Henry VII was the great-great-great-grandson of
King Edward III of
England through his mother, and his father was a
half-brother of
Henry VI. (These relations constituted Henry Tudor's claim to the throne of England.) He and his uncle Jasper Tudor were on the Lancaster side in
the War of the Roses, and left England after their side was defeated at Tewkesbury (more than ten years before
Richard III came to the throne). The two spent their time in
Brittany until Henry came back in
1485 and gathered support to become the preferred candidate for the
throne of the
Lancaster side, since
Yorkist king
Richard III had no surviving children anyway. The two sides fought at Bosworth Field, where Richard was killed and Henry put on his old helmet. He was crowned king almost as soon as he could get to
London, and a month later
Parliament passed an act affirming his right to be king. He was also petitioned to marry Elizabeth of York, the daughter of former Yorkist king
Edward IV, and did so, uniting the Lancaster and York branches of the royal family and ending the War of the Roses.
After 30 years of war, the English were happy to have some peace and the country prospered. Henry was a bit of a tightwad, but he did fund the building of palaces and some religious houses. He married his elder son Arthur to Catherine of Aragon in 1501, but Arthur died the next year with no children. Henry, suffering from gout and asthma, hung on until 1509 before dying at the age of 52, and was succeeded by his second son Henry VIII.