Kingdom of England down. By 1588, her new navy was strong enough to defeat the Spanish Armada, which had sought to invade England to put a Catholic monarch on the throne in her place. The House of Tudor ended with the death of Elizabeth I on 24 March 1603. James I ascended the throne of England and brought it into personal union with the Kingdom of Scotland. Despite the Union of the Crowns, the kingdoms remained separate and independent states: a state of affairs which lasted for more than a century. The Stuart kings overestimated the power of the English monarchy, and were
Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford, and her husband William Gardener. The heraldic arms claimed by Prior Gardener include a shield impaling the arms of Jasper Tudor, 'debruised by a bend sinister'. The next source dates from the late 17th Century - nearly two hundred years after Jasper Tudor's death. William Dugdale's "Baronage of England" (1675-6) states that Jasper Tudor "departed this Life ... leaving no other Issue than one Illegitimate Daughter, called Ellen, who became the Wife of William Gardner, Citizen of London". Dugdale (1605-1686), an eminent antiquarian and scholar, was Norroy King of Arms (1660-1679) and Garter King of