Why was Henry VII able to control the parliament?

 Henry VII became King of England in 1485. One of the main goals of Henry VII was to restore royal authority while England recovered from the War of the Roses. His biggest problem was that there were too many nobles in England, and he needed to check their power. To do this, he used the parliament to pass an act called the Star Chamber Act. This act set up a special court to try the wealthy and the powerful for offences, since ordinary courts be afraid to punish them.

Henry also realized that to have control over the government, he had to have control over parliament. Henry had already shown the nobility that loyalty to him would be rewarded, and this gave him control over the House of Lords. The Commons – primarily made up of rich merchants – was gaining in power around the time of Henry. Henry was smart enough to recognize their importance to the growth of England’s economy. He took good care to maintain a good relationship with the representatives of the middle classes in Parliament, and to get them on his side. By protecting of interests of the middle classes and merchants, he began to make England a centre for trade and commerce.

 Henry rarely needed parliament to grant him money for wars abroad as he avoided expensive overseas military campaigns. Parliament was used to support Henry’s drive to increase the king’s power, and to some extent, parliament became a rubber stamp for Henry.