Today’s guest, Sean Cunningham, takes us back to a particularly perilous year in the eventful reign of King Henry VII. He explains that 1497 was a year of brinkmanship, battles, plots and disasters that very nearly resulted in the fall of the House of Tudor.

Sean Cunningham is Head of Collections, Medieval, Early Modern and Legal, at the National Archives in Kew. He is one of the leading authorities on the life and times of Henry VII – the first of the Tudor monarchs.

Often overshadowed by his attention-hogging son (he of the six wives), Henry VII was a formidable operator: wily, quicksilver, determined, restless. He needed all these qualities to survive the multiple threats to his rule.

Sean Cunningham is the author of Henry VII: Treason and Trust. 

Show notes

Scene One: August 1497. King James IV of Scotland challenges the Earl of Surrey to single combat.

Scene Two: October 1497. Henry VII interviews Perkin Warbeck in Taunton Castle.

Scene Three: December 1497. The fire at Sheen Palace.

Memento: The original manuscript of Perkin Warbeck's confession.

People/Social

Presenter: Peter Moore

Guest: Sean Cunningham

Production: Maria Nolan

Theme music: Firelight by Minka