is period was Henry VII, who reigned
from 1485 to 1509. He was not the nearest heir to the throne, but
acted as the representative of the Lancastrian line, and by his
marriage with the lady who represented the claim of the York family
joined the two contending factions. He was the first of the Tudor
line, his successors being his son, Henry VIII, and the three children
of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth. Henry VII was an able,
shrewd, far-sighted, and masterful man. During his reign he put an
end to the disorders of the nobility; made Parliament relatively
insignificant by calling it even less frequently than Edward IV had
done, and by initiating its legislation when it did meet. He also
increased and regulated the income of the crown, and rendered its
expenditures subject to control. He was able to keep ambassadors
regularly abroad, for the first time, and in many other ways to
support a more expensive administration, though often by unpopular and
illegal means of extortion from the people. He formed foreign
political and commercial treaties in all directions, and encouraged
the voyages of the Cabots to America. He brought a great deal of
business constantly before the Royal Council, but chose its members
for their ability rather than for their high rank. In these various
ways he created a strong personal government, which left but little
room for Parliament or people to do anything except carry out his
will. In these respects Henry's immediate successors and their
ministers followed the same policy. In fact, the Reformation in the
reign of Henry VIII, and new internal and foreign difficulties in the
reign of Elizabeth, brought the royal power into a still higher and
more independent position.

The need for a general reformation of the church had long been
recognized. More than one effort had been made by the ecclesiastical
authorities to insist on higher intellectual and moral standards for
the clergy and to rid the church of various evil customs and abuses.
Again, there had been repeated efforts to clothe the king, who was at
the head of all civil government, with extensive control and oversight
of church affairs also. Men holding different views on questions of
church government and religious belief from those held by the general
Christian church in the Middle Ages, had written and taught and found
many to agree with them. Thus efforts to bring about changes in the
established church had not been wanting