Owen Tudor

“ Steeped as they were in sentiment, and credulous to a degree of mysticism and prophecy, and filled with national pride, the rise of the grandson of Owen Tudor of Penmynydd to the throne of Britain was for the Cymry full of significance. The fact, too, that Henry was not merely a Welshman but that he landed in Wales and was accompanied thence by a large force of his fellow-countrymen to the victorious field of Bosworth was a further source of pride and consolation to this long-harassed people. ”

“ The family came from Owen Tudor, at one time a brewer in Anglesey, who fought at Agincourt and so pleased Catherine, widow of Henry V, by his dancing at a court pageant that she married him privately. The queen took refuge in a convent and Tudor was sent to prison to escape the popular fury, when their marriage became known. ”

“ His mother, Katherine, had married a Welshman named Owen Tudor, much to the anger of those about the court and the nobles, who considered that by so doing she had demeaned herself, and after this she was allowed to see very little of her son, who was therefore left entirely to his uncles, the Duke of Bedford and the Duke of Gloucester. Like Edward the Confessor, Henry was fit for a cloister but not for a crown, and he was called to reign in troublous times, when strength of will and purpose were more needed in a king than saintliness or simplicity of life. ”

“ Tudor and the widowed queen soon lived together as man and wife. If Sir James Ramsay is right, she had wished to marry Edmund Beaufort, but was prevented by Gloucester for personal reasons. At what time exactly the union with Owen Tudor took place, and whether it was a legal marriage, it is difficult to determine. ”

“ I will hold a castle in Wales until every old woman in France has heard of it." The boast was a vain one. Harlech fell; but the siege had given to the world one of the finest marching songs ever sung by man.
The eyes of Welshmen and Englishmen alike were now beginning to be turned to that house of Tudor, whose head had lost his life after Mortimer's Cross. Owen Tudor had married Catherine, the widow of king Henry V. There had been two children of the marriage, Edmund and Jasper, the former Earl of Richmond, and the latter Earl of Pembroke. ”

“ He sent Katherine with some of her ladies to Bermondsey Abbey, there to remain in honourable confinement: he arrested Owen Tudor, also a priest—probably the priest who had performed the marriage—and his servant, and sent all three to Newgate.
All three succeeded in breaking prison and escaping. At this point the story gets mixed. The King himself, we are told, then a lad of fifteen, sent to Owen commanding his attendance before the Council. Why did they not arrest him again? Owen, however, refused to trust himself to the Council—was not Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, one of them? ”

“ Jasper Tudor, the commander, escaped; but his father, Owen Tudor, the second husband of Catherine of Valois, and ancestor of the Tudor line of sovereigns, was taken prisoner, and, with Throgmorton and seven other captains, was beheaded at Hereford, in retaliation for those who had been similarly put to death after the battle of Wakefield. ”

“ One of these was Catherine of Valois, the widow of Henry V., and mother of Henry VI., who married Owen Tudor. The other was Jacquetta of Luxembourg, the widow of the great Duke of Bedford, Regent of France, who married Sir Richard Woodville. Both Tudor and Woodville were men of remarkable beauty; and both were imprisoned and persecuted for the offence of marrying, without permission of the Crown, princesses [23] who chose to fall in love with them. Woodville regained his liberty by the payment of a fine of 1,000 crowns. Tudor's persecutions were more severe and prolonged. ”

“ The three sons of Owen Tudor and Catherine were acknowledged and ennobled by Henry VI. The eldest, Edmund, was made Earl of Richmond, married to Margaret Beaufort, the heiress of the house of Somerset, and took precedence of all peers. He died at the early age of twenty, yet left one infant son, afterwards Henry VII. The second son of Catherine, Jasper Tudor, was created Earl of Pembroke. The third son became a monk of Westminster.
In France the English still continued to wage a various war, but not sufficiently brilliant to give interest to a detailed account of it. ”

“ This very church of Holyhead was in great part rebuilt in the time of Henry VII. son of that Edmund Tudor. The rose of the Tudor family is visible to this day on its walls. Owen Tudor, the ancestor of them all, was a native of this island of Anglesey. We are thus reminded of the fact, which we sometimes forget, that, after Saxon and Norman and Plantagenet had done their best and passed away, a Welsh and British dynasty at last was seated once more on the throne of Britain, p. ”

