Episode Transcript
[00:00:21] Speaker A: The Tudor History and Travel show is a podcast that brings Tudor History to life by exploring Tudor places and artefacts in the flesh.
You will be travelling through time with Sarah Morris, the Tudor Travel Guide, uncovering the stories behind some of the most amazing Tudor locations and objects in the uk.
Because when you visit a Tudor building, it is only time and not space which separates you from the past.
And now over to your host, Sarah Morris.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: Hello, my time traveling friends. We're back for another episode of the Tudor History and Travel show with me, Sarah the Tudor Travel Guide. And I'm delighted to return with part two of our series that focuses on the early years of Henry vii.
Now, obviously, originally, episode one and two were meant to be published back to back on consecutive months, but unfortunately my husband and sound partner Chris had surgery and the recovery took a little bit longer than we thought and we weren't able to get out and record the very last segment of episode two, which was a recording at Mill Bay. However, we were blessed with a beautiful window of weather and so this week we took the opportunity to get out on the road and nail it.
So here we are finally with a belated part two of our focus on Henry VII and the long road to Bosworth.
If you recall, in part one we visited Lamphy palace, where some people believe that Henry was conceived, and then moved on to visit Pembroke, Pembroke Castle, of course, where Henry was born.
Now, we left our story with Jasper and Henry being hotly pursued by those loyal to the House of York.
These were men on the run and the place that they went to to try and escape was Tenby.
Now, even today, Tenby is a beautiful little harbour town and very, very popular with tourists and holidaymakers during the summer months.
But in the late 15th century, it had very strong ties to Henry's uncle, Jasper Tudor. He had networks of friends and influencers, wealthy merchants in the town and could contributed a considerable amount of money to thembe. And no doubt he felt that he could find refuge there and possibly an exit route to safety and exile.
You'll hear all about this in the first part of this particular episode where our special guest, Tony Emson will be our guide and we'll be on foot walking the streets of Temby, visiting all the important places associated with the Tudor town and in particular, of course, with Jasper Tudor and Henry and their flight into exile.
And at the end of this episode, we will be going to Millbay. I say we because I mean me and you together. I want to take you on a virtual journey on foot from the car to the place in which Henry landed back on Welsh soil in August 1485.
Now, as you will hear on that part of the recording, when I say we were blessed with a wonderful weather of window, it absolutely was when I set out on the journey. But by the time we arrived at Mill Bay, there was a virtual gale blowing. And you will hear the environmental sounds around me of the wind and of course the sea crashing against the shore. Now, the UK weather is always unpredictable and I do not know the conditions in which Henry came back to Wales, but what I do hope is that it adds a degree of atmosphere to our virtual journey together.
So, only one more final thing to say before we dive into today's episode, and that is if you are interested in Henry VII and following in his footsteps. We do. And we are running a tour in July of this year called 1502, the year that shook the Tudor throne, which of course follows in the footsteps of Henry VII and his queen consort, Elizabeth of York, as they travel from their palace of Woodstock in Oxfordshire through to Raglan Castle and back again through the wonderful Cotswold countryside. Now, there is one more place available on that tour and if you are interested, there will be a link in the description associated with this podcast. So as one final chance to come on board and experience your own in person adventure in time with me.
Okay, that's it.
Let's get straight on with today's episode and we're heading on over to Temby in Pembrokeshire.
[00:05:48] Speaker C: So today, dear listeners, I have come about 10 miles to the east of Pembroke to a very important town in our story and that's the little port town of Tenby.
Now you will hear I am outdoors today. We're walking around Tenby as we tell
[00:06:06] Speaker D: the story of Henry vii, his association
[00:06:10] Speaker C: with the town and also that of his uncle, Jasper Tudor.
[00:06:13] Speaker D: So, yes, you will hear the everyday
[00:06:15] Speaker C: sounds of people coming and going and cars and possibly the odd seagull above my head.
So we have a different guide with us today. Tony Ensum is joining us and he is going to be taking us round of the highlights of Tudor. Hello, Tony.
[00:06:30] Speaker E: Hello.
[00:06:31] Speaker C: Lovely to meet you. Thank you for coming here today and being our guide.
[00:06:35] Speaker E: Oh, pleasure, absolute pleasure, yes. I moved to this area 14 years ago and fell in love with Tenby so much that I am now a volunteer for the National Trust at the Tudors Merchant House which we will be visiting later this morning.
[00:06:54] Speaker C: Yes, we absolutely will. So I thought we'd start here or you've asked me to meet you here and I can see that we're stood opposite a beautiful bit of medieval wall. So I'm assuming, of course, that these were originally the town walls of Tenby.
[00:07:13] Speaker E: They were, and luckily we still have the majority of the walls in place for you to see.
We're very, very lucky. It's very unusual for the walls of a town to survive this long.
What is missing, however, is sadly, the main gate.
We don't know what it was like, but there's a rough description and from that we can deduce that it was probably a double gateway with two towers and in between a big portcullis, then an enclosed area and a second set of towers with another portcullis. So it's well defended and it's called the Kamar Gate because it was the road from Carmarthen that came into Tenby
[00:08:01] Speaker C: and so the Caran Road came in along the coast there. Cuz we are just a stone's throw away really, aren't we, from the.
[00:08:07] Speaker E: The.
[00:08:08] Speaker C: The there.
[00:08:08] Speaker E: Yep.
[00:08:11] Speaker C: So the walls have a lot to do, I understand, with Jasper Tudor and I'm hoping you're going to tell us a little bit more about the walls and Jasper in a moment. But perhaps a little bit of context.
Maybe you can tell us exactly where Tenby is and how Tenby came about.
[00:08:27] Speaker E: Yes, yes, I think that's important.
We have records that suggest that Temby existed as a little fishing village back in the 6th century. There's a poem from that period that refers to dynbig episcode, which is the Welsh name of Tenby today.
It means the little fortress of the fish, which suggests that.
We'll see in a minute. There's a promontory at the end of the town on which there's a castle. We think that was a fortification even way back in those days.
Tenby sits on a limestone ridge which projects out into the Bristol Channel towards the southeast. At the end it curves round onto this little promontory on which the castle sits and encloses a little bay which they used as the harbor.
