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Henry Tudor was the nephew of King Henry VI, one of the most unsuccessful rulers in all of English history. To be fair, Henry VI had big shoes to fill from his infamous warrior father, King Henry Henry VI became king of England when he was only 9 months old, therefore, he didn’t grow up with a good example of kingship to follow. Instead, he favoured the religious life of piety, peace, and reconciliation. These were not good traits to have if you were a king or any kind of medieval ruler.
Henry VI’s cousin Richard, Duke of York, did have all the traits of a powerful medieval ruler and he was appointed as protector when Henry VI suffered his first mental collapse in 1453. While the king was in his stupor, York threw out Henry’s councillors and replaced them with his own trusted friends and relatives. York even managed to arrest and imprison Henry VI’s closest ally, the duke of Somerset, which did not sit well with the king when he suddenly awoke on Christmas Day 1454. King Henry immediately ended York’s protectorate, stripped him and his allies of some of their titles, and freed Somerset from the Tower.
Shortly thereafter, the tension between York and Henry bubbled over and civil war broke out. The first battle of the Wars of the Roses was the Battle of St Albans on 22 May 1455. York’s forces greatly outnumbered the king’s army who was largely unprepared for battle. The royal army was set up in a bad position among the city streets instead of open land and York easily overcame them.1 Not only did York manage to kill many of the king’s nobles, including the despised duke of Somerset, he also found Henry VI near the battlefield and took physical possession of him.
For the next five years, the Houses of York and Lancaster would battle each other four more times (Blore Heath, Ludford Bridge, Northampton, and Wakefield). At the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460, Richard, Duke of York, was lured out of his castle and slain by the enemy. Richard had been the figurehead of the House of York and his death would leave a huge power vacuum. Luckily for the Yorkists, Richard had many sons and his eldest surviving son Edward was the perfect candidate to lead their house forward against the Lancastrians.
It was mid-January 1461 when Edward received the disastrous news of the death of his father and his brother Edmund at the Battle of Wakefield. Now Edward at only 19 years of age was the de facto leader of the Yorkist party. Edward mustered his army of mostly Welshmen and prepared to leave Gloucester for London to meet up with his father’s main ally, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, also known as ‘The Kingmaker’. Just as Edward started his march to London, he received news that a Lancastrian army led by Jasper and Owen Tudor was not far away from his location. The Tudors were also on their way to London so they could join forces with the Lancastrian royal army.
Edward decided his best course of action would be to intercept the Tudor army before they could reach London, so Edward led his army north arriving at a town called Mortimer’s Cross on 2 February 1461. The Lancastrians were the first to attack causing the Yorkist flank to fracture but then Edward’s line turned the battle in the Yorkists’ favour, pushing Jasper Tudor’s men into a full retreat. Owen Tudor’s line was overtaken by Edward’s army and his men fled as well.2 The Yorkists gave chase and caught up to Owen in Hereford where he was taken into custody and immediately beheaded in the market square. Before placing his head in the block, he reportedly said ‘That head shall lie in the stock that was wont to lie on Queen Catherine’s lap.’3 The battle was a complete disaster for Jasper Tudor. Not only was his father killed but as many as 4,000 of his soldiers were killed and Jasper found himself on the run.4
Two weeks after their loss at Mortimer’s Cross, the Lancastrians rallied and won the Second Battle of St. Albans on 17 February 1461. Queen Margaret then attempted to lead the royal army into London but the city council refused her entry. Her army had a terrible reputation for plundering, raping, and similar such atrocities, so Londoners were too afraid to let them in.5 They did, however, allow Edward and the earl of Warwick to enter the city on 26 February 1461. Just one week later, Edward was crowned King of England as Edward IV on 4 March 1461.
Edward had little time to celebrate before he had to leave for yet another battle. In one of the most infamous battles in the Wars of the Roses, the Yorkist and Lancastrian armies lined up against each other in a virtual snowstorm at Towton on 29 March 1461. This was the largest battle to date with estimates as high as 60,000 men in Henry’s army and 48,000 men in King Edward’s army. It was an all-day long battle in which Edward emerged victorious. The Yorkists executed every Lancastrian noble they could find but Margaret, Henry, and their young son made it to the safety of Scotland. It is estimated that 28,000 men died on the field that day.6
Now that King Edward IV was in complete control of England, he set out to remove all possible rivals to his throne. In the fall of 1461, the king commissioned Sir William Herbert to take control of Wales where Jasper Tudor had managed to keep a strong foothold for the Lancastrians. Jasper went on the run in Wales, trying to avoid capture by Herbert. Four-year-old Henry Tudor was at Pembroke Castle with his mother Margaret and her husband Henry Stafford. Although Pembroke was a fortified castle that was well-stocked for a siege, they did not put up a fight when Herbert arrived. Instead, the castle peacefully surrendered to Herbert on 30 September 1461.7 Herbert then tracked down Jasper near Caernarvon and the two sides fought at Twt Hill on 16 October 1461. Details of the battle are scarce, but we do know that Herbert won and as a result, Jasper took a ship to Scotland.
