House of Tudor

English royal families in the Wars of the Roses

Dukes (except Aquitaine) and Princes of Wales are noted, as are the monarchs' reigns. Individuals with red dashed borders are Lancastrians and blue dotted borders are Yorkists. Some changed sides and are represented with a solid thin purple border. Monarchs have a rounded-corner border. See also Family tree of English monarchs Henry of Grosmont Duke of Lancaster Edward III King of England r. 1327–1377 Edward of Woodstock "The Black Prince" Prince of Wales Lionel of Antwerp Duke of Clarence Blanche of Lancaster John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster Katherine Swynford Edmund of Langley Duke of York Thomas of Woodstock Duke of Gloucester Richard II Prince of Wales, King of England r. 1377–1399 Philippa of Clarence Henry IV Duke of Lancaster, King of England r. 1399–1413 John Beaufort Thomas Beaufort Duke of Exeter Joan Beaufort Ralph Neville Henry Percy (Hotspur) Elizabeth Mortimer Roger Mortimer Owen Tudor Catherine of Valois Henry V Duke of Lancaster, Prince of Wales, King of England r. 1413–1422 Humphrey Duke of Gloucester Edward of Norwich Duke of York Richard of Conisburgh Anne de Mortimer John Beaufort 1st Duke of Somerset Margaret of Anjou Henry VI King of England r. 1422–1461, r. 1470–1471 Edmund Beaufort 2nd Duke of Somerset  †1st St Albans William Neville Eleanor Neville Henry Percy  †1st St Albans Anne Neville Duchess of Buckingham Richard Neville  Wakefield Cecily Neville Richard of York Duke of York, Prince of Wales  †Wakefield Henry Beaufort 3rd Duke of Somerset  Hexham Richard Woodville  Edgecote Margaret Beaufort Edmund Beaufort 4th Duke of Somerset  Tewkesbury Henry Percy  †Towton Humphrey Stafford John Neville  †Barnet Richard Neville "Kingmaker"  †Barnet Margaret Beaufort Edmund Tudor Jasper Tudor Duke of Bedford Catherine Woodville Henry Stafford Duke of Buckingham   Elizabeth Woodville Edward IV Duke of York, King of England r. 1461–1470, r. 1471–1483 George Plantagenet Duke of Clarence  Tower Edward of Westminster Prince of Wales  †Tewkesbury Anne Neville Richard III Duke of Gloucester, King of England r. 1483–1485  †Bosworth Field Henry VII King of England r. 1485–1509 Elizabeth of York Edward V Prince of Wales, King of England r. 1483  Tower Richard of Shrewsbury Duke of York  Tower

Sources:[4][5][6]

Henry Tudor had, however, something that the others did not. He had an army which defeated the last Yorkist king, Richard III, in the field of battle and the support of powerful nobles to take the crown by right of conquest. Richard III's accession to the throne had proved controversial, even among the Yorkists.

Henry Tudor, as Henry VII, and his son by Elizabeth of York, Henry VIII eliminated other claimants to the throne, including his first cousin once removed, Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury,[7] and her son Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu, as well as Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter.

On 1 November 1455, John Beaufort's granddaughter, Margaret Beaufort, married Henry VI's maternal half-brother Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond. It was his father, Owen Tudor (Welsh: Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudur ap Goronwy ap Tudur ap Goronwy ap Ednyfed Fychan), who abandoned the Welsh patronymic naming practice and adopted a fixed surname. When he did, he did not choose, as was generally the custom, his father's name, Maredudd, but chose that of his grandfather, Tudur ap Goronwy, instead.

This name is sometimes given as Tewdwr, the Welsh form of Theodore, but Modern Welsh Tudur, Old Welsh Tutir is originally not a variant but a different and completely unrelated name, etymologically identical with Gaulish Toutorix,[8] from Proto-Celtic *toutā "people, tribe" and *rīxs "king" (compare Modern Welsh tud "territory" and rhi "king"[9] respectively), corresponding to Germanic Theodoric.

