Owen Tudor

Owen Tudor was a Welsh courtier and soldier who formed a relationship, probably a secret marriage, with the widowed queen Catherine of Valois. Their descendants included Edmund Tudor and Henry VII, making Owen an ancestor of the Tudor dynasty despite his relatively modest origins.

Owen’s relationship with Catherine of Valois, widow of Henry V, produced sons including Edmund and Jasper Tudor, who were later brought into the Lancastrian royal circle by their half-brother Henry VI. During the Wars of the Roses Owen remained loyal to the Lancastrian cause. He was captured after the Yorkist victory at Mortimer’s Cross in 1461 and executed at Hereford.

Nathen Amin’s Son of Prophecy begins with the Tudors of Penmynydd and follows Owen Tudor’s relationship with the widowed queen Catherine of Valois, the advancement of their sons Edmund and Jasper, and the marriage of Edmund to Margaret Beaufort. Leanda de Lisle’s Tudor begins before the dynasty reached the throne, with Owen Tudor, Catherine of Valois and the family connections that eventually produced Henry VII. De Lisle follows Margaret Beaufort and her son through exile, the Wars of the Roses and the defeat of Richard III, then places the familiar reign of Henry VIII within a longer struggle to establish and protect a relatively new royal bloodline. Dynastic insecurity, marriage and succession remain central throughout the book. Further fictional perspectives on Owen Tudor can be found in Joanna Hickson’s First of the Tudors, Anne O’Brien’s The Forbidden Queen, and Joanna Hickson’s The Tudor Bride. For broader historical treatment of Owen Tudor, see Nathen Amin’s Tudor Wales.