“ In 1529 Sir David Owen, natural son of Owen Tudor, bequeathed to him part of the manor of Wootton, Surrey. In July 1530 he was one of those commissioned to inquire into Wolsey's possessions, and, perhaps as a reward for zeal in this matter, he was on 22 Nov. raised to the bench as justice of common pleas, where he succeeded Sir Robert Brudenell as chief justice in the following January. ”

“ I am told there was one published in the British Peerage for 1706, at which time John Mawer would be three years of age; is such the fact? I wish also to ask, whether Prince Owen was in existence at the time of the deaths of Llewellyn and David—whether in Wales or England? and whether he was the ancestor of Owen Tudor, the proud father of Henry VII.; and, if not, who was Owen Tudor's ancestor?
AMANUENSIS.
308. Jenings or Jennings.
—Was the late Mr. Jenings of Acton Hall, Suffolk, descended from the family of Jenings, formerly of Silsden, Skipton in Craven, and afterwards of Ripon, Yorkshire ”

“ The fourth son, Meredydd, father of the subject of this article, was escheator of Anglesey in 1392, and held some office under the bishop of Bangor, that of scutifer, or butler, or steward. His wife was Margaret, daughter of Dafydd Fychan ap Dafydd Llwyd. It has been said that Meredydd killed a man, was outlawed, and fled to Snowdon with his wife, and that there Owen Tudor was born; but it seems more likely that Meredydd fled alone, and that Owen was born about the beginning of the fifteenth century in his absence. ”

“ J. Gairdner, History of the Life, and Reign of Richard The Third, introduction and chapter 6. ENGLAND: A. D. 1485. Accession of King Henry VII. ENGLAND: A. D. 1485-1528. The Sweating Sickness. See SWEATING SICKNESS. ENGLAND: A. D. 1485-1603. The Tudors. The Tudor family, which occupied the English throne from the accession of Henry VII., 1485, until the death of Elizabeth, 1603, took its name, but not its royal lineage, from Sir Owen Tudor, a handsome Welsh chieftain, who won the heart and the hand of the young widow of Henry V., Catherine of France. ”

“ In Tudor times it was used partly to please the people, but chiefly to regulate the bards by forcing them to qualify for a degree—a sure method of moderating their patriotism and of diminishing their number. ”

“ Under the Tudors, there was harmony between Crown and Parliament; and Elizabeth left a prosperous people with strong views about their rights and their religion. But James I., and especially his son Charles I., tried to change law and religion. From the Tudor period of unity, then, we come to the Stuart period of strife.
From 1603 to 1642 the struggle went on in Parliament. The Welsh Members nearly all supported the king, and the Welsh people followed the Welsh gentry in strong loyalty. The most famous Welshman of the period was John Williams, who became Archbishop of York and Lord Keeper. ”

“ The Tudor policy had separated the people from the greater land-owners; the iron masters and coal-owners had not yet become part of the people; there was not a single institution except the Eisteddvod where all classes met. ”

“ But the nobles were not willing to see their power taken from them day by day. Jasper Tudor appealed to the loyalty of the Welsh, and the men of West Wales wanted a king of their own blood; for the laws had been made unjust to them ever since the time of Owen Glendower.
Many attempts were made, and they failed. But at last, on August 7, 1485, the fugitive Earl of Richmond came to Milford Haven. He marched on to the valley of the Teivy, and he was joined by Sir Rees ap Thomas, and an army of South Wales men; he journeyed on through the valley of the Severn, and the North Wales men joined him ”

“ Then he checked himself abruptly, feeling no doubt how useless it was to discuss such matters seriously just now.
"The only woman," he added, falling in once more with his friend's lighter mood, "the only woman whose blandishments His Grace of Wessex has ever been known to resist."
"And that with difficulty," concluded the Duke gaily. "But you see, friend," he added with mock gravity, "with a Tudor you never can tell; you might lose your heart one day and your head the next."
"Mary Tudor loves you too well . . ." protested Lord Everingham. ”

