Over the next night and day, with only a few hours’ rest, we pursued our quarry all the way to Penrhyn but, when we got there we found the harbour empty and the gates of the fortified manor house firmly barred against us. Owen questioned a boatman of his acquaintance who operated a ferry between the mainland and Anglesey and he confirmed that a small ship had sailed from Penrhyn that morning but claimed to be ignorant of its destination. I was satisfied that its passengers must have been the Duke of York and his group of retainers and decided that even if we crossed to Anglesey and commandeered a ship from the royal castle of Beaumaris it would be impossible to locate and board a lone vessel on the rolling expanse of the Irish Sea. I sent the trackers back to the king with a letter admitting our failure and Owen, Maredudd and I decided to pay a family visit to Tŷ Cerrig on our way back to Pembroke. Whatever treasonous schemes the Duke of York might hope to devise while trapped in the wilderness of Ireland, he remained at liberty to do so.

24

Jasper

Pembroke Castle, Coventry & Northampton

I WAS RELIEVED NOT to have witnessed the dreadful ravaging and ransacking that occurred at Ludlow after my departure in pursuit of York. The lust for plunder among the conscripted soldiers of the king’s army had inevitably led to the looting of the duke’s castle but it was the extent of pillaging and burning in the town and the dreadful violence inflicted on its women and children that horrified me when I learned of it in November.

I was attending an emergency session of Parliament at Coventry, which was officially opened by the king. But Henry then immediately absented himself and all the subsequent legislation bore the hallmark of an implacable Queen Marguerite, whose comprehensive revenge on the Duke of York and his allies was pushed through the legislature by the young lords whose fathers had been killed at St Albans. York, Salisbury and Warwick were attainted for treason, to be beheaded without trial should they ever be apprehended on English soil, and their extensive properties, offices and revenues were all forfeit to the crown or granted to those who had supported the king. Among other titles, I and not the Duke of York was now the Constable of Denbigh Castle. Of greatest value to me though were grants of a substantial house in the London suburb of Stepney and the use of a tower in the palace of Westminster. These would provide much-needed bases from which to administer the daunting number of royal offices and lordships I now held.