Tudor Croft: The Name

The name Tudor Croft is derived from the Tudor dynasty that reigned on England from 1485 to 1603. "Croft" refers to a small farm with pasturage held in common with other farmers. The land on which Tudor Croft is built was once a horse farm owned by Roy Foster Roberts, a beloved Asheville physician, and his family.

The Tudor Rose

The emblem of Tudor Croft is the Tudor Rose, sometimes called the Union Rose. Incorporating both the white rose of the House of York and the red rose of the House of Lancaster, it symbolizes the union of these two royal houses into the new Tudor dynasty.

The Tudor Dynasty

The name Tudor (Tu dur) comes from the first Tudor king, Henry VII. The House of Lancaster ruled England from 1399 to 1461; the House of York ruled from 1461 to 1485. The battles between these two houses for the throne of England are known as the War of the Roses. When that Lancastrian Henry VII defeated the Yorkish king Richard III at the battle of Bosworth in 1485 and married Elizabeth of York, daughter of Yorkish king Edward IV, he united the two houses and created the Tudor Dynasty.

 The Tudor monarchs ruled England from 1485 to 1603. Following Henry VII's death in 1509, his second son, the infamous Henry VIII came to the throne. Henry VIII married six times and was succeeded by his son Edward following Henry's death in 1547.

Edward VI, ascended to the throne when he was nine years old, then died in 1553 at age 15. Henry's daughter Mary I was crowned queen in 1553, a devout Catholic, earned the name "Bloody Mary" for perpetrating great cruelties on Protestants and died in 1558 at age 42.

Mary's younger half-sister Elizabeth I ruled England for 45 years and died unmarried in 1603 with no heirs, ending the Tudor dynasty.