The town is surrounded by huge golden beaches and the little harbor was important because we have huge tides here. At high tide, boats could anchor right up at the top of the beach. But then for most of the rest of the 12 hours before another high tide, they could unload and load their ships onto dry land, onto dry land all the time. So that's why it's. The other important feature is, of course, it is the only safe haven in those days in South Pembrokeshire that was straight out onto the Bristol Channel.
[00:10:16] Speaker C: I see. Right. Which is going to make it a perfect location for our getaway story.
[00:10:21] Speaker E: Absolutely, Absolutely.
[00:10:22] Speaker C: We'll come to that.
[00:10:23] Speaker E: In pre Norman times, Temby was a tiny little fishing village in what is now at the bottom end of the town, down just above the beach, in an area with little lanes and windy roads.
When the Normans invaded South Pembrokeshire, they enlarged the town with more or less straight streets and verger plots.
[00:10:53] Speaker C: Can you explain what the verger plot is for those people who don't know?
[00:10:56] Speaker E: Right.
It's a plot of land on which people were allowed to build the house and there was sufficient room for them to have room to grow crops and so on, keep chickens, to keep chickens, to sustain themselves and also, if they were artisans, to ply their trade.
[00:11:17] Speaker C: Yes, because they often did that, didn't they? They had a. So for those people who've listened to my episode on Norwich, they will know very well that the merchant's house had large plots and behind them where they often had their workshops and people worked and plied the trade there as well.
[00:11:34] Speaker E: Now, after the Norman period, there was a loss of building went on in Tenby. It became a magnet for merchants because of the harbour being there, and grew more and more into an area that is now enclosed by the walls.
After the Norman Conquest, the Welsh, of course, were driven out of South Pembrokeshire.
A lot of them objected to that. And every now and again there were raids on the towns in South Pembrokeshire. We know of three very serious raids by the. The Welsh on Temby when they did a considerable amount of damage. The last of those was in 1260.
And by that point it's clear that the Earl of Pembroke decided that the town really needed some protection.
So the wall was built in the late 1260s.
It was built to a height, about two thirds of the present height of the wall.
And if we look, we can see the joint between the old and the new.
[00:12:53] Speaker C: I see.
[00:12:54] Speaker E: And that helped enormously. The gates were built to keep people out and it became well protected. But it also became very busy, very overcrowded, but very successful.
[00:13:09] Speaker D: I see.
[00:13:09] Speaker E: Now, later on in 1457, after Jasper Tudor in 1452 had become earl of Pembroke, he immediately visited the town and realised, first of all that it's of its strategic importance as a port, but secondly that it really wasn't terribly well protected. That wall was pretty good, but it needed to be better. So he gave the walls to the town, but insisted that they paid half the cost of improving the town's walls and the Improvements were to increase its height to the height we see today, which is 25, 30ft high.
[00:13:56] Speaker C: It's pretty high.
[00:13:58] Speaker E: But significantly, he insisted that the wall should be increased in thickness so that there could be a walkway around the back behind the battlements and so that soldiers could patrol. And to support that walkway, which is about 6ft wide, they built stonework, vaulted stonework beneath it to support it.
And that added huge amount of protection to the walls. And that, of course, is what Jasper would have seen when he came here in 1457.
A town well guarded and very, very, very rich and busy.
[00:14:43] Speaker C: So let's just talk about Jasper for a moment. You mentioned Jasper became the Earl of Pembroke. Now, some people might not be that familiar with Jasper's lineage and why he became so important, because he was an important Lancastrian.
Perhaps you could just illuminate his relationship to perhaps the king at the time and why he was given that role as Earl of Pembroke.
[00:15:11] Speaker E: Henry VI was the son of Henry V and Catherine de Valois, the Tudor of Charles VI of France.
Sadly, Henry Van died in France before young Henry, who became Henry VI was, was born, so he never did see him.
Henry VI inherited the throne as a baby, but of course couldn't rule. So he, the. The barons, thankfully decided that they would, on his behalf, create a small group of them to rule the country.
One of the problems for them was what to do with Catherine de Valois, who was only 22 years old, reputed to be the most beautiful woman in France. And all the barons here wanted their sons to be married to her, and it was decided she should go away from London until everything was settled as to what her future would be.
So she went to a house in Hertfordshire. She had her own ladies in waiting, a complete household, everything she wanted. One of the people who served her was a man called Owen Tudor, a Welshman, and they secretly fell in love.
Quite extraordinary that a widowed queen and a servant fell in love. But they did, and they had at least two children before anybody outside Hertfordshire knew what was going on. Extraordinary.
Managed to keep it secret.
The two children were both boys. There was Edmund and Jasper, so they, of course, were half brothers to Henry vi.
Henry vi, when he discovered that he had two half brothers, of course, was delighted. He thought he was an only child and they became favourites of his, although they were slightly younger.
He looked after them very well and when they came of age, gave them titles and Jasper was created Earl of Pembroke and that's how he became Earl of Pembroke. 1452.
[00:17:40] Speaker C: Perfect explanation. Thank you so Much so. As Earl of Pembroke, Jasper was the overlord of the area.
So the wealthiest man in the area, the man responsible for administering justice in the area. Yes, with lots of connections. And I guess those connections eventually came in very handy.
[00:17:58] Speaker E: Very handy. The two major towns, of course, were Pembroke, his. His seat with a magnificent castle. But he was also very interested in Tenby because it was a rich and lively, busy, and a port which gave access direct out onto the Bristol Channel, the English Channel, which he saw as strategically very important.
[00:18:25] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:18:25] Speaker E: And he had the foresight, of course, to realize that and to take a great interest. He bought a property here in Tenby, and we're pretty sure that he did spend quite a lot of his time in Tenby as well as in Pembroke.
[00:18:43] Speaker C: So what I think we should perhaps do is go for a little walk through the town to the centre where, I believe, Jasper had his property, and you could maybe tell us a little bit more about that property and some of his connections here.
[00:18:56] Speaker E: Let's go.
[00:18:56] Speaker C: Okay, let's go.
So as we're walking along down just towards the center of town and the church, you just stop to point out a little alleyway and you can see, can't you, the.
[00:20:53] Speaker E: They are medieval walls.
[00:20:55] Speaker C: Absolutely. So we've got a tiny little narrow alleyway, and you can see the way the walls are projecting.
And it almost looks. These are the stone. Are these stone plinths here or is this. Is this bit of timber?
[00:21:09] Speaker E: Yeah, no, no, I think they're stone.
