Henry VII: What Ifs & Misconceptions
Tudors Dynasty & Beyond
RedTop Media / Rebecca Larson
4.4 • 869 Ratings
🗓️ 26 April 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What if Henry Tudor never made it out of England? What if Bosworth had gone differently? And how much of what we think we know about Henry VII is actually wrong?
In this Off the Record episode, we're joined by historian Nathen Amin to dig into the myths, misconceptions, and fascinating “what ifs” surrounding England’s first Tudor king. From his years in exile with Jasper Tudor to the pivotal moment at Battle of Bosworth Field, we explore just how fragile Henry’s path to the throne really was.
Would he have tried again if Bosworth had been lost? What if he had never fled into exile at all? Was his marriage to Elizabeth of York inevitable - or simply the best available option? And after her death, who might Henry have chosen next?
We also tackle the question people love to ask (but rarely explore properly): was Henry VII a mama’s boy under the influence of Margaret Beaufort…or something far more calculated?
This is Henry VII stripped of the textbook narrative - uncertain, strategic, and far more human than you might expect.
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https://nathenamin.substack.com/
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BIG ANNOUNCEMENT:
SPECIAL EVENT on May 9th with Dr. Steven Veerapon on the medical history of Henry VIII. All the information can be found here: https://henrythetyrant.eventbrite.com
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Hosts: Rebecca Larson & Amy McElroy
Guest: Nathen Amin
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome back to Off the Record on Tudor's Dynasty and Beyond. |
| 0:09.0 | I'm Rebecca Larson. |
| 0:10.0 | And I'm Amy McElroy. |
| 0:12.0 | And it's Sunday. |
| 0:14.0 | So you know this is our fun day, right? |
| 0:17.0 | It is. |
| 0:18.0 | And we're like this. |
| 0:20.0 | Yeah. So if you're looking at the video right now, you see we have a guest, but he's not allowed to speak yet. |
| 0:29.2 | Before we get to our amazing guest, Amy, last week we talked about women behaving badly. |
| 0:35.7 | And we did that because the week before we did men behaving badly, |
| 0:38.4 | and it was only fair to look at the women. And I know I looked at some of the comments, |
| 0:43.5 | but we always like to go through them. What were people saying about that episode? |
| 0:47.6 | So we had Julie that said, great episode, Penelope put her mother and grandmother in the corner when it came to scandal, |
| 0:56.5 | so she's not wrong then with that one. |
| 0:59.7 | And then we have Joni, who said, another great episode, fun way to spend a Sunday. |
| 1:06.5 | The Alice Arden story was hilarious, given the various attempts and methods employed to kill her husband |
| 1:12.6 | and ensure he was dead, are we sure he wasn't a direct ancestor of Rasputin? |
| 1:21.4 | Katie said she'd forgotten all about Alice. |
| 1:24.7 | She was definitely a woman behaving badly. |
| 1:29.5 | As for Penelope, she'd read about her, |
| 1:32.5 | but still can't believe she actually named one of her sons Mountjoy. |
| 1:48.8 | I love that so much. And then Douglas said Alice Arden should be on a sitcom. Yeah. And then Dwayne said, such a fun show i guess the only time every day people had a record of their life is when they ended up in court so yeah it's interesting so the overall consensus |
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