Tudors of Penmynydd

Arms of Owen Tudor. Other branches of the Tudors of Penmynydd are reported using the same design with different tinctures, for example with an ermine or black chevron.^[1]

The Tudors of Penmynydd were the senior line of a noble and aristocratic family, connected with the village of Penmynydd in Anglesey, North Wales,^[2] who were very influential in Welsh (and later English) politics. From this family arose Owen Tudor and thereby the Tudor dynasty, that ruled England from 1485 to 1603.^[3] The Tudor dynasty came to an end in the 17th century.

Origin and early generations

The family descended from one of the sons of Ednyfed Fychan (died in 1246), the Welsh warrior who became seneschal to the Kingdom of Gwynedd in north Wales, serving Llywelyn the Great and later his son Dafydd ap Llywelyn. He claimed descent from Marchudd ap Cynan, Lord of Rhos and 'protector' of Rhodri the Great, king of Gwynedd, a founder of one of the so-called Fifteen Tribes of Wales. From Ednyfed's many sons would come a 'ministerial aristocracy' in northern Wales.^[4] He left the manors of Trecastell, Penmynydd and Erddreiniogin, Anglesey to those of his sons born to his second marriage to Gwenllian, daughter of king Rhys ap Gruffydd of Deheubarth, and among these sons was Goronwy (died 1268), founder of the line of the Tudors of Penmynyth.^[1] Goronwy served as seneschal of the last Gwynedd king, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. One of his sons, Tudur Hen (died 1311) would eventually submit to Edward I of England, and founded a Carmelite House of the White Friars in Bangor. In the next generation, Goronwy ap Tudur Hen (died 1331), likewise a patron of White Friars, was the father of Hywel ap Goronwy, Archdeacon of Anglesey, and of Sir Tudur ap Goronwy (died about 1367). They held Trecastell, along with a share of Penmynydd and Erddreiniog in Anglesey, plus lands in Cardiganshire.^[4]

Owain Glyndŵr era

Tomb effigy of Goronwy ap Tudur, d. 1382, at St Gredifael, Penmynydd

The sons of Sir Tudor, Goronwy ap Tudur, who was Forester of Snowdon and Constable of Beaumaris Castle,^[1] and his younger brothers Rhys ap Tudur and Gwilym ap Tudur, were among the personal retinue of Richard II of England.^[4] However, following that king's overthrow, Rhys, Gwilym and another brother, Maredudd ap Tudur, gave their allegiance to Owain Glyndŵr, the nephew of one of their father's wives and descended from many of the native Welsh princes including Llewellyn the Great. Rhys was executed in 1412 at Chester, and following Glyndŵr's demise much of the Tudors' lands were taken by the English crown, with the majority regranted to another branch of Ednyfed Fychan's lineage, the Griffiths of Penrhyn,^[4] whose head, Gwilym ap Griffith, had married their niece, Morfydd ferch Goronwy.^[5]

Senior line

The family's few remaining Penmynydd lands continued to be held by the senior line, the descendants of Goronwy ap Tudur, who died 23 March 1382 leaving a minor son, Tudur.^[1] Goronwy's grandson Owain would take the surname Tudor.^{[lower-alpha 1]} He had three sons, William, John and Richard Owen ap Tudor Fychan, the last eventually being the heir to the family in Penmynydd; he later appears as Richard Owen Theodor^[1] (or Theodore^[2]). His son, Richard Owen Theodor (II) was Sheriff of Anglesey in 1565 and 1573 and wrote his will in 1584. This second Richard had two sons, Richard (III), who died about the same time as his father, and his eventual successor, David Owen Theodor (died 1624), the father of another Richard (IV) who served as Sheriff of Anglesey in 1623. To him succeeded a fifth and last Richard Owen Theodor.^[1] Born 27 May 1611,^[6] he became Sheriff in 1657.^[1] His immediate heiress was his daughter Margaret Owen Theodor, wife of Coningsby Williams of Glan-y-gor, and after her childless death Penmynydd passed through was her aunt, Mary Owen Theodor, wife of Rowland Bulkeley of Porthamel, to their son Francis, whose dissolute ways forced him to sell the inheritance to a Bulkeley cousin.^[2]

Tudor dynasty

The stained glass window at Penmynydd.

