I am pleased to welcome Elizabeth St John to the blog today. She shares my passion for Wars of the Roses and Tudor history and even has a family connection for inspiration! So, I am excited to help her celebrate the release of her latest novel, The Godmother's Secret. If you enjoyed my Plantagenet Embers series, you are going to love this too.

Welcome, Liz!

~ Samantha

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Historical Inspiration for The Godmother's Secret

Guest Post by Elizabeth St John

When I was looking for inspiration for my new book, The Godmother’s Secret, I literally entered my own name into our digitised family tree to see who else was recorded. About half a dozen Elizabeths appeared - Victorian, Georgian, and Tudor women; some who had lived at court, others who led simple lives in the English countryside. But I was intrigued to find Elysabeth St.John who lived in the 15th century – and over the moon when I discovered she was the godmother to Edward V – the eldest brother of the missing Princes in the Tower. I had a new family story to investigate! And surely Elysabeth, above anyone else, would know what happened to those poor boys?

Bolton Castle

As a little background, my books are inspired by my own family stories that I have discovered through our ancestral records, diaries, letters, and the homes they’ve lived in – from Nottingham Castle to the Tower of London, Lydiard Park to Bolton Castle. I’m fortunate the St.John family was prominent in English history, and so we left quite a trail — which can be both good and bad! My previous novels, The Lydiard Chronicles, are based on the diaries and records of my 17th century family, and it has been a glorious research journey uncovering their words and stories.

Returning to my new main character, Elysabeth Scrope. In medieval times, a godmother was considered a blood relative, and was responsible for the spiritual wellbeing and security of their godchild. A serious commitment! Where it gets interesting is that Elysabeth St.John was also the half-sister to Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII. Elysabeth’s husband, John Scrope, 5th Baron Scrope of Bolton, was a close ally of Richard III. So not only was Elysabeth (a Lancastrian) godmother to the York heir, she was also aunt to the Tudor claimant. Talk about family feuds! Margaret was also married to Lord Thomas Stanley, a powerful follower of Richard III, until the Battle of Bosworth. And we all know how that ended.

The St.John ancestral home, Lydiard Park, has a wonderful collection of paintings and documents, scholarly reports and papers tracing the history of the family all the way back to the 14th century. So I’ve a rich and always growing repository of content to research and explore. And it’s when I started making those connections – as in The Godmother’s Secret – seeing who the St.John women married, who they were allied with, where they lived, that I realized the vast web of political and social influences the family had during the Wars of the Roses.

The Godmother’s Secret revolves around Elysabeth’s vow as godmother and her desperate efforts to protect her 12-year-old godson, Edward V, from the intrigue and betrayal that surrounds him after she delivers him to the Tower of London for his coronation. He was automatically king upon the death of his father Edward IV (“the king never dies”). However, he had yet to be anointed when the Duke of Buckingham moved Edward into the Tower for his own safekeeping and to prepare for his coronation. In my novel, Elysabeth is navigating her own conflict, upholding her loyalty to both her husband and her sister as competing factions battle for the throne. More than anything, Elysabeth defies the bounds of blood and loyalty to make her own decisions for her godson’s survival in a hostile medieval world where women had little authority.

What was fascinating as I started digging deep into the research were the layers upon layers of rumours, gossip and myths that surrounded Edward V and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York. Our common perception today is very often “Richard III killed his nephews, the Princes in the Tower” (a name for them that only came into being in the Victorian times). Most of what we think about Richard is derived from Shakespeare’s eponymous play, which in turn drew from Thomas More’s account, written during the reign of Henry VIII. As I read further, first hand accounts from foreign diplomats and letters between English merchants revealed only that the boys were not seen after the summer of 1483; later rumours were reported that Richard III had murdered them.

The princes vanished. Their bodies were never discovered, and no one was ever found guilty of murdering them. Even the bones that are claimed to be theirs in Westminster Abbey are not authenticated. Their disappearance is the biggest mystery in English history. And that is where I landed as a historical fiction novelist. I could weave in genuine family facts and create my version of their story. About halfway through the first draft I came across a piece of family history (basically a dynastic marriage) that made my story plausible, which was really exciting.

As far as if my version is true? It’s historical fiction. We create narratives from the known facts, sift through rumours and gossip until we find the source – or can dismiss them. Until the next fact comes along.

As a writer friend recently said to me, “history is fragile”. We were commiserating that we were both rewriting significant parts of our novel because of previously unfound documents that suddenly came to light. Incredibly exciting and a lot of hard work to reform plots! We don’t know when the next letter, diary or document will reveal a completely different truth than one that we hold dear today. So we write what we know, what we can authenticate, what we believe is history. For now.

What if you knew what happened to the Princes in the Tower. Would you tell? Or would you forever keep the secret?

November, 1470: Westminster Abbey. Lady Elysabeth Scrope faces a perilous royal duty when ordered into sanctuary with Elizabeth Woodville – witness the birth of Edward IV’s Yorkist son. Margaret Beaufort, Elysabeth’s sister, is desperately seeking a pardon for her exiled son Henry Tudor. Strategically, she coerces Lancastrian Elysabeth to be appointed godmother to Prince Edward, embedding her in the heart of the Plantagenets and uniting them in a destiny of impossible choices and heartbreaking conflict.

Bound by blood and torn by honour, when the king dies and Elysabeth delivers her young godson into the Tower of London to prepare for his coronation, she is engulfed in political turmoil. Within months, the prince and his brother have disappeared, Richard III is declared king, and Margaret conspires with Henry Tudor to invade England and claim the throne. Desperate to protect her godson, Elysabeth battles the intrigue, betrayal and power of the last medieval court, defying her husband and her sister under her godmother’s sacred oath to keep Prince Edward safe.

Were the princes murdered by their uncle, Richard III? Was the rebel Duke of Buckingham to blame? Or did Margaret Beaufort mastermind their disappearance to usher in the Tudor dynasty? Of anyone at the royal court, Elysabeth has the most to lose – and the most to gain – by keeping secret the fate of the Princes in the Tower.

