The Royals

CATHERINE OF VALOIS

1401–1437
Legacy: Grandmother of Henry VII, the first Tudor king of England
Crowned Queen of England in 1421, the French royal's short-lived marriage to Henry V (he died in battle a year later) produced a sole heir, King Henry VI. But it was her second marriage, to Welshman Owen Tudor, that gave rise to the mighty House of Tudor. Her grandson Henry VII was the first of five Tudor sovereigns to rule England, bringing the country from civil war and the Reformation to its golden age under Elizabeth I.