The War of the Roses came in with a Henry, and it went out with a Henry. Henry VII waged the last and final battle of this war when he overthrew King Richard III in 1485 and became the first monarch from the House of Tudor (which turned out to be a long-lasting dynasty). Henry VII was the cool-headed, able king who ushered England into the modern era. Although he was a Lancastrian, he was so by illegitimate descent through King John. He united the Yorks with the Lancasters by marrying Edward IV’s daughter, Elizabeth – so now everyone is neatly together under the new House of Tudor, by a little stretch of the imagination. Still, Henry VII was a fine ruler, although not beloved by the people (he kept his distance from the common man). Under Henry VII, the English government came to be more stabilized and centralized and he died leaving a peaceful and prosperous England to his incurable pleasure-seeking, tyrannically arrogant, hot-headed son, none other than the legendary King Henry VIII.
