Jasper Tudor
Jasper Tudor, 1st Duke of Bedford, 1st Earl of Pembroke, KG (Welsh: Siasbar Tudur) (c. 1431 – 21/26 December 1495) was the uncle of King Henry VII of England and the architect of his successful conquest of England and Wales in 1485.[1] He was from the noble Tudor family of Penmynydd, North Wales.
Jasper Tudor bore the arms of the kingdom, with the addition of a bordure azure with martlets or (that is, a blue border featuring golden martlets).[2]
Family and early life
Jasper was the second son of Owen Tudor and the former Queen Catherine of Valois, the widow of King Henry V. He was a half-brother to King Henry VI, who, on attaining his majority, named Jasper the Earl of Pembroke (in 1452). Through his father, Owen Tudor, he was a direct descendant of Ednyfed Fychan, Llywelyn the Great's renowned Chancellor; which added greatly to his status in Wales.
His elder brother Edmond was born at Much Hadham Palace in Hertfordshire in 1430. Jasper the second son was born at the Bishop of Ely’s manor at Hatfield in Hertfordshire in 1431. Owen was born at Westminster Abbey in 1432, when the Dowager Queen was visiting her son Henry VI, her water broke prematurely and she was forced to seek the help of the monks at Westminster Abbey. Owen was taken from her and raised by the monks and according to his nephew, Henry VII's personal historian Vergil, the child was raised as a monk called Edward Bridgewater where he lived until his death in 1502. There is mention of a daughter who became a nun by Vergil but nothing is known of her. Jasper's mother's last child would be born in 1437 mere days before Catherine's own untimely death.[3] In 1436, when Jasper was about five years of age his mother, Catherine of Valois, once again was expecting another child. However, she realized that she was dying from an illness, probably cancer, and sought the help of Bermondsey Abbey to be nursed by the sisters there. By the first of January, she had written a will and had given birth to a short lived daughter. On January 3, she died. After her death her husband, Owen Tudor, was arrested. While Catherine had been alive, the regency of Henry VI was reluctant to arrest Owen while the former Queen could still protect him. The regents had made it illegal for anyone to marry the widowed queen without their permission. Owen Tudor had been below her in rank. Owen was sent to Newgate prison. Owen's children Edmund and Jasper, and possibly their unknown sister, were given to Katherine de la Pole who was a nun at Barking Abbey in Essex from July 1437 until March 1442.[4] She was the sister of William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, a great favourite of Henry VI. Katherine de la Pole, was to provide Owen Tudor's children with food, clothing, and lodging, and both boys were allowed servants to wait upon them as the King’s half-brothers.[5] It was in 1442 when their half-brother Henry VI began to taken an interest in their upbringing.[6] Sometime after March 1442, the young Jasper and his elder brother were brought from Barking Abbey to live at court. Henry arranged for the best priest to educate them not just in their academic studies, but on how to live a moral life. The brothers also received military training, when they grew up they were given military positions.[7] Jasper and Edmund had no English blood in their veins and was recognized as Henry VI’s uterine brother when he was created the Earl of Pembroke.[8]
Adulthood
When Owen Tudor was released from prison, most likely thanks to his stepson Henry VI who, after providing for his stepfather, also provided for his two half-brothers. It is not clear whether Henry VI had known the existence of his half-brothers until his mother told him while she was dying in Bermondsey Abbey. It was after her death that Henry would begin to care of them and eventually raise them to the peerage by giving both brothers earldoms. Jasper became the Earl of Pembroke on November 23, 1452.[9] In turn they, Edmund and Jasper, gave him unwavering loyalty and fought and promoted his and his Lancastrian family’s interests to the best of their ability.
Although there was uncertainty as to whether Jasper and his two (or three) siblings were legitimate, their parents' probably secret marriage not being recognized by the authorities, Jasper enjoyed all the privileges appropriate to his birth, including being invested as a Knight of the Garter. After 1485, He would describe himself as the “high and mighty Prince Jasper, brother and uncle of Kings, duke of Bedford and earl of Pembroke”.[10] During his time in court, Jasper constantly tried to work with the Duke of York and other nobles in order to try to stop the infighting between the two houses.[11] It was after the death of his elder brother, Edmund, that Jasper took over the responsibility of maintaining the Lancastrian ties within Wales. Along with this, he then look in his sister-in-law and infant nephew.[12]
But on the accession of the Yorkist King Edward IV in 1461, he was subject to an attainder for supporting his Lancastrian half-brother, the deposed king Henry, to whom Jasper was a tower of strength. He strove to place his half-nephew Prince Edward of Lancaster on the throne and provided absolute loyalty to his royal half-brother and Margaret of Anjou, his half-brother's wife. Jasper would also help his other sister-in-law Lady Margaret Beaufort to enable her son Henry Tudor win the throne in 1485 as King Henry VII, father of King Henry the VIII.