Inspired by England’s most enduring historical mystery, Elizabeth St.John, best-selling author of The Lydiard Chronicles, blends her own family history with known facts and centuries of speculation to create an intriguing alternative story illuminating the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower.

The Godmother's Secret is available now on Amazon & FREE with Kindle Unlimited!

Connect with Elizabeth St John

Elizabeth St.John spends her time between California, England, and the past. An acclaimed author, historian, and genealogist, she has tracked down family papers and residences from Lydiard Park and Nottingham Castle to Richmond Palace and the Tower of London to inspire her novels. Although the family sold a few country homes along the way (it's hard to keep a good castle going these days), Elizabeth's family still occupy them — in the form of portraits, memoirs, and gardens that carry their legacy. And the occasional ghost. But that's a different story.

Having spent a significant part of her life with her seventeenth-century family while writing The Lydiard Chronicles trilogy and Counterpoint series, Elizabeth St.John is now discovering new family stories with her fifteenth-century namesake Elysabeth St.John Scrope, and her half-sister, Margaret Beaufort.

Connect with Liz on her Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Book Bub, Amazon Author Page, or Goodreads.

Origin of the Richmond Earldom

The title of Earl of Richmond is now extinct and has been since the beginning of the Tudor dynasty. Henry Tudor held this title before he became king of England by conquest in 1485. The roots of this title go all the way back to the 11th and 12th  centuries when the Normans and Angevins made England part of a vast cross-channel empire.

Richmond Castle

The Norman Conquest of England was a bloody, brutal affair. One way of establishing control was creating a loyal cross-channel aristocracy. Normans were given lands in England, replacing those who continued to rebel against the conqueror. (Eventually, Englishmen would also hold lands to the south, but that would come later.) The earldom of Richmond began this way.

Brittany lay to the west of Normandy, but the Norman dukes did not act as overlords of Bretons until Henry II attempted to do so. During the reigns of William I and II, Breton aristocrats who participated in the conquest and taming of English lands were rewarded with holdings there. After the Conquest, Alan Rufus, who came from a junior branch of the Breton ducal family, was awarded with extensive lands where it is believed that he ordered the construction of the stone castle of Richmond. This was originally termed the Honour of Richmond, but in 1136, a descendant of Alan Rufus, a great-nephew also named Alan, was named the first Earl of Richmond.

This Alan was an ally of King Stephen during the civil war known as the Anarchy. His granddaughter was Constance of Brittany. Through her, the earldom of Richmond passed to her husband, Geoffrey Plantagenet, son of Henry II. When he died, the earldom went to their son, Arthur, whom many believed was Richard I's rightful heir when that king died in 1199.

However, Arthur did not have enough support to defeat Prince John, and was in fact murdered by him. At that point, the earldom reverted to the crown, though it was nominally held by Arthur's sister Eleanor, who was held in captivity for the entirety of her life. A half-sister, Alix, used the title Countess of Richmond, and Henry III eventually made her husband officially earl in 1218.

Edmund Tudor's Coat of Arms

Through various forfeitures and reinstatements, the earldom continued to often be held by Breton aristocracy until the Breton War of Succession. It was then held by John of Gaunt, son of Edward III for three decades before being restored to Breton dukes in 1372. It had reverted back to the crown by the time it was awarded to John, Duke of Bedford in 1414. Finally, in 1435, it was awarded by Henry VI to his half-brother, Edmund Tudor. When he died, the title went to his only son, Henry Tudor.

During the Wars of the Roses, Henry's title was sometimes denied to him by the Yorkist regime, but the earldom was brought under the crown when Henry became king. The title became extinct, though a dukedom of Richmond was created in 1675.




Additional Reading:
England under the Norman and Angevin Kings 1075-1225 by Robert Bartlett

Image Credit: Wikicommons

Henry Tudor and the King Arthur Claim

Legend blends seamlessly with history in Mary Anne Yarde's Du Lac Chronicles. To celebrate her most recent book release, I have invited Mary Anne here to discuss an interesting intersection between King Arthur and another king frequently discussed on this blog, Henry Tudor. You may remember her from her post on digging up the historical King Arthur back in December 2016. Welcome back, Mary Anne, and congratulations on the publication of The Du Lac Prophesy!

~ Samantha

Guest Post by Mary Anne Yarde

Britain has always been a land of myths and legends. From St George and the Dragon to Robin Hood. Dick Whittington and his Cat to the Loch Ness Monster. But nothing has captured the imagination of the populous quite like King Arthur and his Knights.

Let’s take a trip back in time…

Henry Tudor is handed the
crown of the defeated king.

For thirty years, England had suffered a terrible civil war. It was the ultimate family argument. And that argument was all about legitimacy. The House of York argued that the Lancastrian King, Henry VI, had no right to the throne. The House of Lancaster disagreed.

In the year of our Lord, 1485, Henry Tudor marched from Wales, under the battle standard of King Arthur — the famous red dragon — and met King Richard III at Bosworth Field. This battle changed the course of history and while the last of the Plantagenets screamed:

“Traitor! Traitor! Traitor!”

Henry VII

Henry Tudor seized the throne of England for himself.

But, being victorious does not make one King. For Henry to be crowned King he had to provide a legitimate claim.

Henry Tudor was a Lancastrian, but he had a problem. It was argued, that Henry had not an ounce of English Blood. Henry’s Father, Edmund Tudor, was the son of the French Queen Dowager Katherine of Valois. Edmund’s father, Owen Tudor, was a Welsh groom. Their marriage was a scandal that had rocked the nation. Henry’s mother, Margaret Beaufort, was a direct descendant of Edward III, but the Beaufort’s had been barred from the throne, so her blood did not count.

Stained glass commemorating
Battle of Bosworth
St James Church, Sutton Cheney

Henry had to prove his claim and to do that he employed genealogists who traced his family back to Cadwaladr, a Welsh King, who in turn was a direct descendant of King Arthur. You couldn’t get more English than King Arthur. Henry presented his pedigree to the court.

