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The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor (Welsh Tewdwr) was an English royal dynasty that lasted 118 years, beginning in 1485. It was founded by Henry Tudor, who, of his patrilineage, was a grandson of the mere Welsh courtier Owen Tudor—but who, after years of engaging and surviving the horrific political battles of England's civil Wars of the Roses, triumphed, and acceded to the English throne as Henry VII. Of his matrilineage, Henry descended (via an illegitimate son) from John of Gaunt, first Duke of Lancaster and a son of King Edward III of England—through his mother Lady Margaret Beaufort; and he descended on a separate line from Edward I through his great-grandmother, Margaret Holland—who married John Beaufort, that illegitimate son of John of Gaunt. Himself of the house of Lancaster, Henry allied himself early on with the Lancastrian King Henry VI; later, after the Yorkist Edward IV's return to the throne in 1471—and through the political influence of his remarried mother, Lady Margaret—he was permitted to pledge allegiance to Edward. Finally, emerging victorious over Yorkist Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field, Henry gained the throne himself in 1485 and moved to end the Wars of the Roses. He united the two fractious royal houses by marrying Elizabeth of York; and thereafter he implemented critical reforms that consolidated and modernised the national government.
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