House of Tudor House of Tudor The House of Tudor was an English royal house of Welsh 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 (later the Kingdom of Ireland) 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 Tudor monarch, Henry VII of England, descended through his mother from a legitimised branch of the English
The Merry Monarch sister to the 1829 Derby winner Frederick. His sire, Slane, was runner-up in the Ascot Gold Cup and, thanks largely to The Merry Monarch's Derby win, was Champion sire in 1845. The Merry Monarch was sent into training with John "Daddy" Forth who, at the age of sixty, had trained and ridden Frederick in the Derby. Gratwicke's horses were based at Goodwood at a stable owned by the Duke of Richmond. Following a disagreement with the Duke, Gratwicke moved his horses to Newmarket, Suffolk. On his first racecourse appearance, The Merry Monarch ran in the Ham Stakes at Goodwood in