With King Arthur as an ancestor, the nobles could not argue Henry’s claim to the throne.

Long Live King Henry…

Elizabeth of York

Henry then married Elizabeth of York, the daughter of Edward IV of England — thus uniting the House of York and Lancaster and bringing an end to the Cousins War. But, like Edward III before him, Henry had fallen for the romance of King Arthur.

It is worth mentioning that Bosworth was not the only noteworthy event to happen in the year 1485. Sir Thomas Malory, who was at the time languishing in prison, penned his great work, Le Morte d’Arthur. Arthur fever once more took hold of the nation, and now they had a king who claimed to be a direct descendant of Arthur. The future looked promising.

Arthur Prince of Wales

Henry’s firstborn child was born at Winchester — which, at the time, was widely believed to be the place where Camelot had once stood tall and proud. His firstborn child was a son, and he named that son Arthur.

But Henry’s dream of an Arthurian future took a fatal blow when his son, Arthur, became ill and died at the age of 16. It was said that Henry and Elizabeth were devastated by his death. Elizabeth died the following year.

In the subsequent reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, Arthurian legend and Arthurian prophecy continued to play its part in the monarchy’s dynamics. But from this day forward there has never been another King Arthur. We are still waiting for the Once and Future King to reclaim his throne…

(Blog images in the public domain through Wikipedia.)

New Release!

The Du Lac Prophecy
(Book 4 of The Du Lac Chronicles)
By Mary Anne Yarde

Two Prophesies. Two Noble Households. One Throne.

Distrust and greed threaten to destroy the House of du Lac. Mordred Pendragon strengthens his hold on Brittany and the surrounding kingdoms while Alan, Mordred’s cousin, embarks on a desperate quest to find Arthur’s lost knights. Without the knights and the relics they hold in trust, they cannot defeat Arthur’s only son – but finding the knights is only half of the battle. Convincing them to fight on the side of the Du Lac’s, their sworn enemy, will not be easy.

If Alden, King of Cerniw, cannot bring unity there will be no need for Arthur’s knights. With Budic threatening to invade Alden’s Kingdom, Merton putting love before duty, and Garren disappearing to goodness knows where, what hope does Alden have? If Alden cannot get his House in order, Mordred will destroy them all.

An Excerpt!

They won’t help you,” Bastian stated and Philippe turned to look at him. “The dead. They won’t help you.”

“I thought I was alone,” Philippe said as he looked back at Tristan’s tombstone.

“In Benwick Castle?” Bastian scoffed. “There is always someone watching. You know that as well as I do. Why are you here?”

“I came looking for answers.”

“Did you find any?” Bastian asked with cynicism.

“No.”

“I didn’t think so.”

“Lancelot was a brave man, wasn’t he?” Philippe mumbled the question more to himself than anything else.

“As was Tristan,” Bastian agreed.

“Did you know him? Tristan, I mean.”

“A little. He kept himself to himself for the most part. He was wounded you see, during the battle of Benwick. He lost the use of his legs. He couldn’t walk. But he…” Bastian smiled as he remembered. “He was very wise. And he was happy to share that wisdom. I liked him. Although not everyone did. After Tristan died, there was talk. Some said he was a liar.”

“What did Lancelot say?” Philippe asked.

“I cannot imagine Lancelot being friends with someone who lied to him. But he neither condemned nor defended Tristan. He kept his own counsel. What are you going to do, Philippe?”

Philippe looked up at the sky. The lavender hue had changed to a blue one. He never appreciated how beautiful the sky was, until now. The day promised to be a warm one, but Philippe felt chilled.

“What would you do?” Philippe asked, as he rose to his feet and looked at his general.

“You have two choices. You can abdicate. Hand him the throne. Or...”

“Or...” Philippe encouraged.

“You could kill him,” Bastian said with a shrug.

Keep Reading!

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon CA

Connect with the Author

Mary Anne Yarde is the multi award-winning author of the International Bestselling series — The Du Lac Chronicles.

Yarde grew up in the southwest of England, surrounded and influenced by centuries of history and mythology. Glastonbury — the fabled Isle of Avalon — was a mere fifteen-minute drive from her home, and tales of King Arthur and his knights were a part of her childhood.

Connect with Mary Anne through her blog, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, or her Amazon author page.

The Beaufort Dynasty?

Margaret Beaufort Coat of Arms

When Henry Tudor won the crown of England in 1485, he likely did not think he was beginning a new dynasty the way we cleanly divide the Plantagenets from the Tudors. In fact, one might wonder if he or his formidable mother might have named it a Beaufort dynasty were they to give it any label besides Lancastrian.

While Henry had inherited his Welsh surname from his father, Edmund Tudor, his claim to the English throne came through his mother, Margaret Beaufort. She was the great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt through his children with Katherine Swynford who had been given the name Beaufort. During John of Gaunt's lifetime, his Beaufort children were raised up and even legitimized after he married their mother. In 1396-7, he obtained papal consent to the legitimization and convinced the king, his nephew Richard II, to recognize them by law. The Beaufort children were officially 'sprung from royal stock' and recognized as able to 'receive, hold, enjoy, and exercise, as fully, freely, and lawfully as if you were born in lawful wedlock' any 'honours, dignities, pre-eminencies, status, ranks, and offices, public and private, perpetual and temporal, feudal and noble.'

By the time Henry Tudor landed at Milford Haven, his mother was the sole remaining Beaufort heir, the male branches of the family having been rather thoroughly pruned during the Wars of the Roses. Henry claimed the crown through conquest, but his right to challenge the previous king was based upon the royal blood he inherited from his Beaufort mother.

