Historians have repeatedly compared Henry VII with his continental contemporaries, Louis
XI of France and Ferdinand of Aragon. Around 1600 the writers of politic history emphasized
Henry’s wisdom in drawing lessons in statecraft from his fellow monarchs. By 1900 analysts of
the ‘New Monarchy’ placed more stress on the common circumstances that underlay the revival
of monarchical power, but thereby raised awkward questions about similarities and differences
in the development of national states. Latterly a model of European state formation has
been constructed which sets Henry’s kingship less comfortably alongside those of Louis and
Ferdinand. This should lead us not to abandon, but to reshape the attempt to set Henry in his
European context.
