The family name of the royal house that occupied the English throne from 1485 (accession of Henry VII.) to 1603 (death of Queen Elizabeth), founded by Owen Tudor, a Welsh gentleman, who became Clerk of the Household, and subsequently the husband of Catherine of Valois, widow of Henry V.; their son, Edmund, Earl of Richmond, married Margaret Beaufort, a direct descendant of Edward III., and became the father of Henry VII.