TUDOR (FAMILY). The house of Tudor, which gave five sovereigns to England, is derived by all the Welsh genealogists from Ednyfed Vychan of Tregarnedd in Anglesey, who is named in 1232 as steward of Llywelyn, prince of North Wales, and seven years later, as an arbitrator in a convention to which Davydd, the son of Llywelyn, was a party. His descendant, Tudor Vychan ap Gronw of Trecastell, had four sons, of whom the eldest, Gronw Vychan, was in favour with the Black Prince and with Richard II. He was forester of Snowdon and steward of the bishop of Bangor's lordship in Anglesey. He died in 1382, an infant son being heir to his lands in Penmynydd, whose sister carried them to her husband Gwylym ap Gmffydd of Penrhyn.
Gronw's brothers Gwylym and Rhys served Richard II. as captains of archers. Their youngest brother, Meredydd ap Tudor, escheator of Anglesey in 1392 and, like Gronw, an officer of the household of the bishop of Bangor, is said to have slain a man and fled to the wild country about Snowdon. He was the father of the handsome Owen ap Meredydd, commonly called Owen Tudor, a squire who appeared at the court of the infant king Henry VI., and attracted the admiration of the queen mother. About 1428 or 1429, it must have been common knowledge that Owen Tudor and Queen Catherine were living as man and wife. There is no direct evidence for their marriage. An act had but lately been passed for making it a grave offence to marry with the queen dowager with out the royal consent : this act is said to have been afterwards cut out from the statute book. Richard III. denounced his rival Richmond as the son of a bastard, but it must be remembered that Richard was ready to foul the memory of his own mother in order to say the same of the young Edward V. But no one yet has found time or place of Owen Tudor's marriage with Catherine of France.
Five children were born to them, the sons being Edmund and Jasper and another son who became a monk. In 1436, a date which suggests that Bedford had been Owen's protector, the influence of Gloucester was uppermost. In that year the que•ri dowager was received within Bermondsey Abbey, where she died in the following January. Her children were taken from her, and Owen Tudor "the which dwelled with the said queen" was or dered to come into the king's presence. He had already seen the inside of Newgate gaol, and he would not obey without a safe con duct. When he had the safe conduct sent him he came up from
Daventry and went at once to sanctuary at Westminster, whence even the temptations of the tavern would not draw him. Allowed to go back to Wales, he was retaken and lodged again in Newgate. He broke prison again and returned to his native Wales. When Henry VI. came of full age he made some provision for his step father, who fought on the Lancastrian side. At Mortimer's Cross (Feb. 4, 1461) Owen fell into the hands of the Yorkists, who be headed him in Hereford market place.
His eldest son, Edmund of Hadham (b. c. 1430), was knighted in 1449, and in 1453 he was summoned as earl of Richmond. He was declared of legitimate birth, and in 1455 he married Lady Margaret, daughter of John Beaufort, duke of Somerset. His only child, afterwards Henry VII., was born three months after his death.
Edmund's younger brother, Jasper Tudor, survived him many years. Jasper was knighted in 1449 and, about the date of Ed mund's patent, was created earl of Pembroke. He bore the royal arms of France and England, differenced with a blue border charged with the royal martlets of the Confessor's fabulous shield, and the same was formerly to be seen upon his Garter stall-plate of 1459. He fought at St. Albans in 1455 for the king who had advanced him, and two years later we find him strengthening the defences of Tenby. In 1460 he seized Denbigh, where the queen joined him after Northampton. He shared the defeat at Morti mer's Cross and left the country in 1462. In 1465 he made a last descent upon Wales, to be driven off by William Herbert, who was rewarded with, his earldom of Pembroke, already forfeited by attainder. He came back again with Warwick in 1470 and was hurrying to join the queen when Tewkesbury was fought and lost. After many adventures he carried off his young nephew Richmond to Brittany. The two came back together in 1485. After Bos worth, Jasper was created duke of Bedford and restored to his earldom, the earl-marshalship being given him in 1492. He lived to fight at Stoke in 1487 against Lincoln and Simnel his puppet and to be one of the leaders of the host that landed in France in 1492. He died in 1495 leaving no issue by his wife Catherine, the widow of the second duke of Buckingham and a daughter of Rich ard Widvile, Earl Rivers. But his bastard daughter Ellen is said to have been mother of Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester.