Jasper Tudor: Godfather of the Tudor Dynasty by Debra Bayani

Author:Debra Bayani
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: MadeGlobal Publishing
Published: 2015-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

The homecoming of Jasper and Henry Tudor was probably not as easy as they had imagined. Essentially, much of it depended on sheer good luck whereby everything had to happen at the right place and the right time. Whatever Henry’s precise hopes may have been – and their relationship to Buckingham’s plans – the rising presented him with an opportunity to return home after twelve years of exile. Through Pierre Landais, Henry gained Francis’s support for an expedition and this was publicly demonstrated at a formal oath-swearing ceremony in Vannes Cathedral in the presence of the Duchess of Brittany, whose chaplain, Master Arthur Jacques, presided at the service. Duke Francis provided Henry with fifteen ships, according to Vergil, including three bigger vessels, and these were made ready to carry 5,000 Breton soldiers to England. The accounts of Francis’s receiver general record the precise cost of at least half of the fleet. Seven ships are named, two other ships came from St Malo, two others from Brest and Auray, one was supplied by Alain de la Motte, Vice-Admiral of Brittany, and another one came from the Admiral of Brittany and commander of the fleet, Jean Dufou. The commissary-general of Duke Francis of Brittany, Yves Millon, provided Jasper and Henry with 13,000 livres tournois during October and November for wages and provisions for their expedition, in addition to a loan of 10,000 ecus d’or.47

Several accounts affirm that the fleet was ready to disembark on 1 September,48 but this date is far too early. In fact, when Henry and Jasper received Duke Francis’s loan on 30 October, they were still at the fishing port of Paimpol on the north coast of Brittany. There is a possibility that the journey had earlier been postponed because of the weather, but it is more likely that the fleet sailed soon after this, early in November, from Paimpol. As soon as they did the strong northern wind scattered the ships in different directions – some to Normandy, most others back to the Breton coast, except for Henry’s ship and one other. These two remaining ships were battered all night in the severe storm but the next morning both came in sight of the Dorset coast near Poole. Just before they had set foot ashore, they noticed that the coastline was full of armed men drawn up waiting for them.

Henry therefore sent a boat to scout what was actually going on. The men in the boat were encouraged to land by the armed forces – ‘They were informed that they were sent from the Duke of Buckingham to be ready to accompany Henry safe unto the camp’ because, it was said, Richard III was defeated.49 Henry, however, seems to have remained suspicious and, after waiting in vain for the other ships to arrive, he and Jasper set off back across the English Channel, having been forced to leave behind some of the Bretons, presumably the scouts. These Bretons were taken prisoner and just before Christmas four of them

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