France 123 - Suscinio - Henry VII of England airbrushed out of french history/a pushy mother and Uncle Jasper /the time before he went back to Wales


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Europe » France » Brittany » Vannes
April 18th 2018
Published: April 19th 2018
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Anyone who knows me well will know I always respond that I am Welsh and not English. I love welsh history, am proud of my welsh ancestry and the meaning behind the title of this blog will become clear in a moment . Bear with me. Being welsh we had to do it one day. We had already walked in the footsteps of Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth and we had visited Leicester the resting place of the defeated Richard III. Here in this little part of France we could walk in Henry Tudors offootsteps again. This time we would be walking the steps of the man who spent much of his young life exiled in Brittany. Smuggled out of Britain by his Uncle Jasper Earl of Pembroke at the request of his mother Margaret Beaufort who had realised that he might one day be King. You have to think of an England ravaged by civil wars - the Wars of the Roses fought between the Lancastrians and the Yorkists. The throne bobbed about and changed hands every few years and one cousin fought and deferated another. It was against this background that Margaret thought it wise to send her son abroad .

To understand the history you have to start with Margaret herself . She was the daughter and sole heiress of John. He was a great grandson of Edward III through John of Gaunt so she had royal lineage on her side. As was the case at the time Margaret was married young when she was between one and three years old to John de la Pole. There followed a dispensation as they were too closely related . Following this at the age of 12 she was married to one Edmund Tudor. Edmund was the son of Catherine of Valois and Owen Tudor . Edmund died of plague after being held in captivity at Carmarthen and Margaret was left a widow at 13. She did marry again and spent much of her life doing good work , building and furnishing local churches some in North Wales , Mold, Northop and Wrexham. She endowed many colleges and spent time at court plotting her sons return. Eventually after returning to Pembroke Henry amassed an army and headed for Bosworth and destiny.

He became the first King of the Tudor dynasty. What a great dynasty it was too. Most people disregard it but what they forget is that Henry proved to be a good king. He did tax heavily but spent wisely unlike the EU which taxes heavily but spends on utter rubbish at times. Henry shrewdly married Elizabeth of York thereby united the red rose with the white rose. His son was one of most famous kings in English history Henry VIII who managed to kill off a few wives along the way, turn his children into bastards as he searched for an heir, divorced himself from Rome and pronounced himself head of his own church. Henry Tudors granddaughter Mary burnt a few protestants on the stake and his other granddaughter the welsh speaking Elizabeth I proved to be the greatest woman ruler of England. Not a bad legacy. It did not end there though and many forget that the dynasty did not die out with Elizabeth . James I was the great grandson of Henry VII so although the welshness was being diluted it was still there even through the Stuarts.

There were two car parks for the castle - one with a dreaded height barrier so we had to give that one a miss and the other one nothing more than a muddy field. The walk up to the castle took a few minutes. This castle cost us 8 euros each to visit. No wrinklies reduction in France. It's plein tariff or nothing. Perhaps we are castled out but we felt a bit underwhelmed after the beauty of Fougeres. It had everything going for it, pepper pot towers, arrow slits, a moat but somehow it didn't float our boat. It was interesting and perhaps had we seen it first we might have felt more in tune with it, There were many rooms on each floor. Each were empty with just grand fireplaces and high vaulted ceilings. It was as if Henry had been airbrushed out of the castle history. We walked on floor tiles he must have trod on. We stood in front of fireplaces he once must have stood in front of. We climbed stairs he would have climbed. We even walked on the roof where he would have stood with Uncle Jasper looking out to sea towards Wales wondering if he would ever return home.

I am sure if went to an English castle and the King of France stayed there one night it would be mentioned. Poor show Suscinio . Must do better.

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