By December he realised his situation was hopeless and surrendered in exchange for safe passage to Scotland. He managed to capture Bamburgh Castle but was unable to progress south. In the Autumn of 1462 Jasper invaded the north of England at the head of an invasion force. There he joined forces with Margaret of Anjou and together they petitioned Louis XI of France for support. Jasper fled to Ireland and then to Scotland before going to Brittany in 1462. Jasper’s lands and titles were forfeited and Edward wanted him captured. When Edward took the throne as King Edward IV, he declared Jasper a traitor. They lost the battle and although Jasper escaped, his father was captured and executed. In 1461 Jasper and his father, Owen Tudor, led a Welsh force against Edward Duke of York at the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1459. Jasper took in his brother’s pregnant widow, Margaret Beaufort and her son, Henry, was born at Pembroke Castle on 28th January 1457.įor his continued loyalty to Henry VI, Jasper was made constable of a number of castles in Wales, including Aberystwyth and Carmarthen. Richard Duke of York captured Jasper’s brother Edmund in November 1456 and he died while in prison. The Lancastrians lost the battle and Henry VI was captured but Jasper and Edmund declared their support for Henry VI and remained on the Lancastrian side. Jasper fought in the first battle of the Wars of the Roses, the First Battle of St Albans, for Henry VI on the Lancastrian side. Jasper and Edmund had to choose which side to support. When Henry recovered his mental faculty and re-appointed the Duke of Somerset, Richard of York raised a force against Henry. In Spring 1454 both Jasper and his brother Edmund backed Richard of York’s request to be proclaimed Protector of England. Henry’s chief adviser, the Duke of Somerset, took charge of government but he ruled badly and Henry’s heir, Richard Duke of York, believed that he should take control. In late Summer 1453, Henry VI suffered a bout of mental instability which left him unable to rule the country. Two years later, Jasper’s brother, Edmund married 12 year old Margaret and she became pregnant the following year. In 1453 Jasper and Edmund were jointly given the wardship of Margaret Beaufort the only child of John Beaufort, heiress to the Beaufort fortune. Margaret Beaufort Young Margaret Beaufort Jasper and Edmund were knighted at the Tower of London on 5th January 1453. He created Edmund Earl of Richmond in 1449 and on 23rd November 1452 Jasper was created Earl of Pembroke and given Pembroke Castle.

In 1442 Henry VI began to take an interest in his half-brothers and took charge of their upbringing. Jasper and his older brother, Edmund, were then sent to live with Katherine de la Pole, abbess of Barking.

Jasper’s father, Owen, was arrested and imprisoned. Jasper’s mother died when he was six years old, shortly after giving birth to a daughter at Bermondsey Abbey. Furthermore, it was illegal for marriages to be made between the English and the Welsh. Jasper’s mother should have asked the King’s permission to marry since she was Dowager Queen. Jasper’s parents had secretly married around 1429 but had kept the marriage secret because Owen was a Welshman and a commoner. Both he and his brother Edmund were half-brothers to King Henry VI. Jasper was born in 1431 the third son of Henry V’s widow, Catherine of Valois and Owen Tudor, the keeper of her wardrobe. Jasper Tudor stained glass window at Cardiff Castle Childhood Jasper Tudor was the uncle of King Henry VII and played an important role in aiding his accession to the throne and the founding of the Tudor dynasty.

Margaret beaufort and jasper tudor