Henry VII (reigned 1485–1509) restored stable royal government after the chaos of the Wars of the Roses. He filled his treasury through careful bookkeeping and forced loans, married Elizabeth of York to unite the rival houses, and used new institutions such as the Court of Star Chamber to bring over-mighty nobles to heel.
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His foreign policy was cautious. He married his eldest son Arthur to Catherine of Aragon to ally with Spain, and his daughter Margaret to King James IV of Scotland — a match that would eventually bring the two crowns together a century later. When Arthur died young, Catherine was married to his younger brother, the future Henry VIII.
You may be asked who founded the Tudor dynasty (Henry VII), what the Star Chamber was, or whom Henry VII married to unite Lancaster and York.
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