Wars of the Roses
Jasper was an adventurer whose military expertise, some of it gained in the early stages of the Wars of the Roses, was considerable. Nevertheless, the only major battle he had taken part in before Bosworth was Mortimer's Cross in February 1461, where he lost the battle to the future Edward IV, and his father, Owen, was executed as a traitor.[13] Jasper occupied the castles of Carmarthen and Aberstwyth in 1456 until he lost them to William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke.[14] He remained in touch with Margaret of Anjou, Queen of Henry VI, as she struggled to regain her son's inheritance, and he held Denbigh Castle for the House of Lancaster in 1460.
Jasper also brought up his nephew, Henry Tudor, the future Henry VII, whose father had died before his birth, until 1461 when he also lost Pembroke Castle to William Herbert. After being welcomed by Louis XI of France the following year, he returned to North Wales in 1468 only to be defeated by Herbert.
He briefly regained the earldom of Pembroke a couple of years later but following the return of the Yorkist king Edward IV from temporary exile in 1471, he fled again onto the continent. During his time on the continent, Jasper did a lot of travelling and attempted to gather support for the Lancastrian cause.[15] Escaping from Tenby with Henry, storms in the English Channel forced them to land at Le Conquet in Brittany where they sought refuge from Duke Francis II. Although Edward placed diplomatic pressure on the Duke of Brittany, the uncle and nephew remained safe from the clutches of the English king who died in April 1483.
It was thanks to Jasper that Henry acquired the tactical awareness that made it possible for him to defeat the far more experienced Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. On Henry's subsequent accession to the throne as Henry VII, Jasper was restored to all his former titles, including Knight of the Garter, and made the Duke of Bedford. In 1488, he took possession of Cardiff Castle.
Marriage and children
Jasper was married on 7 November 1485 to Catherine Woodville (c. 1458–1509).
Catherine was the daughter of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers and Jacquetta of Luxembourg, and thus was sister to (among others) Edward IV's queen Elizabeth Woodville, Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers and Richard Woodville, 3rd Earl Rivers. She was also the widow of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham.
They may have had one stillborn son c. 1490. Catherine survived Jasper and later married Sir Richard Wingfield of Kimbolton Castle.
Illegitimate issue
Jasper reportedly had two illegitimate daughters:
- Helen Tudor (by Mevanvy or Myvanwy ferch N (b. Wales, d. bef. 1485), born c. 1459), wife of a skinner William Gardiner, of London (born c. 1450), having by him: Thomas Gardiner, Prior of Tynemouth and four daughters, Philippa, Margaret, Beatrice and Anne. After her husband's death she married William Sybson. 19th century genealogists mistakenly conflated Thomas Gardiner with Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester.[16]
- Joan Tudor, wife of William ap Yevan (son of Yevan Williams and Margaret Kemoys), and reported mother of Morgan ap William (or Williams) (born Llanishen, Glamorganshire, Wales, 1479), later married at Putney Church, Norwell, Nottinghamshire, in 1499 to Catherine or Katherine Cromwell, born Putney, London, c. 1483, an older sister of Tudor statesman Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex. They were fourth-generation ancestors to Oliver Cromwell, meaning Oliver Cromwell was a descendant of the Welsh Royal Family, via Joan Tudor's grandfather, Owen Tudor.
Death and burial
He died on 21 or 26 December 1495, and was buried at Keynsham Abbey in Somerset which Lady Agnes Cheyne, the incumbent of Chenies Manor House, bequeathed to him in 1494.
References
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry: R. S. Thomas, "Tudor, Jasper, duke of Bedford (c.1431–1495)", first published 2004
- ^ Marks of Cadency in the British Royal Family
- ^ Weir, Alison., Lancaster and York, the war of the roses (London, 1995) Pg. 81.
- ^ Griffith, Ralph A. and Roger Thomas . The Making of the Tudor Dynasty (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985) 32.
- ^ Weir, Alison., Lancaster and York, the war of the roses (London, 1995) Pg. 88.
- ^ Griffith, Ralph A. and Roger Thomas . The Making of the Tudor Dynasty (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985), 32.
- ^ Weir, Alison., Lancaster and York, the war of the roses (London, 1995) Pg. 100.
- ^ Griffiths, Ralph A. and James Sherborwe, ed. Kings and Nobles in the Later Middle Ages. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986) 19.
- ^ Griffith, Ralph A. and Roger Thomas . The Making of the Tudor Dynasty (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985) , 33.
- ^ Griffiths, Ralph A. and James Sherburne, ed. Kings and Nobles in the Later Middle Ages. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986) 20.
- ^ Griffith, Ralph A. and Roger Thomas . The Making of the Tudor Dynasty (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985) , 43.
- ^ Griffith, Ralph A. and Roger Thomas . The Making of the Tudor Dynasty (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985), 46-47.
- ^ Griffith, Ralph A. and Roger Thomas . The Making of the Tudor Dynasty (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985), 1.
- ^ Loades, D.M. Politics and the Nation 1450-1660: Obedience, resistance and Public Order (Sussex: The Harvester Press, 1974), 60.
- ^ Griffith, Ralph A. and Roger Thomas . The Making of the Tudor Dynasty (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985) , 60-64.
- ^ Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, Genealogical Publishing, 2011, p.370.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography – R. S. Thomas, "Tudor, Jasper, duke of Bedford (c.1431–1495)"
- Welsh Biography Online
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