The House of Tudor Read online

  THE HOUSE OF TUDOR

  ALISON PLOWDEN

  Copyright © 1976 by Alison Plowden

  All rights reserved.

  Stein and Day Publishers/Scarborough House, Briarcliff Manor, NY

  ISBN: 978-0750932400

  CONTENTS

  Genealogies

  Chronology of Events

  A Bull of Anglesey

  The Rose of England

  A Wonder for Wise Men

  The Renaissance Prince

  Tudor Sisters

  The King’s Secret Matter

  England’s Treasure

  The Old Fox

  A Boy of Wondrous Hope

  Gone is Our Treasure

  The Rule of the Proud Spaniards

  In Honour of Worthy Philip

  England’s Eliza

  When Hemp is Spun

  Acknowledgments

  GENEALOGIES

  Houses of York and Lancaster

  House of Tudor

  CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS

  1429?

  Secret marriage of Owen Tudor and Queen Katherine of Valois (widow of Henry V of England)

  1430 – 1436

  Births of Edmund and Jasper Tudor and two other children

  1437

  3 January

  July

  Death of Katherine of Valois

  Arrest of Owen Tudor

  1439, November

  Owen Tudor released and granted a general pardon

  1443

  Birth of Margaret Beaufort

  1452, 23 November

  Edmund Tudor created Earl of Richmond

  1455

  22 May

  1 November

  Battle of St. Albans (start of the ‘Wars of the Roses’)

  Marriage of Edmund Tudor and Margaret Beaufort

  1456, 1 November

  Death of Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond

  1457, 28 January

  Birth of Henry Tudor, later King Henry VII

  1461, 3 February

  Battle of Mortimer’s Cross; Execution of Owen Tudor

  1471

  4 May

  21 May

  September

  Battle of Tewkesbury

  Death of Henry VI

  Henry and Jasper Tudor escape to Brittany

  1483

  9 April

  26 June

  July

  September

  25 December

  Death of Edward IV

  Richard, Duke of Gloucester, proclaimed King (Richard III)

  Disappearance of the two Princes in the Tower of London

  Unsuccessful conspiracy against Richard III

  Henry Tudor swears an oath to marry Elizabeth of York ‘so soon as he should be king’

  1485, 22 August

  Battle of Bosworth; Death of Richard III on the battlefield; Henry Tudor proclaimed King (Henry VII)

  1486

  16 January

  20 September

  Marriage of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York

  Birth of Prince Arthur

  1487, 16 June

  Battle of Stoke (ending the ‘Wars of the Roses’); Capture of Lambert Simnel (pretender to the throne)

  1495-1496

  Perkin Warbeck conspiracy (pretender to the throne)

  1497, October

  Defeat and capture of Perkin Warbeck

  1501, 14 November

  Marriage of Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon

  1502, 2 April

  Death of Prince Arthur

  1503

  11 February

  8 August

  Death of Elizabeth of York

  Marriage of Margaret Tudor and James IV of Scotland

  1509

  21 April

  3 June

  Death of Henry VII

  Marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon

  1513, 9 September

  Battle of Flodden; Death of James IV in battle

  1514

  August

  9 October

  Marriage of Margaret Tudor and Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus

  Marriage of Mary Tudor and Louis XII of France

  1515

  1 January

  February

  Death of Louis XII

  Marriage of Mary Tudor and Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk

  1516, 18 February

  Birth of Princess Mary, later Queen Mary I

  1519, 15 June

  Birth of Henry Fitzroy, Henry VIII’s bastard son

  1527, May

  Henry VIII initiates divorce from Catherine of Aragon

  1529

  June

  July

  Hearing of the King’s divorce case opens at Blackfriars before Cardinals Campeggio and Thomas Wolsey

  Pope transfers hearing of the case to Rome

  1530, 29 November

  Death of Cardinal Wolsey

  1531, July

  Henry separates from Catherine of Aragon

  1533

  25 January

  10 May

  24 June

  7 September

  Marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn

  Archbishop Thomas Cranmer pronounces Henry’s 1st marriage ‘null and void’ and his 2nd ‘good and lawful’

