The Tudors, who came to power with the ascendency of Henry VII in 1485, may be the most well-known royal house of English history. Henry VIII is notorious for his acquisition, shedding, and execution of wives; his lustfully motivated break with Rome; and an imperfect Reformation that resulted in the creation of the Church of England. He was also known for his execution of Catholics, including Thomas More, to quell opposition to his Reformation (White 1963, 96–131). His daughter Mary carved out a reputation during her five-year reign (1553–58) by attempting to undo her father's Reformation through hundreds of persecutions and executions of Protestants. Her sister Elizabeth, daughter of his second wife, who endured imprisonment in The Tower, emerged at the death of Mary to become the greatest monarch so far to hold the throne. In her person she became the icon of a Tudor myth. From her grandfather, Henry VII, Elizabeth inherited a fabricated genealogy pieced together from Welsh ancestry and Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of England, which included descent from the mythical King Arthur and through him descent from the royal house of Troy. To this she added a repudiation of the salacious sexuality of her father that recast her as a compelling symbol: the Virgin Queen. This Tudor myth, acted out by Queen Elizabeth and supported by numerous literary disciples surrounding the monarchy, became the vehicle of Elizabeth's remarkable power throughout her long reign.

Westminster Abbey encapsulates nine hundred years of the British monarchy (Abbott 1972). In late summer 1066 CE, the Normans began an invasion that culminated in victory in England before the end of the year. William the Conqueror, a Norman leader of Viking descent and one of several possible contenders for the throne of England, secured his victory with a coronation on December 25 in the newly rebuilt St. Peter's Abbey, a recognizably Romanesque structure from its depictions on the Bayeux Tapestry (Musset 2011, 160–63). By the thirteenth century, a Gothic replacement was underway, the current Westminster Abbey, upon which construction continued sporadically for centuries with periodic additions and modifications. Throughout this long history, William's dramatic act set a precedent: coronations for every British king have since been conducted in Westminster Abbey.