ingbroke and Richard of York, were directly descended in unbroken
male line from Henry II., and from 1154 to 1485 all the sovereigns of
England were Plantagenets. But who were the Tudors? They were a (p. 005)
Welsh family of modest means and doubtful antecedents.[22] They
claimed, it is true, descent from Cadwallader, and their pedigree was
as long and quite as veracious as most Welsh genealogies; but Henry
VII.'s great-grandfather was steward or butler to the Bishop of
Bangor. His son, Owen Tudor, came as a young man to seek his fortune
at the Court of Henry V., and obtained a clerkship of the wardrobe to
Henry's Queen, Catherine of France. So skilfully did he use or abuse
this position of trust, that he won the heart of his mistress; and
within a few years of Henry's death his widowed Queen and her clerk of
the wardrobe were secretly, and possibly without legal sanction,
living together as man and wife. The discovery of their relations
resulted in Catherine's retirement to Bermondsey Abbey, and Owen's to
Newgate prison. The Queen died in the following year, but Owen
survived many romantic adventures. Twice he escaped from prison, twice
he was recaptured. Once he took sanctuary in the precincts of
Westminster Abbey, and various attempts to entrap him were made by
enticing him to revels in a neighbouring tavern. Finally, on the
outbreak of the Wars of the Roses, he espoused the Lancastrian cause,
and was beheaded by order of Edward IV. after the battle of Mortimer's
Cross. Two sons, Edmund and Jasper, were born of this singular match
between Queen and clerk of her wardrobe. Both enjoyed the favour of
their royal half-brother, Henry VI. Edmund, the elder, was first
knighted and then created Earl of Richmond. In the Parliament of 1453,
he was formally declared legitimate; he was enriched by the grant of
broad estates and enrolled among the members of Henry's council. (p. 006)
But the climax of his fortunes was reached when, in 1455, he married
the Lady Margaret Beaufort. Owen Tudor had taken the first step which
led to his family's greatness; Edmund took the second. The blood-royal
of France flowed in his veins, the blood-royal of England was to flow
in his children's; and the union between Edmund Tudor and Margaret
Beaufort gave Henry VII. such claim as he had by descent to the
English throne.

[Footnote 22: _Archaeologia Cambrensis_, 1st ser.,
iv., 267; 3rd ser., xv., 278, 379.