How did political events shape plays written by William Shakespeare?

Political events had a profound impact on Shakespeare's plays in ways large and small. Shakespeare was inspired by both the politics of his time and the politics of previous eras of English history (indeed, he wrote ten plays devoted to English history), but some of the most interesting political influences on Shakespeare's writing need a little backstory to make apparent. Here's a good one:

One of Shakespeare's most popular plays, then and now, is "Richard III". Richard is a funny, scary, amazingly written villain, easily the worst, most murderous king England had ever seen and has inspired performances by actors like Laurence Olivier, Ian McKellen, and Kathryn Hunter (the first two are widely available on video). Shakespeare got a lot of the story of Richard's nefarious deeds from Thomas More's history of Richard's reign.

Here's where the politics come in.

The man who overthrew Richard III to become the next king was named Henry Richmond, and he was crowned Henry VII. His son ruled as Henry VIII and number 8's daughter was the current Queen of England, Elizabeth I. Henry VII personally approved the "official" history of Richard III as written by More; not suprisingly, he wanted to make himself look as good as possible by making Richard look like a monster. In fact, more recent historians have begun to think that maybe Richard III wasn't such an evil man after all and that More's history was in many details a slander designed to justify Henry VII's decision to start a war and seize the crown for himself.

Shakespeare took More's work and dramatized it as fact, and did it so well that Henry VII got his wish: he's the hero of the story. But if Henry hadn't needed such an elaborate political justification for seizing the throne, More might never have written a history of such a loathsome, evil man, Shakespeare wouldn't have read it and we all would have been denied one of literature's great villains. The politics of the time demanded a smear campaign against Richard III in the history books, and whether it was true or not, Shakespeare took political propaganda and spun it into a fascinating, devious, twisted character.