Henry Tudor

Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.[a] Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufort, was a descendant of John of Gaunt, founder of the House of Lancaster and son of King Edward III. Henry's father, Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, a half-brother of Henry VI of England and a member of the Welsh Tudors of Penmynydd, died three months before his son Henry was born. During Henry's early years, he supported his uncle Henry VI and the Lancastrian cause in fighting the civil wars against Edward IV, a member of the Yorkist branch of the House of Plantagenet. After Edward retook the throne in 1471, Henry Tudor spent 14 years in exile in Brittany. He attained the throne when his forces, supported by France, Scotland, and Wales, defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the culmination of the Wars of the Roses. He was the last king of England to win his throne on the field of battle. Vindicating the Lancastrian cause, he cemented his claim by marrying the Yorkist heir, Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV.