ABSTRACT
From 1464 onwards the few remaining prominent Lancastrians were unable to pose a major threat to Edward IV, who was militarily and diplomatically successful. Henry VI was captured, hiding in Lancashire, in 1465 and imprisoned in the Tower. Margaret of Anjou and her son Prince Edward maintained a threadbare court in Lorraine. Their former patron Louis XI had his hands full with the revolts headed by Charles the Bold of Burgundy, and Margaret’s doughty champion Brézé died in them, at the battle of Montlhéry in 1465. 1 Somerset’s heir, his brother Edmund Beaufort, became absorbed in fighting for Charles, not Henry. 2 Only in Wales did continued Lancastrian activity necessitate royal counter-measures. The bailiffs of Shrewsbury accounted in the year 1466–7 for the financing of soldiers raised on royal command to accompany John Tiptoft, earl of Worcester, to Denbigh and Harlech castles. Men were sent from the town to ascertain the truth of rumours that the Lancastrian Sir Richard Tunstall was at Wrexham with a force, and whether he and other men of Harlech ‘intended any evil to this town or not’. 3 In September 1467 the Milanese agent Panicharolla reported from Paris: ‘the Welshmen have taken up arms against King Edward and proclaim King Henry, whose next brother Ijasper Tudor], late resident here, is going over there, and the late queen is sending him some of her followers to make their party take the field if possible’. Jasper was provided with enough aid by Louis XI to equip a tiny force of three ships and fifty soldiers. His landing in Wales was reported by Panicharolla on 2 July 1468, and on the next day Lords Herbert and Ferrers were commissioned to array men in the Marches of Wales and adjacent shires for service against him. Jasper Tudor raised enough support to occupy Denbigh, but was defeated by Herbert and his brother Sir Richard. Harlech castle at last capitulated the following month. 4