The Beauforts had always been close to the crown - too close indeed for the York challengers to the Lancastrian throne (who incidentally also had some Beaufort blood through family matriarch Cecily Neville). After their legitimization, John of Gaunt saw his oldest Beaufort son created Earl of Somerset. However, Henry IV, though he was close to and depended heavily upon his Beaufort half-siblings, perceived that it was in his interest to limit their ability to rise. A clause was inserted into the original statute: 'excepta dignitate regali.' The Beauforts could receive, hold, and inherit titles, but not The Title. Was this amendment a legal addition to the law? At the time, it did not seem to matter. The Beaufort's loyally served their royal half-brother and his son after him, making no claim to the throne of their own though they did collect plenty of other titles and honors.

Then Henry VI was crowned as an infant after the death of his legendary father, Henry V. Then Henry VI lost everything his father had gained in France and eventually proved unable to rule a country desperately in need of a ruler. In a turn of events Henry IV could not have imagined when he stole the throne from his inept cousin, Henry VI's cousins sought to do the same.

By 1485, with royal and noble bloodlines decimated by war, Henry Tudor's Beaufort blood suddenly made his family tree one of the most prominent in the land.

If you believe rumors of Edmund Beaufort being the true father of Edmund Tudor, the argument for the Beaufort dynasty increases exponentially. When Katherine Valois became a young widow upon the death of her husband, Henry V, the infant king's council was quick to realize that anyone who married her would gain astounding power. Therefore, a fledgling romance with Edmund Beaufort was halted by sending Edmund to serve in France. Katherine soon married Owen Tudor instead, but rumors persist to this day that Edmund, not Owen, was the father of Edmund Tudor, Katherine's eldest son after King Henry.

While this makes a great case for renaming the Tudors as Beauforts, it takes more than a little hope and imagination to believe that Edmund Tudor was recognized by all of the highest ranking men of the land as a Tudor and never believed to be a Beaufort if he really was one (unlike Henry VI's son who some did claim to be a Beaufort bastard rather than royal prince). Surely, someone - for example Margaret Beaufort's acquisitive mother - would have pointed out that Edmund was of Beaufort stock if there was any reason to think that he was.

Henry's mother was justifiably proud of her Beaufort heritage and her son's relationship to King Henry VI through her Tudor husband, who was his half-brother. Margaret was a staunch Lancastrian, striving for years to see Henry receive his birthright from York kings who left him in exile, so she likely would have considered his reign a return to the Lancastrian branch of the Plantagenet royal family. It did not take long, however, for the name Tudor to go down in history.




Additional Reading:
Margaret Beaufort: Mother of the Tudor Dynasty by Elizabeth Norton
The House of Beaufort: The Bastard Line that Captured the Crown by Nathen Amin

Henry Tudor's Claim to England's Throne

Portrait of young Henry Tudor
by Musee Calvet

It is often said that Henry Tudor did not have a strong claim to the throne when he took it in 1485. However, he was quick to publicize his three-prong claim in the hopes that people not convinced by one reason would willingly accept another. With many of the branches of the Plantagenet family tree rather thoroughly pruned during the decades of the Wars of the Roses, it is somewhat surprising just how good Henry's claim was.

Tudor's strongest claim was through conquest. Regardless of the semi-royal bloodline that we will discuss next, Henry Tudor marched into England and killed its king. Richard III had left behind his heir, John de la Pole, and a few other nephews and the like, but it doesn't really matter because he was defeated on the field. While we sometimes minimize this claim, people of the time did not. John de la Pole did not fight Tudor (at least not at first), but served him, as did most noble sons of the era who could match their king's pedigree with family trees reaching back to Edward III.

Yet, Henry could also trace his ancestry back to the legendary king, and this was the second prong of his claim. Henry's mother, Margaret, was the heiress of the Beaufort line descended from John of Gaunt, which was legitimized in 1399. The Beauforts had suffered heavy losses during the Wars of the Roses in support of the Lancastrian king, Henry VI. Debate over which Plantagenet branch held a superior claim to the throne had begun as soon as Henry Bolingbroke took the crown from his cousin, Richard II. Unknowingly, Henry IV set the precedent that the crown could be taken by whichever family member was most able, rather than the one who inherited it, and his descendants suffered for it. Confusion over whether a female line should be considered and reluctance to crown children with greater claims than capable adults added fuel to the debate long before Tudor made his claim, causing bloodline alone to be a shaky foundation.

Henry VI

In addition to his mother being the great granddaughter of John of Gaunt, Henry's father was half-brother to the king, Henry VI. Edmund Tudor's blood was decidedly not royal, but his father had married Catherine Valois after the death of her first husband, Henry V. While Catherine could not pass on any right to inherit England's crown to the children of her second marriage, it could not hurt that Henry could call the Lancastrian king his uncle.

Henry Tudor understood that others could match his pedigree, so he planned to take a wife whose status was unquestioned and whose popularity was well-known. When he married Elizabeth of York, Tudor had already established that he took his position in his own right. However, uniting England under the joint heirs of Lancaster and York was a brilliant political move. Those who did not believe in Tudor's claim were likely to support him for the sake of his wife. The union went far toward securing peace and acquiescence to Tudor rule. By timing the wedding when he did (after his own coronation), Tudor ensured that Elizabeth strengthened his claim rather than making it her own.

The fact of the matter is that anyone who might have made a grasp for the throne of England by 1485 had just as questionable of a claim as Henry Tudor. That is precisely how the Wars of the Roses began in the first place with York proposing that their line was superior to that of the sitting Lancastrian king. With so many noble sons dying on the field and disagreements on just which Plantagenet heirs had superior claims for almost a century before Tudor's victory, a claim of bloodline alone was simply not sufficient to bring about peace.

Not My White Princess

The popularity of the Starz series The White Princess has raised some questions about the historical Elizabeth of York. Based upon a book by Philippa Gregory, this show would have people believe that "Lizzie" was a fiery character who plots against her own husband.

I have no idea where any of this comes from.

Elizabeth of York is, of course, near and dear to my heart. One of the reasons that I wrote about her was that she seemed to be a forgotten, yet vital, part of history. I wanted to shed some light upon her life and character, but I have to admit that this wasn't exactly the type of attention I was hoping she would get. The real white princess would not recognize herself in this production.

