She had prepared her own concoctions to drink and rub on her swollen belly and I burnt willow wands around her bed as she asked me to but her pains remained intense. I feared it might be a grim augury when, on the second night, a gibbous moon rose high in a black, starless sky, while the midwife struggled in vain to turn a babe that seemed determined to arrive feet first. Eventually however, with a single, blood-curdling scream, Myfanwy finally managed to deliver her son, helped by the midwife’s desperate tugs on the child’s legs. As the Church allowed, if there was a danger of the baby dying unshriven, the midwife hurriedly baptized him Dafydd after the patron saint of Wales, whose Feast Day it was and perhaps it was St Dewi who miraculously blew breath into the infant’s lungs, for he took a huge gasp and turned from blue to bright pink in seconds. Myfanwy’s wounds were sewn up with the midwife’s special needle and silken thread but I would swear it was her mother’s herbal wash, used in profusion, which prevented her torn body from developing a fever.

If Jasper had built his mansion to house his family in comfort he had certainly achieved his aim. Three young relatives now filled the nursery with their cries and gurgles – his daughter, his half-brother and his two-year-old nephew. In blood, if not legitimacy, the Tudors were flourishing.

PART THREE

Hostilities

1459–1461

23

Jasper

Pembroke & the northern Welsh March

IN ORDER TO CONFRONT the rebellious Yorkists, Queen Marguerite had imported a new form of recruitment from France called conscription, which enlisted by compulsion rather than allegiance. Across the realm fields remained uncut as every town and village was required, rather than requested, to supply its quota of fighting men in support of the crown. Sending funds in lieu was no longer acceptable. The system was unpopular and many communities failed to comply, while some expressed their displeasure at the queen’s assumption of royal power in her son’s name by sending their troops to support the Duke of York instead.

York’s declared intention was to muster enough men under his white rose banner to pressure the king into addressing their grievances, but unfortunately there had been a clash of arms between the opposing affinities at a place called Blore Heath in the Midlands, in which the royal commander, Lord Audley, had been killed. Determined to quash what she now deemed an armed rebellion, Queen Marguerite had convinced the Council to issue a charge of treason against the Yorkists and send out further commissions of array. In addition to my Welsh force, which we had delayed mustering until after the fields had been scythed, royal armies were gathering in the Midlands, the South West and Cheshire. The kingdom was shuddering under the tramp of marching feet.