Jasper Tudor was from the noble Tudor family of Penmynydd in North Wales.
22 Facts About Jasper Tudor
2.
Jasper Tudor's mother was a daughter of King Charles VI of France.
3.
Jasper Tudor was born at the bishop of Ely's manor at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, in 1431, his parents' second child.
4.
Jasper Tudor was the sister of William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, a great favourite of Henry VI, and was able to provide Jasper and his siblings with food, clothing, and lodging.
5.
Owen Jasper Tudor was released from prison, most likely thanks to his stepson Henry VI who, after providing for his stepfather, provided for his two half-brothers.
6.
In turn, Edmund and Jasper Tudor swore unwavering loyalty to Henry and fought and promoted him and his Lancastrian family's interests persistently throughout their lives.
7.
However, Jasper Tudor enjoyed all the privileges appropriate to his birth, including being invested as a Knight of the Garter.
8.
Jasper Tudor strove to place his half-nephew Prince Edward of Lancaster on the throne and provided absolute loyalty to his royal half-brother and Margaret of Anjou, his half-brother's wife.
9.
In 1485, Jasper Tudor financed the rebuilding of the north-west tower of Llandaff Cathedral, near Cardiff.
10.
Jasper Tudor was an adventurer whose military expertise, some of it gained in the early stages of the Wars of the Roses, was considerable.
11.
Jasper Tudor occupied the castles of Carmarthen and Aberystwyth in 1456 until he lost them to William Herbert of Raglan.
12.
Jasper Tudor brought up his nephew, Henry Tudor, whose father, Edmund Tudor had died before his birth.
13.
On his return, Jasper Tudor lost Pembroke Castle to William Herbert, when Herbert was given the title of Earl of Pembroke by King Edward IV.
14.
Jasper Tudor briefly regained the earldom of Pembroke a couple of years later when his half-brother, King Henry VI, was restored to the throne, but following the return of King Edward IV from temporary exile in 1471, Jasper fled again to the continent.
15.
On Henry Tudor's subsequent accession to the throne in 1485, Jasper Tudor had all previous attainders annulled, and was thus restored to all his former titles, including Knight of the Garter, and was created Duke of Bedford.
16.
Jasper Tudor was the daughter of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers and Jacquetta of Luxembourg, and was sister to King Edward IV's queen Elizabeth Woodville and to Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers and Richard Woodville, 3rd Earl Rivers.
17.
Jasper Tudor was the widow of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, who had been executed for treason in 1483.
18.
Jasper Tudor acknowledged paternity of no illegitimate children during his lifetime and none are recognised in his will.
19.
The heraldic arms claimed by Prior Gardener include a shield impaling the arms of Jasper Tudor, 'debruised by a bend sinister'.
20.
Jasper Tudor was then a monk of Westminster Abbey, and 'familiar to followers of the Tudor household as a grandson of the King's great-uncle, Jasper'.
21.
Jasper Tudor's appointment as prior was actively supported by Mary Boleyn, and it is most likely that Thomas Wolsey approved, as the priory was a dependency of St Alban's Abbey, where Wolsey was abbot.
22.
The account that Gardiner was a descendant of Jasper Tudor is discredited: it appears that this assertion arose from confusing Stephen Gardiner, the Bishop, with Thomas Gardiner, Prior of Tynmouth.