e defeat and death of Richard III at Bosworth field was a double blow for the heralds, for they lost both their patron, the King, and their benefactor, the Earl Marshal, who was also slain. The victorious Henry Tudor was crowned King Henry VII soon after the battle. Henry's first Parliament of 1485 passed an Act of Resumption, in which large grants of crown properties made by his two predecessors to their supporters were cancelled. Whether this act affected the status of the College's charter is debatable; however, the act did facilitate the de facto recovery of Coldharbour to the crown. Henry then granted the house to his mother Lady Margaret Beaufort, for life. This was because it was supposed that the house was granted personally to John Writhe the Garter King of Arms and not to the heralds as a corporation. As a result, the heralds were left destitute and many of their books and records were lost. Despite this ill treatment from the King, the heralds' position at the royal court remained, and they were compelled by the King to attend him at all times (albeit in rotation). Of the reign of King Henry VIII, it has been said that: "at no time since its establishment, was [the college] in higher estimation, nor in fuller employment, than in this reign." Henry VIII was fond of pomp and magnificence, and thus gave the heralds plenty of opportunity to exercise their roles in his court. In addition, the members of the College were also expected to be regularly despatched to foreign courts on missions, whether to declare war, accompany armies, summon garrisons or deliver messages to foreign potentates and generals. During his magnificent meeting with Francis I of France at the Field of the Cloth of Go 
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