Jasper Tudor

Dynasty Maker

Terry Breverton

• Publisher: Amberley Publishing
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781445634029
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

The Wars of the Roses were a bitter and bloody dispute between the rival Plantagenet Houses of York and Lancaster. Only one man, Jasper Tudor, the Lancastrian half-brother to Henry VI, fought from the first battle at St Albans in 1455 to the last at Stoke Field in 1487 and lived to forge a new dynasty – the Tudors. Fighting the Yorkists, rallying the Lancastrians and spending years in exile with his nephew, the future first Tudor monarch, Henry VII, Jasper was the mainspring for continued Lancastrian defiance. He was twenty-four years old in his first battle and fifty-three when he won at Bosworth Field in 1485. Now he could style himself 'the high and mighty prince, Jasper, brother and uncle of kings, duke of Bedford and earl of Pembroke'. Without the heroic Jasper Tudor there could have been no Tudor dynasty. This is the first biography of the real 'kingmaker' of British history.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Genealogical Tables
• Introduction
• 1 - Why Did the Wars of the Roses Happen?
• 2 - The Genesis of the Tudor Dynasty
• 3 - The Early Lives of Edmund and Jasper Tudor, 1430–1454
• 4 - The Turning Point: The Start of the Wars of the Roses, the Death of Edmund and the Birth of Henry Tudor, 1455–1456
• 5 - Jasper Tudor and the Wars of the Roses: The Battles of Blore Heath, Ludford Bridge, Denbigh, Northampton and Wakefield, 1458–1460
• 6 - 1461, the Year of Battles: Mortimer’s Cross, the Second Battle of St Albans, Ferrybridge, Towton and Twt Hill
• 7 - Plotting, Exile and Return to Power: The Battles of Hedgeley Moor, Hexham and Banbury, 1462–1469
• 8 - Losecoat Field, the Readeption of Henry VI, Jasper’s Return to Power and the Battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury, 1470–1471
• 9 - Exile in Brittany and France, 1471–1484
• 10 - The Last Successful Invasion of Britain: Bosworth Field, 1485
• 11 - Jasper and the Last Battles of the Wars of the Roses, 1485–1487
• 12 - The Honoured Elder Statesman, 1488–1495
• Picture Section
• Postscript
• Notes
• Select Bibliography
• List of Illustrations