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
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.