With his decisive victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field (1485), Henry VII ended the Wars of the Roses and famously delivered peace to a war-ravaged England. Ever since, his life and court have attracted the attention of commentators, historians and strategists. Described by the The Examiner as a 'store of welcome gossip', this 1858 collection of documents pertaining to the first Tudor monarch swiftly became popular, and could be found on the bookshelves of scholars and politicians alike. Compiled, translated and edited by the archivist and historian James Gairdner for the Rolls Series, the work contains a variety of ambassadors' reports on foreign rulers including the Kings of Aragon, Castile and Naples. Transcribed in their original Latin, with English translations and commentary provided by Gairdner, these accounts reveal the origins of international relationships that would influence the policy of Henry's descendants for centuries.
