Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond
Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond (c. 1430 –
November 1,
1456) was the father of King
Henry VII of England.
Tudor was born either at
Much Hadham Palace in
Hertfordshire or at Hadham in
Bedfordshire, an older son of
Owen Tudor and
Catherine of Valois (former queen of King
Henry V of England). It is not known for certain whether he was born legitimately after his parents were secretly married. Whatever the case, his mother died in
1437, but his half-brother, King
Henry VI recognised him, creating him
Earl of Richmond in
1452.
In
1455, he married
Margaret Beaufort, a daughter of the legitimised
John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset. She was twelve years old at the time, and became pregnant in the following year. However, with the beginnings of the
Wars of the Roses,
Richmond was captured by the Yorkist Herbert family. They imprisoned him at
Carmarthen Castle in south
Wales, where he caught the plague and died. Henry, his only child, was born more than two months after his death. See [
1]