The family is best known due to the descendants of a junior line. Owain Tudur (anglicised to Owen Tudor), the son of rebel Maredudd ap Tudor, would become a courtier, and secretly married Catherine of Valois, widowed Queen Consort of the Lancastrian King Henry V. Owen Tudor and Catherine of Valois had two sons, Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond (d. 1456), and Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford and Earl of Pembroke (d. 1495). Edmund Tudor was betrothed and married to Margaret Beaufort (1443-1509) daughter of John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, a scion of the House of Lancaster. Edmund and Margaret had a sole son, Henry Tudor, born 28 January 1457 at Pembroke Castle in Wales. He was born posthumously, Edmund Tudor having died 1 or 3 November 1456. Henry Tudor grew up in south Wales and, following the downfall of the Lancastrian cause, in exile in Brittany. Henry's mother Margaret forged an alliance of dispossessed Lancastrians and discontented Yorkists, most notably Elizabeth Woodville, widow of King Edward IV, in support of her son, who landed in South Wales, gathered further troops through Wales and the Midlands and ultimately defeated Richard III at Battle of Bosworth on 22 August 1485. Henry proclaiming himself Henry VII, King of England, on the battlefield.

After the battle, Henry VII married Elizabeth of York, the daughter of King Edward IV, granddaughter of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and the eldest surviving heir of the House of York and sister of the Princes in the Tower, Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York. Henry and Elizabeth would have a long and happy marriage, having two sons who survived infancy, Arthur, Prince of Wales, who died in 1502 at the age of fifteen, and Henry, perhaps the most famed of Tudor monarchs. Henry VII and Elizabeth also had daughters, Margaret, queen consort of Scotland, and Mary, wife of Louis XII of France. Queen Elizabeth of York died in 1503 after giving birth to their last child Katherine, who did not survive. Henry VII died in 1509; his son Henry took the throne as King Henry VIII.

Henry VIII eventually married his brother Arthur's widow Catherine of Aragon, they had only one surviving child, the future Mary I. After nearly twenty five years of marriage, Henry, with much trouble and causing much unrest, had his marriage to Catherine annulled, claiming the marriage as unlawful due to her being the widow of his brother, and splitting with the Roman Catholic Church in the process. This action brought about the birth of the English Reformation, and the eventual beginning of the Church of England. Henry then married his pregnant mistress Anne Boleyn on 28 May 1533. Anne gave birth to a daughter, the future Elizabeth I the following 7 September. On 19 May 1536, Henry had Anne executed for treason and adultery. Henry then married Jane Seymour on 30 May 1536, and she gave birth to a son, Edward, on 12 October 1537, but Jane died of a postpartum infection on 24 October. Henry VIII married three subsequent women: Anne of Cleves in January 1540, a marriage which was annulled soon after, Catherine Howard in July 1540, who would be executed for adultery, then Katherine Parr in July 1543. She would survive Henry and go on to raise Elizabeth before her death in 1548.

After Henry VIII's death, his son assumed the throne as Edward VI, with his uncle Edward Seymour as Lord Protector. Edward died on 6 July 1553. Before his death, he had specified his succession, naming as his heir the teenage Lady Jane Grey. A granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary, she had recently wed the son of Edward's chief minister, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. She was thus given precedence over Edward's half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, both declared illegitimate by their father's Second Act of Succession but readmitted to the succession by his will, which also bypassed the descendants of Henry's older sister, Margaret, in favor of those of her younger sister, Jane's grandmother Mary. Jane was proclaimed queen immediately following Edward's death, but Northumberland could not maintain her position against a groundswell of support for the dead king's half-sister as rightful heir, and Mary I was in turn proclaimed queen nine days later. She would be remembered as Bloody Mary for her ruthless persecution of Protestants during her reign. Mary married her cousin Philip II of Spain, but she died without issue in November 1558. The throne then went to Elizabeth I, Henry's daughter by Anne Boleyn, who would reign for forty five years. Elizabeth never married and had no issue, so the Tudor dynasty died with her in 1603. In total, five Tudor monarchs ruled England for 118 years, but issues around the Royal succession (including marriage, divorce, and the succession rights of women) became major political themes during the Tudor era. Elizabeth would be succeeded by her cousin, James VI of Scotland, who was doubly great-grandson of the excluded sister of Henry VIII, Margaret. Through him, the later English monarchs would carry Tudor blood.

Lineage

Notes

References