The Family of Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudur



by William Addams Reitwiesner

wargs@wargs.com



A not unusual event in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and even sixteenth century British royalty is that a woman, after Doing Her Duty by marrying a man of the same (or nearly the same) class and station, married a man of little or no property or title (see note 1). The most important of these, genealogically speaking, were the sisters-in-law Jacqueline and Catherine.

Jacqueline, born around 1416, daughter of Pierre de Luxembourg, Count of St. Paul, married at Therouenne on 22 Apr. 1433 (at the age of about 17) to the almost 44-year-old John, Duke of Bedford (third son of King Henry IV) as his second wife. John died two years later, 14 Sept. 1435, at Rouen, without issue, and within a year and a half (before 23 March 1436/7) Jacqueline had married, at the age of 20 or so, Richard Wydeville, of Grafton (Regis), in Northamptonshire. Eleven years later (9 May 1448), Richard was created Baron and Lord de Ryvers, and another eighteen years later (24 May 1466) he was created Earl of Ryvers. He was beheaded on 12 Aug. 1469, after the battle of Edgcote. Jacqueline, Duchess of Bedford and Countess of Ryvers, died 30 May 1472, having had issue, by her second husband, seven sons and seven or eight daughters, most of whom married very well, especially their eldest daughter Elizabeth. This Elizabeth Wydeville, born around 1437, married, firstly, before 1450, Sir John Grey (son and heir of Elizabeth, suo jure Lady Ferrers of Groby), who was born around 1432 and died, vita matris, at the battle of St. Albans, 17 Feb. 1460/1. Elizabeth Wydeville, Lady Grey, had two sons by this marriage (see note 2). She married, secondly, and secretly (see note 3), at her father's residence of Grafton Regis, 1 May 1464, King Edward IV, who was born at Rouen on 28 April 1442 and died at Westminster Palace on 9 April 1483. Elizabeth Wydeville, Lady Grey and Queen of England, died at Bermondsey Abbey on 8 June 1492, having had further issue, by Edward IV, three sons and seven daughters. Most of the descendants of this second marriage are quite well known (see note 4).

Catherine, the other sister-in-law, was born at Paris, 27 Oct. 1401, a daughter of Charles VI, King of France. She was married at the age of 18, on 2 June 1420, in Troyes, to Henry V, King of England (eldest brother of the Duke of Bedford, above) aged then 37. Henry died two years later, at Bois de Vincennes, 31 Aug. 1422, leaving, by Catherine, an infant son, King Henry VI, who was born at Windsor Castle on 6 Dec. 1421. Catherine retired to Hertfordshire with a small establishment. The Clerk of the Wardrobe of this establishment was a Welshman named Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudur, or, as the English called him, Owen Tudor (see note 5). There is some doubt as to whether Owain and Catherine were ever married (see note 6), but they had three sons and one (see note 7) daughter. Catherine died at Bermondsey Abbey on 3 Jan. 1437, and Owain was captured by the Yorkists on 2 Feb. 1461 and beheaded. Their eldest (see note 8) son, called Edmund Tudor, was born at Much Hadham, around 1430, and was created Earl of Richmond (23 Nov 1452) by his half-brother, Henry VI. Edmund died on 3 Nov. 1456 (four years before his father, Owain), and his widow, Margaret Beaufort, whom he had married in 1455, gave birth on 28 Jan. 1456/7 (see note 9) to a posthumous son, named Henry. This Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond from his birth until 25 Jan. 1483/4 (when he was attainted for treason), led an army into England, defeated and killed King Richard III at Bosworth Field (22 Aug. 1485), and became King Henry VII, first of the Tudor dynasty. Most of Henry VII's descendants are also quite well known (see note 10).

Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudur appears in WG at Marchudd 13 (A), and his ancestry there is easily traced. He has two descents from Llywelyn Fawr, though not through Dafydd, Llywelyn's son by Joan. The descents go through Dafydd's half-brother Gruffudd, Llywelyn Fawr's illegitimate son by Tangwstyl, viz. Owain ap Margred f. Nest f. Efa f. Gruffudd ap Dafydd Goch ap Dafydd ap Gruffudd ap Llywelyn Fawr; and Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudur ap Gwerful f. Madog o'r Hendwr ap Lleucu f. Angharad f. Catrin f. Gruffudd ap Llywelyn Fawr (see note 11).

