Chronology: Key Events in The Cold War in Europe 1945-1990s

1485 Henry wins the battle of Bosworth. Edward Earl of Warwick is imprisoned (1).

1486 Henry marries Elizabeth of York.

1487 Act of Livery and Maintenance (2). Lambert Simnel is arrested after the battle of Stoke.

1489 Re-establishment of the Council of the North. Earl of Surrey becomes its president.

1493 Re-establishment of the Council of Wales.

1494 Sir Edward Poynings is sent to Ireland (3).

1495 Sir William Stanley is executed. Council Learned in the Law begins (4).

1496 Magnus Intercursus is signed (5).

1497 Cornish rebellion over taxation (6). Warbeck is taken prisoner.

1499 Executions of Warbeck and Warwick.

1501 Marriage of Arthur Tudor and Catherine of Aragon.

1502 Death of Arthur (7).

1503 Edmund de la Pole flees to Burgundy. Henry imposes a trade embargo.

1504 Statute of Liveries (8).

1506 Edmund de la Pole is arrested (9). Malus Intercursus restores trade with Burgundy.

1509 Death of Henry VII.

1. When Henry entered London after his victory at Bosworth, he kept the 10-year-old earl a prisoner until 1499 when he was executed for trying to escape.
2. Liveries were tunics worn by servants of lords. This act forbade the wearing of livery and maintenance, whereby lords attended the trial of their servants with the intention of intimidating a judge or jury.
3. Henry continued the Yorkist practice of relying on the Kildare family as his Lord Deputy in Ireland until 1494. After experimenting with Poynings for two years, in 1496 Henry reverted to the less expensive policy of appointing Irishmen.
4. Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley were appointed to this new court. Their aim was to recover crown debts and ensure that all rents and feudal payments due to the king from his estates were paid.
5. Between 1493 and 1496 Henry imposed a trade embargo on the Netherlands in an attempt to get Warbeck extradited. When this was achieved, a new trade treaty was signed, later known as the ‘Great Agreement’ to distinguish it from a second and lesser treaty, the Malus Intercursus of 1506.
6. In 1496–97 Henry feared a Scottish invasion in support of Warbeck. Taxes were urgently required to fund an English army but Cornwall objected, claiming that the problem had nothing to do with them.
7. Prince Arthur’s sudden death was a severe blow to the King. He only had one surviving son, who was 10, and there were rumours in Calais that Edmund de la Pole was likely to make a bid for the throne.
8. This act imposed a fine of £5 per month (or part month) per retainer on anyone who kept a retainer without a royal licence. Although Henry could not eliminate retaining, and indeed benefited from the existence of a small number of loyal retainers, he was keen to control its worst excesses.
9. The capture of Edmund ended any hope of a Yorkist restoration. Richard de la Pole remained a fugitive but he wouldn’t do anything that might have harmed his older brother.