ABSTRACT

One of the purposes for which the parliament of November 1485 assembled was to dispose of the king's late adversaries. The usual crop of attainders1 ruined a number of leading \Yorkist supporters; so far, Henry VII showed no special mercy or any intention to end the wars by composing the feuds. There was, in any case, another good reason behind these acts which deprived some of the richest men in the kingdolTl of their property. The great act of resumption of the same year declared void all crown grants made since the death of Henry VI and recovered for Henry VII a vast deal of land; clearly, the king was from the first determined to improve his finances. In the true spirit of the civil wars, each stage of which had been signalled by the attainder of the defeated and the reversal of attainders previously inflicted on the victors, the parliament marked a Tudor, or even a Lancastrian, triumph. For the time being the Yorkists-even those who, hating Richard as a usurper, had supported Henry's bid for the crown-were left rather in the cold; the long overdue marriage to Elizabeth of York, so often promised, came none too soon to prevent the complete alienation of moderate Yorkist sentiment.