As mentioned above (under note 10), the legitimate descendants of King Henry VII are plentiful and have been traced with vigor by all and sundry, and so need not detain us any further. However, Henry VII's grandson, James V, King of Scots (d. 1542), had nine bastards by more than five women [Scots Peerage, ed. Sir James Balfour Paul, vol. I (1904), pp. 23-25], whose descendants are less well-known. Some descendants of the bastards of James V (and thus descendants of Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudur) include: 
James V King of Scots = Margaret Erskine
.James Stewart 1 E Moray m. Agnes Keith
 .Elizabeth Stewart m. James Stewart E Moray
  .Grizel Stewart m. Sir Robert Innes 1 Bt
  |.Sir Robert Innes 2 Bt m. Jean Ross
  | .Elizabeth Innes m. Arthur Forbes
  |  .William Forbes m. Elisabeth Pyper
  |   .Catherine Forbes m. David Douglas
  |    .Margaret Douglas m. James Chalmers
  |     .Jean Chalmers m. James Littlejohn
  |      .William Littlejohn m. Janet Bentley
  |       .David Littlejohn m. Jane Crombie
  |        .Ruth Littlejohn m. William Smith Gill
  |         .Ruth Sylvia Gill m. Edmund Burke Roche 4 M Fermoy
  |          .Frances Ruth Burke Roche m. Edward Spencer 8 E Spencer [below]
  |           .Diana Frances Spencer m. CHARLES P of WALES
  .James Stewart 3 E Moray m. Anne Gordon
   .James Stewart 4 E Moray m. Margaret Home
    .Mary Stewart m. Archibald Campbell 9 E Argyll
     .Jean Campbell m. William Kerr 2 M Lothian
     |.William Kerr 3 M Lothian m. Margaret Nicolson
     | .William Henry Kerr 4 M Lothian m. Carolina Louisa Darcy
     |  .Louisa Mary Kerr m. George Henry Lennox
     |   .Charles Lennox 4 D Richmond m. Charlotte Gordon
     |    .Charles Gordon-Lennox 5 D Richmond m. Caroline Paget
     |     .Cecilia Gordon-Lennox m. George Bingham 4 E Lucan
     |      .Rosalind Bingham m. James Hamilton 3 D Abercorn
     |       .Cynthia Hamilton m. Albert Spencer 7 E Spencer
     |        .Edward Spencer 8 E Spencer m. Frances Ruth Burke Roche [above]
     .John Campbell of Mamore m. Elizabeth Elphinstone
      .Anne Campbell m. Archibald Edmonstone
       .Sir Archibald Edmonstone 1 Bt m. Susanna Mary Harenc
        .Sir Charles Edmonstone 2 Bt m. Louisa Hotham
         .Adm Sir William Edmonstone 4 Bt m. Mary Elizabeth Parsons
          .Alice Frederica Edmonstone [MRS KEPPEL] m. George Keppel
           .Sonia Rosemary Keppel m. Roland Calvert Cubitt 3 B Ashcombe
            .Rosalind Maud Cubitt m. Bruce Middleton Hope Shand
             .Camilla Rosemary Shand m. CHARLES P of WALES
The following is taken from RD600 36-39: 
James V King of Scots = Euphame Elphinstone
.Robert Stewart 1 E Orkney m. Janet Kennedy
|.Jean Stewart m. Patrick Leslie 1 B Lindores
| .David Leslie 1 B Newark m. Joan Yorke
| |.Mary Leslie m. Sir Francis Kinloch 2 Bt
| | .JAMES KINLOCH, to South Carolina
| .Elizabeth Leslie m. Sir James Sinclair 1 Bt
|  .Anne Sinclair m. George Mackenzie 1 E Cromarty
|   .John Mackenzie 2 E Cromarty m. Mary Murray
|    .George Mackenzie 3 E Cromarty m. Isabel Gordon
|     .LADY MARY MACKENZIE, to South Carolina
|     .LADY ANNE MACKENZIE, to South Carolina
.Robert Stewart 1 E Orkney (again) = [one or more mistresses]
 .James Stewart m. ----
 |.Margaret Stewart m. Francis Moodie
 | .Barbara Moodie m. Patrick Balfour
 |  .George Balfour m. Marjorie Baikie
 |   .Barbara Balfour m. William Traill
 |    .William Traill m. Isabell Fea
 |    |.ROBERT TRAILL, to New Hampshire
 |    .JOHN TRAILL, to Boston, Massachusetts
 .Mary Stewart m. John Sinclair
  .William Sinclair m. Joanna Gordon
   .James Sinclair m. Anna Sinclair
    .ROBERT SINCLAIR, to New York
The following is taken from RD600 40-41: 
James V King of Scots = Elizabeth Carmichael
.John Stewart, Prior of Coldingham m. Jean Hepburn
 .Francis Stewart 1 E Bothwell m. Margaret Douglas
  .John Stewart m. Margaret Home
   .Margaret Stewart m. Sir John Home
    .Patrick Home 1 Bt m. Jean Dalmahoy
     .Margaret Home m. Sir George Home 3 Bt
      GEORGE HOME, to Virginia










