History of England
With Henry VII's accession to the throne in 1485, the Wars of the Roses came to an end, and Tudors would continue to rule England for 118 years. Traditionally, the Battle of Bosworth Field is considered to mark the end of the Middle Ages in England, although Henry did not introduce any new concept of monarchy, and for most of his reign his hold on power was tenuous. He claimed the throne by conquest and God's judgement in battle. Parliament quickly recognized him as king, but the Yorkists were far from defeated. Nonetheless, he married Edward IV's eldest daughter Elizabeth in January 1486, thereby uniting the houses of York and Lancaster.
Tudor architecture
However, with the arrival of gunpowder and cannons by the time of Henry VI, fortifications like castles became increasingly obsolete. The autumn of 1485 marked the ascension of Henry VII to the throne. Until Henry's accession, England had been engaged in the Wars of the Roses that had left the royal coffers in deep trouble-Yorkists had raided the treasury just after the death of Edward IV. Therefore, in 1487, Henry Tudor passed laws against livery and maintenance, which checked the nobility's ability to raise armies independent of the crown, and raised taxes mightily on the nobility through a trusted advisor, John Morton. Henry Tudor was hellbent on repairing the damage done by so many years of war, and that meant increasing financial security. It also meant recentralising power in London with the crown alone and away from interrelated nobles who had been squabbling over scraps of power since the reign of Richard II, evidenced by the crown beginning to be fought over by different branches of the descendants of Edward III at that time. From Henry's point of view, there were taxes to collect, bills of attainder to hand out to the disloyal, Yorkists to marry off to Lancastrians, the majesty of the monarchy to repair and restore, and a metaphorical wrecking ball to be applied to the medieval ideal of the warrior king crouching in his fortress and his vassals in theirs.