The reign of the Tudors and the Stuarts covered more than two and one-half centuries in the history of Britain. The first of the Tudor kings was Henry Tudor, or Henry VII, victor at the Battle of Bosworth when Richard III was killed. He ascended to the throne in 1485. He married the Yorkist heiress in 1486 and so ended the War of the Roses: "Though the Tudor dynasty began in treason and bloodshed, it eventually brought a new, more peaceful era" (Delderfield 60). The first of the Stuarts was James I of Scotland, succeeding Elizabeth I in 1603.
Henry VII began the process of strengthening the idea of kingship, which he had to do from necessity because of the weakness of his claim to the throne. The weakness of kings in the fifteenth century had had real consequences, such as bad government and the disintegration of the rule of law. The king had to rely on the good will of the people for his power, and he had no standing army and was dependent on the conformance of the nobility to the ancient duty of every male citizen to serve in the militia. Henry now worked to place the kingship on a new plane of eminence (Willson and Prall 175). Councillors had been selected by rank in the past, but beginning with Henry the Tudors selected councillors on the basis of their intelligence and the quality of their work (Dawson 36-37). Henry gave the councillors great power because they were dependent upon him for their jobs and because they represented his will in action (Willson and Prall 176). His son, Henry VIII, inherited a much stronger throne because of Henry VII's efforts. The legal system was changed by both Henry VII and Henry VIII, and they improved much about the way justice was administered. Henry VII's Council performed its judicial work in the Star Chamber, which at this time was not separate from the rest of the Council but was only the place where the councillors met to transact judicial business. Anyone could petition ...