Richard III faced fierce opposition and eventually was defeated by Henry Tudor who became the next king of England as Henry VII (1485-1509).
Henry Tudor had a rather weak claim to the throne of England, through his father and grandfather, nevertheless, considering the almost complete lack of other legitimate claimants, he became the figure to lead the forces of Richard III's opposition.

Henry VII ruled at the time of great geographical and philosophical discoveries, at the time of the birth of Renaissance.
Henry was a tax-oriented king. He created efficient taxation mechanisms, however, he also maintained economic prosperity and peace.
Henry also introduced an efficient system of propaganda and made sure the barons, whose numbers were decimated after the Wars of the Roses, would not become a threat to the crown. The major means to achieve this aim was the Court of Star Chamber

Henry Tudor's successor, Henry VIII (1509-1547) was different from his father particularly with respect to his approach to the royal treasury. In contrast to Henry VII, he was quicker to spend the money either on luxuries or wars.

In his early reign he was known as a devout catholic, which gave him a prize of "Defender of the Faith" (Fidei Defensor - FD) from the pope.

He is famous for having been married six times.
In order to divorce the first wife - Catherine of Aragon, Henry supported the break from the Roman Pope's supervision over the church in England, consequently establishing the Church of England. The Act of Supremacy declared that the King was "the only Supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England".

The dissolution of monasteries and taking over of their possessions proved to be a lucrative source of wealth for the royal treasury.

He was succeeded by his young son Edward VI (1547-53) - the son of Henry VIII's third wife - Jane Seymour.

The young king, during his short rule has supported the further development of Protestantism in England while shaping it into an Anglican model. Among other things he introduced the official Book of Common Prayer. He died a child most likely of an illness.

It was contrary to his successor - Mary I's (1553-58) ideas.
After defeating the competition of Lady Jane Grey to the throne, she reinstated Catholicism as the main religion in the country. For burning of Protestants she was given the nickname Bloody Mary. She married the Spanish heir to the throne - Phillip of Spain, however, Phillip never gained any practical influence over England and lost the office at Mary's death.
Mary died relatively soon, most likely because of a tumour, possibly related to several earlier false pregnancies.

The third of Henry VIII's children to take the throne - Elisabeth I (1558-1603), the daughter of Henry's second wife - Anne Boleyn, turned out to be the most successful monarch.

Elisabeth reign was marked by numerous plots against her, attempts at getting married, conflict with Spain, and the turbulent relations with Mary, Queen of Scots.

Elisabeth never married, nevertheless, she did enjoy the company of handsome men and had several times fallen in love.

The conflict with Spain stemmed mainly from the fact that Elisabeth supported the United Provinces of the Netherlands against the king of Spain, as well as from general economic rivalry and English piracy against Spanish colonies. Defeating of the Spanish Armada gave England the power to develop its empire at seas.

Elisabeth managed to reconcile the Catholic tradition with the Protestant orthodoxy by maintaining a strict policy of the monarch's supremacy over the church, and by avoiding showing favour towards one side or the other.
Over all, the religion of most of the English people was slowly becoming predominantly Protestant.

Mary of Scotland, despite her being at the mercy of Elisabeth for nearly two decades, to be eventually executed for taking part in a false plot against Elisabeth, turned out to be the mother of the successor to the English throne, a starter of a new dynasty in England, and a unifier of Britain.
The son of Mary of Scotland - James I (James VI of Scotland) (1603-25), received the throne of England on Elisabeth's death, establishing the new, Stuart dynasty in England.

James I, as every other Stuart, believed in the divine origin of royal powers. He found it hard and displeasing to be forced to deal with the parliament which was hampering his authority. He was also an extravagant money spender.

At the beginning of James' reign a group of Catholic extremists devised a plan, referred to as the Gunpowder Plot, to set explosives in the House of Lords, while the King was in it. The plan did not succeed.
However, since that event, the 5th of November has been celebrated as the Guy Fawkes Day.

Charles I (1625-49) was similar to his father - James I, with respect to engaging in conflict with the English Parliament over finances and over power in general.

Between 1629-1640, after repetitive arguments with the Parliament, Charles resolved to rule without summoning the Parliament. The period is referred to as the Eleven Years Tyranny, or the Personal Rule.

As soon as he found it difficult to raise finances without the Parliament, Charles was forced to summon it once more. However, the Parliament proceeded to pass legislation which took the power to issue summons away from the king.

In 1642 the king "raised the royal standard" and the first stage of open military conflict, known as the Civil War, began.

After the defeat of the royalist, in the conflict which took several stages, with the New Model Army being the decisive force, Charles I was tried and beheaded in 1649, after which a period of republican government in England took place, known as the Commonwealth of England, with Oliver Cromwell as its Lord Protector.

On the death of Oliver Cromwell, after a year of his son's (Richard Cromwell) rule, Charles I's son - Charles II (1660-85) was declared the lawful sovereign in 1660 - an event known as the Restoration.

Charles II proved to be a more sensible ruler, nevertheless he engaged in conflicts with the Parliament over religious matters. Charles wished Catholicism to be officially tolerated by the state. He also wished for his brother - James - an open Catholic, to be the heir to the throne.

James II (1685-88) constantly had to face opposition with regard to his Catholicism.

At the time of the birth of his son - James Francis Edward Stuart, the English Parliament decided to take action against the king and invited the Dutch duke William - the husband of James II's protestant daughter - Mary, to take over the throne of England.

William of Orange arrived in England in 1688, with massive Dutch forces further enlarged by strong English support. He managed to take England swiftly. The event, referred to as the Glorious Revolution, put William III (1689-1702) on the throne of England.

With the consequent passage of the Bill of Rights (1689) a new system of royal succession was set, preventing a Catholic from ever becoming the sovereign. The Bill of Rights also lay the new English constitutional law according to which the Parliament was to meet regularly, its MP's were guaranteed freedom of speech, while the king's power was to be further limited.
The bill was further amended with the Act of Settlement (1701), which specified who was to inherit the throne of England on the death of the last Stuart monarch.

Throughout the reign of William III, as well as the succeeding monarchs of England and Great Britain, there appeared a political movement dedicated to the restoriation of the heirs of James II to the throne, known as Jacobitism.
It lead to two Jacobite Risings (or Rebellions), one in 1715 - with James Stuart ("The Old Pretender"), the son of James II, as the leader of it, and another in 1745, led by Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie, alias the "Young Pretender"), the son of James Stuart.
The decisive battle, during which the Jacobites were defeated, known as the Battle of Culloden, is often referred to as the last battle fought on the British isles. One of the outcomes of the defeat of the Jacobites was banning the Scottish kilt and the tartan, and the decline of the Scottish clan system.

The most important event which took place during the reign of the following English monarch - queen Anne (1702-14), was the Act of Union, which finally merged the separate countries of England and Scotland into one country - Great Britain.