Tudor

Tudor, name of the dynasty that occupied the throne of England from 1485 to 1603. The house was founded by the Welsh nobleman Owen Tudor, who married Catherine of Valois, the widow of the English king, Henry V. Their eldest son, Edmund Tudor, married Margaret Beaufort, a descendant of John of Gaunt, son of Edward III. In 1485 Edmund and Margaret’s son, Henry, killed Richard III of the House of York at the Battle of Bosworth Field, ending the Wars of the Roses, and became Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch. The successive Tudor sovereigns were Henry VIII and his son and two daughters, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I; the three died childless. The Tudors reunited the country after a period of civil strife and made the Church of England independent of the pope. They were followed in royal succession by the Stuart family, descended from the marriage of Henry VII’s daughter Margaret Tudor to James IV of Scotland.

See also Tudor Period; Tudor Style.