Earl of Richmond rather than the English crown. It was then held either by members of the English royal families of Plantagenet and Tudor, or English nobles closely associated with the English crown. It was eventually merged into the English crown during the reign of Henry VII and has been recreated as a Dukedom. The title Earl of Richmond is associated with the now extinct Earldom, the earlier Lords of Richmond who held the Honour of Richmond, one of the most important fiefs in England, and eventually the Dukes of Richmond. The title Earl evolved from the French-Breton-Norman title Count ("Comte") from the
Tudors of Penmynydd lineage, the Griffiths of Penrhyn, whose head, Gwilym ap Griffith, had married their niece, Morfydd ferch Goronwy. The family is best known due to the descendants of a younger son. Owain Tudur (anglicised to "Owen Tudor"), the son of rebel Maredudd ap Tudor, would become a courtier, and secretly married Catherine of Valois, widowed Queen Consort of the Lancastrian King Henry V. Owen Tudor and Catherine of Valois had two sons, Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond (d. 1456), and Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford and Earl of Pembroke (d. 1495). Edmund Tudor was betrothed and married to Margaret Beaufort