Tudors | Article about Tudors by The Free Dictionary
Tudors | Article about Tudors by The Free Dictionary
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Tudor,
royal family that ruled England from 1485 to 1603. Its founder was Owen Tudor Tudor, Owen,
d. 1461, founder of the Tudor dynasty. He belonged to an ancient Welsh family. He was a squire at the court of Henry V, and, probably in 1429, he married Henry's widow, Catherine of Valois, by whom he had five children.
..... Click the link for more information. , of a Welsh family of great antiquity, who was a squire at the court of Henry V and who married that king's widow, Catherine of Valois Catherine of Valois
, 1401–37, queen consort of Henry V of England, daughter of Charles VI of France. Married in 1420, she bore Henry the son who was to become Henry VI.
..... Click the link for more information. . Their eldest son, Edmund, was created (1453) earl of Richmond, married Margaret Beaufort Beaufort, Margaret, countess of Richmond and Derby
, 1443–1509, English noblewoman, mother of Henry VII. She was the daughter and heiress of John, 1st duke of Somerset, and great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster.
..... Click the link for more information.  (a descendant of John of Gaunt John of Gaunt
[Mid. Eng. Gaunt=Ghent, his birthplace], 1340–99, duke of Lancaster; fourth son of Edward III of England. He married (1359) Blanche, heiress of Lancaster, and through her became earl (1361) and duke (1362) of Lancaster.
..... Click the link for more information. ), and had a posthumous son, Henry, who assumed the Lancastrian claims and ascended the throne as Henry VII Henry VII,
1457–1509, king of England (1485–1509) and founder of the Tudor dynasty. Claim to the Throne
Henry was the son of Edmund Tudor, earl of Richmond, who died before Henry was born, and Margaret Beaufort, a descendant of Edward III through John
..... Click the link for more information.  after defeating Richard III Richard III,
1452–85, king of England (1483–85), younger brother of Edward IV. Created duke of Gloucester at Edward's coronation (1461), he served his brother faithfully during Edward's lifetime—fighting at Barnet and Tewkesbury and later invading Scotland.
..... Click the link for more information.  at Bosworth Field (1485). By his marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV Edward IV,
1442–83, king of England (1461–70, 1471–83), son of Richard, duke of York. He succeeded to the leadership of the Yorkist party (see Roses, Wars of the) after the death of his father in Wakefield in 1460.
..... Click the link for more information. , Henry united the Lancastrian and Yorkist claims to the throne. Of his children, his daughter Margaret Tudor Margaret Tudor,
1489–1541, queen consort of James IV of Scotland; daughter of Henry VII of England and sister of Henry VIII. Her marriage (1503) to James was accompanied by a treaty of "perpetual peace" between Scotland and England, a peace that was ended when James
..... Click the link for more information.  married James IV of Scotland; his daughter Mary (see Mary of England Mary of England
(Mary Tudor), 1496–1533, queen consort of Louis XII of France, daughter of Henry VII of England and sister of Henry VIII. She was betrothed in 1507 to the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, but the contract was broken, and in Oct.
..... Click the link for more information. ) married Louis XII Louis XII,
1462–1515, king of France (1498–1515), son of Charles, duc d'Orléans. He succeeded his father as duke. While still duke, he rebelled against the regency of Anne de Beaujeu and was imprisoned (1488), but was released (1491) by his cousin King Charles
..... Click the link for more information.  of France; and his surviving son succeeded him (1509) on the throne as Henry VIII Henry VIII,
1491–1547, king of England (1509–47), second son and successor of Henry VII. Early Life
In his youth he was educated in the new learning of the Renaissance and developed great skill in music and sports.
..... Click the link for more information. . All three of Henry VIII's children, Edward VI Edward VI,
1537–53, king of England (1547–53), son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour. Edward succeeded his father to the throne at the age of nine. Henry had made arrangements for a council of regents, but the council immediately appointed Edward's uncle, Edward
..... Click the link for more information. , Mary I Mary I
(Mary Tudor), 1516–58, queen of England (1553–58), daughter of Henry VIII and Katharine of Aragón. Early Life
While Mary was a child, various husbands were proposed for her—the eldest son of Francis I of France (1518), Holy Roman
..... Click the link for more information. , and Elizabeth I Elizabeth I,
1533–1603, queen of England (1558–1603). Early Life
The daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, she was declared illegitimate just before the execution of her mother in 1536, but in 1544 Parliament reestablished her in the succession after
..... Click the link for more information. , were rulers of England. Following the death of Edward VI, there was an unsuccessful attempt to place Mary of England's granddaughter, Lady Jane Grey Grey, Lady Jane,
1537–54, queen of England for nine days. She was the daughter of Henry Grey, marquess of Dorset (later duke of Suffolk), and Frances Brandon, daughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary.
..... Click the link for more information. , upon the throne. The reign of the Tudors was distinguished by considerable governmental reorganization, which strengthened the power of the monarchy; the rise of England as a naval power and a corresponding growth in the sense of national pride; and the Reformation of the English church with attendant religious strife. It was a period of a remarkable flowering of English literature and scholarship. Upon the death of Elizabeth I (1603), the Tudor dynasty was succeeded by the house of Stuart Stuart
or Stewart,
royal family that ruled Scotland and England. The Stuart lineage began in a family of hereditary stewards of Scotland, the earliest of whom was Walter (d. 1177), grandson of a Norman adventurer.
..... Click the link for more information. , whose claim to the throne derived from Margaret Tudor. Among the noted historians of the Tudor period are Geoffrey Rudolph Elton Elton, Sir Geoffrey Rudolph,
1921–94, English historian, b. Germany as Geoffrey Rudolph Ehrenberg. He was educated at the Univ. of London and began teaching at Cambridge in 1949, holding the post of Regius Professor of Modern History there from 1983 to 1988.
..... Click the link for more information. , Sir John Ernest Neale, and Albert Frederick Pollard.
Bibliography
See also C. Read, The Tudors (1936); C. Morris, The Tudors (1955); M. Foss, Tudor Portraits (1974); A. Plowden, The House of Tudor (1982); T. Penn, Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England (2012).
Tudor
 
a royal dynasty that ruled in England from 1485 to 1603, replacing the house of York. The house of Tudor was founded by Henry VII, who ruled from 1485 to 1509; descended from Welsh feudal lords on his father’s side, he was related to the Lancasters through his mother. The other Tudor monarchs were Henry VIII (ruled 1509–47), Edward VI (ruled 1547–53), Mary I (ruled 1553–58), and Elizabeth I (ruled 1558–1603).
The policies of all the Tudors except Mary reflected the interests of the English nobility and bourgeoisie of the 16th century; these policies were based on protectionism, patronage of navigation, conflict with Spain, and the principles of the Reformation. The Tudors were absolute monarchs, and Parliament was an obedient tool of the crown. With the development of capitalist relations, however, Parliament became the mouthpiece of the bourgeois opposition, and in the last years of Elizabeth’s reign, it began a struggle against royal absolutism. This struggle became especially intense under the next dynasty, the Stuarts.
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