[00:21:12] Speaker C: They're stone coral.
[00:21:13] Speaker E: They're stone because the they project, they created a bit more space inside by.
[00:21:19] Speaker C: Yes, the.
[00:21:22] Speaker E: The first.
[00:21:23] Speaker C: The floor out. Yes. So you've got a bigger footprint for the upper floors you actually had on there. I love the way they do that. I think that's so clever.
[00:21:29] Speaker E: They built a wall there so there you wouldn't be able to walk through through, would you?
[00:21:34] Speaker C: No, no, it's brilliant.
So while we're walking down here, let me ask you, Tony. Obviously, Temby is a really thriving little town today. It's managed to keep vibrant, hasn't it? And. And why is that?
[00:21:48] Speaker E: Well, sadly, the merchants eventually left Temby.
By the early 18th century, Temby was in a very sad state. State.
Temby was devastated by the plague. They reckon that nearly 50% of the population died within. Within a few days of each other.
Very bad. And it suffered during the English Civil War as well to a certain extent. And in one way or another, it was just abandoned.
In the late 80s century, the Georgians came Here, saw the magnificent beaches around here and of course they had invented this, this wonderful idea that the sea air was good for you. And so they built second homes here. They knocked down. They didn't like the old buildings, so they knocked down or covered up all the medieval buildings and built. What you see today are these pretty Georgian houses and came here and lived for the summer. So they, they reinvigorated the town.
[00:23:01] Speaker C: Were they coming from other cities like London or Bristol?
[00:23:03] Speaker E: They were coming from all over South Wales.
Yes, all over South Wales.
And then, of course, when the railway came here In Victorian time, 1846, the railway arrived here and that opened it to the masses to come here as tourists. And that's what we have today. It's a tourist magnet.
[00:23:27] Speaker D: I have been here in the summer
[00:23:29] Speaker C: and ladies and gentlemen, if you are planning, I do, I mean, do come to Temby. It's a gorgeous little town. July and August, it is absolutely packed. You might, if you want to get a little bit of space to reflect on your history, you might just want to come out of high season. But it's. Yes, it's thriving, isn't it? And it's lovely to see that in a town.
[00:23:49] Speaker E: A good time to come is in the spring. We do generally have, on average, good springs here. It's a really pretty time of the year to come.
[00:24:00] Speaker C: So we're right in the heart of the town now. We've got the church behind us, which we're going to investigate in a moment because that's quite an important spot on our tour today. But we are facing a.
A series of three, four story buildings, Georgian fronting buildings. Boots the chemist. Why are we here, Tony?
[00:24:21] Speaker E: Because we do know that where Boots the chemist now is, was the home of Thomas White.
He was a very rich, a very important merchant in Tenby in the 1450s. 1440s, 1450s. He was clearly very rich when we believe he was a merchant who specialized in wine importing, which would have been very lucrative.
His house, we know, stood here and it had a basement, the basement simply carved out of the solid rock on which Temby stands.
There was also where we're standing outside the church in quite a wide open space, there was a terrace of houses on this side of the street where we're standing. Where we're standing, the street was at equal width all the way down.
[00:25:16] Speaker C: I see.
[00:25:17] Speaker E: And one of the houses also belonged to Thomas White. And it's more or less where we're standing now was his house. And that had a basement as well.
The basement is still there. The two basements are connected by a tunnel running underneath the road.
The basement underneath what is now Boots the chemist, is also connected to the harbour by a series of steep tunnels, steps going right down through the cliff down into the harbour. And there's no doubt that that was one of the ways in which the. The wine came in and restored by Thomas White.
[00:26:04] Speaker C: So tell us about. So Thomas White was also Lord Mayor, wasn't he, of Tenby, and I believe a good friend of Jasper Tudor. Didn't he also have a house next door to.
[00:26:16] Speaker E: Yes, he did. Thomas White was mayor of the Town 13 times, which shows you he was a very important person in the town. And yes, Jasper Tudor had a house here, right next to Thomas White's house.
[00:26:32] Speaker C: And wasn't it called Jasper Lee House?
[00:26:34] Speaker E: Jasper Lee House.
[00:26:35] Speaker D: And we.
[00:26:36] Speaker C: I've seen online a sketching of that. Is that. Is that totally made up or is it actually based on any fact?
[00:26:44] Speaker E: Yes. An artist called Charles Norris came here in the early 19th century just as the Georgians were rebuilding the town. And thankfully, he sketched an awful lot of both old and new buildings around that time. And we do have a sketch of his, which he says was Thomas White's house. Now, a lot of people assume it was the house where Boots the chemist now sits, but if you look at that sketch, in the background is the spire of the church, so it must have been the house on this side
[00:27:22] Speaker C: that we're standing on.
[00:27:24] Speaker E: Again, it was quite a substantial house.
[00:27:27] Speaker C: I see.
So we're talking about. We've introduced Thomas White because he is an absolutely pivotal.
[00:27:33] Speaker E: Right.
[00:27:34] Speaker C: Figure in our story of the escape of Jasper and Henry to Brittany.
So we've obviously just come from Pembroke Castle, where Gareth was telling us about the events that led up to the flight of Jasper.
[00:27:49] Speaker E: Right, yes.
[00:27:50] Speaker C: And Henry.
And our next stop, of course, was here to Temby, because this is where they came. So what do we know of what happened when they got to Temby and what is the role of Thomas White in this?
[00:28:03] Speaker E: Right, well, Jasper realized that he had to get out of the country and he had to take. Take Henry Tudor with him.
Now, he wouldn't have advertised the fact how he was going to do that, for obvious reasons. So it's all to be kept secret.
He realised that a good escape route will be through Tenby because of his association with Thomas White, who he knew very well, who might be able to help him. Ships in those days were normally owned by a number of different people.
They sold shares in a ship 64 shares in a ship, and you would buy however many shares you were prepared to risk because there were no insurance. So if a ship went down in a storm or was taken in some way, you lost everything.
So you wouldn't want to own a ship of your own. You would lose the whole thing. Thing. But Thomas White, we believe, did. He was rich enough and he did have his own ship, and Jasper would have known that.
So he came here seeking help from Thomas White to get him out of the country.
Now, he needed to be hidden for a while, secretly, somewhere that the Yorkist who were after him wouldn't find him. For reasons of secrecy, of course. There's no written record of what happened, but the story has been told for hundreds of years now that it was Thomas White who hid both Jasper and Henry in his basement underneath his house for perhaps up to a couple of weeks while they waited for the ship to come to take him to France.
