The Last Knight Errant: Sir Edward Woodville & the Age of Chivalry by Christopher Wilkins

Author:Christopher Wilkins [Wilkins, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 15th Century, Nonfiction, History, Medieval, Military & Fighting, England/Great Britain, Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 978-1848851498
Publisher: I. B. Tauris & Co. Ltd.
Published: 2015-01-22T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT: BLOOD AND ROSES

A week’s sailing brought the fleet to Pembrokeshire on a Sunday afternoon. They waited until dusk and then sailed into Milford Haven, landing at Mill Bay, where Henry, the King aspirant, knelt and prayed using Psalm XLIII (43):

Judge me, O Lord, and defend my cause against the unmerciful people:

Deliver me from the deceitful and wicked man.

For thou art the God of my strength: why hast thou put me away?

Why go I to mourning, when the enemy oppresses me?

Send thy light and thy truth: let them lead me: let them bring me: into thy holy mountain and to thy tabernacle.3

So Edward and his soldiers were back after two years in exile. They and the rest of the army spent the night around the nearby Castle de Vale (now Dale), owned by a Tudor cousin. In the morning Henry knighted some of his companions before marching to the county town of Haverfordwest. The garrison at nearby Pembroke Castle recognized Jasper as its natural lord, but the confidence of the invaders was shaken by rumour of enemy forces at Car marthen.

Scurriers (mounted scouts) were sent to investigate the perceived enemy. They discovered it was a false alarm, so the little army started its march north, through Cardigan and into mid-Wales. Henry Tudor rode under the Dragon banner of Cadwallader, exploiting his Welsh connections by claiming descent from the legendary line of kings. But despite this, the number of Welsh recruits was disappointing – no more that 500 or so.

It took four days for news of the landing to reach the King 200 miles away in Nottingham. He immediately sent out his call to arms. Meanwhile the Tudor army marched on, through the hills towards England, with Henry sending out a stream of letters. He had learned the power of propaganda: ‘that homicide and unnatural tyrant that now bears dominion over you’.

Messengers rode out to likely supporters: ‘Right trusty and well-beloved...we desire and pray you, and upon your allegiance strictly charge and command you...with all such power as ye may make, defensibly arrayed for war...ye fail not hereof as ye will avoid our grievous displeasure and answer unto your peril.’ 4

Worryingly for Henry, many of the ‘Right trusty and well-beloved’ prevaricated. However, some did not and recruits trickled in, then the flow increased, men from South Wales, men from Gwynedd. Rhys ap Thomas arrived with ‘a great band’, then Sir Gilbert Talbot, guardian to the young Earl of Shrewsbury, started assembling a force and by the time he joined Henry at Newport in Shropshire had 500 men, the first serious support from an English magnate. It was a relief because not only had there been a problem of numbers, but also one of presentation, as the majority of Henry’s army was French or Scots, some 2,000 of England’s traditional enemies.5 To balance them there were little more than 1,400 or 1,500 Welsh and English by the time they reached Shrewsbury.6

At Stafford Sir William Stanley appeared for a clandestine meeting. His

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