Tudor dynasty

The ruling house of England from 1485 until 1603. The Tudor family came to power as a result of the victory of Henry VII over the Yorkist king Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, but ended when Henry's grand-daughter Elizabeth I, who had steadfastly refused to marry, died childless. The throne then passed to their cousins, the Scottish Stuarts, unifying England and Scotland. The Tudors oversaw a considerable increase in the powers of the English monarchy and the major religious changes introduced as a result of Henry VIII's break with the Roman Catholic church.