[00:29:54] Speaker C: Right, okay.
[00:29:55] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:29:56] Speaker C: And so it could have been those caves, those cellars under Boots, or maybe even under the house we're in now.
[00:30:03] Speaker E: Standing over now, I see the basement underneath this house on this side of the street. If you go down there, there's a little fireplace in the corner and clearly what was a chimney vent going up, long since gone, of course.
So is quite possible that they survived down there with a fire in the fireplace.
[00:30:28] Speaker C: And have you been into those?
[00:30:29] Speaker E: Yes, I've been down there. They're not generally open to the public.
The two cellars are connected by a narrow passage underneath the road.
They're all carved out of the solid rock here, so there's no lining to them.
Rather eerie, really, especially when you're down there and you think, well, Jasper Tudor and the future Henry VII survived here for some days,
[00:31:14] Speaker F: Sam.
[00:31:50] Speaker D: So we've been talking about Thomas White, who of course was a principal figure in helping Henry escape from Tenby, and he was a local merchant. Now, we're really lucky in Tenby that we have a surviving Tudor merch merchant's house.
[00:32:07] Speaker C: And Tony has brought us along to
[00:32:09] Speaker D: quickly have a look round and to talk about what the ordinary life of a Tudor merchant would have been like. So, Tony, we've come inside this gorgeous building.
[00:32:21] Speaker C: Perhaps you could just explain what is
[00:32:23] Speaker D: here and why, first of all, this building has survived.
[00:32:28] Speaker E: We frankly don't know why it survived. It's a miracle. But thankfully it has because it's the only intact medieval building left in Temby now built in the.
Towards the end of the 15th century on three floors, which indicates that whoever built it had serious money. There are also features of the building which suggest that it was built by a master builder who really did know what he was doing.
[00:32:59] Speaker D: What features?
[00:33:00] Speaker C: What would we look out for if we were visiting here?
[00:33:02] Speaker E: For example, if you put timber. It's a stone building now, if you put your timber beams into the wall to support them, the ends get wet, rot. And you've got problems if you put a stone in like this, projecting out from the wall.
[00:33:23] Speaker C: So we've got a bit of stone, haven't we? Just, as you say, it's just sitting out from the wall.
[00:33:28] Speaker E: The beam is sitting on it, but the beam stops there before the wall. There's a little gap between the end of the beam and the wall, so it never gets wet.
[00:33:37] Speaker D: Ah, very cute.
[00:33:38] Speaker E: And that's a.
One of the many features that are certainly at the time, advanced, but, you know, techniques in building. Yeah, very clever.
[00:33:48] Speaker D: Wonderful.
[00:33:48] Speaker C: And here we are on the ground. Ground floor. We've just come in the main entrance, so.
[00:33:52] Speaker E: Well, this wasn't the main entrance. The main entrance was into the first floor. Very typical in medieval times. You kept. If you were housing your family, you want them at least up on the first floor to protect them. Help protect them.
[00:34:08] Speaker C: Protect them from what?
[00:34:09] Speaker D: From.
[00:34:10] Speaker E: From people trying to get in.
[00:34:11] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:34:12] Speaker E: Literally.
[00:34:12] Speaker C: So it's right. Okay.
[00:34:14] Speaker E: When the house was built, the one bit that's missing is the other side of that wall. To the right of the entrance is a cottage, a Georgian cottage.
There was a stone staircase going up there. We could see the evidence when some work was done up to the first floor. And the main entrance to the house was up above on the first floor.
This was the servants quarters, if you like. So here we are in a kitchen with a huge fireplace. And I always say, why such a big fireplace?
Because they needed a big fire. Why did they need a big fire? Because they probably had a very big family.
And of course, a merchant, rich merchant would have been able to feed his family well. So they would have survived much better than the poor souls out in the country. Country where the. I mean, you know, the death rate of children was absolutely appalling.
So they needed be. And the merchant quite likely will, from time to time, entertain people, of course, other merchants, the captains of ships coming in.
And he would be expected, of course, to feed his servants as well. So this fireplace was needed for cooking for 20 people very often. I mean, a lot of people.
[00:35:41] Speaker C: How many servants?
[00:35:42] Speaker E: It wasn't sort of mum, dad and two children.
[00:35:45] Speaker C: Yeah. How many servants would have serviced the house?
[00:35:48] Speaker E: We're guessing, but I mean, if you. If you've got a family of, let's say, 10 children, the merchant and his wife, they'd need at least six servants, probably eight.
You'd need a few down in the kitchen, somebody to serve at the table.
The master would need somebody to run the place.
So down here, the servants would have been cooking the meals.
One important thing I think, to remember about food in those days, of course, was the only food available was what was locally grown and in season. And that's what we forget these days because we can buy strawberries at Christmas, can't we? But not in those days.
So they'd have had to think very carefully about what they could do with the limited supply of food that they had at any one time.
[00:36:45] Speaker C: But I'm presuming, because we're here on a port, that fish must have made up a significant portion of their diet.
[00:36:52] Speaker E: Temby was well known as a. Originally as a fishing centre. And of course, the Bristol Channel back in medieval times was just swarming with fish, unlike today. So, yes, fish, both fish and shellfish would have made up a big part of the diet.
[00:37:09] Speaker C: And is there a kitchen garden?
[00:37:11] Speaker D: Because I'm thinking, where did they grow
[00:37:12] Speaker C: their vegetables in the middle of a town?
[00:37:14] Speaker E: Originally, the garden went right down to the cliff top.
[00:37:18] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:37:18] Speaker C: So we're looking out at the little side window, which is all built up now, isn't it?
[00:37:22] Speaker E: Built up with Georgian buildings? Because clearly the garden was sold at some stage and they built those houses.
[00:37:30] Speaker C: Right.
[00:37:30] Speaker E: But it went right down to the. And there would have been. Yes, a large kitchen garden there and probably space to. To raise chickens and the other.
[00:37:41] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:37:42] Speaker E: So all we have left is a tiny little garden out there.
[00:37:46] Speaker C: Oh, I see, yes. So we've got the back door. It's very cute, isn't it? I remember being out here on my last visit.
