Tudor was an older son of Owen Tudor and Catherine of Valois (former queen of King Henry V of England), and it is not known for certain whether he was born legitimately after his parents were secretly married. Whatever the case, his mother died in 1437, but his half-brother, King Henry VI recognised him, creating him Earl of Richmond in 1452. In 1455, he married Margaret Beaufort, a daughter of the legitimised John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset. She was twelve years old at the time, and became pregnant in the following year. However, with the beginnings of the Wars of the Roses, Richmond was captured by the Yorkist Herbert family. They imprisoned him at Carmarthen Castle in south Wales, where he caught the plague and died on November 1, 1456. His only child was born more than two months after his death.