The ' was a
commercial treaty
A commercial treaty is a formal agreement between Sovereign state, states for the purpose of establishing mutual rights and regulating conditions of trade. It is a bilateral act whereby definite arrangements are entered into by each contracting par ...
signed in April 1506 by King
Henry VII of England
Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.
Henry's mother, Margaret Beauf ...
and Duke
Philip IV of Burgundy
Philip the Handsome, es, Felipe, french: Philippe, nl, Filips (22 July 1478 – 25 September 1506), also called the Fair, was ruler of the Burgundian Netherlands and titular Duke of Burgundy from 1482 to 1506, as well as the first Habsburg Ki ...
.
Background and detail
Continuing frictions with the
Company of Merchant Adventurers of London, combined with Henry's desire to secure
Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk
Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, 6th Earl of Suffolk, KG (c. 147130 April 1513), Duke of Suffolk, was a son of John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk and his wife Elizabeth of York.
Although the male York line ended with the death of Edw ...
, the leading Yorkist heir, sheltering in Burgundy, led Henry to attempt further negotiations, even after the ratification of the ''
Intercursus Magnus
The ' was a major and long-lasting commercial treaty signed in February 1496 by King Henry VII of England and Duke Philip IV of Burgundy. Other signatories included the commercial powers of Venice, Florence, the Netherlands, and the Hanseatic L ...
'' in 1496. A shipwreck in 1506 left Philip stranded in England en route to claiming the
Castilian inheritance of his wife,
Joanna the Mad
Joanna (6 November 1479 – 12 April 1555), historically known as Joanna the Mad ( es, link=no, Juana la Loca), was the nominal Queen of Castile from 1504 and Queen of Aragon from 1516 to her death in 1555. She was married by arrangement to Phi ...
.
This enabled Henry to negotiate the ' ("", so named from the Dutch perspective for being far too favorable to English interests), intended to replace the '.
This replacement removed all duties from English textile exports without reciprocity and with little compensation for the Burgundians.
49-year-old Henry, widowed three years previously, also arranged to be married to Philip's sister, the twice-widowed 26-year-old
Margaret.
Finally Philip of Burgundy was forced to hand over Edmund de la Pole. Henry also recognised Philip and Joanna as the rulers of Castille (seeing as Queen
Isabella I of Castile had died in 1504). After handing over de la Pole, Philip and Joanna were allowed to leave England after a forced stay of six weeks.
Margaret's objection—both to the marriage and the treaty more generally—meant that, on Philip's death that September and Margaret's appointment as
Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands (and ''de facto'' ruler), the treaty was not ratified
being replaced instead by a third treaty in 1507, repeating the terms of the first.
References
{{Reflist
1500s treaties
1506 in Europe
16th-century economic history
Commercial treaties
Treaties of England
Treaties of the Burgundian Netherlands