The 1486 Northern Progress of Henry VII

Principal Contributor: Dr Sarah Morris
Partial contributor on the St John Priory entry: Natalie Grueninger

Your Progress Starts Here!

Be sure to read this blog to set the context for this progress. Each location on the progress is linked to the next at the bottom of each blog. I advise you to read each blog in order. However, to jump to a particular location, click on the relevant pin on the map below to show the associated link.

Introductory Notes on the 1486 Northern Progress

While many sources were used to research the locations visited by Henry VII during this northern progress of 1486, the only contemporary source for this, the first progress of Henry VII, is The Herald’s Memoir. As you can imagine, this has been referenced throughout the following guide. 

Of more recent scholars, Emma Cavell’s dissertation entitled the ‘Memoir of the Court of Henry VII’ (and her later, edited edition of a book entitled, The Herald’s Memoir 1486-1490: Court Ceremony, Royal Progress and Rebellion) has been key, alongside C. Edward McGee’s 1977 thesis, ‘A Critical Edition of the First Provincial Progress of Henry VII’.

Our friend and Tudor Antiquary, John Leland, provides us with relatively contemporary descriptions of some of the towns, their notable features, and the surrounding countryside that the King and court would have encountered along the way. 

I should also highlight that this itinerary will only follow Henry on the outward leg of the progress, which took him from London to York, his most northerly destination. The King returned to London via Doncaster, Nottingham, Coventry and Worcester, Hereford, Gloucester, Kingswood Abbey, Iron Acton, and St Anne’s in the Wood (near Bristol) via his palace at Shene. There he was reunited with his visibly pregnant wife.

The entire progress took just under three months to complete. Along the way, the new Tudor King asserted his authority, enacted the monarch’s role to perfection and dispersed potential rebellion. It has been enlightening and gratifying to meet this often underappreciated Tudor monarch. Along the way, you will likely encounter some locations (now lost) which you have never read about before. However,  if you are not familiar with Henry’s story, you will appreciate just how astute this 29-year-old monarch was – even at a relatively young age. The time he spent waiting, watching and learning in exile had served Henry well.

I hope you follow some of this progress and visit some of the locations mentioned in your own Tudor travels. But for now, let us go on progress!

Introducing the 1486 Progress

On 22 August 1485, years of uncertainty, exile and waiting finally ended for the young Lancastrian heir, Henry Tudor. At the Battle of Bosworth Field, his Yorkist arch-rival, King Richard III, was slain as he valiantly, if not perhaps a little foolishly, led a charge directly against the Tudor ‘pretender’. 

Just days later, as the fresh blood of battle-hardy men dried upon Leicestershire’s wheat fields, Henry backdated his reign to the day before the battle, effectively rendering all those who’d fought for Richard III, their crowned sovereign, traitors. Less than two weeks later, the new King was received at Shoreditch by the City’s representatives before proceeding to St Paul’s, where he deposited three banners, presumably the same ones he’d used at Bosworth. 

London was ready to embrace their new monarch, but Henry was in no mood to let the proverbial grass grow under his feet. He had a kingdom to secure. He was crowned on 30 October that same year and opened Parliament just one week later. That Parliament soon confirmed the legitimacy of Henry’s claim to the throne, passed various acts and attainders, and importantly, rewarded the King’s supporters with grants, honours and appointments to offices. 

In the New Year of 1486, on 30 January, Henry finally married Elizabeth of York at Westminster Abbey. By March of the same year, the King probably felt his capital was secure enough to turn his attention to managing some of the disquiet and unrest associated with various northern parts of his realm. On 15 February 1486, in a letter penned by Sir Thomas Betanson, we hear of Henry’s purpose in undertaking his northern progress. He writes:

‘The king proposeth northwarde hastily after the Parliament and it is said he proposeth to do  execution quickly there on such as have offended against him.’

Looking back, it feels as though Henry VII was a man on a mission, as he probably had been for most of his adult life. The first Tudor King enacted his regal role to perfection during these first few months. He demonstrated a powerful combination of decisiveness, ruthlessness to his enemies, kindness to those he wished to bind to him in loyalty, and piety in his religious observations while dutifully enacting ancient customs associated with the Kings of England. He was doing everything to elevate himself to the lofty position of kingship in the eyes of his subjects. After all, it is easier to accept a king who looks, sounds and acts like a king. We shall see this theme played out again and again as we follow Henry northwards.

And so, all was ready. The scene was set for Henry to undertake his first progress of the new Tudor dynasty. In March 1486, Henry VII left London, leaving his pregnant wife behind. In this itinerary, we will follow his journey from London to the great city of York in North Yorkshire. 

While many of the places where Henry lodged along the way are noted in the Herald’s account, in some cases, any mention of the town where the monarch stayed was cursory. In such instances, only the name of the city is known. Such is the case at Stamford and Huntingdon, for example. Despite a considerable amount of digging on my part, it has so far been impossible to identify where his lodgings might have been in these locations. If this changes, I will come back and add to this itinerary. 

I also should note that given the distance travelled from London to York – circa 300 miles – there had to have been many more stops along the way than those pointed out by the Herald. If we consider that, usually, between 10-15 miles was covered each day by the Tudor court on the move, there must have been around 20 places that the king lodged on the outward leg of the journey. However, only ten are noted in the Memoir; presumably, these ten were the most significant for one reason or another.

While I will mention all these locations to enable us to join the dots, the detail in this itinerary will focus on those places where the exact lodgings of the King and court can be established with confidence or an interesting best guess can be made. The point of departure of the progress, lay just outside the city’s northern perimeter: The Priory of St John of Jerusalem.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE NOW READY TO FOLLOW THE FIRST PROGRESS OF HENRY VII. OUR STARTING POINT IS THE PRIORY OF ST JOHN OF JERUSALEM (POINT A on the map): Click here to continue.