NOTES






1 -- For example, Joan d'Acre, daughter of Edward I, who married firstly Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hereford, and then married Ralph de Monthermer; Elizabeth, daughter of William, Duke of Juliers, who married firstly John, Earl of Kent, and then married Sir Eustache d'Aubrecicourt; Anne, sister of Edward IV and Richard III, who married firstly Henry Holand, Duke of Exeter, and then married Thomas St. Leger; Cicely, daughter of Edward IV, who married firstly John de Welles, Viscount de Welles, and then married Thomas Kyme; Mary, daughter of Henry VII, who married firstly Louis XII, King of France, and then married Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk; and Frances, daughter of the preceeding, who married firstly Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, and then married Adrian Stokes.



2 -- The younger, Richard Grey, died at Pomfret in 1483, unmarried, while the elder, Thomas Grey, b. around 1455, created Marquess of Dorset in 1475 and died 30 Aug. 1501, was the ancestor of the Earls of Stamford.



3 -- The claim of the Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) to the English Throne, in 1483, was based, in part, on the statement of Robert Stillington, Bishop of Bath and Wells, that, because Edward IV was affianced to Eleanor Butler at the time of his marriage to Lady Grey (Elizabeth Wydeville), Edward was not free to marry Lady Grey, and thus the marriage of Edward IV to Lady Grey was invalid, and the children of the union illegitimate. Whether such an affiancement would have invalidated a subsequent marriage to another person or not (or even whether such an affiancement actually existed), has never been settled [See Mary O'Regan, "The Pre-contract and its Effect on the Succession in 1483", in The Ricardian, vol. 4 (1976), pp. 2-7]. Equally unsettled is the identity of this Eleanor Butler. She was the widow of Thomas Boteler, who had died (before his father, Ralph Boteler, Lord Sudley) circa 1461. Eleanor was married to Thomas before 28 Hen. VI (1450-1) and died without issue on 30 June 1468. She is usually said to have been a sister of a Sir John Talbot [Ch. Inq. P. M. 8 Edw. IV, no. 39], which Sir John Talbot has usually been identified as John Talbot, Viscount Lisle [see Paul Murray Kendal, Richard the Third (New York: Norton, 1955), pp. 553-554; and Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. V (1838), pp. 9-10]. However, NCP VIII: 59, note (c), quoting the same inquisition [above] makes Eleanor a daughter of Viscount Lisle. RMC, at "Sudeley 7 iv. a." (p. 795), unequivocally identifies Eleanor as a sister of Viscount Lisle and a daughter of John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, by his second wife, Margaret, daughter of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.



4 -- See MHM. The third daughter of this marriage was Cicely, who married, firstly, John Welles, Viscount Welles, and, secondly, Thomas Kyme. By her first husband she had no (surviving) issue, but she might have had issue by the second marriage [NCP XII (2): 450, note (h)], about which issue nothing is known.



5 -- Not surprisingly, the English found it difficult to deal with the name Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudur, and wrote it in a number of ways [SBC, p. 11, note 10]. In 1432, Owain called himself "Oweyn fitz Meredyth" in his successful petition to Parliament to be exempted from the statutory restrictions placed on Welshmen as a result of the uprising of Owain Glyndwr [RP IV: 415; Calendar of the Patent Rolls preserved in the Public Record Office, 1429-1436, p. 212]. The form "Owen Tudor" did not become fixed until around 1459. In their first official appearance, on 5 Nov. 19 Hen. VI (1440), Owain's elder sons were called "Edmond ap Meredith ap Tydier" and "Jasper ap Meredyth ap Tydier" [Thoma Rymer, Foedera, Conventiones, Literae (Londini: A. & J. Churchill, 1704-1717), 17 vols., X: 828], when their correct names (Welsh style) were "Edmund (or Jasper) ab Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudur". In the Act of Parliament of 1454 confirming their creations as Earls (see below), Edmund and Jasper were referred to as "Edmundo de Hadham Comite Richemondie" and "Jaspere de Hatfield Comite Pembroch" [RP V: 250-254].

