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
Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond large monetary grants from the King, while Edmund was also given property in Westmorland and Lancashire. Edmund ran a profitable estate and invested in the wool industry based out of Boston, Lincolnshire. The King also granted him the medieval palace of Baynard's Castle, near to the Thames river in London. Edmund was given the wardship of the nine-year-old Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, daughter of John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset on 24 March 1453. She was the only heir of Beaufort and a kinswoman of the King. She had descended from the House of Lancaster through the