Coat of arms of Edmund Tudor, first earl of Richmond
(1431 – 1 November 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 wife 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 and elevated him as
Earl of Richmond in November 1452. Edmund's younger brother,
Jasper, was created Earl of Pembroke.
On 1 November 1455, he married
Lady 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, during the opening rounds of the
Wars of the Roses, Edmund 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 at
Pembroke Castle, only two months after Edmund's death.