The real Elizabeth was pious, generous, and devoted to her husband. History remains silent on what Elizabeth's feelings were toward Henry Tudor before their marriage, but she would have seen it as her duty to build a good relationship with him. Their daily habits indicate that they were devoted to each other, often travelling together and spending more time together than many royal couples.

For an idea of what a day in the life of Elizabeth looked like, see this article that I wrote for Tudor Times.

Elizabeth had grown up during turbulent times. She went into sanctuary with her mother and sisters once when her father, Edward IV, was forced into exile by the forces of his cousin and one time ally, the Earl of Warwick, and again when her father died. She had watched the power struggle between her father and Henry VI, Warwick, and Margaret of Anjou. She had been there when her uncle became Richard III and her brothers disappeared. The last thing Elizabeth wanted to do was start it all up again. She and Henry strove for peace with their union and for the most part achieved it.

Did Henry and Elizabeth have marital ups and downs? Certainly. Who doesn't? They had the added stress of minor rebellions and pretenders claiming to be Elizabeth's brothers, so I think they kept their relationship together rather well. They are both noted for their faithfulness during a time when monogamy was not expected of men, and certainly not of kings. Frankly, to suggest anything else is disrespectful of their relationship.

If you are watching The White Princess for light entertainment, enjoy. Just remember that behind the Hollywood story there is a real historical couple whose truth is just as interesting as fiction.

The Unexpected Tudors

Allegory of the Tudor Succession, 1572

Though the dynasty is fabulously popular today, nobody before 1485 would have wagered too much on the chances of England hosting a Tudor dynasty. The roots of the Tudors can be traced back far earlier than that, but, for today, I would like to look at the individual Tudors and just how unexpected each of their reigns were.

Henry VII

Henry Tudor was a minor nobleman from a bastard royal line. On top of that, he had been in exile for years before the crown was unexpectedly found upon his head. Before the death of Edward IV, there was little thought of Tudor becoming the last red rose or final hope of the Lancastrians or any other such poetic title. He was simply one of many on the losing side. His father and grandfather, Edmund and Owen Tudor, had both been killed in the Wars of the Roses. Left with his uncle, Jasper Tudor, Henry had little reason to think he would return to England, let alone as it's king.

Even with the shocking death of Edward IV and rise of Richard III, Tudor counted on foreign mercenaries, betrayal, and a lot of luck to secure his victory. His marriage to Princess Elizabeth of York eased the minds of many Englishmen that York and Lancaster were finally united and paved the way for a relatively peaceful reign. This unity may have brought peace, but it also caused the end of a three century long dynasty. The Plantagenets had gone down in familial infighting. The Tudors arose.

Henry VIII

For the first decade of his life, little Henry Tudor, named for his illustrious father, had no inkling of becoming king. His older brother, Arthur, was loudly and widely proclaimed the future king that would bring England unprecedented glory. Sadly, Arthur's future was cut short, and England received the unexpected heir who became one of the most famous (infamous?) monarchs in English history.

Upon his father's death in 1509, Henry VIII welcomed his extended family in a way that Henry VII had never been quite comfortable doing. William Courtenay was released from the Tower and carried Henry's sword at his coronation. Margaret Pole was raised as Countess of Salisbury. Only the de la Poles originally bore Henry's wrath.

Then his first wife Catherine failed to have a son. Suddenly, Henry was suspicious of each person with a drop of royal blood, and his insecurity saw to the death of many whom he had formerly raised up. The birth of Prince Edward to his third wife, Jane Seymour, did little to ease his paranoia.

This unexpected Tudor caused England's break with Rome, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and tyranny that remains fertile ground for historians and fiction writers today.

Edward VI

Edward VI is the only Tudor who was expected from the moment of his birth to rule England. In fact, if there is anything unexpected about poor Edward, it is that his reign was unmercifully short. Only nine years old when he became king and not quite sixteen when he died, Edward's story is a tragic one. He was the most staunchly Protestant of the Tudors and made many reforms in the Church of England in his brief reign. The tragedy did not end with his own death. Due to his hope to disinherit his sisters and place a reformist cousin on his throne, Edward inadvertently caused a revived round of family battles and bloodshed.

Jane

Lady Jane Grey is not typically included in lists of England's Kings and Queens. I have seen discussions on why this is, most notably that she did not have a coronation (but neither did Edward V . . . . so that discussion is for another day). I have chosen to include her here because no Tudor ruler was quite as unexpected and controversial as she was.

Despite what you may have read in sensationalist fiction, Edward's decision to disinherit his sisters came long before his death was eminent. Not wishing to leave the future of his country and the reforms that he had made in the hands of sisters who were not only women but were bastards, Edward had begun work on naming a new heir months before his death. His cousin Jane was by all accounts intelligent, devout, and expected to marry a reputable Englishman to assist her in ruling until her future son could do so.

Nobody expected Mary, the middle-aged daughter of Henry VIII to put up much of a fight.

Mary I

Mary had so much working against her when she decided to boldly proclaim herself queen. Jane was in London, already proclaimed and signing documents as 'Jane the Queen.' She had the support of Edward's council and had been named successor in Edward's will. However, Mary was through cowering and accepting the events that had transformed her from princess to bastard. She would be queen, as her mother and governess had always taught her.

As a girl, Mary had been her father's heir and had been raised to be a queen, if not of England than as a consort of another country. Her reality had turned out quite differently. She was content for her brother to reign, despite the religious differences between them. She understood that he outranked her. The same could not be said for the future sons of Jane Grey.

Mary had a surprising amount of support from East Anglian gentry and had little trouble overpowering the sect led by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. Jane's nine day queenship was at an end.

Elizabeth I

Elizabeth may be the next most famous Tudor after her father, but she had little reason to believe that she would ever become queen. Bastardized before she would have understood the term, Elizabeth was in line behind a brother and sister who would have each been expected to have sons. Not until the death of a childless Mary in 1558 would Elizabeth's way become clear.