[00:37:51] Speaker D: So it's a bit damp today, but
[00:37:54] Speaker C: all the spring flowers are out, so it looks very pretty.
[00:37:57] Speaker E: Well. Oh, here we are.
One of our volunteers is an absolute expert on gardens of the Tudor period and is planting yet again this year after the fencing has been renewed.
All planting from the Tudor period for use in cooking and medicine, etc.
And the house, so that we can describe to visitors what would have been grown in the larger garden and would they.
[00:38:31] Speaker C: The flower floors have been strewn with herbs and scented.
[00:38:36] Speaker E: Yes, flowers and so on. I mean, although the merchant would have tried, I mean, would have been able to afford to keep it cleaner than, you know, some other people's houses. It was still.
[00:38:50] Speaker C: Yeah, we better crack on.
[00:38:52] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:38:52] Speaker C: Lovely to meet you.
[00:38:54] Speaker D: Happy gardening.
[00:38:55] Speaker C: It's looking amazing.
It's very pretty. It's so dinky and cozy. I love this house so much.
[00:39:02] Speaker E: One very important feature of the house is uniquely. It had a garden robe, three levels.
Very, very unusual. In fact, I don't know of another building that has three levels. So how did that work? Well, on the top floor, the loo is at the back.
The next floor down in the middle, this floor at the front.
[00:39:26] Speaker C: So you didn't literally.
[00:39:28] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:39:28] Speaker E: And on the 2 upper floor on the next floor up, there would have been a little screen at the back. So you had your own little cubicle. There are two upper floors. There are windows in the side so
[00:39:39] Speaker C: you've got fresh air.
[00:39:41] Speaker E: So it all worked very well, except everything, including the kitchen waste was going in there. So where did.
[00:39:47] Speaker C: So they're being.
[00:39:48] Speaker D: I'm just expanding, explaining for viewers what we can. Listeners, what we can see. I'm looking through a gap in a very solid wall into this chute that
[00:39:57] Speaker C: obviously comes down from above into basically just a pit. That's what you're explaining all the ways. Just went into a relatively small pit.
[00:40:05] Speaker D: Now they had to clear that out.
[00:40:07] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:40:07] Speaker D: The gong scourer.
[00:40:09] Speaker E: Yes. But not with human waste in there. That wouldn't have. That would have been dreadful.
[00:40:14] Speaker C: Oh, and it's right next to the cave.
[00:40:17] Speaker E: The solution was very clever, very simple. There was a little stream running down through the garden and they diverted it through the pit and out the other side. Somewhere over there it just washed away and it washed everything away.
And there's a very good example of that at Lampy Palace.
[00:40:36] Speaker C: Right, I'll look out for that.
[00:40:39] Speaker E: A much grander one. I'm not much much. Yes. Right. So.
[00:40:42] Speaker C: Right, let's go upstairs. So we're moving up from ground floor up to the principal family floor. You were saying, Tony.
[00:40:49] Speaker E: Yes. This is where the family would have lived during the day.
You had a.
Another fireplace. So this was a very expensive house.
[00:41:01] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah.
[00:41:01] Speaker E: Fireplace in the. In as well as the one downstairs. That was the entry, entrance door. So that's where you came in. Up a set of stone steps.
[00:41:10] Speaker C: We've got a lovely arch stone entrance door there.
[00:41:15] Speaker D: So the principal entrance that you were talking about before.
[00:41:17] Speaker E: Yeah.
And the family would have spent the day in here doing, you know, all the daytime activities. The children playing with toys and we've got some examples of some of the toys. The master would have had a fixed top table, probably very expensive, painted can't see in the dark, but it is colored where he, his wife and any guests would have had their.
Their meal, the restaurant.
[00:41:47] Speaker D: And I guess he would have worked
[00:41:49] Speaker C: from there as well in between meals.
[00:41:51] Speaker E: Or maybe he had a little desk by the window, which we've got here.
[00:41:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:56] Speaker E: The rest of the family activities would have been on trestle tables, which can simply be removed.
[00:42:04] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:42:05] Speaker E: So that the whole room.
[00:42:07] Speaker D: It's a very flexible space really, isn't it?
[00:42:09] Speaker E: And there was no connection between this floor and the kitchen internally.
[00:42:15] Speaker C: I see.
[00:42:16] Speaker E: They had to go out through a door in the kitchen which has been blocked up.
[00:42:20] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:42:21] Speaker E: Round and up the steps and in.
[00:42:24] Speaker C: So I guess that kept the servants segregated from the family, but it might
[00:42:28] Speaker E: have made the cold food, kept people safer up here.
[00:42:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:42:32] Speaker E: Right. The only way into was up a set of stone steps.
[00:42:37] Speaker D: I mean, this room has been done beautifully. I absolutely love it.
[00:42:40] Speaker C: So you've got some of the.
[00:42:41] Speaker D: You've got some canvas with green and white stripes to represent how the.
[00:42:45] Speaker E: Which was very popular in those days.
The trust has put in green and white stripes. Why? Because that's the Tudor colors.
[00:42:54] Speaker C: Indeed.
[00:42:55] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:42:57] Speaker C: And it's really light in here, actually. You've got windows on three sides.
[00:43:02] Speaker E: Well, we. We believe that there were glass windows here in the original building. Very unusual, very expensive, of course, which indicates that, you know how rich the merchants were in those days. They were doing very, very well.
[00:43:18] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:43:19] Speaker E: The only record we have of a merchant living here who we can identify was a man called Thomas Jordan, who lived here, we know, in 1565 because of the record of it. He owned 13 other properties in the town, and that's where he invested his money. So he'd made an awful amount of money. The money.
[00:43:41] Speaker D: And what did he do when you say merchant?
[00:43:42] Speaker C: Because obviously the different types of merchants, we don't know.
[00:43:45] Speaker E: We've got port records or incomplete port records from the harbour which indicate that all sorts of things were being imported and exported through the harbour here. Most of the merchants, we believe, were general merchants, but we pretty sure that Thomas White specialized as a wine importer, which made him particularly rich.
[00:44:15] Speaker D: Yeah. Wonderful.
[00:44:17] Speaker C: Okay, so. So you mentioned above us we've got one more floor.
[00:44:20] Speaker E: One more floor. Let's just quickly have a look up there
[00:44:25] Speaker C: again.
[00:44:26] Speaker D: Would this. Would this have been the position of a staircase?
