The Wars of the Roses and the crowning of the first Tudor:
The Wars of the Roses and the crowning of the first Tudor: In 1421, England was the most powerful state in western Europe. Under the exceptional leadership of King Henry V the English had gotten the upper hand on the French in the latest phase of the Hundred Years War, they controlled the Duchy of Normandy and most of northern France including Paris, and thanks to a recent treaty, Henry V was the legitimate heir to the thrown of France. This meant that after the mentally ill French king Charles VI died, the two crowns would be united in Henry's posession. England was the most stable, tightly governed, and centralized kingdom on the continent; incredibly wealthy and ready to be tapped by effective and competent systems of taxation to support professional, well equipped soldiers who could fight for years at a time. England was very much on the rise. This had all come crashing down after Henry V died suddenly in 1422 at the age of 35, leaving the crown in the hands of his incapable s...