The English have never had a high opinion of Welsh names. See, for example, the letter from William Worcester to John Paston, dated 1 May 1457, printed as no. 572 of Paston Letters and Papers of the Fifteenth Century (edited by Norman Davis, Part II [Oxford: Clarendon, 1976], pp. 171-172, lines 55-56: "I sende a bille of the namys endyted to my maister and yow, to see and laugh at theyr Wellsh names descended of old pedegreis." See also the charming slander printed in The Genealogists' Magazine, vol. 9, no. 10 (March 1944), p. 393. This attitude of the English was neither new nor limited to the Welsh. See Vita Aedwardi Regis qui apud Westmonasterium requiescit (edited by Frank Barlow [London: Thomas Nelson, 1962], p. 42, where the author, writing of the wars between Harold II of England and Gruffudd of Wales, refers to the "rex Scottorum nomine barbarus." This King of the Scots with the outlandish name is, of course, Macbeth.



6 -- See the footnote at Gerald Paget, The Lineage and Ancestry of H.R.H. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales [Edinburgh: Skilton, 1977], I: 147. DNB LVII: 288 states that "In the parliament of 1453 [Edmund Tudor] was formally declared legitimate", but this is not exactly true. The only mention of Edmund (and Jasper) Tudor in the Rolls of the 1453 parliament [RP V: 237] does not mention legitimacy. However, in the parliament of 1454, an Act was passed confirming the charter creating Edmund and Jasper Earls [RP V: 250-253]. This act recites that Edmund and Jasper were born of the Queen in lawful marriage ("Edmundus & Jasper, Fratres vestri uterini, in legitimo matrimonio, infra Regnum vestrum predictum procreati & nati existunt"), but does not mention their father [NCP X: 397 (c) and 825 (h)]. As for the alleged Statute of Parliament of 1428 forbidding the marriage of the Queen Dowager without the King's license, see Judge Sir Thomas Artemus Jones, Without My Wig [Liverpool: H. Evans, 1944], pp. 21-32.



7 -- This daughter, named Margaret, died in infancy. Tacina, who was married, bef. 6 Oct. 1447, to Reynold Grey, 7th Lord Grey of Wilton, is sometimes said to have been a daughter (occasionally an illegitimate daughter) of Owain, and thus a sister (or a half-sister) of the father of Henry VII. Tacina was actually an illegitimate daughter of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, and thus a half-sister of the mother of Henry VII [RPA 724 and 767; RMC 835 and 892].

Owain had a bastard son, Dafydd Owen [WG2: Marchudd 13 (A); PACF 106], for whom the following descent can be shown: 
Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudur = NN
.Sir David Owen m. Mary Bohun
 .Anne Owen m. Sir Arthur Hopton
  .Sir Owen Hopton m. Anne Echingham
   .Mary Hopton m. William Brydges 4 B Chandos
The other children of Owain listed on WG2: Marchudd 13 (A) may have been illegitimate also.



8 -- The youngest son, named Owen, became a monk. The middle son, Jasper, was born at Hatfield around 1431, created Earl of Pembroke by his half-brother, Henry VI, before 20 Jan. 1452/3 (probably on 23 Nov. 1452), attainted in Nov. 1461, created Duke of Bedford by his nephew, Henry VII, on 27 Oct. 1485, and restored as Earl of Pembroke on 12 Dec. 1485. He died on 21 Dec. 1495, having had no children by his wife, Katherine, sister of Elizabeth Wydeville, wife of Edward IV, above. The confident assertion of NCP II: 73, note (d), to the effect that Jasper Tudor's bastard daughter Helen was the mother of Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, has been followed by the DNB [at LVII: 290], among others, and has even misled recent scholars [SBC, p. 54, note 3]. This assertion is completely untrue [James Arthur Muller, Stephen Gardiner and the Tudor Reaction (New York: Octagon, 1970), pp. 305-308].



