Death of Owen Tudor, Welsh founder of the Tudor dynasty of England
Owen Tudor – Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudor – was a Welsh courtier who secretly married Catherine of Valois, daughter of Charles VI of France.
Owen’s background may be obscure but we do know that he was born around 1400 in Anglesey in Wales – the son of Meredudd Tudor and his wife Margaret.
The Tudors, or Tewdwrs, were kings of Deheubrath and held estates in north Wales.
Catherine of Valois was the widow of Henry V of England – and mother of Henry VI of England.
When Henry V died, Catherine, was now an ex-queen and the mother of the reigning child-king, Henry VI.
She was not content to live a retired life for the rest of her days.
She begun a secret affair with Welsh nobleman Owen, who at the time, was a member of her household.
This is the following account, of how their affair began….
“Catherine of Valois was left bereft, a lusty young woman in the prime of life.
She did not remain single for long.
Owen Tudor, a handsome young Welshman of obscure origins, had become her Keeper of the Wardrobe.
According to romantic rumour Owen had caught the queen’s notice when he stumbled, incapably drunk, into her lap.
Intrigued, she spied on him as he swam nude, and liked what she saw…”
The English Parliament prohibited Catherine from remarrying without her son, the king’s, consent in 1428, but the former queen ignored this and secretly married Owen anyway.
The union was kept secret until 1436, but when it became public knowledge, Catherine was obliged to retire to a nunnery at Bermondsey outside London, where she died prematurely the following year.
Owen fared even worse and was locked up in Newgate Prison.
The Welshman managed to escape in 1438, and went into hiding in his native Wales.
Owen’s fortunes improved when he raised an army to support Henry VI but after the battle at Mortimer’s Cross in February 1461, Owen was captured by Yorkist forces.
He was then b~headed on 2nd February 1461, in Hereford marketplace, as the Wars of the Roses – the dynastic dispute between the House of Lancaster and the House of York, raged on.
According to tradition, when Owen faced his imminent execution, he had lamented that:
“the head that had once lain on Queen Catherine’s lap, would now lie on the exEcutioner’s stock”.
After the dreadful sentence was carried out, it was said that a local madwoman cleaned his head, combed his hair and surrounded it with candles, as that particular day was the ‘feast of Candlemas’.
Owen Tudor was buried at Greyfriars in Hereford.
Owen & Catherine had several children, three sons, and two daughters.
One of whom was Edmund Tudor, who would go on to marry Margaret Beaufort, the Great-Grandaughter of John of Gaunt.
Their son, Henry Tudor, would become Henry VII of England and marry Elizabeth of York.
Their union would bring the houses of Lancaster & York together, bringing the Wars of the Roses to a conclusion.
So thus, begins the Royal House of Tudor….