The final Tudor made no plans for the continuation of her dynasty. Though she led many men on for several years, she never married any of them. She failed to name a successor and punished her extended family for daring to marry and have children themselves. While her father had obsessively strove for an heir, Elizabeth avoided them. In doing so, she gave England something even more unexpected than the Tudors: the Stuarts.

The York Remnant Under Tudor Rule

I have written a new post for the Henry Tudor Society that looks that the Yorkists who remained after the Tudor dynasty began. Here is a snippet:

For those of us looking centuries back through history, it is easy to end the dynasty of the Plantagenets and begin that of the Tudors with a clean line drawn through 1485. The truth for those who survived the Wars of the Roses was much more complicated. . . .

To keep reading, visit the Henry Tudor Society website. I appreciate them welcoming me, once again, as a guest blogger.

The Quiet Strength of Elizabeth of York

Elizabeth of York is a name that is not widely known outside of the circles of history enthusiasts. Those of us that know and love her recognize the importance of the decisions that she made and the role that she played, even if that role was one that left her in the background. Elizabeth's personal decision to choose peace and the greater good of her kingdom over personal glory and ambition was vital to England's future and was a form of self sacrifice that few of her ancestors had been willing to make.

The Wars of the Roses began due to familial infighting between the descendants of Edward III, each certain that they would be more capable of leading the kingdom but also hungry for the riches and power that the monarchy would bring them. Two child kings, Richard II and Henry VI, proved themselves unable to successfully rule or to hold on to their power in the face of violent enemies. Once Henry IV demonstrated that the throne was up for grabs when he deposed his cousin Richard, he set a dangerous precedent that would eventually end the Plantagenet dynasty.

Battle of Towton (Graham Turner):
pivotal victory for Elizabeth's father, Edward IV

When this happened and the last Plantagenet king was killed on the battlefield near Bosworth, Elizabeth of York was left as the York heiress betrothed to the conquering Tudor king. While one might argue that Elizabeth had little choice over whether or not to marry Henry Tudor, the decisions that she did make demonstrated her support of him and his claim.

She did not press her own family's claim. This may seem like a minor point at a time when women were expected to stay home and bear heirs, but it was far from the world that Elizabeth had been raised in. From the times that her family had to enter sanctuary due to the vicious forces of Margaret of Anjou to the political scheming of her own mother, Elizabeth Woodville, Elizabeth of York had not been raised to believe that royal women had no power.

Tower of London

Even if she did not wish to rally troops to herself, Elizabeth had a number of options besides submitting to a Tudor husband and mothering a new dynasty. We have no way of knowing what she believed to be true of her brothers at this time. Some believed them to be dead at the hand of her uncle, Richard III, and she does not seem to believe that she was usurping their position. Therefore, we will assume that she believed them dead. That still left Edward of Warwick, Elizabeth's cousin and son of George of Clarence, as the male with the most royal blood coursing through his veins. Unfortunately, he was young and his father had been executed for treason. That would not have made it impossible for Elizabeth to be more insistent upon his rights, but she was not - even when Henry had young Edward imprisoned within the Tower.

The de la Pole brothers, the oldest of which had been Richard III's heir after the death of his son, were also strong possibilities. In fact, John de la Pole did later rebel against Henry VII, but not with Elizabeth's support. She chose peace over rallying behind her York cousins and was committed to creating a thriving new dynasty that would largely forget about her.

York Princesses

Despite Elizabeth's efforts, the Tudor dynasty would quickly die out. Her infamous son, Henry VIII, shocked the world with his reformation of the English church, many marriages, and failure to leave a robust son to carry on his name. Would his reign have been the bloody tragedy that it became if Elizabeth had survived longer to train him in a quieter and more peaceful method of rule? His daughter, Elizabeth I, named for her grandmother and much more famous, would prove the final blow to the Tudor dynasty by refusing to marry or even name a successor for her crown. She left the kingdom ripe for civil war that her grandmother had worked so tirelessly to end.

Perhaps this Plantagenet princess who became a Tudor queen deserves a bit more credit for her quiet strength that saved England from more bloody battles for supremacy.

Read more about Elizabeth of York in Plantagenet Princess Tudor Queen.

Available in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook.

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What Killed Elizabeth of York?

Elizabeth of York
Mother of the Tudor Dynasty

On February 11, 1503, her thirty-seventh birthday, Elizabeth of York died just days after giving birth to her eighth child. The baby girl had been named Catherine, which seems appropriate considering it is likely that her parents decided to have another child when their firstborn son, Arthur, died unexpectedly. He had been briefly married to Catherine of Aragon.

Henry VII was left with his only remaining son, another Henry, as his heir. A single son was a shaky foundation to build a dynasty upon. Therefore, Elizabeth risked another pregnancy, despite problems experienced with earlier confinements. The risk proved an unrewarding one when the child was born a girl and even more so when both mother and baby died within days.

It is easy to assume that Elizabeth of York died from what was termed childbed fever, as so many woman of her time did. Unsanitary conditions and limited understanding of what caused infection often resulted in the introduction of infection to the womb by efforts intended for healing. Other treatments, such as bleeding, often only made a patient's health decline more quickly. There are reasons to believe that Elizabeth's death was not quite so simply explained.

Evidence of illness long before Elizabeth's labor brings into question the diagnosis of childbed fever in this case. It could be that another complication besides infection, but just as treatable in our modern age, was Elizabeth's true cause of death. Some pieces of evidence that we can look at include Elizabeth's complications with previous pregnancies, her actions during her last pregnancy, and her medical complaints that do not fit a case of childbed fever.

