Hello everyone and welcome to the History of England episode 199, The New Men.

A couple of episodes ago we talked a bit about the story of Henry VII and the story of his

brain, the themes, many of which were kicked off by both Henry and his 17th century biographer,

Francis Bacon. As we discussed, there's plenty of debate now about Henry, was he really

the man that steadied the ship, was in fact the incompetent tyrant who had the good luck

to avoid causing another rebellion by the skin of his teeth, and the absence of any viable

competitors. As always, we'll hopefully decide together when we get to the end of Henry's

story, but it's also worth saying that we should not think about what's going on in

England under the cheweders in isolation. Certainly Henry himself reflected on his French

upbringing. And he and Henry VIII in particular shared some of the aspirations of their royal

colleagues on the continent, and share many themes, though of course with some uniquely

English wrinkles, and everyone knows how important it is to have wrinkles.

Essentially, the idea invented largely by 20th century historians was that in the 15th

and early 16th centuries a series of monarchies sought to reorganize their kingdoms more effectively,

to be able to compete more effectively with their external enemies, and follow their

dynastic ambitions. This had a number of consequences, or maybe led to a number of strategies

might be a better way of looking at it. The objective essentially was to marshal the

resources of the state more effectively. That meant more direct control, first of all,

and that meant limiting the power of the feudal aristocracy so you didn't need to work through

them all the time. Now, the old idea that the barons were simply

out to filter power from the king at the earliest opportunity has been banished to the outer

darkness of historical thought for some time. In place and understanding that the nobility

...