Tudor

The Tudors began as a Welsh ministerial family on Anglesey, descended from Ednyfed Fychan, who served as seneschal of Gwynedd under Llywelyn the Great and died in 1246. His son Goronwy founded the line at Penmynydd, and Goronwy's grandson Tudur Hen submitted to Edward I after the conquest of Wales.

In the early fifteenth century several sons backed Owain Glyndŵr's revolt; Rhys ap Tudur was executed in 1412 and the estates forfeited. Owen Tudor of a younger branch secretly married Catherine of Valois, widow of Henry V. Their son Edmund married Margaret Beaufort, and their grandson Henry defeated Richard III at Bosworth in 1485, becoming Henry VII and marrying Elizabeth of York.

The five Tudor sovereigns ruled through the English Reformation and the union of England and Wales. The childless Elizabeth I died in 1603, leaving the throne to the Scottish Stuarts.