win back the ancestral lands that

had been lost during the wars of the roses.

He made claim to Normandy and

Aquitaine. Indeed, his first expedition was in Akron. 10.

He didn't go there himself, but he sent um soldiers there to win back a cretin.

And, of course, Henry also claimed

to be the king of France.

So had all earlier kings of England since the reign of Edward the third.

And

when the French king's paid a pension

two English kings, which they had done since the reign of Edward the fourth.

It was in lieu of their claiming the crown of France. It was a kind of quid pro quo.

You don't go and fight for the crown of France and will give you a pension instead.

But it implicitly recognised that the English king did have a claim

to the French throne,

and at various points, Henry, the eighth,

made that claim visible during his expeditions to France.

So, for example, in the march on Paris,

he chose to much march on Paris because that's where he would expect to be crowned if,

indeed, he won

the throne Now again.

He didn't go personally to to Paris, but his lieutenant, the Duke of Suffolk,

was in his place.

So France is not.

It's not really surprising that Henry is going to war against it now.

It sounds as if This is very mediaeval. This is very chivalric.

So how does this fit in with what we understand as Henry,

the eight's being a Renaissance prince?

I think we have to understand it partly through the work of Glenn Richardson,

who has shown us that there was a deep personal rivalry

between Henry the eighth and Francis the first not just

in terms of winning lands being a great warrior,

but also in terms of the magnificence that they portrayed

in their palaces and the gifts they exchanged in the

way they behaved at the field of cloth of gold.

But certainly one way that they could

express their competition was through warfare.

So we shouldn't be surprised again

that Henry decided that Francis first was his enemy and that

that was what he was going to secure for himself.

Personal glory at the expense of Francis,

as well as the ancestral lands of the Lancastrian, uh, and Edwards, Third

and also crown of France. It all went really well.

Now. Henry could only go to war if he had two things. One were allies.

Um, England was relatively small power.

It couldn't by itself really fight the greater might of France

and secondly, money.

At the beginning of Henry's reign, he had both. He had allies because

at that time the king was Louie Louie, the 12th of France, and he had antagonised.

The pope and the Holy League had been, um, formed against him.

And so Henry knew he had the support, particularly of Ferdinand of Aragon,

who was the king of Castile and Aragon of Spain, present day Spain

as well as money. He had the war chest that were

built up by his father,

Henry.

The seventh, Henry, the seventh didn't consider it to be a war chest,

but that was there that could be used.

And of course, in his last war,

Henry had all the resources of the of the dissolution of the monasteries.

He not only had increased rents if necessary, he could sell the lands,

which he did in order to finance the expeditions.

So we see Henry, then as a king who is a renaissance, is where does the mediaeval king,

who is determined to do what his ancestors did.

But with that edge of seeking the magnificence and another element

in the magnificence is the way that the war was fought.

He built this massive warship, the Mary Rose. It wasn't the only one,

but really it wasn't so much a ship that was going to be suited for fighting.

It was a ship that was designed to impress.

But also Henry's armies were bloated for the kind

of warfare that he was going to carry out.

40,000 men went to over to Calais and were intended to fight

in Picardy

in the last war of 15 44. So we can see then

that Henry is determined to show himself a master monarch, a renaissance monarch,

a magnificent monarch, not just one who's looking to the path and wanting

to receive the honours and the lands that Henry the fifth had received at Agincourt.

One final point, I think, is that Scotland comes into the equation.

Did Henry the eighth go to war against France because it was the ally of Scotland,

or did he go to war against Scotland because it was the ally of France?

I would argue the latter

that the old alliance between Scotland

and France was not important to Henry the eighth,

as it was to be later on to Elizabeth as we shall see afterwards.

But what mattered was that the backdoor of England

had to be closed when he took his army,

his nobles over to the continent.

And that's why

in the 15 forties, once he decided on war against France, he sends

an army

to Scotland,

and he believes he has defeated them with

the great battle of flawed in which wasn't carried

through as we shall see in a later lecture.