9 -- The claim, made in Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, Fourth Series, vol. 5 (1914), pp. 277-280, that Henry was born on 26 July 1456 (three months before Edmund's death, and thus not posthumously), is based on a misdated document. See Archaeologia Cambrensis, Sixth Series, vol. 16 (1916), pp. 214-215.



10 -- See also MHM. Sir Roland Velville, grandfather of "Mam Cymru" (Anthony Richard Wagner, English Genealogy, 2nd edition [Oxford: Clarendon, 1972], p. 240), is usually said to have been a bastard son of Henry VII. See, however, S. B. Chrimes, "Sir Roland de Veleville" in Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru [The Welsh History Review], vol. 3 (1967), pp. 287-289. WG2: Marchudd 6 (B1) calls him Sir Roland Britain with no Tudor connection.



11 -- Owain was also descended (Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudur ap Gwerful f. Efa f. Llywelyn ap Hawise) from Hawise Lestrange, wife of Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn, d. 1286 [WG: Bl. ap C. 30], which Hawise was a daughter of John Lestrange (III) and Lucy Tregoz [AR 255:30]. Through this connection, Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudur has some Norman French and some Anglo-Saxon ancestry, including a link to his wife. See below for details.



Emma of Normandy m2. Aethelred II King of England m1. Aelfgifu of Northumbria

Godgifu of Wessex m. Dreux C de Vexin 		Half Siblings
Edmund II K England m. Ealdgyth

Raoul E Hereford m. Getha 		Half 1st Cousins
Edward the Exile m. Agatha

Harold de Ewyas m. Maud d'Avranches 		Half 2nd Cousins
Margaret of England m. Malcolm III K Scots

Robert de Ewyas m. Sibyl 		Half 3rd Cousins
David I K Scots m. Matilda of Huntingdon

Robert de Ewyas m. Petronilla 		Half 4th Cousins
Henry E Huntingdon m. Ada de Warenne

Sibyl de Ewyas m. Robert de Tregoz 		Half 5th Cousins
Aleida of Scotland m. Florent III C de Holland

Lucy Tregoz m. John Le Strange 		Half 6th Cousins
Guillaume I C de Holland m. Adelaide of Wassemburg

Hawise Le Strange m. Gruffudd ap Gwenwynwyn 		Half 7th Cousins
Florent IV C de Holland m. Mathilde de Brabant

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd m. NN 		Half 8th Cousins
Adelaide of Holland m. Jean d'Avesnes C de Hainault

Efa f. Llywelyn m. Madog o'r Hendwr ap Iorwerth 		Half 9th Cousins
Jean d'Avesnes C de Hainault m. Philippa de Luxembourg

Gwerful f. Madog o'r Hendwr m. Gronwy ap Tudur 		Half 10th Cousins
Marie d'Avesnes m. Louis I D de Bourbon

Tudur ap Gronwy m. Margred f. Thomas 		Half 11th Cousins
Pierre I D de Bourbon m. Isabel de Valois

Maredudd ap Tudur m. Margred f. Dafydd Fychan 		Half 12th Cousins
Jeanne de Bourbon m. Charles V K of France

OWAIN ap MAREDUDD ap TUDUR 		Half 13th Cousins
Charles VI K of France m. Elisabeth von Bayern

  		Half 13th Cousins
Once Removed
CATHERINE de VALOIS








SOURCE ABBREVIATIONS






MHM -- Melville Henry de Massue ("Marquis de Ruvigny et Raineval"), The Blood Royal of Britain [London: T. C. and E. C. Jack, 1905]

NCP -- The Complete Peerage by G. E. C., second edition [London: St Catherine, 1910-1959], with addenda and corrigenda volume [Stroud: Sutton, 1998]

PACF -- John Edwards Griffith, Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire Families [Horncastle: for the Author, 1914]

RD600 -- Gary Boyd Roberts, The Royal descents of 600 immigrants [Baltimore: Genealogical, 2008].

RMC -- Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry [Baltimore: Genealogical, 2005].

RP -- Rotuli Parliamentorum (The Rolls of Parliament) [London, 1767-1777], 6 vols.

RPA -- Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry [Baltimore: Genealogical, 2004].

SBC -- Stanley Bertram Chrimes, Henry VII [London: Eyre Methuen, 1972]









William Addams Reitwiesner


wargs@wargs.com