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would undertake to marry Edward IV’s eldest daughter and thus unite the warring factions. The widow and her daughter proved agreeable - Elizabeth Woodville promising ‘to do her endeavour’ to persuade her late husband’s friends to take Henry’s part. Thus encouraged, Margaret Beaufort widened her net, entrusting her steward, Reginald Bray, with the delicate and dangerous task of enlisting the support of ‘such noble and worshipful men as were wise, faithful and active’ and ready to help her cause. In a surprisingly short space of time Bray had successfully interested quite a number of substantial gentlemen and Margaret was on the point of sending a courier to Brittany, when she learned that the Duke of Buckingham was also contemplating action.
    The two happened to meet on the high road, so the story goes, as Margaret was travelling between Bridgnorth and Worcester. Until this moment Buckingham had apparently been thinking in terms of proposing himself as an alternative to King Richard - he was, after all, a Beaufort on his mother’s side and doubly descended from Edward in. However, according to his own account, this casual meeting with Margaret Beaufort reminded him forcibly that she and her son stood as ‘both bulwark and portcullis’ between him and the getting of the Crown, so that he utterly relinquished ‘all such phantasticall imaginations’. If we knew what really passed between Margaret and her ‘cousin of Buks’ in that convenient roadside encounter, we should probably know a good deal more about the complicated web of intrigue being spun in England that summer; but it seems that the Duke went on to have a serious talk with John Morton, Bishop of Ely, and as a result both men decided to commit themselves to supporting Henry Tudor.
    Now that she was sure of these two important allies Margaret lost no more time in getting in touch with her son, and despatched one Hugh Conway with a large sum of money and instructions to urge Henry to return home at once. He was to make for Wales, where he would find help waiting. It is possible that Hugh Conway brought the first news of the astonishing change in his prospects; at any rate up to this time - about the middle of September - Henry had made no move on his own account. Not that he was in any position to do so. Although he had been free from actual physical restraint after Edward IV’s death, he was still a penniless refugee, dependent on his friends to set the ball rolling. But now this had been done it was up to Henry Tudor - still a completely unknown quantity - to show what he was made of, to justify his mother’s faith in him and seize what might be the chance of a lifetime. With the advice and help of his uncle Jasper, an old hand at this sort of game, Henry responded bravely to the challenge. The Duke of Brittany was prepared to help with a loan of 10,000 crowns. The Tudors raised a small force of ships and mercenaries, and by the second week in October they were ready to go.
    Meanwhile, in England, the worst was happening. King Richard had got wind of Buckingham’s activities and a spontaneous rising in Kent seems to have erupted prematurely. The exact sequence of events is uncertain, but by the time Henry made landfall off Poole harbour all element of surprise had gone. Swallowing his disappointment, Henry made the only wise decision - to cut his losses – and gave orders to hoist up sail.
    He and Jasper were back in Brittany in time to hear the depressing news that the take-over bid had collapsed and that the Duke of Buckingham had been captured and executed. Margaret Beaufort herself only narrowly escaped the normal penalty for high treason - probably because Richard dared not risk alienating the powerful Stanley family. Some of the other conspirators escaped the King’s wrath altogether. The Bishop of Ely, Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset and Elizabeth Woodville’s eldest son by her first marriage, the Courtenays of Devonshire, the Brandon