Prince Arthur Tudor

Only eight months after the royal wedding, Elizabeth had given birth to Prince Arthur, a baby expected to complete the healing and unification begun by his parents. It is recorded that Elizabeth suffered an ague after his birth. This vague description tells us only that she suffered a fever of unknown severity. The situation was apparently more serious in 1499 when she gave birth to Prince Edmund. Whatever difficulties took place, it is recorded that there had been "much fear for her life." It is after this that Elizabeth does not risk another pregnancy until the death of Prince Arthur brings about a change of heart.

Although Elizabeth believed it was right and even her duty to provide England with another prince, there is evidence that she struggled with doing so long before her labor came early. In November and December of 1502, records show that Elizabeth paid for visits from medical professionals. Whether this was due to concerns for the child, herself, or both, is unknown. Even more telling, the pious queen employed the skills of an astrologer, something that she had not done before. She seemed to be looking for additional reassurance that she and her child would thrive.

Tomb of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York
Photo Credit: Westminster Abbey

Despite the fact that she may not have been in optimal health, Elizabeth undertook a progress during her pregnancy, almost as though she felt she were running out of time. She had not previously traveled often without her husband, and her route took her on an unusual course. Delays in her itinerary due to poor health indicate that Elizabeth's problems began long before she reached the birthing room. Could something as simple as anemia have resulted in the first Tudor queen's fatigue, headaches, and inability to resist infection? This is proposed in Alison Weir's Elizabeth of York: A Tudor Queen and her World, and it fits what we know of Elizabeth rather well. It is heartbreaking to think that such a mundane health issue could have led to her death.

Elizabeth was forced to give birth within the confines of the Tower of London, a location that was most assuredly not her first choice given the disappearance of her brothers from that place two decades earlier and her cousin Edward of Warwick's controversial imprisonment and execution more recently. When she went into premature labor, her prepared confinement rooms at Richmond went unused and a Tower chamber was secured for her. After her death, Henry had Elizabeth laid to rest in the Lady chapel at Westminster, which Henry had just decided to rework to include a tomb a month earlier. When he died in 1509, Henry joined her there, having never remarried.

Faithful Traitor: Cover Reveal

I have been quietly working on my next novel, but now it is time to let the world . . . or at least those who read my blog . . . see what is coming next. Picking up where Plantagenet Princess, Tudor Queen left off, Faithful Traitor is the story of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury. As the daughter of George of Clarence and cousin of Elizabeth of York, Margaret appears a few times in Elizabeth's story but now she is the focus. Her family experienced the tumultuous turning of fortune's wheel under the notorious Henry VIII.

For the cover, I obviously went with a similar design as Plantagenet Princess, Tudor Queen. The sprig of Planta Genista symbolizes Margaret's often recognized status as the last Plantagenet. While this novel begins on the date in history that the first book ends, it is not necessarily a sequel and can easily be read as a stand alone novel. I cannot wait to share my Margaret with you!

Unmasking the Villain

I am a guest at the Henry Tudor Society today, discussing why neither Richard III nor Henry VII is a villain.

It has become standard practice for history enthusiasts to be an unquestioning supporter of either Henry VII or Richard III, naming the other as the worst villain of their age. Is this a fair assessment? Keep reading...

Guest Post at Tudors Weekly

I am happy to be a guest blogger today at Tudors Weekly, discussing the relationship between Elizabeth of York and Henry Tudor.

How Did Henry Tudor Become King?

Love him or hate him, one has to admit that Henry Tudor defied all odds when he claimed the kingdom of England as his own. When the crown was laid on his head on August 22, 1485, it likely surprised him as much as the rest of the country. Richard III, the last Plantagenet king, certainly had not expected to be defeated by the "Welsh milksop." How did it happen? What chain of events fell into place to turn a minor half Welsh nobleman into a king?

Henry's ascendancy cannot be credited to his bloodline. Though history enthusiasts argue to this day regarding the strength of his claim, Henry himself made little attempt to justify his grasp at power that way. He claimed his rich Welsh heritage through his grandfather, Owen Tudor. His mother, Margaret Beaufort, did have a bloodline that eventually reached back to Edward III through John of Gaunt's mistress, but this was hardly a fact that would place him near the throne.

Except that it did.

Henry may not have had much royal blood, but with noble cousins killing each other on battlefields for the last 30 years of the Wars of the Roses, few stronger options existed. Yes, there were other relations, but each remaining family line had some weakness in it before it reached back to a solid royal root. In the end, the fitness of his blood didn't matter, because Henry Tudor won the crown through conquest, just as his distant relative William of Normandy had.

Why was England in this state where distant royal bastard lines were considered for kingship? It all started with the many sons of Edward III. 

Edward III's heir gave all signs of being a medieval knight quite capable of following in his father's footsteps. Probably for his dark armor, or possibly because of acts committed in France, this younger Edward became known as the Black Prince. Unfortunately, the he died shortly before his father, leaving a young Richard II on the throne surrounded by uncles and cousins who coveted power.

Richard II was forced to abdicate by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, who was the son of John of Gaunt - another of Edward III's sons. When he became king in 1399, Henry IV set the stage for the Wars of the Roses that would clear the way for the Tudor dynasty. Considered the Lancastrian branch of the Plantagenet royal family due to John of Gaunt's title as Duke of Lancaster, Henry's reign almost immediately came under fire from the Mortimer family, which had ties to Edward III's second son, George, and fourth son, Edmund. Henry proved capable of quelling those rebellions, and the country rallied behind his son when he became Henry V.

Henry V was considered everything that a medieval king should be. He pressed to reclaim lands in France that had previously been in English hands under Henry II, the original Plantagenet king. No one felt a need to point out that his father had been a usurper. Things might have gone on swimmingly had Henry V not died too young, leaving a 9 month old Henry VI as king.

Henry VI was raised and advised by his uncles, and never seemed capable of shaking his need for their instruction - or at least someone's instruction. His mother was Catherine of Valois, daughter of Charles VI of France who was quite insane when he died. Both Catherine and Henry would eventually demonstrate signs that they suffered the same malady.