Owen Tudor was one of the bodyguards for the queen dowager Catherine of Valois, whose husband, Henry V, had died in 1422. Evidence suggests that the two were secretly married in 1428. Two sons born of the marriage, Edmund and Jasper, were among the most loyal supporters of the House of Lancaster in its struggle against the House of York.

Henry VI ennobled his half-brothers: Edmund became Earl of Richmond on 15 December 1449[10] and was married to Lady Margaret Beaufort, the great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, the progenitor of the house of Lancaster; Jasper became Earl of Pembroke on 23 November 1452.[10] Edmund died on 3 November 1456. On 28 January 1457, his widow Margaret, who was only 13 at the time, gave birth to a son, Henry Tudor, at her brother-in-law's residence at Pembroke Castle.

Henry Tudor, the future Henry VII, spent his childhood at Raglan Castle, the home of Lord Herbert, a leading Yorkist. Following the murder of Henry VI and death of his son, Edward, at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471, Henry became the person upon whom the Lancastrian cause rested. Concerned for his young nephew's life, Jasper Tudor took Henry to Brittany for safety.

Lady Margaret remained in England and remarried, living quietly while advancing the Lancastrian (and her son's) cause. Capitalizing on the growing unpopularity of Richard III (King of England from 1483), she was able to forge an alliance with discontented Yorkists in support of her son. Two years after Richard III was crowned, Henry and Jasper sailed from the mouth of the Seine to the Milford Haven Waterway and defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485.[9] Upon this victory, Henry Tudor proclaimed himself King Henry VII.

Family tree of the principal members of the house of Tudor Red text indicates Monarch of England. Blue text indicates Monarch of Scotland.

Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, Henry VIII's chief minister responsible for the Dissolution of the Monasteries

In order to allow Henry to dissolve his marriage and marry Anne Boleyn, the English parliament enacted laws breaking ties with Rome, and declaring the king Supreme Head of the Church of England (from Elizabeth I the monarch is known as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England), thus severing the ecclesiastical structure of England from the Catholic Church and the Pope. The newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was then able to declare Henry's marriage to Catherine void. Catherine was banished from court, and she spent the last three years of her life in various English houses under "protectorship", similar to house arrest.[19] This allowed Henry to marry Anne Boleyn. She gave birth on 7 September 1533 to a daughter, Elizabeth, named in honour of Henry's mother.[20] Anne had two further pregnancies which ended in miscarriage. In 1536, Anne was arrested, along with six courtiers. Thomas Cromwell, Anne's former ally, stepped in again, claiming that she had taken lovers during her marriage to Henry, including her own brother, George Boleyn, and she was tried for high treason and incest. These charges were most likely fabricated, but she was found guilty and executed in May 1536.

Henry VIII of England: Henry's quarrels with the Pope led to the creation of the Church of England

Henry married again, for a third time, to Jane Seymour, the daughter of a Wiltshire knight, and with whom he had become enamoured while she was still a lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne. Jane became pregnant, and in 1537 produced a son, who became King Edward VI following Henry's death in 1547. Jane died of puerperal fever only a few days after the birth, leaving Henry devastated. Cromwell continued to gain the king's favour when he designed and pushed through the Laws in Wales Acts, uniting England and Wales.

In 1540, Henry married for the fourth time to the daughter of a Protestant German duke, Anne of Cleves, thus forming an alliance with the Protestant German states. Henry was reluctant to marry again, especially to a Protestant, but he was persuaded when the court painter Hans Holbein the Younger showed him a flattering portrait of her. She arrived in England in December 1539, and Henry rode to Rochester to meet her on 1 January 1540. Although the historian Gilbert Burnet claimed that Henry called her a Flanders Mare, there is no evidence that he said this; in truth, court ambassadors negotiating the marriage praised her beauty. Whatever the circumstances were, the marriage failed, and Anne agreed to a peaceful annulment, assumed the title My Lady, the King's Sister, and received a large settlement, which included Richmond Palace, Hever Castle, and numerous other estates across the country. Although the marriage made sense in terms of foreign policy, Henry was still enraged and offended by the match. Henry chose to blame Cromwell for the failed marriage, and ordered him beheaded on 28 July 1540.[21] Henry kept his word and took care of Anne in his last years alive; however, after his death Anne suffered from extreme financial hardship because Edward VI's councillors refused to give her any funds and confiscated the homes she had been given. She pleaded to her brother to let her return home, but he only sent a few agents who tried to assist in helping her situation and refused to let her return home. Anne died on 16 July 1557 in Chelsea Manor.[22]

