<Tr> <Td> Richard III 26 June 1483--22 August 1485 </Td> <Td> </Td> <Td> </Td> <Td> 2 October 1452 Fotheringhay Castle Son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and Cecily Neville </Td> <Td> Anne Neville Westminster Abbey 12 July 1472 one son </Td> <Td> 22 August 1485 Bosworth Field Aged 32 (killed in battle). Re-interred Leicester Cathedral, 26 March 2015 </Td> <Td> Great - great - grandson of Edward III (Titulus Regius); brother of Edward IV </Td> </Tr> <P> The Tudors descended matrilineally from John Beaufort, one of the illegitimate children of John of Gaunt (third surviving son of Edward III), by Gaunt's long - term mistress Katherine Swynford . Those descended from English monarchs only through an illegitimate child would normally have no claim on the throne, but the situation was complicated when Gaunt and Swynford eventually married in 1396 (25 years after John Beaufort's birth). In view of the marriage, the church retroactively declared the Beauforts legitimate via a papal bull the same year (also enshrined in an Act of Parliament in 1397). A subsequent proclamation by John of Gaunt's legitimate son, King Henry IV, also recognised the Beauforts' legitimacy, but declared them ineligible ever to inherit the throne . Nevertheless, the Beauforts remained closely allied with Gaunt's other descendants, the Royal House of Lancaster . </P> <P> John Beaufort's granddaughter Lady Margaret Beaufort was married to Edmund Tudor . Tudor was the son of Welsh courtier Owain Tudur (anglicised to Owen Tudor) and Catherine of Valois, the widowed queen consort of the Lancastrian King Henry V. Edmund Tudor and his siblings were either illegitimate, or the product of a secret marriage, and owed their fortunes to the goodwill of their legitimate half - brother King Henry VI . When the House of Lancaster fell from power, the Tudors followed . By the late 15th century, the Tudors were the last hope for the Lancaster supporters . Edmund Tudor's son became king as Henry VII after defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, ending the Wars of the Roses . King Henry married Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, thereby uniting the Lancastrian and York lineages . </P> <P> With Henry VIII's break from the Roman Catholic Church, the monarch became the Supreme Head of the Church of England and of the Church of Ireland . Elizabeth I's title became the Supreme Governor of the Church of England . </P>

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