The eyes of Welshmen and Englishmen alike were now beginning to be turned to that house of Tudor, whose head had lost his life after Mortimer's Cross. Owen Tudor had married Catherine, the widow of king Henry V. There had been two children of the marriage, Edmund and Jasper, the former Earl of Richmond, and the latter Earl of Pembroke. Edmund had married Margaret Beaufort, heiress of John {126} of Gaunt; and to them a son, called Henry, had been born. This young lad was now living in exile in Brittany, and it was there that emissaries from England sought him out from time to time, telling him how the country was groaning under the evils of the times, and how all common men were yearning for the advent of a strong ruler who would restore peace and ordered government. The cruelties of the usurper Richard III brought matters to a head. At length the cautious Henry was convinced of the possibility of success. In 1485 he landed at Haverfordwest, and marched to Cardigan. The greater part of South Wales at once declared for him. Then he marched north, passing through Machynlleth, Newtown, Welshpool, and Shrewsbury. North Wales was held by the Stanleys; and it was only at the last moment that they declared for Henry. The crisis was reached on Bosworth Field, where, in the space of a few hours, Richard lost both his throne and his life, and Henry was proclaimed king in his stead. At long last the prophecies of the Welsh bards had been fulfilled: a Welsh prince had ascended the throne of England. A year later the new king married Elizabeth of York, a descendant, as we have already seen, of {127} the great Llewelyn. From his mother, therefore, as well as from his father, Henry VIII inherited Welsh blood; and it is little to be wondered at that he paid so much attention to the affairs of the Principality. It was noted by all that the first Tudor sovereign refused to rest his claim to the throne upon anything except conquest. Upon his entrance into London after the battle of Bosworth he proceeded in state to St. Paul's, and there had a solemn _Te Deum_ sung for his victory. It was as much a Welsh conquest of England as the expedition of 1066 was a Norman conquest of England. A considerable part of Henry's army had been composed of Welshmen, and one of the three standards displayed by him upon the field bore the device of the famous red dragon. His first-born son was christened Arthur.