Thomas Cranmer, Henry's first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, responsible for the Book of Common Prayer during Edward VI's reign

The fifth marriage was to the young Catherine Howard, niece of the Catholic Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. Catherine was promoted by Norfolk in the hope that she would persuade Henry to restore the Catholic religion in England. Henry called her his "rose without a thorn", but the marriage ended in failure. Henry's infatuation with Catherine started before the end of his marriage with Anne when she was still a member of Anne's court. Catherine was young and vivacious, but Henry's age made him less inclined to use Catherine in the bedroom; rather, he preferred to admire her, which Catherine soon grew tired of. Catherine, forced into a marriage to an unattractive, obese man over 30 years her senior, had never wanted to marry Henry, and allegedly conducted an affair with the King's favourite, Thomas Culpeper, while Henry and she were married. During her questioning, Catherine first denied everything but eventually she was broken down and told of her infidelity and her pre-nuptial relations with other men. Henry, first enraged, threatened to torture her to death but later became overcome with grief and self-pity. She was accused of treason and was executed on 13 February 1542, destroying the English Catholic holdouts' hopes of a national reconciliation with the Catholic Church. Her execution also marked the end of the Howard family's power and influence within the English court.[23]

By the time Henry conducted another marriage with his final wife Catherine Parr in July 1543, the old Roman Catholic advisers, including the Duke of Norfolk, had lost all their power and influence. Norfolk himself was still a committed Catholic, and he was nearly persuaded to arrest Catherine for preaching Lutheran doctrines to Henry while she attended his ill health. However, she managed to reconcile with the King after vowing that she had only argued about religion with him to take his mind off the suffering caused by his ulcerous leg. Her peacemaking also helped reconcile Henry with his daughters Mary and Elizabeth and fostered a good relationship between her and Edward.

Although Henry had specified a group of men to act as regents during Edward's minority, Edward Seymour, the young king's uncle, quickly seized control and created himself Duke of Somerset on 15 February 1547. His domination of the Privy Council, the king's most senior body of advisers, was unchallenged. Somerset aimed to unite England and Scotland by marrying Edward to his cousin, the young Mary, Queen of Scots, and aimed to forcibly impose the English Reformation on the Church of Scotland. Somerset led a large and well equipped army to Scotland, where he and the Scottish regent James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran, commanded their armies at the Battle of Pinkie on 10 September 1547. The English won the battle, and after this Queen Mary was smuggled to France, where she was betrothed to the Dauphin, the future King Francis II of France. Despite Somerset's disappointment that no Scottish marriage would take place, his victory at Pinkie made his position appear unassailable.[25]

Edward VI was taught that he had to lead religious reform. In 1549, the Crown ordered the publication of the Book of Common Prayer, containing the forms of worship for daily and Sunday church services. The controversial new book was not welcomed by either reformers or Catholic conservatives; it was especially condemned in Devon and Cornwall, where traditional Catholic loyalty was at its strongest. In Cornwall at the time, many of the people could only speak the Cornish language, so the uniform English Bibles and church services were not understood by many. This caused the Prayer Book Rebellion, in which groups of Cornish non-conformists gathered round the mayor. The rebellion worried Somerset, now Lord Protector, and he sent an army to impose a military solution to the rebellion. The rebellion hardened the Crown against Catholics. Fear of Catholicism focused on Edward's elder half-sister, Mary, who was a pious and devout Catholic. Although called before the Privy Council several times to renounce her faith and stop hearing the Catholic Mass, she refused. Edward had a good relationship with his sister Elizabeth, who was a Protestant, albeit a moderate one, but this was strained when Elizabeth was accused of having an affair with the Duke of Somerset's brother, Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, who had married Henry VIII's widow, Catherine Parr. Seymour had invaded Edward's apartments and had killed his dog in a scheme to forcefully gain control over him. Elizabeth was interviewed by one of Edward's advisers, and she was eventually found not to be guilty, despite forced confessions from her servants Kat Ashley and Sir Thomas Parry. Thomas Seymour was beheaded on 20 March 1549.