The young widow Catherine made a scandalous second marriage to a servant of her household. His name was Owen Tudor. This connection gives Henry Tudor one link to the royal family, but not his strongest one. It did, however, give him his Tudor name that would go down in history.

Henry VI proved completely incapable of ruling, becoming victim to those who would manipulate and mislead him before falling into long trances of madness. Soon the Duke of York was pressing his claim as heir presumptive, and calling Henry unfit for duty. Were it not for the strength, or some would say stubbornness of Henry's queen Margaret of Anjou, that may have been an end of things. Richard of York may have been king as agreed by Henry when he made him his heir, disinheriting his own young son.

Margaret took the fight to the York supporters, and many noblemen answered her call in defense of their anointed king. Over the course of three decades, generations of earls and dukes, many of whom could trace their family tree back to reach Edward III, were left dead on fields of battle. By the time Henry Tudor defeated Richard III at Bosworth, there truly were few left who had a better blood claim, and none had struck down the last king in battle.

Before we reach that moment though, we must give attention to England's York kings. Richard Duke of York who had originally taken up the fight was killed in the battle of Wakefield in 1460. Instead of giving them victory, the Lancastrians now were faced with a vengeful Edward Earl of March, now Duke of York. The 17 year old heir of York was the epitome of a soldier, standing tall and golden above the men around him and looking every bit the Plantagenet king that Henry VI was not.

When he became king in 1461, he continued to battle the supporters of Henry VI for over a decade. The fighting did not come to an end until 1471, when the Lancastrian prince was killed in battle and Henry VI was disposed of in the Tower. With nobody to threaten him, Edward IV could have enjoyed a long and peaceful reign. Like his predecessor, Henry V, Edward made the mistake of dying too young and leaving the future vague and turbulent.

His heir was 12 year old Edward, who was immediately proclaimed Edward V with his uncle Richard of Gloucester as protector. Without debating whether Richard was the one who murdered Edward and his brother, we will simply say that it was Richard who was crowned while the young sons of Edward IV disappeared. Their fate as the Princes in the Tower is one of history's greatest mysteries, and was another key slipping into place opening the way for Henry Tudor.

Whether Richard III had done away with the boys or not, enough people questioned his innocence and his motivation in taking his nephew's crown. He faced rebellion from the Duke of Buckingham, who also had a fair share of royal blood, and the constant threat of the followers of Henry Tudor from exile. When Henry landed in Wales, Richard likely saw it as a chance to rid himself of an annoyance. Since Richard's wife and son had both recently died, he had nobody to follow him if he died in battle besides the sons of his sisters and young Edward of Warwick, son of Richard's brother George.

One of those men did challenge Henry VII after he was made the first Tudor king. John de la Pole led forces at Stoke in 1487, supposedly in favor of the imprisoned Edward of Warwick though it is just as likely that de la Pole was fighting for his own rights as Richard III's heir. He was killed, and Henry Tudor cemented his place in history as the father of the Tudor dynasty, a phenomenon that none of his forefathers could have predicted.

Henry also took the step of strengthening his claim through the blood of his wife. He married Elizabeth or York, the oldest child of Edward IV. She was a peaceful and uniting presence, bearing Henry sons to carry on the Tudor name. After more than three centuries, the Plantagenet dynasty was no more, and the Tudors would go on to become one of the most famous dynasties that ever reigned in England.

Tudor Sons

When Elizabeth of York married Henry Tudor, one of her essential roles was birthing sons to ensure the future of the dynasty that they were creating together. This has long been one of the prime objectives of queens, and Elizabeth would have accepted it and understood its importance. After the usurpation of her brother's crown by her own uncle, the importance - yet at the same time danger - of having men in the family was nothing that she needed explained.

Arthur Tudor

The first royal Tudor couple were quickly rewarded for their efforts, with Prince Arthur arriving a scant 8 months after their marriage ceremony. Efforts to establish this Tudor prince as a uniting force, mingling the bloodlines of Lancaster and York, are evident in the key elements of his short life. Arthur was lauded as even more than the next king. He would be a reincarnation of the King Arthur of legend, bringing peace and prosperity to England.

Arthur was given his own household at Ludlow, just as Elizabeth's brother had before him, demonstrating that traditions would continue under the new regime. A royal princess was found for him to marry, and fate would ensure that Katherine of Aragon became queen of England.

As Arthur was being trained for greatness, two brothers were added to the family. Henry and Edmund were certainly welcomed by parents and countrymen alike, though their birth was not as celebrated as Arthur's. Like all good medieval parents, Elizabeth and Henry planned to dedicate one son to the church. Though it is difficult for those of us who know his story to imagine it, Henry probably believed for much of his young life that he would someday become the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Henry VIII

Edmund became the first of the Tudor sons to enter an early grave when he died of a sweating sickness or the plague in 1500. While Edmund was undoubtedly mourned, Arthur's death was a crushing blow to the Tudor parents, whose grief is well documented. His death in 1502 left young Henry as heir and Elizabeth eager to attempt the birth of another son. Her efforts were in vain. The birth of a little girl in 1503 led to Elizabeth's death on her 37th birthday, and Henry VII was left burying both wife and infant daughter.

The difficulty of bearing sons would go on to be a defining element of the Tudor dynasty. Henry VII left his throne to his son in 1509. Henry VIII was a fit, intelligent, and virile 18 year old when his father died, and the future seemed bright. He married his brother's widow and could have never foreseen his challenge to bear an heir.

Edward VI

The Tudor dynasty came to an end within three generations due to the failure of Henry and his children to bear sons. The one hard fought for son that Henry VIII did leave behind became King Edward VI. Unfortunately, he also died at the age of 15, before marrying or bearing sons. Edward's sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, were no more successful in the extending of the family tree.

Where a multitude of sons may have had unforeseeable consequences to the Plantagenet dynasty, eventually causing it to be snuffed out entirely by the Wars of the Roses, a painful lack of sons become the death toll of the Tudor dynasty.

Read more about Tudor sons in the Plantagenet Embers series!