[00:44:29] Speaker E: No, the original staircase. Can you see. See the outline of.
[00:44:32] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:44:33] Speaker D: So in the wall. There's a dent in the wall next to.
[00:44:35] Speaker C: Next to the staircase.
[00:44:37] Speaker E: It would have been a little narrow stone staircase, probably with a rope to hang on just a rope handle. This is the bed chamber.
[00:44:46] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:44:47] Speaker E: That wall is. Was. Is later Georgian. So it would have been again one big room.
The merchant would have had his best item of furniture. Would have been the bed. Yeah, quite possibly something like this.
[00:45:03] Speaker D: Yes. Yeah. So we've got a wooden four poster bed here.
[00:45:07] Speaker C: And it was really essential, wasn't it to have a covering Whether it was a, a wooden covering or hangings because of, I guess.
[00:45:15] Speaker E: Well, the roof now is covered in slates and lined on the inside with plasterboard.
Originally it would have had. Had almost certainly a thatched roof. And constantly there have been muck and bud coming down. So you needed a cover over there.
[00:45:32] Speaker C: Very, very practical indeed.
[00:45:34] Speaker D: And tell us about.
For those people who don't. I'm sure some people know about the
[00:45:40] Speaker C: saying we have associated with this. Right, what, what am I pointing to? Explain what I'm pointing to.
[00:45:46] Speaker E: The. The base of the bed is low, not a sprung mattress as we have today.
There were two ways of making a base for a bed. One was a timber, solid timber base which was very hard. The other one was a rope base and it probably was a crisscross of rope.
The problem with rope is it stretches so you have to tighten it up from time to time. And they would have had a device probably on the side of the bed which allowed them to wind up the rope and tighten it on a ratchet. And that was called a bug. And when you were tightening it up, when it really got tightened, you were sufficiently make sure the ratchet was in place otherwise the handle would come round and catch you and bite you. So don't let the bed bugs bite.
[00:46:37] Speaker C: Right. There you go. That's what. Wonderful, isn't it? I love it. Fantastic. So this was really just a sleeping
[00:46:43] Speaker E: place and the children would have been on truckles or, or simply mattresses on the floor. Very, very simple, just communal. Almost certainly just the one bed.
And if visitors came to stay, they would also occupy the bed.
[00:47:01] Speaker C: So would the main. Would the Lord.
[00:47:03] Speaker D: Not lord and lady.
[00:47:04] Speaker C: I'm so used to talking, talking about the emergency.
[00:47:07] Speaker D: Would they move?
[00:47:08] Speaker E: No, no, they would be there as well.
[00:47:10] Speaker C: In the bed as well.
[00:47:11] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:47:11] Speaker C: Everybody.
[00:47:12] Speaker E: Yes, because people of, of this class would have slept sitting up, not lying down, which is why you've got the big headboard so that you could put cushions up against it and you sat propped up.
[00:47:28] Speaker C: So explain why that was.
[00:47:31] Speaker E: Well, for two reasons. One, I think some of them sensibly recognize that it's far better for your digestion if you're sleeping in a semi upright position. But the main one was they were so superstitious and they were so scared that if they were lying flat open their mouth, started snoring, the devil would get in, take their soul and they never would wake up again.
[00:47:55] Speaker D: Sound right.
[00:47:56] Speaker C: Yeah, there you go. I love that, I love that. I wonder when we shifted from doing that, you know, to just sleeping flat. Cuz obviously people have been doing that for centuries.
[00:48:04] Speaker B: Right.
[00:48:04] Speaker C: The way through the medieval period.
Yeah, absolutely. So as we continue to speak, people may hear a few noises going on. It's a very special day here. It's the 1st of March, St David's Day and we have a harpist downstairs who will probably be just tuning her harp. So if you hear some harp sounds, dear listeners, that's what, what's going on?
All I was just going to say is I've visited many noble houses and there are lots of apotropaic marks. So marks to ward off evil spirits.
[00:48:35] Speaker D: Have you found any in this house?
[00:48:37] Speaker C: Was it something the merchants did?
[00:48:39] Speaker E: No. There is a mark, a gate beside the main door which it suggested perhaps was the remains of a mark.
[00:48:47] Speaker C: Right.
[00:48:48] Speaker E: Or where witches mark.
[00:48:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:48:50] Speaker E: But the common thing to do of course was simply to put a cross in every window and door open, which
[00:48:55] Speaker C: I can see you've got around the place.
[00:48:58] Speaker E: Yeah, well it, it's, it, it's the, it's the way of keeping witches out and it's so successful of course that by putting them there. We've never had a witch in the house.
[00:49:07] Speaker C: It's amazing, isn't it?
[00:49:09] Speaker E: It's been open.
[00:49:09] Speaker C: That's incredible.
Nothing you know of anyway.
I love the view, I have to say. The view. I mean obviously Tenby, as, as you
[00:49:18] Speaker D: know dear listeners, from our introduction today
[00:49:20] Speaker C: is a port town, but there's a wonderful view out the window.
[00:49:23] Speaker E: We don't know who built this house but we're convinced it was a merchant. Why? Because it's an expensive house and the only people who could have afforded to build a house like this would have been one of the merchants. They were the only rich people. And if you wanted to. To build a house, where would you build it? If you were to see like looking over the. Looking over the harbor, well, you could
[00:49:46] Speaker D: see your ships coming in.
[00:49:47] Speaker E: Absolutely, absolutely.
[00:49:49] Speaker C: All makes sense.
[00:49:50] Speaker E: Thomas White's house is one of the ones in the high street where we believe there were a row of quite large houses. Probably all merchant houses because from the back of those houses again they could look over the heart.
[00:50:03] Speaker D: Yeah. That makes Great sense. Well, I'm really glad we've been able to pop in here today.
[00:50:07] Speaker C: It's really beautifully decorated with all the daffodils of springtime and St. David's Day. But I think it's such a unique building that, dear listeners, if you do
[00:50:16] Speaker D: come to Tenby, the merchant's house is not open all year nor every day of the week. So maybe you could remind us, Tony,
[00:50:24] Speaker E: during the summer months, from Easter onwards, it's open three days a week. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
[00:50:30] Speaker C: Is lovely. And it's such a beautiful house.
[00:50:32] Speaker D: It really is worthwhile just coming and
[00:50:34] Speaker C: feeling what a, you know, merchant, a
[00:50:37] Speaker D: wealthy citizen of 10 and how they would have lived.