“ Of the ten volumes which appeared Underhill edited seven, two with elaborate introductions on the Tudor history of the sect. In 1848 he became proprietor and editor of the ‘Baptist Record,’ to which he contributed historical papers. After the cessation of the magazine in June 1849 Underhill became joint secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society (July 1849) . He was sole secretary from 1869 to 1876, and honorary secretary from 1876 until death. The society's work grew rapidly under his guidance. ”

“ It is simply inconceivable that the growth within the realm of such an organisation as is here depicted would have been permitted; or that, if there, it would not have been sternly repressed by Henry VII.; or that if it had survived the first Tudor, the second would have suffered it to flourish unregarded for eighteen years of his reign. The exaggeration is so flagrant that we can hardly infer from it even a substratum of truth. ”

“ Thus day followed day, whilst in the great world without, England was preparing to see her premier lord arraigned before his peers on a charge of murder. And in one of the smaller chambers of her own private apartments at Hampton Court, Mary Tudor sat alone, praying and thinking, thinking and praying again.
Not a queen now, not a proud and wilful Tudor, passionate, cruel, or capricious, but only a middle-aged, broken-hearted woman, with eyes swollen with weeping, and brain heavy with eternally reiterated desires. ”

“ But that night Piers' antagonism flared to a deadly hatred. The smouldering fire had leaped to a fierce blaze. Two nights before he had smothered it with the exultant conviction that Tudor's chances with Avery were practically non-existent. He had known with absolute certainty that he was not the type of man to attract her. But to-night his mood had changed. Whether Tudor's chances had improved or not, he scarcely stopped to question, but that other people regarded them as possibly greater than his own was a fact that sent the mad blood to his head. ”

“ Tudor said grimly.
Sheldon laughed, and for the first time with true spontaneity. The intrinsic ridiculousness of the situation was too much for his sense of humour. He made as if to repeat the blow, but Tudor, white of face, with arms hanging resistlessly at his sides, offered no defence.
"I don't mean a fight with fists," he said slowly. "I mean to a finish, to the death. You're a good shot with revolver and rifle. So am I. That's the way we'll settle it."
"You have gone clean mad. You are a lunatic."
"No, I'm not," Tudor retorted. "I'm a man in love. ”

“ Tudor's tone was non-committal. He stood facing Piers, waiting to pass.
"What are you always going there for?" burst forth Piers, with heat. "He doesn't want you—never follows your advice, and does excellently well without it."
"Really!" said Tudor. He uttered a short, sarcastic laugh, albeit his thick brows met closely above his glasses. "Well, you ought to know—being such a devoted and attentive grandson."
Piers' hands clenched at the words. He looked suddenly dangerous. "What in thunder do you mean?" he demanded.
Tudor was nothing loth to enlighten him. He was plainly angry himself. ”

“ Tudor's face was very grave. "Yes, you're pretty bad," he said. "But you've pulled through so far. It's in your favour, that. And look here, you must lie flat on your back always. Do you understand? It's about your only chance."
"Of living?" whispered Piers. "But I don't want to live. I want to die."
"Don't be a fool!" said Tudor.
"I'm not a fool. I hate life!" A tremor of passion ran through the words.
Tudor laid a hand upon him. "Piers, if ever any man had anything to live for, you are that man," he said. ”

“ For Heaven's sake,
take care of yourself, and have anything under the sun that you need.
Your husband, Piers."
It only covered the first page. Tudor turned the sheet frowningly and replaced it in its envelope.
"He always writes like that," said Avery. "Every week—all through the winter—just a sentence or two. I haven't written at all to him though I've tried—till I couldn't try any more."
She spoke with a weariness so utter that it seemed to swamp all feeling. Tudor turned his frowning regard upon her. His eyes behind their glasses intently searched her face. ”

“ His sole comfort lay in the fact that Avery was making gradual progress in the right direction. It was a slow and difficult recovery, as Maxwell Wyndham had foretold, but it was continuous. Tudor assured him of this every day with a curt kindliness that had grown on him of late. It was his own fashion of showing a wholly involuntary sympathy of which he was secretly half-ashamed, and which he well knew Piers would have brooked in no other form. It established an odd sort of truce between them of which each was aware the while he sternly ignored it. They could never be friends. ”