Claim: Elizabeth I of England reigned in England.

The House of Tudor was a royal house of Welsh and English origin , descended in the male line from the Tudors of Penmynydd . Tudor monarchs ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms , including their ancestral Wales and the Lordship of Ireland -LRB- later the Kingdom of Ireland -RRB- from 1485 until 1603 , with five monarchs in that period . The Tudors succeeded the House of Plantagenet as rulers of the Kingdom of England , and were succeeded by the House of Stuart . The first monarch , Henry VII , descended through his mother from a legitimised branch of the English royal House of Lancaster . The Tudor family rose to power in the wake of the Wars of the Roses , which left the House of Lancaster , to which the Tudors were aligned , extinct .   Henry Tudor was able to establish himself as a candidate not only for traditional Lancastrian supporters , but also for the discontented supporters of their rival House of York , and he rose to capture the throne in battle , becoming King Henry VII . His victory was reinforced by his marriage to Elizabeth of York , daughter of King Edward IV , symbolically uniting the former warring factions under a new dynasty . The Tudors extended their power beyond modern England , achieving the full union of England and the Principality of Wales in 1542 -LRB- Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 -RRB- , and successfully asserting English authority over the Kingdom of Ireland . They also maintained the nominal English claim to the Kingdom of France ; although none of them made substance of it , Henry VIII fought wars with France trying to reclaim that title . After him , his daughter Mary I lost control of all territory in France permanently with the fall of Calais in 1558 .   In total , five Tudor monarchs ruled their domains for just over a century . Henry VIII was the only male-line male heir of Henry VII to live to the age of maturity . Issues around the royal succession -LRB- including marriage and the succession rights of women -RRB- became major political themes during the Tudor era . The House of Stuart , descended from Henry VIII 's sister Margaret , came to power in 1603 when the direct Tudor line failed , as Elizabeth I died without a legitimate heir .