Henry Tudor (born 26th June 1456, died 1509) was the son of Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, and Margaret Beaufort. In 1486 the Earl of Richmond married Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV., the first King of the Yorkist line, and as the Earl himself represented the Lancastrian line, by way of Catherine Swinford, this marriage united the two houses of York and Lancaster, and gave rise to the beautiful Tudor badge of the Red and White Rose. The two colours are shown sometimes per pale, sometimes quartered, or there may be simple rows of alternate petals, or, as is most usual, the inner petals are all white and the outer petals all red; the centre is always gold, and the little leaves between the outer petals, if showing at all, are green. The portcullis and gateway, also commonly used as badges by our Sovereigns until the time of Charles I., are both used as emblems of the De Beaufort alliance. The portcullis is or, nailed az., chained and ringed of the first.
The Earl of Richmond defeated Richard III. at the battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, and the king was killed. Henry VII. was crowned king on the battlefield. He possessed a considerable number of manuscripts, and also a small library of printed books, which, as far as is known, were bound in velvet. Judging from the leather binding in Westminster Abbey Library, Henry also had some commoner books stamped with his coat-of-arms.
Several bindings that were made for Henry VII. still exist; they are either at the Record Office, the Library of Westminster Abbey, or the British Museum, and are all bound in the same way. The binding is of red velvet, beautifully bossed with silver or other metal; the bosses are ornamented with the Royal coat-of-arms, with the red dragon of Cadwallader as a dexter supporter, and the white greyhound of the Nevills, or, when used by Henry VII., of the De Beauforts, as sinister supporter.
But before using the dragon and greyhound Henry VII. had used two white lions. A white lion was the badge of the Earls of March, who were distantly connected with the King.
The coat-of-arms used by Henry VII., i.e. France and England quarterly, was the same as had been used by all the English kings since Henry IV. in 1408, when the fleurs-de-lys semées, which had been hitherto used, were reduced to three, in accordance with the change made in the French coat by Charles VI., King of France.
HENRY VIII., KING OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE, AND LORD OF IRELAND—AFTERWARDS KING OF ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND IRELAND.
Arms.—Quarterly.