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 House Museum, Weymouth
Tudor House, an Elizabethan substantial, three-storey house, was built around 1600, estimated to be between 1603 and 1610 by a merchant who built it as a harbour side house. Due to the closeness with the harbour, this allowed the trader to moor his boats right outside his home and unload his goods. The house is made of Portland stone ashlar, with a stone slate roof. It originally stood on the edge what was known as 'The Cove', an inlet from the harbour allowing ships to be moored alongside. Today it remains furnished as the home of an early seventeenth-century middle-class family. One of Weymouth's treasured Tudor buildings, its original use came to an end with the filling in of the inlet in the late 18th century as the inlet was silted up and was turned into a street. The building remained as two small houses until the 1930s, and in 1936 the building was condemned for demolition as it was deemed unfit for habitation via a Closing Order imposed just before the Second World War, but it was saved due to the intervention of the Second World War, and after it was purchased by the Weymouth Ancient Buildings Society. It however then became derelict having been empty during the Second World War and suffered bomb damage.