| House of Tudor | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Parent house | Tudors of Penmynydd |
| Country | |
| Founded | 1485 |
| Founder | Henry VII (first Tudor king) |
| Final ruler | Elizabeth I |
| Titles | |
| Dissolution | 24 March 1603 |
The House of Tudor (/ˈtjuːdər/ TEW-dər)[1] was an English and Welsh dynasty that held the throne of England from 1485 to 1603.[2] They descended from the Tudors of Penmynydd, a Welsh noble family, and Catherine of Valois. The Tudor monarchs ruled the Kingdom of England and the Lordship of Ireland (later the Kingdom of Ireland) for 118 years with five monarchs: Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I. The Tudors succeeded the House of Plantagenet as rulers of the Kingdom of England, and were succeeded by the Scottish House of Stuart. The first Tudor monarch, Henry VII, descended through his mother from the House of Beaufort, a legitimised branch of the English royal House of Lancaster, a cadet house of the Plantagenets. The Tudor family rose to power and started the Tudor period in the wake of the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), which left the main House of Lancaster (with which the Tudors were aligned) extinct in the male line.
Henry VII (a descendant of Edward III, and the son of Edmund Tudor, a half-brother of Henry VI) succeeded in presenting himself as a candidate not only for traditional Lancastrian supporters, but also for discontented supporters of their rival Plantagenet cadet House of York, and he took the throne by right of conquest. Following his victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field (22 August 1485), he reinforced his position in 1486 by fulfilling his 1483 vow to marry Elizabeth of York, daughter of King Edward IV and the heiress of the Yorkist claim to the throne, thus symbolically uniting the former warring factions of Lancaster and York under the new dynasty (represented by the Tudor rose). The Tudors extended their power beyond modern England, achieving the full union of England and the Principality of Wales in 1542 (Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542), and successfully asserting English authority over the Kingdom of Ireland (proclaimed by the Crown of Ireland Act 1542). They also maintained the nominal English claim to the Kingdom of France; although none of them made substance of it, Henry VIII fought wars with France primarily as a matter of international alliances but also asserting claim to the title. After him, his daughter Mary I lost control of all territory in France permanently with the Siege of Calais in 1558.
In total, the Tudor monarchs ruled their domains for 118 years. Henry VIII (r. 1509–1547) was the only son of Henry VII to live to the age of maturity, and he proved a dominant ruler. Issues around royal succession (including marriage and the succession rights of women) became major political themes during the Tudor era, as did the English Reformation in religion, impacting the future of the Crown. Elizabeth I was the longest serving Tudor monarch at 44 years, and her reign- known as the Elizabethan Era- provided a period of stability after the short, troubled reigns of her siblings. When Elizabeth I died childless, her cousin of the Scottish House of Stuart succeeded her, in the Union of the Crowns of 24 March 1603. The first Stuart to become King of England (r. 1603–1625), James VI and I, was a great-grandson of Henry VII's daughter Margaret Tudor, who in 1503 had married James IV of Scotland in accordance with the 1502 Treaty of Perpetual Peace. A connection persists to the present 21st century, as Charles III is a ninth-generation descendant of George I, who in turn was James VI and I's great-grandson.[3]
- ^ "Tudor Definition & Meaning | Britannica Dictionary". britannica.com. Archived from the original on 5 June 2023. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
- ^ "House of Tudor 2010. In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 6 March 2010, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online". Archived from the original on 8 May 2015. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
- ^ "The Tudors: A Who's Who". FAMSF. Retrieved 10 July 2024.