[00:50:56] Speaker F: Sa.
Sa.
[00:52:39] Speaker C: So this church behind us, this is. This is the medieval church that undoubtedly Jasper and Henry knew, right?
[00:52:49] Speaker E: Absolutely.
[00:52:51] Speaker C: Is there anything that we need to go and see and explore as such?
[00:52:54] Speaker E: Yes, I think so. I think we need to go inside for two reasons. One, to see how large a church it is. It is reputed to be the largest parish church in Wales.
[00:53:06] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:53:07] Speaker E: It really is large. I think that's an indication of how rich the town was in those days.
[00:53:13] Speaker C: It usually isn't it?
[00:53:14] Speaker E: Yep.
[00:53:15] Speaker C: So we've just moved into the churchyard and we're looking at the west end of the church and there are. There is a beautiful doorway in front of us and we'll. We'll get some pictures of that and of course, as ever, we'll be putting that as part of our show notes page. But what are we looking at and why is this relevant to our story?
[00:53:33] Speaker E: Because in around 1486, 1487, as far as we know, a porch was constructed at this end of the church, an external porch, although it was demolished some time ago now and there's no other record of it. There is another sketch by Charles Norris showing the porch and the significances that on the front of that porch, carved in stone, are the coats of arms of Jasper, Tudor, Margaret Beaufort and the Tudor Rose.
[00:54:11] Speaker C: Right.
[00:54:12] Speaker E: There's a suggestion, of course, given the date when it was built, that perhaps Jasper and or Margaret Beaufort had something to do with having the porch erected and who knows, maybe even contributed towards the cost of.
[00:54:28] Speaker D: Of it.
[00:54:29] Speaker C: Who knows indeed. And it's a really elaborate. The doorway that survives have the beautiful, elaborate surroundings. Do we know what that says? Is there any record of. Of what the.
[00:54:40] Speaker E: I haven't.
[00:54:41] Speaker C: I mean, it's very worn away now. You see. Deus in Domus, God in house. God in the house. I think. But yes, it's got that medieval feel. To it.
[00:54:51] Speaker E: That's medieval. Yeah, yeah, yeah, very good.
[00:54:54] Speaker C: So you mentioned also earlier, you mentioned about the spire here being unusual. Why?
[00:55:00] Speaker E: It's very unusual to see a spire on a tower of a church in South Pembrokeshire. Very unusual feature.
It's. It's. We don't know when it. Exactly when it was constructed, but all the experts more or less agree that it was at the end of the 15th century.
So, in other words, after Bosworth.
And you have to wonder whether Jasper Tudor had anything to do with that possible connection. Who knows?
[00:55:34] Speaker C: But there must have been patronage of this church by Jasper Tudor.
[00:55:37] Speaker E: Absolutely.
[00:55:38] Speaker C: With his connections and his wealth, there has to be. And in fact, normally we would be heading inside because in fact, the two. There are two relevant tombs in there. One of Thomas White, who we've been speaking about, and his son John. They lie next to each other to the right of the high altar in the. The oldest part of the church there.
We're not going in today because there's a service going on and they're practicing their trumpet playing and it's actually impossible to record.
But I do urge you, dear listeners, of course, as ever, I would always say to you, wherever you go in England, make sure you go into the local parish church because there's almost always something good to see.
So whether you. Well, of course, we're in Wales right
[00:56:24] Speaker D: now, but whether you're in England, whether
[00:56:25] Speaker C: you're in Wales, go into the local parish church. Now, you and I both know those tombs reasonably well and they are quite grand, aren't they?
[00:56:35] Speaker E: They are indeed beautifully carved tombs. They must have been very expensive.
And again, you know, the White family were clearly rich, but were they even richer after helping Jasper Tudor? And was he, you know, show his gratitude towards the family for helping them, himself and Henry, to get out of the country?
[00:57:02] Speaker C: Both those tombs are ornately carved. Look like alabaster to me. Or marble on the side.
[00:57:08] Speaker E: Yes, yes.
[00:57:09] Speaker C: Oh, I think.
[00:57:09] Speaker E: Expensive stone, very expensive.
[00:57:12] Speaker C: And John White, his son, did he continue to have any connection to the Lancastrian new Lancastrian king or to Jasper Tudor?
[00:57:21] Speaker E: I think he supported. Yes, I think the whole town supported the Lancastrian cause.
[00:57:26] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:57:27] Speaker E: And were very happy that Henry Tudor, with his Welsh connections, had become king.
[00:57:34] Speaker C: Yeah, very good. I think this one last place we need to look at because we've been talking about the. We so far have Jasper and Henry fugitives in those tunnels and in the cellars.
We talked about them waiting for the ship to arrive from France. So I think we need to go down to the harbour, because I believe you can see where it is said that they escaped from.
[00:57:58] Speaker E: Absolutely.
[00:57:59] Speaker C: Oh, gosh, I'm really looking forward to this because I've been trying to find this.
[00:58:03] Speaker D: There are a number of different.
[00:58:06] Speaker C: There were a number of different sort of exits down near the harbour and I've looked at them and wondered which one it was. So I can't wait for you to take. Take me and show me,
[00:58:29] Speaker F: Sam.
[00:59:08] Speaker C: So now, Tony, you've brought us down through the town, right down to the harbour. It's such a pretty harbour, it's so, so picturesque. But there is this, as you say, the legend, the story that they escaped through the tunnels and. And I've long wanted to come and pinpoint exactly where this is and you brought us to it. So today we've got a lovely bright blue door, which obviously wasn't back there back in the Judah period, but this is where the tunnels came down, obviously. It's quite steep, isn't it, down from the top there. So a series of steps all the way down.
[00:59:39] Speaker E: The floor is stepped all the way down and as far as I know, zigzags up the hill through the.
Through the cliff.
It's, it's, it's. There's no access to it these days because it's health and safety reasons.
[00:59:57] Speaker C: You've never been down there.
[00:59:59] Speaker E: Nobody has in modern times.
[01:00:02] Speaker C: I'm going to. I'm just going to go. And I'm just going to go and touch the door.
So it's amazing to think, isn't it, through this very doorway. There is a. There is a chance, There is a distinct chance.
But Jasper and Henry came out here onto the front of the harbour. You can see the sailing ship that would have been waiting for them. Smuggled out, probably before light, no doubt.
