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History

The Tudors

A Welsh family with a bundle of dubious claims won the crown on a muddy Leicestershire field in 1485, then ruled for 118 years and rewrote England's story.

Published

Quick Facts

Dates
1485–1603
Monarchs
Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey (disputed), Mary I, Elizabeth I
Founding moment
Henry Tudor's victory at Bosworth Field, 22 August 1485
Family roots
Penmynydd on Anglesey, Wales
Big upheaval
The English Reformation and break with Rome in the 1530s
Famous symbol
The Tudor rose, joining the red rose of Lancaster and white rose of York
Ending
Elizabeth I died at Richmond Palace on 24 March 1603
Successors
The Stuarts, beginning with James VI of Scotland, who became James I of England

The Welsh outsider who grabbed a crown

In one sentence: the Tudors were a Welsh-descended dynasty who seized the English throne at Bosworth in 1485, broke England from the Catholic Church, and ended with the death of the childless Elizabeth I in 1603. Henry Tudor was hardly a natural king. His claim came through his mother, Margaret Beaufort, and was thin enough that many people thought it laughable. He spent much of his youth in exile in Brittany. Yet when Richard III was killed at Bosworth, Henry took the crown and married Elizabeth of York, uniting the warring houses of Lancaster and York. The Tudor family itself came from Penmynydd on Anglesey, and Henry flew the red dragon of Wales at Bosworth. It was a Welsh victory dressed in English clothes.

Henry VII, the king who counted the pennies

Henry VII is often overshadowed by his son, but he did the quiet work that made everything else possible. He kept a tight grip on the nobility, fined those who defied him and left the royal coffers far fuller than he found them. He also faced pretenders. Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck both claimed to be rivals with better rights to the throne. Both were defeated, and Simnel ended up working in the royal kitchens. Henry's eldest son, Arthur, died in 1502, which pushed his younger brother into the spotlight. That brother was Henry VIII.

Six wives, one church, and a very big divorce

Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509 as a glittering young athlete. He married Catherine of Aragon, his brother's widow, but she bore only one surviving child, Mary. Henry wanted a son, and he wanted Anne Boleyn. When the Pope would not annul the marriage, Henry broke with Rome. Parliament made him Supreme Head of the Church of England in 1534. Monasteries were closed between 1536 and 1541, and their lands sold or granted, remaking who owned England. The wives are remembered by a rhyme: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard were executed. Jane Seymour died after giving birth to the future Edward VI. Anne of Cleves and Catherine of Parr outlasted the king.

Boy king, nine-day queen, Bloody Mary

Edward VI took the throne at nine and pushed England in a more Protestant direction. When he fell ill in 1553, he tried to hand the crown to his cousin Lady Jane Grey, bypassing his half-sisters. Jane lasted about nine days before Mary's supporters swept her aside. She was executed in 1554. Mary I restored Catholicism and had hundreds of Protestants burned at the stake, which earned her the nickname Bloody Mary. Her marriage to Philip II of Spain was unpopular and produced no heir. That left the throne to her half-sister Elizabeth.

Elizabeth: the Virgin Queen and the Armada

Elizabeth I took the crown in 1558 and reigned for 44 years. She settled the religious question with a moderate Protestant Church of England, and refused to marry, using the prospect of a match as a diplomatic tool. In 1588, Philip II sent the Spanish Armada against England. Storms and English tactics scattered it. Elizabeth's speech at Tilbury is famous, though the text we know comes from a later account. Her reign saw Shakespeare and Marlowe write for the stage, and Drake sail round the globe. Mary, Queen of Scots, her cousin and rival, was held in captivity for years and executed in 1587. When Elizabeth died in 1603, the crown passed to James VI of Scotland, Mary's son.

Myths, ruins and where to find the Tudors today

Myth: Henry VIII was always fat. In his youth he was tall, athletic and a keen jouster. Myth: the Tudors were all-powerful. Henry VII's early years show how precarious their grip was. You can still walk through Tudor England. Hampton Court Palace, which Henry VIII took from Cardinal Wolsey, has its great hall and enormous kitchens. The Tower of London is where Anne Boleyn was executed. The Mary Rose, Henry's warship that sank in 1545, was raised in 1982 and is displayed in Portsmouth. Across the country, black-and-white timber-framed houses and the ruins of abbeys such as Glastonbury and Fountains are reminders of the era. The Reformation's legacy, a national church with the monarch at its head, is still part of the constitution.

Notable people

  • Henry VII
  • Henry VIII
  • Edward VI
  • Lady Jane Grey
  • Mary I
  • Elizabeth I
  • Anne Boleyn
  • Catherine of Aragon
  • Margaret Beaufort
  • Thomas Cromwell
  • Cardinal Wolsey
  • Mary, Queen of Scots
  • Sir Francis Drake
  • William Shakespeare
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