A major aspect of Henry VII plans for the Crown involved re-establishing respect for the law and strong government. The monarchy had been undermined by the War of the Roses, and monarch power

Henry set out to rectify the ‘noble problem,’ believed that there were too many powerful noblemen. They were rich and they had their own private armies. During the Wars of the Roses, they had not been loyal to either side - renting out their private armies to the family that paid the most. Henry had to control them. A king that faced conspiracies and rebellions throughout his reign, Henry was determined to keep close control of all his noblemen. By marrying Elizabeth of York, Henry unified the warring factions of the War of the Roses, and in doing so, restored national unity.  When a noble family died out, Henry would not replace them with another, reflective of his sparing distribution of noble titles, indicative of his aim to keep peerage small. Henry had a three-way plan to bring the nobles under his control. First, he banned all private armies. Any baron who disobeyed this royal command would be committing treason which carried the death penalty. Secondly, he heavily taxed the barons to reduce their wealth. The money raised could be used by Henry to develop his own royal army. A powerful royal army was an obvious threat to the barons. The third way of controlling the barons was to use the Court of Star Chamber. This was a court run by men who were loyal to Henry VII and they could be relied on to severely punish any baron who angered the king. With these three potential punishments against them, the barons, though a threat to Henry VII, were reasonably well tamed by him. Henry VII imtroduced provincial councils, and placed people because of ability and loyalty, rather than status and rank. This was his way of placing his supporters around him, as opposed to people who may in future rebel against him.

To conclude, Henry VII was certainly successful in re-establishing respect for the law and strong government, highlighted by the easy and unchallenged succession upon his death and his son’s crowning. However, law and order wasn’t entirely perfect during his reign, shown by the number of conspiracies and rebellions to the crown in the early years. Despite this, Henry managed to control, and cut down on the number of them, the nobility well, and made good use of bonds and recognizance’s, where payments were made in return for good behavior. These payments were a key reason for the peace at the time, whereas the growth of the Court of Star Chamber helped control crime.