The House of Tudor Read Online Free PDF Page B

Yorkists whose loyalty could not be relied on forever - indeed the Marquis of Dorset did try to slip away - and his friends at home might lose heart, and interest, if they were left too long between hope and dread. Elizabeth of York was still unmarried, but there was no telling how much longer she and her sisters would be allowed to remain single and without the Yorkist marriage Henry’s chances of uniting a chronically factious nobility would be minimal. In his ancestral Wales, where the forces of nationalism were working strongly in his favour, the bards were growing impatient:
    In what seas are thy anchors, and where art thou thyself?
When wilt thou, Black Bull, come to land;
How long shall we wait?
On the feast of the Virgin fair Gwynedd, in her singing, watched the seas.
    The letters being smuggled out of England brought messages of goodwill from Henry’s stepfather Lord Stanley and his brother William Stanley, from Gilbert Talbot and ‘others innumerable’. From Wales came word that Rhys ap Thomas and other ‘men of power’ in the principality were ready and waiting, and that the useful Reginald Bray had collected ‘no small sum of money’ to pay soldiers; but John Morgan, the lawyer, was urging haste. Then, in the spring of 1485, another message crossed the Channel - a rumour that King Richard, now a widower, had begun to cast his eye on his niece Elizabeth, and to desire her in marriage. Whether or not there was ever any foundation for this piece of gossip, the news, says Polydore Vergil, pinched Henry by the very stomach. At best his must be a desperate venture -further delay now might destroy any chance of success.
    He borrowed money - ‘a slender supply’ from the French King and more where he could get it - and managed to find a few pieces of artillery and a force of between two and three thousand mercenaries from Normandy to supplement his five hundred or so Englishmen. The tiny armada, probably no more than a dozen ships, sailed from the mouth of the Seine on 1 August, with a soft south wind behind it, and set course for Wales. The ‘long yellow summer’ - the summer of the dragon, of the hero in a golden cloak, the summer of the ‘Bull of Anglesey’ had come round at last.
    2: THE ROSE OF ENGLAND
    Our King he is the rose so red,
That now does flourish fresh and gay.
Confound his foes, Lord, we beseech,
And love his grace both night and day!
    A little before sunset on Sunday, 7 August 1485 the fleet carrying Henry and Jasper Tudor nosed into the entrance of Milford Haven and dropped the anchor in Mill Bay under St. Anne’s Head. The army disembarked without incident and marched over the headland in the summer twilight to make camp for the night at Dale. It was almost exactly fourteen years since uncle and nephew had fled from Tenby, just a few miles down the coast, and their situation now was very nearly as precarious as it had been then.
    Next morning, at daybreak, the Tudors began to move inland, reaching Haverfordwest before noon, and it was here that the first news of their supporters reached them. This was Jasper’s country and, as soon as they heard he was back, the men of Pembroke sent a deputation to their former earl bringing assurances of loyalty and service. But it seemed that Rhys ap Thomas, the most important and influential man of the region, whose support Henry had been promised, was publicly proclaiming his loyalty to King Richard. If this was true, it would be a very serious blow and was especially dismaying as being ‘clean contrary’ to the messages which had been reaching Henry in France.
    Henry Tudor was not by nature a gambling man and he had learnt the lessons of caution and patience in a hard school - yet the venture he had now committed himself to was enough to terrify the most intrepid gambler. His retreat might be cut off at any moment and although he had sent couriers to his mother, to the Stanleys and to Gilbert Talbot, he could not hope to hear from them, or even