Shakespeare lived and wrote before modern ideas of freedom of speech and freedom of the press had become accepted. The English government of Shakespeare's day practiced censorship of books and plays. Elizabeth I of England, who was queen from 1558 to 1603, was the granddaughter of Henry VII and the last Tudor ruler. Her government saw Richard III as a villain and the man who replaced him, Henry VII, as a hero, and censored any other point of view. If Shakespeare had wanted to write a play with Richard III as a hero, he would not have been allowed to do so.