He spent the next eight years in exile, until Henry VI was restored in 1470. Jasper was attainted for treason in 1461 and had his title and property confiscated by the crown. Through the deaths of both of their fathers, the enmity between Edward IV and Jasper Tudor was solidified. We do know that Owen did not believe that he would be executed, and it’s said that it wasn’t until the axman moved his collar out of the way that he finally realized that he would die, saying, “That head shall lie on the stock that was wont to lie on Queen Katherine’s lap.” Griffiths and Thomas say that this act was revenge for the death of Duke Richard a year earlier (p. Instead of being ransomed or forced to support Edward’s side, as was customary, Owen was executed. Edward took Owen as prisoner in 1461 after the battle of Mortimer’s Cross. Griffiths and Thomas make an interesting comparison between the death of Duke Richard and the execution of Owen Tudor. His son Edward, then the Earl of March, took up the cause of his father and was crowned in 1461. Richard’s head was put on a pike with a paper crown on him, as he was a traitor who wanted to be king. The duke was killed in battle at Wakefield in 1460. This was not a position Jasper could support, and he took up arms to support his brother. The later fissure started when Richard took up arms against Henry VI, and demanded to be made into Henry’s heir instead of Prince Edward of Lancaster. Richard and Jasper served on the King ’s Counsel together, and there are no reasons to think that their relationship was anything but pleasant. Her lack of English blood only made Richard’s case stronger. He did not want the French queen to have control of the country in her husband’s absence, and Jasper Tudor supported him in this effort, presumably because he knew that his sister-in-law was not popular with the people, nor truly capable of ruling the country by herself. Richard was of royal blood and a descendant of King Edward III, as was his wife. When Henry VI first slipped into his “waking sleep,” Richard of York wanted to be made into Regent instead of Queen Margaret of Anjou. Jasper’s relationship with Richard, the 3rd Duke of York and father of Edward IV, is a stark contrast to his later relationship with the son. However, this idea may have been pushed forward when Henry VII was king, since if his father was the heir of Henry VI after his son Edward died, that would mean that Henry was taking his father’s place as the heir to the king. Could two men who were half-Welsh and half-French claim the throne of England? It wouldn’t be the first time someone of non-Anglo blood would take the throne. Thomas and Griffiths have hypothesized that Henry VI was grooming his half-brothers to become his heirs if his marriage remained childless, which is an interesting idea (p. Their half-brother, King Henry VI, ennobled them with the titles Earl of Richmond and Earl of Pembroke, which made them the highest ranking earls in the country, second only to dukes. He and his brother Edmund spent their youth at Barking Abbey, where they were raised as the noblemen they were. Jasper is one of the possibly four children born to Katherine of Valois and Owen Tudor (Owen ap Maredudd ap Tudur), and generally believed to be the youngest boy. I felt compelled to share some of their conclusions, because Jasper has been misrepresented in the fictional world recently. Thomas’ book, The Making of the Tudor Dynasty. I have been re-reading the section on Jasper Tudor’s life prior to 1485 in Ralph A. Katherine Woodville and Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke and Duke of Bedford
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