English society also suffered severely from the disorders of the fifteenth century. The aristocracy dominated the government of Henry IV (r. 1399–1413) and indulged in disruptive violence at the local level (see "Aftermath" in Chapter 11). Population continued to decline. Between 1455 and 1471, adherents of the ducal houses of York and Lancaster contended for control of the Crown in a civil war, commonly called the Wars of the Roses. The chronic disorder hurt trade, agriculture, and domestic industry. Under the pious but mentally disturbed Henry VI (r. 1422–1461), the authority of the monarchy sank lower than it had in centuries.

Edward IV (r. 1461–1483), from York, began establishing domestic tranquility. He succeeded in defeating the Lancastrian forces and after 1471 began to reconstruct the monarchy. Edward, his brother Richard III (r. 1483–1485), and Henry VII (r. 1485–1509) of the Welsh house of Tudor worked to restore royal prestige, to crush the power of the nobility, and to establish law and order at the local level.

Edward IV and subsequently the Tudors, except Henry VIII, conducted foreign policy on the basis of diplomacy and avoided expensive wars. Thus, the English monarchy did not have to depend on Parliament for money, and the Crown undercut that source of aristocratic influence.

Henry VII did summon several meetings of Parliament in the early years of his reign, primarily to confirm laws, but the center of royal authority was the royal council, which governed at the national level. Henry VII revealed his distrust of the nobility to the royal council; though not completely excluded, very few great lords were among the king’s closest advisers. Instead he chose men from among the smaller landowners and urban residents trained in law. The council dealt with real or potential aristocratic threats through a judicial offshoot, the Court of Star Chamber. The court applied methods that were sometimes terrifying: accused persons were not entitled to see evidence against them, sessions were secret, juries were not called, and torture could be applied to extract confessions. These procedures ran directly counter to English common-law precedents, but they effectively reduced aristocratic troublemaking. When Henry VII died in 1509, he left a country at peace both domestically and internationally, a substantially augmented treasury, an expanding wool trade, and a Crown with its dignity and role much enhanced.