'The holie companie of heven': Henry VII's Chapel
Transition in art and kingship, between medieval and Renaissance Europe, characterises the first Tudor's memorial.
Twelve days after the Battle of Bosworth, Henry Tudor entered London. The City had prepared a suitable welcome, though, with the understandable caution of a capital that had seen several victors in battle enter its walls in the previous thirty years, night watches were ordered and a general curfew imposed in the days preceding the new King's arrival. Henry arrived at Shoreditch where he was greeted by the City representatives, and proceeded through the streets to the sound of trumpets and specially written verses. Like many late medieval important arrivals in London, Henry spent his first night under the roof of a great churchman (in this case the Bishop of London) since it was they, rather than the nobility, that generally kept large houses in the City, a situation that was to be reversed during the Tudor period.
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