A small boy with a big mind: Edward VI, desperate for a Protestant succession, changed his father's will to allow Lady Jane Grey to become queen

Lord Protector Somerset was also losing favour. After forcibly removing Edward VI to Windsor Castle, with the intention of keeping him hostage, Somerset was removed from power by members of the council, led by his chief rival, John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, who created himself Duke of Northumberland shortly after his rise. Northumberland effectively became Lord Protector, but he did not use this title, learning from the mistakes his predecessor made. Northumberland was furiously ambitious, and aimed to secure Protestant uniformity while making himself rich with land and money in the process. He ordered churches to be stripped of all traditional Catholic symbolism, resulting in the simplicity often seen in Church of England churches today. A revision of the Book of Common Prayer was published in 1552. When Edward VI became ill in 1553, his advisers looked to the possible imminent accession of the Catholic Lady Mary, and feared that she would overturn all the reforms made during Edward's reign. Perhaps surprisingly, it was the dying Edward himself who feared a return to Catholicism, and wrote a new will repudiating the 1544 will of Henry VIII. This gave the throne to his cousin Lady Jane Grey, the granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary Tudor, who, after the death of Louis XII of France in 1515 had married Henry VIII's favourite Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk.

Edward VI died on 6 July 1553, at the age of 15. With his death, the direct male line of the House of Tudor ended.

Elizabeth had a long, turbulent path to the throne. She had a number of problems during her childhood, the main one being after the execution of her mother, Anne Boleyn. When Anne was beheaded, Henry declared Elizabeth illegitimate and she would, therefore, not be able to inherit the throne. After the death of her father, she was raised by his widow, Catherine Parr and her new husband Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley. Seymour may have groomed and sexually abused her, but their relationship was seen instead as an affair and caused scandal. During the interrogations, she answered truthfully and boldly and all charges were dropped. Seymour, however, was executed on 20 March 1549. Elizabeth was an excellent student, well-schooled in Latin, French, Italian, and somewhat in Greek, and was a talented writer.[32][33] She was supposedly a very skilled musician as well, in both singing and playing the lute. After the rebellion of Thomas Wyatt the Younger in 1554, Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London. No proof could be found that Elizabeth was involved and she was released and retired to the countryside until the death of her half-sister, Mary I of England.[34]

Elizabeth was a moderate Protestant; she was the daughter of Anne Boleyn, who played a key role in the English Reformation in the 1520s. She had been brought up by Blanche Herbert Lady Troy. At her coronation in January 1559, many of the bishops – Catholic, appointed by Mary, who had expelled many of the Protestant clergymen when she became queen in 1553 – refused to perform the service in English. Eventually, the relatively minor Bishop of Carlisle, Owen Oglethorpe, performed the ceremony; but when Oglethorpe attempted to perform traditional Catholic parts of the Coronation, Elizabeth got up and left. Following the Coronation, two important Acts were passed through parliament: the Act of Uniformity and the Act of Supremacy, establishing the Protestant Church of England and creating Elizabeth Supreme Governor of the Church of England (Supreme Head, the title used by her father and brother, was seen as inappropriate for a woman ruler). These acts, known collectively as the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, made it compulsory to attend church services every Sunday; and imposed an oath on clergymen and statesmen to recognise the Church of England, the independence of the Church of England from the Catholic Church, and the authority of Elizabeth as Supreme Governor. Elizabeth made it clear that if they refused the oath the first time, they would have a second opportunity, after which, if the oath was not sworn, the offenders would be deprived of their offices and estates.

