Yet, like those other misunderstood Tudors Edward VI and Mary I, Henry VII’s story is highly remarkable, and although he was certainly disliked for his meanness, corrupt methods of ruling and lack of charisma and charm – points often addressed in Penn’s book – I’d argue that Henry VII was ultimately a very capable king who withstood every danger posed to his throne and ultimately established the conditions for a successful succession at his death. Known to all Tudor lovers as the first Tudor, the king who defeated history’s arch-villain King Richard III in battle at Bosworth, it seems possible to suggest that Henry remains the most mysterious, perhaps even to an extent the forgotten, Tudor, often eclipsed by his glamorous and energetic son Henry VIII and his enigmatic granddaughter Elizabeth I. Agent: Aitken Alexander Associates (U.K.) (Mar.I recently read Thomas Penn’s highly acclaimed first historical study, Winter King: the Dawn of Tudor England (Penguin, 2011), a witty and compelling account of the reign of King Henry VII (1457-1509) from the middle years of his reign to its dark and complex end in 1509. Tudor scholars will appreciate Pen’s well-documented attention to the elder king’s steadfast devotion to stability, to the character formation of the young heir, Prince Henry, and Penn’s revealing analysis of why in the last years of his reign, Henry earned respect but not love from his people.

With occasional digressions, Penn still entertains casual readers with a brisk, almost conversational tone bolstered by ample context, especially when recounting the convoluted and politically fraught family history. Penn (editorial director of Verso Books in London and with a doctorate in medieval history) rescues the founding Tudor from the shadows with insight into his politically expedient yet loving marriage to Elizabeth of York, a Plantagenet heir, and chronicles Henry’s careful conclusion of the exhausting multigenerational Wars of the Roses.

Transforming himself from an exile with a dubious claim to England’s throne into the founder of the Tudor dynasty, Henry VII’s (1457–1509) micromanagement and questionable tax collection practices enabled the later success of his descendents Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

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