Not only did Herbert take possession of Pembroke Castle, he also took custody of Henry Tudor. This must have been a terribly frightening time in young Henry’s life, having lost the protection of his uncle Jasper and handed over to a Yorkist enemy. Henry was extremely fortunate that he had become the ward of a kind and generous man. William Herbert and his wife, Anne Devereaux, treated Henry like a member of the family and raised him alongside their own sons at Raglan Castle for the next ten years.8 He was given an education befitting a child of nobility, including two Oxford graduates for his teachers and military instruction from Sir Hugh Johns. He was even allowed to see his mother Margaret Beaufort, but only for one-week visit in September 1467.9
During Henry’s time with the Herberts at Raglan, Jasper Tudor and Margaret Beaufort did not sit by idly. Jasper had lost his nephew, his lands, and his titles. He was more determined than ever to restore his half-brother King Henry VI to the throne and get his nephew back from the Yorkists. When Jasper fled England after the loss at Twt Hill, he sailed to Scotland to join Margaret of Anjou and old king Henry in Scotland. Jasper was a well-respected military leader and a skilled negotiator, continually travelling to France, Brittany, and Wales over the years to gain support for Henry VI’s cause. Jasper found a willing conspirator in King Louis XI of France. Jasper resided at Louis’ court from October 1469 to September 1470 and even received a monthly pension from the French king, who was nicknamed ‘The Spider King’ for his ability to spin webs of conspiracies between his enemies.10
While Jasper led the fight for the Lancastrians, Margaret Beaufort was working in more subtle ways to rescue her son and restore the House of Lancaster. When her husband’s nephew, the second duke of Buckingham (also named Henry Stafford), married the new queen’s sister, Catherine Woodville, Margaret saw her opportunity. She worked tirelessly to ingratiate herself with King Edward IV and the Woodville faction. Her efforts finally started paying off in 1466 when King Edward showed his favour by granting them the palatial manor at Woking in Surrey which featured a moat, orchards, gardens, and a deer park.11 Stafford was invited to attend council meetings and even parliament. King Edward himself showed them a great amount of favour by visiting them at Woking in 1468.
Just as Margaret Beaufort was making inroads into the Yorkist court, her hopes for a Lancastrian resurrection were revived when the earl of Warwick came out in open rebellion against Edward IV in the summer of 1469. Although Warwick had been instrumental in putting Edward on the throne, he had been quickly cast aside in favour of the king’s new relatives, the ambitious Woodvilles. And now the infamous ‘Kingmaker’ was trying to seat another king: Edward’s brother, George, Duke of Clarence.
The first military confrontation between Warwick and the king’s men happened on 26 July 1469 at the Battle of Edgecote. Present at the battle were William Herbert and his 12-year-old ward, Henry Tudor, who was there to witness his first battle. Herbert fought for King Edward at Edgecote but lost to Warwick’s significantly larger army. Herbert was captured and executed. Henry Tudor was suddenly alone and vulnerable. Luckily, a kinsman of Anne Devereaux named Sir Richard Corbet, who was also present at the battle, helped Henry escape unscathed. Richard took Henry to Hereford where he could be reunited with his uncle Jasper.12
King Edward had been on the way to join Herbert’s army but didn’t make it in time for Edgecote. Having learned the news of the Yorkist defeat, Edward’s army disintegrated and Warwick took the king into custody. Warwick’s plan was to rule through Edward but the earl found that the public was so much against him that he had to let Edward go after just one month.
The second matchup between the former allies unfolded on 12 March 1470 at the Battle of Losecote Field in which Edward was the victor. Due to waning support in England, Warwick and George got on a ship and fled the country. They tried to come ashore at Calais but were turned away, but then they got the support of King Louis XI of France. Not only did Louis put a roof over their heads, as he did for Jasper Tudor the previous year, but he also conspired to build an alliance between Warwick and Margaret of Anjou. The former enemies signed their treaty of alliance at Angers on 30 July 1470 to work towards the restoration of Henry VI as king of England. To reinforce the deal, they agreed to a marriage between Margaret’s son, Prince Edward, and Warwick’s younger daughter, Anne Neville.