  Death of Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk

  Birth of Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth I

  1534, March

  Pope rules on the divorce in Catherine’s favour

  1535

  15 January

  6 July

  Henry VIII assumes title of Supreme Head of the Church

  Execution of Sir Thomas More

  1536

  7 January

  19 May

  30 May

  22 June

  22 July

  Death of Catherine of Aragon

  Execution of Anne Boleyn

  Marriage of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour

  Princess Mary concedes her parents’ marriage as unlawful

  Death of Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset

  1537

  12 October

  24 October

  Birth of Prince Edward, later King Edward VI

  Death of Jane Seymour

  1538, December

  Henry VIII excommunicated

  1540

  6 January

  9 July

  28 July

  Marriage of Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves

  Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne of Cleves annulled

  Marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine Howard

  1542

  13 February

  23 November

  8 December

  14 December

  Execution of Catherine Howard

  Battle of Solway Moss

  Birth of Mary, Queen of Scots

  Death of James V of Scotland

  1543, 12 July

  Marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine Parr

  1547

  28 January

  May

  Death of Henry VIII

  Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, becomes Lord Protector

  Marriage of Queen Catherine Parr and Thomas Seymour

  1548, 7 September

  Death of Catherine Parr

  1549, 20 March

  Execution of Thomas Seymour

  15
50, 4 June

  Marriage of Robert Dudley and Amy Robsart

  1552, 22 January

  Execution of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset

  1553

  21 May

  6 July

  7 – 9 July

  10 – 19 July

  19 July

  22 August

  Marriage of Lady Jane Grey and Guildford Dudley

  Death of Edward VI

  Attempted coup by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland

  Brief reign of Jane Grey

  Mary Tudor proclaimed Queen in London

  Execution of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland

  1554

  January

  12 February

  18 March-19 May

  25 July

  November

  Wyatt’s Rebellion

  Execution of Jane Grey

  Princess Elizabeth held in the Tower of London

  Marriage of Queen Mary I and Philip of Spain

  England reconciled to Rome

  1555

  April

  Queen Mary believes herself pregnant

  Elizabeth released from house arrest at Woodstock

  1556, 21 March

  Thomas Cranmer burnt as a heretic

  1558

  7 January

  17 November

  Loss of Calais to France

  Death of Queen Mary I

  1559, January/May

  Elizabethan Settlement of Religion

  1560

  8 September

  December

  Mysterious death of Amy Dudley

  Secret marriage of Lady Katherine Grey and Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford

  1561, August

  Mary, Queen of Scots returns to Scotland from France

  1564, 29 September

  Robert Dudley created Earl of Leicester

  1565, 29 July

  Marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots and Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley

  1566, 19 June

  Birth of Prince James, later King James I

  1567

  10 February

  15 May

  Murder of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley

  Scandalous marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots and Lord Bothwell, suspect in Lord Darnley’s murder

  1568

  27 January

  16 May

  Death of Lady Katherine Grey

  Flight of Mary, Queen of Scots into England

  1587, 8 February

  Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots

  1588

  July/August

  4 September

  Defeat of the Spanish Armada

  Death of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester

  1601

  February

  25 February

  Essex Rebellion

  Execution of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex

  1603, 24 March

  Death of Queen Elizabeth I; James Stuart (James VI of Scotland) becomes King James I of England and Ireland

  1: A BULL OF ANGLESEY

  A Bull of Anglesey demanding satisfaction - He is the hope of our race.

  When the bull comes from the far land to battle with his great ashen spear,

  To be an earl again in the land of Llewelyn,

  Let the far-splitting spear shed the blood of the Saxon on the stubble...

  When the long yellow summer comes and victory comes to us

  And the spreading of the sails of Brittany,

  And when the heat comes and when the fever is kindled,

  There are portents that victory will be given to us...

  sang the bards in the ‘long yellow summer’ of 1485, as they waited for the fleet which would carry ‘the one who will strike’, Henry Earl of Richmond, the black bull of Anglesey, the peacock of Tudor, back to the land of his fathers. There was long for Harry, they sang, whose name ‘comes down from the mountains as a two-edged sword’, for mab y darogan, the long promised hero who would fulfil the prophesy of Myrddin the wizard, who would deliver his people from the Saxon oppressor and bring content to the blessed land of Gwynedd.

  ‘The most wise and fortunate Henry VII is a Welshman’, remarked the Italian author of A Relation of the Island of Britain, and although the Welshness of the first Henry Tudor can easily be (and often is) exaggerated, Henry himself was fully aware of the importance which should be attached to the fulfilment of bardic prophesies. He was also conscious of the political advantages to be gained by polishing his image as ‘a high-born Briton of the stocck of Maegwyn’ - prince of the line of Cadwaladr of the beautiful spear. At any rate, David Powel, writing in 1584, says that the king appointed a three-man commission to enquire into the matter of his pedigree and that these seekers after the knowledge, having consulted the bards and other appropriate authorities, ‘drew his perfect genelogie from the ancient Kings of Brytaine and Princes of Wales’.

