Tudor, Owen

views updated May 21 2018

Tudor, Owen (c.1400–61). A humble Welsh servant of Catherine of Valois, widow of Henry V, he secretly married her about 1428. Their first-born Edmund was the father of Henry VII. There is probably no truth in the rumour that the real father of Edmund Tudor was Edmund Beaufort, whose close friendship with Catherine was brought to a hasty end shortly before the marriage. Tudor's sons were promoted by their half-brother Henry VI. Owen Tudor was a victim of the Wars of the Roses, executed by Edward, earl of March (later Edward IV), at Hereford following the battle of Mortimer's Cross. On the scaffold he is reputed to have declared, ‘That head shall lie on the stock that was wont to lie on Queen Catherine's lap.’

Anthony James Pollard