Tudor dynasty

Tudor dynasty was a royal house of Welsh and English origin, which ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship and later Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry VII, who ascended to the throne after defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the culmination of the Wars of the Roses. The Tudor family rose to power in the wake of the chaos of the Wars of the Roses, which left the House of Lancaster, to which the Tudors were aligned, extinct.

Henry VII's son, Henry VIII, established the Church of England and separated the Church from papal authority. He had six marriages, including his controversial marriage to Anne Boleyn, and his efforts to have his first marriage annulled led to the English Reformation. His son, Edward VI, was the first English monarch raised as a Protestant. During Edward's reign, Protestantism was established for the first time in England with reforms that included the abolition of clerical celibacy and the Mass.

Edward was succeeded by his half-sister, Mary I, who returned England to Catholicism. She was succeeded by her half-sister, Elizabeth I, who ruled during the Elizabethan era and is one of England's most famous monarchs. Elizabeth never married or had children, and the Tudor dynasty ended with her death in 1603. She was succeeded by the Scottish House of Stuart, as her first cousin twice removed, James VI of Scotland, became James I of England.

The Tudor dynasty had a significant impact on English and European history. The English Reformation and the expansion of English overseas exploration and colonization, including the establishment of the first English colonies in North America, occurred during the Tudor period.