Mary, Queen of Scots, who conspired with English nobles to take the English throne for herself

Even though Elizabeth was only twenty-five when she came to the throne, she was absolutely sure of her God-given place to be the queen and of her responsibilities as the 'handmaiden of the Lord'. She never let anyone challenge her authority as queen, even though many people, who felt she was weak and should be married, tried to do so.[31] The popularity of Elizabeth was extremely high, but her Privy Council, her Parliament and her subjects thought that the unmarried queen should take a husband; it was generally accepted that, once a queen regnant was married, the husband would relieve the woman of the burdens of head of state. Also, without an heir, the Tudor line would end; the risk of civil war between rival claimants was a possibility if Elizabeth died childless. Numerous suitors from nearly all European nations sent ambassadors to English court to put forward their suit. Risk of death came dangerously close in 1564 when Elizabeth caught smallpox; when she was most at risk, she named Robert Dudley as Lord Protector in the event of her death. After her recovery, she appointed Dudley to the Privy Council and created him Earl of Leicester, in the hope that he would marry Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary rejected him, and instead married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, a descendant of Henry VII, giving Mary a stronger claim to the English throne. Although many Catholics were loyal to Elizabeth, many also believed that, because Elizabeth was declared illegitimate after her parents' marriage was annulled, Mary was the strongest legitimate claimant. Despite this, Elizabeth would not name Mary her heir; as she had experienced during the reign of her predecessor Mary I, the opposition could flock around the heir if they were disheartened with Elizabeth's rule.

Pope Pius V, who issued the Papal bull excommunicating Elizabeth and relieving her subjects of their allegiance to her

Numerous threats to the Tudor line occurred during Elizabeth's reign. In 1569, a group of Earls led by Charles Neville, the sixth Earl of Westmorland, and Thomas Percy, the seventh Earl of Northumberland attempted to depose Elizabeth and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1571, the Protestant-turned-Catholic Thomas Howard, the fourth Duke of Norfolk, had plans to marry Mary, Queen of Scots, and then replace Elizabeth with Mary. The plot, masterminded by Roberto di Ridolfi, was discovered and Howard was beheaded. The next major uprising was in 1601, when Robert Devereux, the second Earl of Essex, attempted to raise the city of London against Elizabeth's government. The city of London proved unwilling to rebel; Essex and most of his co-rebels were executed. Threats also came from abroad. In 1570, Pope Pius V issued a Papal bull, Regnans in Excelsis, excommunicating Elizabeth, and releasing her subjects from their allegiance to her. Elizabeth came under pressure from Parliament to execute Mary, Queen of Scots, to prevent any further attempts to replace her; though faced with several official requests, she vacillated over the decision to execute an anointed queen. Finally, she was persuaded of Mary's (treasonous) complicity in the plotting against her, and she signed the death warrant in 1586. Mary was executed at Fotheringhay Castle on 8 February 1587, to the outrage of Catholic Europe.

There are many reasons debated as to why Elizabeth never married. It was rumoured that she was in love with Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and that on one of her summer progresses she had birthed his illegitimate child. This rumour was just one of many that swirled around the two's long-standing friendship. However, more important to focus on were the disasters that many women, such as her mother Anne Boleyn, suffered due to being married into the royal family. Her sister Mary's marriage to Philip brought great contempt to the country, for many of her subjects despised Spain and Philip and feared that he would try to take complete control. Recalling her father's disdain for Anne of Cleves, Elizabeth also refused to enter into a foreign match with a man that she had never seen before, so that also eliminated a large number of suitors.[35]

Despite the uncertainty of Elizabeth's – and therefore the Tudors' – hold on England, she never married. The closest she came to marriage was between 1579 and 1581, when she was courted by Francis, Duke of Anjou, the son of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici. Despite Elizabeth's government constantly begging her to marry in the early years of her reign, it was now persuading Elizabeth not to marry the French prince, for his mother, Catherine de' Medici, was suspected of ordering the St Bartholomew's Day massacre of tens of thousands of French Protestant Huguenots in 1572. Elizabeth bowed to public feeling against the marriage, learning from the mistake her sister, Mary I, made when she married Philip II of Spain, and sent the Duke of Anjou away. Elizabeth knew that the continuation of the Tudor line was now impossible; she was forty-eight in 1581, and too old to bear children.

