Urban policy and urban political culture: Henry VII and his towns

Henry VII has established a widely-recognized reputation for the assiduousness of his governance. For all the research conducted on Henry's handling of central government machinery, however, little scholarly effort has concentrated on the king's political interaction with provincial government, and particularly with the king's provincial towns. This article examines Henry's relations with urban polities and argues that in the king's political interaction with larger provincial centres in politically sensitive areas, such as Bristol, York and Exeter, can be witnessed a burgeoning urban policy. In contrast to processes of political centralization at work during Henry's regime, however, the king's policy in this regard helped to promote a degree of autonomy for urban governments, and thus also paved the way for the formation of later, distinctive elite urban political cultures. © Institute of Historical Research 2009