The new allies wasted no time assembling a large invasion fleet of sixty French ships commanded by the admiral of France. The plan was for Warwick and Jasper to sail for England first, then Margaret, Prince Edward, and Anne Neville would sail shortly thereafter. The invasion fleet departed from Normandy on 9 September 1470 and landed in England at Dartmouth and Plymouth four days later. Jasper went to Wales to gather troops and Warwick took the bulk of their French army on a march towards London. King Edward was in northern England at Yorkshire when he heard the news of Warwick’s invasion. Realising he could not make it to London before Warwick, and besides he had no army mustered, he boarded a ship and fled to Burgundy on 2 October 1470. Four days later, his former ally Warwick entered the capital city of London with zero opposition.
Warwick’s invasion had been a huge success and he now had complete charge of London. He immediately made his way to the Tower of London where he found a rather unkempt King Henry VI. After cleaning him up and fitting him with new clothes, Warwick staged a re-coronation ceremony for Henry at St Paul’s Cathedral in London on 13 October 1470 in which Warwick himself carried Henry’s train. Warwick may not have been able to rule through Edward but Henry VI was quite a different story. He was happy to hand over the reins to Warwick. Warwick’s first move was to have King Henry summon parliament to meet in order to attaint Edward and have him legally declared as a usurper to King Henry VI’s crown. Warwick also used this parliament session to designate the line of succession. After Henry VI, Edward’s brother George would be the next king, not Henry’s son Prince Edward, which would make his daughter Isabel the queen of England someday.
Immediately after the glorious news that Warwick had reinstated Henry VI, Margaret Beaufort made plans to bring her son Henry and his uncle Jasper to London for a family reunion. The three met up in London on 27 October 1470 and went to Westminster for an audience with Henry According to Tudor chronicler Polydore Vergil, King Henry VI was much impressed with 13-year-old Henry Tudor and prophesied that ‘This truly, this is he unto whom we and our adversaries must yield and give over the dominion.’13
Next, the reunited trio travelled to Margaret’s manor in Woking on 28 October 1470 and stayed for an entire week. Then Margaret, her husband Stafford, and Henry Tudor took a week-long journey where they visited Maidenhead, Guildford, and Henley-on-Thames before returning to London and handing Henry back over to Jasper’s custody on 11 November 1470.14 Margaret and Stafford stayed in London to negotiate the return of Henry Tudor’s earldom of Richmond, which was currently held by George. The two parties were close to an agreement when disaster struck for Margaret Beaufort and the Lancastrians.
On 14 March 1471, news reached London that the ousted King Edward IV had landed an invasion force in Ravenspur and was heading straight for London. Warwick was in Coventry when he heard the news and quickly mustered his army to head for London but he didn’t make it in time. When Edward and his army made it to London first on 12 April 1471, the city gates were thrown open to him. His first concern was getting possession of Henry VI and locking him back up in the Tower. The very next day, Edward led his army of 9,000 men north out of London to face Warwick’s army which was encamped at Barnet. On 14 April 1471, Edward not only beat Warwick’s forces at the Battle of Barnet, he captured and executed Warwick himself. Despite Margaret Beaufort’s pleas to her husband Henry Stafford to back the Lancastrian army, Stafford fought on Edward’s side at Barnet and was fatally wounded. He lingered for six months before expiring on 4 October 1471.
Two days after the victory at Barnet, Edward got word that Queen Margaret had landed her invasion force in Wales and he set off in hot pursuit. He cornered her at Tewkesbury as she was trying to cross into Wales to join up with Jasper Tudor’s army. The Battle of Tewskesbury ensued on 4 May 1471 and it was a disastrous loss for the Lancastrians. Prince Edward was killed on the battlefield and Queen Margaret was found hiding in sanctuary and taken prisoner. King Edward made his triumphant re-entry into London on 21 May 1471 and was re-crowned King of England. On the very day he returned to London, Henry VI mysteriously died in the Tower at the hands of King Edward’s men. With King Henry VI and his son Prince Edward dead, the Lancastrian cause seemed to be over once again. The last hope was Henry Tudor.
Jasper and Henry Tudor were on their way to join Queen Margaret’s army when they got news of their disastrous defeat so they reversed course and headed back to the safety of Pembroke Castle. They were besieged by Yorkists who wanted to put an end to the last two Tudors and thus the Lancastrian cause. Margaret Beaufort wrote to Jasper, warning him not to accept any sort of pardon from Edward as it would likely be a trick. She implored Jasper to take her son Henry out of the dangerous country of England to a place of greater safety.15 In early September 1471, Jasper heeded Margaret’s advice and escaped from Pembroke with young Henry. They travelled to the port town of Tenby and hired a ship to take them to France. They encountered rough weather and were blown off course, finally landing in the small French duchy of Brittany in mid-September 1471. The duke of Brittany, Francis II, took in the refugees and lodged them at his palace in Vannes called the Château de l’Hermine.
