Wars of the Roses
Tudor dynasty

The English monarchy prior to the wars exerted only weak influence, unable to prevent the growing factional rivalries that undermined the political structure of the country. When Henry VII ascended the throne, he inherited a government that had been significantly weakened. Although the Tudor claim on the throne was weak and the new regime faced several rebellions, Henry's rule provided much-needed stability to the realm that prevented further outbreaks of war. Trade, commerce, and culture flourished and war would not return to England for 155 years. Upon his death, Henry VII had left to his successors a thriving economy, in part thanks to his frugal spending. Slavin (1964) considers Henry VII to be a member of the " New Monarchs ", defined as a ruler who centralised power in the monarchy and unified their nation. Though the monarchy saw a strengthening under the Tudors, they generally operated within the established legal and financial boundaries, which compelled the monarch to cooperate closely with the nobility, rather than against them. Tudor monarchs, particularly Henry VIII, defined the concept of the " divine right of kings " to help reinforce monarchical authority, a philosophical concept which would come to plague England under the reign of Charles I, leading to the English Civil War.

The ascension of the Tudor dynasty saw the end of the dawn of the English Renaissance, an offshoot of the Italian Renaissance, that saw a revolution in art, literature, music, and architecture. The English Reformation, England's break with the Roman Catholic Church, occurred under the Tudors, which saw the establishment of the Anglican Church, and the rise of Protestantism as England's dominant religious denomination. Henry VIII's need for a male heir, impelled by the potential for a crisis of succession that dominated the Wars of the Roses, was the prime motivator influencing his decision to separate England from Rome. The reign of Henry VIII's daughter, Elizabeth I, is considered by historians to be a golden age in English history, and is widely remembered today as the Elizabethan era.

Historian John Guy argued that "England was economically healthier, more expansive, and more optimistic under the Tudors" than at any time since the Roman occupation. Historians such as Kendall, Walpole, and Buck contend that the characterisation of the Wars of the Roses as a period of bloodshed and lawlessness, contrasted with the Tudors ushering in a period of law, peace, and prosperity, served the political interests of the Tudors to present the new regime positively. Contemporaries of the Tudors, such as William Shakespeare and Sir Thomas More, wrote fictional and non-fictional works respectively which were hostile to the Yorkists, particularly Richard III. Horspool observes that More's work (which likely influenced Shakespeare) was a private endeavour published only after his death, as opposed to a state-sponsored commission.
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