The Spanish Armada: Catholic Spain's attempt to depose Elizabeth and take control of England

By far the most dangerous threat to the Tudor line during Elizabeth's reign was the Spanish Armada of 1588, launched by Elizabeth's old suitor Philip II of Spain and commanded by Alonso de Guzmán El Bueno, the seventh Duke of Medina Sidonia. The Spanish invasion fleet outnumbered the English fleet's 22 galleons and 108 armed merchant ships. The Spanish lost, however, as a result of bad weather on the English Channel, poor planning and logistics, and the skills of Sir Francis Drake and Charles Howard, the second Baron Howard of Effingham (later first Earl of Nottingham).

While Elizabeth declined physically with age, her running of the country continued to benefit her people. In response to famine across England due to bad harvests in the 1590s, Elizabeth introduced the poor law, allowing peasants who were too ill to work a certain amount of money from the state. All the money Elizabeth had borrowed from Parliament in 12 of the 13 parliamentary sessions was paid back; by the time of her death, Elizabeth not only had no debts, but was in credit. Elizabeth died childless at Richmond Palace on 24 March 1603. She left behind a legacy and monarchy worth noting. She had pursued her goals of being well endowed with every aspect of ruling her kingdom, and of knowing everything necessary to be an effective monarch. She took part in law, economics, politics and governmental issues both domestic and abroad. Realms that had once been strictly forbidden to the female gender had now been ruled by one.

Elizabeth never named a successor. However, her chief minister Sir Robert Cecil had corresponded with the Protestant King James VI of Scotland, great-grandson of Margaret Tudor, and James's succession to the English throne was unopposed. There has been discussion over the selected heir. It has been argued that Elizabeth would have selected James because she felt guilty about what happened to his mother, her cousin. Whether this is true is unknown for certain, for Elizabeth did her best to never show emotion nor give in to claims. Elizabeth was strong and hard-headed and kept her primary goal in sight: providing the best for her people and proving those wrong who doubted her while maintaining a straight composure.

The House of Tudor survives through the female line, first with the House of Stuart, which occupied the English throne for most of the following century, and then the House of Hanover, via James' granddaughter Sophia. King Charles III, a member of the House of Windsor, is a direct descendant of Henry VII.

Coat of arms of Henry VII of England (1485–1509) & Henry VIII of England (1509–1547) in the first part of his reign	Coat of arms of Henry VIII (1509–1547) in the later part of his reign & Edward VI (1547–1553)	Coat of arms of Mary I (1554–1558) impaled with those of her husband, Philip II of Spain	Coat of arms Elizabeth I (1558–1603) with her personal motto: "Semper eadem" or "always the same"

As Prince of Wales, Arthur, Henry, and Edward all bore these arms,

Coat of arms of the Tudor Princes of Wales (1489–1547)

The Welsh Dragon supporter honoured the Tudors' Welsh origins. The most popular symbol of the house of Tudor was the Tudor rose (see top of page). When Henry Tudor took the crown of England from Richard III in battle, he brought about the end of the Wars of the Roses between the House of Lancaster (whose badge was a red rose) and the House of York (whose badge was a white rose). He married Elizabeth of York to bring all factions together.

On his marriage, Henry adopted the Tudor Rose badge conjoining the White Rose of York and the Red Rose of Lancaster. It symbolised the Tudor's right to rule as well the uniting of the kingdom after the Wars of the Roses. It has been used by every English, then British, monarch since Henry VII as a royal badge.