Henry and Jasper would live as refugees in Brittany for the next fourteen years through the generosity of Duke Francis II of Brittany. At first, Francis saw them as important diplomatic weapons in his arsenal against France and England, but over time real affection grew between the men and Francis did his best to protect them. Francis treated him with all the honour due to men of noble blood and they were initially allowed to move about his kingdom freely, but then even that became dangerous.
When King Edward IV found out that the Tudors were in exile in Brittany, he sent English envoys to negotiate their release with the duke of Brittany. Edward’s envoys dangled all sorts of carrots in front of Duke Francis, including military, diplomatic and financial support for his little duchy, but turned them all down.
After repeated pressure from both King Edward and King Louis of France, Francis decided to move the Tudors to a more secure location where they would be safer from any attempted abductions by Edward’s men. In October 1472, Henry and Jasper were moved to the secluded Château of Suscinio but then a year later they were moved again, this time to Nantes. A year and a half later, in early 1474, the diplomatic pressure was so intense that Francis moved the Tudors yet again. This time he separated the Tudors and replaced all of their English servants with Breton guards. Jasper was taken to the fortress in Josselin and 17-year-old Henry was placed at the Château de Largoët in Elven. There Henry was well treated by the château’s owner, Jean IV de Rieux, the marshal of Brittany. Jean had two sons of his own and he welcomed Henry as a member of his family.
But nowhere was safe for the exiled Tudors, not even Brittany. After five years of putting pressure on Francis to turn over Henry Tudor, King Edward finally succeeded in negotiating Henry’s release in November 1476.16 Edward had convinced Francis that no harm would come to Henry if he returned to England. Edward told Francis he would restore Henry’s titles and marry him to one of his own daughters if he were to return to England. Duke Francis relented to English demands and agreed to release Henry.
The English envoys took possession of Henry Tudor at Vannes and escorted him to the port of St Malo where they would take a ship home to England. Henry knew this would spell death for him if he got on that ship so he feigned illness to delay their sailing. At about the same time, Duke Francis had second thoughts and sent his treasurer Pierre Landois to St Malo to rescue Henry. While Pierre held the English envoys in deep conversation, Henry slipped away and made it safely into sanctuary at a church in St Malo.17 When the English envoys learned of his escape, they went to the church and demanded his release but the townspeople would not let them break the sacred rules of sanctuary. Instead, the English envoys sailed home empty-handed. Henry made his way back to Brittany where Duke Francis apologised profusely and reaffirmed his allegiance to protect the Tudors. Henry and Jasper were reunited at the Chateau L’Hermine in the coastal town of Vannes where they would remain for the rest of their exile in Brittany.
During Henry’s harrowing fourteen years of exile in Brittany, his mother Margaret Beaufort still held out hope that she could bring her son back to England safely and restore him to his earldom of Richmond. To do that, she would have to earn the trust of King Edward and his Woodville relatives who ruled the royal court. With her second husband Sir Henry Stafford dead from his wounds at the Battle of Barnet, she looked for a new match which could bring her closer into Edward’s inner circle. For her third and final husband, she chose Thomas Stanley who was not only a land magnate in Lancashire but also the steward of the household for King Edward which kept him close to the king at court. Stanley was also related to the Woodvilles through the marriages of his son and his nephew to the queen’s kin.
For the entirety of Henry Tudor’s exile, his mother Margaret Beaufort worked behind the scenes towards the restoration of her son’s earldom. It took years of work before King Edward and Queen Elizabeth began to trust her, but in the mid-1470’s she was finally in their favour. Her husband Stanley was honoured to go to France with King Edward in 1475 and negotiated a peace treaty with Louis XI.18 Then in July 1476, Margaret Beaufort was trusted enough to attend to Queen Elizabeth and her daughters during the extravagant reburial ceremony at Fotheringhay for Edward’s father, Richard, Duke of York. She received a huge honour in November 1480 when she was chosen to carry the infant Princess Bridget during her christening.19
Obviously, Margaret had won the trust of the king and queen, which put her in a good position to broach the topic of her son’s safe return to England. Margaret and her husband Stanley entered negotiations with King Edward and remarkably came to an agreement in the summer of 1482.20 Edward agreed to grant Henry a large portion of Margaret Beaufort’s estates upon her death plus a formal pardon from King Edward, but only on the condition that Henry return to England. A draft document was drawn up by the king which indicates that this was very nearly a done deal.
Margaret was confident she would soon be reunited with her son, but she would be sorely disappointed. All of Margaret’s years of hard work to win back Edward’s favour so her son could safely return to England suddenly fell apart when Edward unexpectedly died on 9 April 1483.