  It must be admitted that the actual origins of the House of Tudor do not quite match the imaginative flights of the Abbot of Valle Crucis, Dr. Poole, canon of Hereford and John King, herald. At the same time, the historical story of the family’s rise, untidy and incomplete though it is, should be romantic enough for most people.

  The first identifiable forbear of the Welsh Tudors was Ednyfed Fychan, who flourished in the first half of the thirteenth century. Ednyfed followed a successful and profitable career in the service of Llewelyn the Great and his son David, princes of Gwynedd (that is, North Wales). He was rewarded by grantts of land in Anglesey and Caernarvon, and also acquired estates in West Wales. Ednyfed married, as his second wife, Gwenllian, daughter of Rhys, prince of South Wales, and his sons, Tudur and Goronwy, inherited both his office of seneschal, or steward to the rulers of Gwynedd, and his considerable property.

  The final subjugation of Wales by England in the early 1280s does not seem to have had any adverse effect on the family fortunes. Like a good many other native magnates, Ednyfed’s grandson, Tudur hen ap Goronwy, probably supported the English Crown - at least he is recorded as having done homage to Edward of Caernarvon, the first English Prince of Wales, in 1301. By the middle of the century, this Tudur’s grandson, another Tudur ap Goronwy, was established as an important landowner and a member of the new gentry class which had begun to emerge out of the decay of the old Welsh tribal society.

  But unfortunately for the descendants of Ednyfed Fychan, the old Welsh tribal loyalties were not yet dead. Tudur ap Goronwy the Second had married a sister of Owain Glyn Dwr, and when Glyn Dwr rose in revolt against Henry IV at the beginning of the 1400s, Tudor’s surviving sons came out for their uncle. In fact, in a highly complicated political situation, the loyalties involved may have been as much English as Welsh. Glyn Dwr is said to have served in Richard II’s army and we know that three of the Tudur brothers had been at one time in Richard’s retinue. But whatever their motives in joining the revolt, it was to prove disastrous for the Tudur clan - as indeed it did for Wales in general.

  Harsh reprisals were taken against the rebels and, according to the chronicler Adam of Usk, Rhys ap Tudur was executed at Chester in 1412. All the Tudur estates were confiscated, although one property - Penmynydd in Anglesey - was eventually recovered by the heirs of the eldest brother, Goronwy. The senior branch of the family, who took to spelling their name Theodor, remained at Penmynydd, obscure country squires taking a modest part in local affairs, until the line finally petered out towards the end of the seventeenth century, leaving nothing behind but some monuments of Penmynydd Church. And that might very well have been the whole story - if it were not for the quirk of fate which had taken the son of the youngest brother, Maredudd, into the household of Henry v.

  Very little is known about Maredudd or Meredith, ancestor of the royal Tudors, except that he is said to have held some office under the Bishop of Bangor and to have been e
scheator of Anglesey. There is a tradition that he had to flee from justice after killing a man and that his son was born while he was on the run. But no one knows exactly where or when Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudur, more conveniently, Owen Tudor, was born, though it must have been in the early 1400s. Nor does anyone know exactly how or when he entered the royal service. All we know for certain is that at some point in the 1420s Owen became Clerk of the Wardrobe to Henry V’s widow, Katherine of Valois, and that in 1429, or it may have been in 1432, he and the Queen were married.

  The traditional story goes that Owen and Katherine contrived to conceal their love from the world until, one day, their secret was betrayed to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, Protector of the Realm. Gloucester immediately incarcerated the Queen in a nunnery, where she died of a broken heart, and threw Owen into prison. From the known facts, scanty though they are, it is possible to piece together a rather less pathetic, if no less extraordinary sequence of events.

  Although all the circumstances surrounding the romance of the French princess and the ‘gentleman of Wales’ which was to have such far-reaching consequences for England remain shrouded in mystery, it seems reasonable to assume tradition is right in saying that Owen and Katherine fell in love. At least, it seems reasonable to assume that Katherine fell in love. Shakespeare regardless, her short-lived marriage to Henry V had been a matter of high politics. She was barely twenty when she became a widow and her son, ‘Harry born at Windsor’ and destined to lose all the glory his famous father had won, became King at the age of nine months. As Queen Dowager, Katherine’s position was not a happy one. She had no say in the government and none to speak of in the upbringing of her little son. Bored, lonely and with nothing to look forward to but the prospect of a lifetime of barren exile, she would naturally be susceptible to the attentions of an attractive man -’following more her appetite than friendly counsel and regarding more her private affections than her open honour’, as the chronicler Edward Hall was to put it.