Royal roses, badges of England showing the red rose of Lancaster, the white rose of York, and the combined Tudor rose.	Tudor rose, royal badge of England combining the red rose of Lancaster and white rose of York.	Tudor rose uncrowned.

Tudor dragon badge symbolizing the Tudor's Welsh heritage and the Welsh union with England.	Tudor portcullis badge taken from their Beaufort ancestors.	Crowned Fleur de lys (Tudor crown) showing the claim to crown of France.	Crowned harp of Ireland (Tudor crown) showing the Tudors as Kings of Ireland. The harp was later quartered into the royal arms.

The Tudors also used monograms to denote themselves:

Royal monogram of King Henry VIII of England.	Royal monogram of Queen Elizabeth I of England.

As noted above Tewdur or Tudor is derived from the words tud "territory" and rhi "king". Owen Tudor took it as a surname on being knighted. It is doubtful whether the Tudor kings used the name on the throne. Kings and princes were not seen as needing a name, and a "Tudor" name for the royal family was hardly known in the sixteenth century. The royal surname was never used in official publications, and hardly in 'histories' of various sorts before 1584. ... Monarchs were not anxious to publicise their descent in the paternal line from a Welsh adventurer, stressing instead continuity with the historic English and French royal families. Their subjects did not think of them as 'Tudors', or of themselves as 'Tudor people'".[42] Princes and Princesses would have been known as "of England". The medieval practice of colloquially calling princes after their place birth (e.g. Henry of Bolingbroke for Henry IV or Henry of Monmouth for Henry V) was not followed. Henry VII was likely known as "Henry of Richmond" before his taking of the throne. When Richard III called him "Henry Tudor" it was to stress his Welshness and his unfitness for the throne as opposed to himself, "Richard Plantagenet", a "true" descendant of the royal line.

The Tudors' claim to the throne combined the Lancastrian claim in their descent from the Beauforts and the Yorkist claim by the marriage of Henry VII to the heiress of Edward IV.

Royal Lineage (Simplified)

– King of England – Scottish Royal Family – House of Lancaster – House of York – House of Tudor – Tudor king or queen of England Edward III 1327–1377 (1st son) Edward the Black Prince Prince of Wales Blanche of Lancaster (3rd son) John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster Katherine Swynford (2nd son) Lionel of Antwerp Duke of Clarence (4th son) Edmund of Langley 1st Duke of York Richard II of England 1377–1399 Henry IV of England 1399–1413 Charles VI of France Maredudd ap Tudur John Beaufort 1st Earl of Somerset Philippa 5th Countess of Ulster Henry V of England 1413–1422 Catherine of Valois Owen Tudor John Beaufort 1st Duke of Somerset Roger Mortimer 4th Earl of March Edmund Mortimer 5th Earl of March Henry VI of England 1422–1461 1470–1471 Edmund Tudor 1st Earl of Richmond Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby Anne de Mortimer Richard 3rd Earl of Cambridge (2nd son) Edward 2nd Duke of York (1st son) Edward of Westminster Prince of Wales Richard 3rd Duke of York Edward IV of England 1461–1470 & 1471–1483 Richard III of England 1483–1485 George 1st Duke of Clarence Isabella I of Castile Ferdinand II of Aragon Henry VII of England 1485–1509 Elizabeth of York Edward V of England 1483 Richard of Shrewsbury Duke of York Edward of Middleham Prince of Wales Margaret Pole Countess of Salisbury Joanna of Castile Maria of Aragon Catherine of Aragon Henry VIII of England 1509–1547 (2nd son) Arthur Prince of Wales (1st son) Margaret Tudor Mary Tudor Reginald Pole Charles V Holy Roman Emperor Isabella of Portugal Mary I of England 1553–1558 Elizabeth I of England 1558–1603 Edward VI of England 1547–1553 James V of Scotland Lady Frances Brandon Philip II of Spain (King of England jure uxoris 1554–1558) Mary Queen of Scots Lady Jane Grey James VI of Scotland and I of England 1603–1625