Tudor style

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Tudor style descriptive of the English architecture and decoration of the first half of the 16th cent., prevailing during the reigns (1485-1558) of Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary I. It is the first of the transitional styles between Gothic Perpendicular and Palladian architecture, the other two being Elizabethan and Jacobean. The rise of new trading families to wealth and the enrichment of court favorites by Henry VIII with lands and riches derived from his suppression of monasteries resulted in the building of many manor houses. In these the fortified character of earlier times gave way to increased domesticity and privacy. Although the great hall still remained the focus of the establishment, its importance now decreased with the introduction of other rooms such as parlors, studies, bedrooms in greater number, and quarters for dining. Rooms frequently were fitted with oak paneling, often of linen-fold type; walls and ceilings received rich plaster relief ornament; and articles of furniture came into greater use. Domestic exteriors exhibited Perpendicular features in modified form, notably square-headed, mullioned windows and arched openings of the four-centered or so-called Tudor type. Other characteristics were the use of brickwork combined with half-timber, high pinnacled gables, bay or oriel windows, and numerous chimneys of decorative form. Principal Tudor examples are parts of Hampton Court Palace, begun in 1515, and many colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. Noted country manors include Sutton Place, Surrey; Layer Marney, Essex; and the splendid Compton Wynyates, Warwick.

Bibliography: See J. Harvey, Introduction to Tudor Architecture (1949) and J. Lees-Milne, Tudor Renaissance (1951)

Tudor The English royal house that began as a family of Welsh gentry. Its fortunes started to rise when HENRY V's widow, Katherine of Valois, married Owen Tudor (c.1400–61), her clerk of the wardrobe. He was executed after the YORKISTS' victory of Mortimer's Cross (1461) during the Wars of the Roses, but his son Edmund (c.1430–56), Earl of Richmond, married Margaret BEAUFORT, and their son Henry was thus a descendant, though illegitimately, of the House of Lancaster. His claim to the throne became more acceptable after the death of HENRY VI's son Edward in 1471, and RICHARD III's loss of the nobility's support paved the way for Henry's invasion of England and taking of the throne as HENRY VII in 1485.

Henry safeguarded his claim to the throne by marrying Elizabeth of York, the Yorkist heiress: she bore him eight children, although four died in infancy. Arthur died soon after marrying Catherine of Aragon, and it was his younger brother who succeeded to the throne, as HENRY VIII. Of his children, his only son, EDWARD VI, died in his youth. His elder daughter MARY died in 1558 after a childless marriage to Philip II of Spain, and ELIZABETH I never married. With Elizabeth's death (1603) the House of Tudor ended, and the throne passed to James VI of Scotland, of the House of STUART.

Tu·dor¹ / ˈt(y)oōdər/ • adj. of or relating to the English royal dynasty that held the throne from the accession of Henry VII in 1485 until the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. ∎  of, denoting, or relating to the prevalent architectural style of the Tudor period, characterized esp. by half-timbering. • n. a member of this dynasty. Tu·dor ² , Henry, Henry VII of England (see Henry¹ ). Tu·dor ³ , Mary, Mary I of England (see Mary² ).

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