Ascent to the throne[edit] The Tudors descended on Henry VII's mother's side from John Beaufort, 1st Earl

o f Somerset, one of the illegitimate children of the 14th century English Prince John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (the third surviving son of Edward III of E ngland) by Gaunt's long-term mistress Katherine Swynford. The descendants of an illegitimate child of English Royalty would normally have no claim on the throne , but the situation was complicated when Gaunt and Swynford eventually married i n 1399, when John Beaufort was 25. The church retroactively declared the Beaufor ts legitimate by way of a papal bull the same year, confirmed by an Act of Parli ament in 1397. A subsequent proclamation by John of Gaunt's legitimate son, Henr y IV of England, also recognised the Beauforts' legitimacy, but declared them in eligible ever to inherit the throne. Nevertheless, the Beauforts remained closel y allied with Gaunt's legitimate descendants from his first marriage, the House of Lancaster. On 1 November 1455, John Beaufort's granddaughter, Margaret Beaufort, Countess o f Richmond and Derby, married Henry VI of England's half-brother Edmund Tudor, 1 st Earl of Richmond. It was his father, Owen Tudor (Welsh: Owain ap Maredudd ap Tewdur ap Goronwy ap Tewdur ap Goronwy ap Ednyfed Fychan), who abandoned the Wel sh patronymic naming practice and adopted a fixed surname. When he did, he did n ot choose, as was generally the custom, his father s name, Maredudd, but chose his grandfather s instead. Tewdur or Tudor is derived from the words tud "territory" and rhi "king".[2] Owen Tudor was one of the body guards for Queen Dowager Catherine of Valois, who se husband, Henry V of England, had died in 1422. Evidence suggests that the two were secretly married in 1429. The two sons born of the marriage, Edmund and Ja sper, were among the most loyal supporters of the House of Lancaster in its stru ggle against the House of York. Henry VI ennobled his half brothers. Edmund became earl of Richmond and was marr ied to Margaret Beaufort, the great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, the progenit or of the house of Lancaster. Jasper became earl of Pembroke and by 1460 had col lected so many offices in Wales that he had become the virtual viceroy of the co untry. Edmund died in November 1456. On 28 January 1457, his widow, who had just attained her fourteenth birthday, gave birth to a son, Henry VII of England, at her brother-in-law s castle of Pembroke. Henry Tudor spent his childhood at Raglan Castle, the home of William Herbert, 1 st Earl of Pembroke, a leading Yorkist. Following the murder of Henry VI and his son, Edward, in 1471, Henry became the person upon whom the Lancasterian cause rested. Concerned for his young nephew's life, Jasper Tudor took Henry to Britta ny for safety. Lady Margaret remained in England and remarried, living quietly w hile advancing the Lancasterian, and her son's cause. Capitalizing on the growin g unpopularity of King Richard III of England, she was able to forge an alliance with discontented Yorkists in support of her son. Fourteen years later, Henry a nd Jasper sailed from the mouth of the Seine to the Milford Haven Waterway and d efeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field.[2] Upon this victory, Henry Tudor proclaimed himself King Henry VII.