Yet while they were powerful and capable monarchs, the Tudors were never quite secure on the throne. During the first fifty years of their rule, too many members of the House of York remained alive for the new dynasty to feel secure. Later, threats to the succession would be posed by the Grey family and by Mary, Queen of Scots. But it was the surviving members of the House of York who constituted the worst threat, as there was no doubt in the minds of many that their title to the throne was far more valid than that of the Tudors. In fact, in 1485, when Henry VII acceded to the throne, there were then living 18 people with a better right to it than he, including his own wife and mother. By 1510, this figure had increased by about 16 more persons, born with Yorkist blood in their veins.

Of course, many of these heirs of York were women. Although the Salic Law had no validity in England (unlike in France, where women were debarred from inheriting the throne), memories of the Empress Matilda, whose attempt in the 12th century to rule England had resulted in bloody civil war, had led to an enduring prejudice against the notion of a female sovereign. Women were considered unfit to rule over men, and no one seriously thought of espousing the cause of any of the Yorkist women. Ironically, it would be left to the Tudors themselves to demonstrate that a female sovereign could rule very successfully.

It was the male members of the House of York who were the thorn in the side of the Tudors. Some died young, and of the eight who survived to be serious contenders for the throne, two chose a life of retirement away from public life, and were not molested. Two died in battle, one of them an exile fighting under a foreign banner. Four were executed. Both Henry VII and Henry VIII were cognisant of the weakness of their claim to the throne, and dealt ruthlessly with any would-be rivals. Mention should be made of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, niece of Edward IV and Richard III, who, at the age of nearly 68, was beheaded in an horrific manner on the orders of Henry VIII, on a trumped-up charge of treason. Lesser members of her family were imprisoned by that monarch, and left to rot in the Tower. By then, the danger from the House of York had been virtually eliminated, although junior sprigs of the Plantagenet tree were being sent to the Tower as late as the reign of Elizabeth I.

To give his dynasty a sound title to the throne, Henry VII had to go back beyond the Plantagenets, the Normans, and the Saxon Kings, to the legendary Arthur, the ancient British kings, and the Welsh Prince Cadwaladr, whose red dragon appeared on Henry’s standard. He claimed descent from all these, through Rhys ap Tewdwr, Prince of Deheubarth in Wales, who died in 1093. Henry even named his eldest son after King Arthur to emphasise the link between the Tudors and ancient royalty. The message was clear: he was the true successor to Arthur and Cadwaladr and their ilk; all those who had come since were the real usurpers.

The dynasty survived, but it did not flourish. The succession was an ongoing problem, because the Tudors were not a fruitful family: many of its members were sickly, or died young. Henry VIII took drastic measures to get a male heir, taking six wives in the process, divorcing two, and beheading two more, as well as creating a schism in the Church. He was not just a man of lusts: nobody wanted a return to the dynastic warfare of the previous century, and Tudor prosperity had done much to make the new dynasty popular. Henry’s only surviving son Edward VI did not live to marry, and there was then no alternative but for the country to turn to a female as its ruler. But Mary I, after suffering two tragic phantom pregnancies, did not live long. Her sister Elizabeth I had a long and glorious reign, but her solution to the succession problem was to remain unmarried, a choice she seems to have made for both political and personal reasons. For fear of factions forming around a designated successor, she kept her subjects guessing to the last whom she would name as her heir. It was, of course, her cousin, James VI of Scotland, a descendant of Henry VII, and founder of the House of Stuart in 1603.

Henry VII

FATHER: Edmund

He was the son of Owen Tudor by Katherine of France, widow of Henry V, and he was born in c.1430, either at Much Hadham Palace, Herts., or at Hadham, Beds. He was created Earl of Richmond on 23 November, 1452. He married Margaret Beaufort in October, 1455, at Bletsoe Castle, Beds. He died on 1 November, 1456, at Carmarthen Castle, Wales, and was buried in the Church of the Grey Friars, Carmarthen. His remains were later transferred to St David’s Cathedral, Wales.

MOTHER: Margaret

She was the daughter of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset (

see here, under Edward III), by Margaret de Beauchamp, and she was born on 31 May, 1443, at Bletsoe Castle, Beds. She married firstly John de la Pole, later Duke of Suffolk ( d.1491), between 28 January, 1449, and 18 August, 1450, but the marriage was annulled before 24 March, 1453, and de la Pole later married Elizabeth, sister of Edward IV. Margaret married secondly Edmund Tudor. After his death, she married thirdly Sir Henry Stafford ( d.1471) between c.1459 and 1464. She married fourthly Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby (1435?–1504), before October, 1473 (or October, 1482?), although she had taken a vow of perpetual chastity. She was made a Lady of the Garter in 1488. She died on 29 June, 1509, at the Abbot’s House, Cheyney Gates, Westminster Abbey, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

SIBLINGS: Henry VII did not have any siblings.

HENRY VII

He was born on 28 January, 1457, at Pembroke Castle in Wales, and was Earl of Richmond from birth, being his father’s posthumous child. He was deprived of the earldom of Richmond before 12 August, 1462. He succeeded Richard III as King of England on 22 August, 1485, after the Battle of Bosworth (he dated his reign from 21 August, the day before Bosworth), and was crowned on 30 October, 1485, in Westminster Abbey.

Henry VII married, on 18 January, 1486, at Westminster Abbey:

Elizabeth

She was the daughter of Edward IV by Elizabeth Wydville, and she was born on 11 February, 1466, at the Palace of Westminster. She was crowned Queen Consort on 25 November, 1487, in Westminster Abbey. She died on 11 February, 1503, in the Tower of London, in childbed, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Issue of marriage:

1   Arthur

Called Arthur to emphasise the new dynasty’s links with the Kings of ancient Britain, he was born on 19/20 September, 1486, at St Swithun’s Priory, Winchester. He was Duke of Cornwall from birth. He was made a Knight of the Bath on 29 November, 1489. He was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester on 29 November, 1489, and was invested as such on 27 February, 1490, at the Palace of Westminster. He was made a Knight of the Garter on 8 May, 1491. He died on 2 April, 1502, at Ludlow Castle, Shropshire, and was buried in Worcester Cathedral. Arthur married, by proxy on Whitsunday, 1499, at the manor of Bewdley, Worcs., again by proxy on 19 May, 1501, at Bewdley, and in person on 14 November, 1501, at St Paul’s Cathedral, London:

Katherine

She was the daughter of Ferdinand V, King of Aragon, by Isabella I, Queen of Castile, a descendant of John of Gaunt, and she was born on 16 December, 1485, at Alcala de Henares in Spain. After the death of Arthur, she married secondly Henry VIII (

see here, under Henry VIII for further details of her life).