Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond

Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond ( * 1430, † November 1, 1456 in Carmarthen ) was the father of King Henry VII of England.

Tudor was born in Much Hadham Palace in Hertfordshire, the son of Owen Tudor and Catherine of Valois, widow of King Henry V of England. Since it can not be detected accurately whether his parents were married before his birth, it is disputed whether he was a legitimate child. His mother retired in 1436 in the monastery of Bermondsey and died the following year. Edmund and his brother Jasper were handed over to Catherine de la Pole, the abbess of Barking Abbey, they remained in their custody to 1440. Then they were at the court of her half-brother King Henry VI. educated. Edmund was knighted on December 15, 1449. His half-brother gave him many goods, appointed him to the Privy Council and raised him on November 23, 1452 to the Earl of Richmond. In February 1453 Margaret Beauchamp, widow of John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset brought her ten year old daughter Margaret Beaufort to the royal court. The king made his brother Edmund and Jasper as guardian of Margaret and finally endorsed the marriage of Edmund with Margaret, which took place on November 1, 1455. The bride at the time was twelve years old and became pregnant the following year.

At the beginning of the Wars of the Roses Edmund went to South Wales, there to consolidate the position of the House of Lancaster. With the recent royal deputy in South Wales, Gruffudd ap Nicolas he came upon his expertise in dispute. In August 1456 he was Constable of Carmarthen Castle, the most important royal castle in South West Wales. Then marched William Herbert and Walter Devereux, two leading supporters of the House of York, with a 2,000 -strong army of Herefordshire to Carmarthen, conquered the castle and took Edmund caught. Edmund died on November 1, 1456, a year after his marriage, as a prisoner in Carmarthen on the plague. His wife fled to her brother Jasper to Pembroke, where her son Henry Tudor, later King Henry VII was born on January 28, 1457.

Edmund was buried in the Franciscan church of Carmarthen. After the destruction of the Church during the Reformation in 1536, his body was transferred to the Cathedral of St Davids.