[01:00:27] Speaker E: Oh, yes, yes. Early in the morning, before sunrise, smuggled onto the high tide. They would have had to wait for the higher tide, of course.
[01:00:36] Speaker C: And it's a beautiful day. It started off, the weather was awful this morning. We drove through driving rain, but now actually it's clearing up and you can see out to sea. Can you imagine them sailing off and Henry leaving the land of his birth behind, heading into exile and never knowing when he's coming back?
I mean, in the end it would be, I think, was it 13, 14 years that he was in exile in Brittany before he. He landed back? And of course he landed back at Mill Bay, which in fact is going to be my next stop. So I'm going to make a pilgr to Mill Bay alone. Well, obviously with Chris as my soundman, but we're going to go down and that's the next stop on our journey to go and stand in the very spot where Henry came back on Shore in 1485.
But I want to thank you, Tony, for being our guide in Temby today.
[01:01:35] Speaker E: It's been an absolute pleasure.
[01:01:37] Speaker C: It's been so much fun.
[01:01:38] Speaker F: Thank you so much, Sam.
Sa.
Sa.
[01:04:21] Speaker D: Well, dear listeners, here we are on the final leg of our journey.
And we've come to the very southwest tip of Pembrokeshire to make a voyage, a pilgrimage, to the place in which Henry Tudor landed back Welsh soil.
I have to say, getting out of the car, it's a long drive down here through small, windy, twisty country roads, gradually narrowing to a short track that takes you down to a headland called St. Anne's Head.
And you may be able to hear. It's an extremely blustery afternoon here today, so I hope you can hear me okay.
But there's something about these kind of places, they don't really reveal themselves easily.
It really is a pilgrimage.
The roads falls away behind you, the path's narrow, and suddenly here you are, right on the edge of Pembrokeshire, looking out over the sea.
Now, if you're interested in Tudor History, coming here to Mill Bay marks a site of one of the most important events for the entire dynasty.
This was where Henry landed back on Welsh soil, as I said, having been in exile in Brittany and France for quite a number of years.
And so it really feels like being here is coming to the place that it all started. And because it's such a journey to get here, I suspect many of you will probably never make this trip. And so I was really keen on bringing you here with me coming on this journey with, with me walking from the very small little car park just next to St. Ann's Head Lighthouse and making our way down the track and eventually onto the coastal path that will take us down to Mill Bay.
And no, this place is not signposted in any grand way. You certainly won't come across many crowds. There may be a few hardy walkers walking the coastal path, but there's no markers that tell you that something world changing happened on this site.
No, my friends, this is one of those places where you have to come and look for history.
And that's perhaps very fitting because in August 1485, history arrived here very quietly too.
So to reach Mill Bay you have to pass through a field which is sometimes inhabited by cows, which can be a little off putting if you don't feel very comfortable walking through cow fields.
However, if you follow the track right past the, past the lighthouse and into the edge of the field, you can walk right the way around the edge and hopefully avoid the cows.
[01:07:50] Speaker C: And if you do so, that will
[01:07:51] Speaker D: take you down to the coastal pass so that you're looking over Mill Bay.
And in fact, right in front of me right now, you can see the cliff dropping away, an open opening up into the bay.
And over, right in the distance, you'll be able to see a rather ugly oil refinery. It's a little out of place here, and certainly not something Henry would have seen.
I prefer to think of this place
[01:08:20] Speaker C: as rather desolate and windswept as it is today.
[01:08:26] Speaker D: Well, by the time Henry Tudor set foot on this coastline line, of course, he had already spent most of his life as an outsider, as an exile.
He was born, of course, into a very fragile Lancastrian claim, raised in uncertainty and then, of course, driven into exile by the House of Yore because it tightens its grip on the English crown.
And as I just mentioned a few minutes ago, he lived across the Channel for many years, first in Brittany and then under the watchful eye at the French court.
Of course, at this point, he was not the obvious candidate to become a king.
He was, if you like, a possibility, a long shot, a name that might rather those who had lost everything in the long and bitter struggle that we now call the wars of the Roses.
And then in early August 1485, of course, that possibility becomes action.
Henry set sail from Harfleur on the northern coast of France, but not, as you might think, with the a vast army, not with overwhelming force, but with something much more precarious.
Around just 2,000 men made the voyage with Henry across the Channel.
It was a coalition held together by necessity as much as loyalty.
But at his side were a couple of narrow, notable figures.
One of those was Jasper Tudor, who, of course, had been his uncle and guardian for many years and had stayed by his side in exile.
Another important commander, military commander, was John de Vere, Earl of Oxford. He was a seasoned commander and of course, would go on to play a pivotal role at the Battle of Bosnia.
[01:10:38] Speaker F: Worth.
[01:10:40] Speaker D: Alongside these men were French soldiers whose support had been, let's say, quietly given, but never loudly proclaimed.
The fleet was small, just a handful of ships, just enough to get those men across the Channel, but not enough to fail safely, Because if this went wrong, there would be no second attempt.
You have to imagine, maybe the mood on those ships not yet triumph, maybe not even yet confidence, but perhaps a sense of expectation edged with doubt.
The outcome of this invasion was far from a foregone conclusion.
So we've come a little way. You can probably hear me huffing and puffing a little bit, but followed the coastal path through a couple of gates. Now we're heading downhill, but part way, the time traveller comes across a large slab of stone.
So on this slab is a bronze plaque which commemorates, quietly commemorates this event.
[01:12:34] Speaker C: And it says, both in English and
[01:12:36] Speaker D: in Welsh, henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, landed at mill Bay on the 7th of August, 1485.
And so, yes, we are approaching the place where Henry would have seen the shoreline of his native Wales for the first time in several years.
And if we'd been standing here in 1485 and looking out to sea, just as I am now, a rather choppy sea, I must say, somewhere, somewhere along the coastline over the horizon, we would have seen that small fleet of ships approach.
But they weren't heading for a great port. They weren't looking to announce themselves. No, no, they needed to land somewhere exactly like this, somewhere like Mill Bay, because it was sheltered, it was obscure and therefore easily defensible.
It was a place you would only find if you already knew where to look.
There's no detailed eyewitness descriptions of the moment itself. There was nobody standing here to record the sound of the boots as they waded in a thin through the waves and coming ashore.
But there is a story that has endured, that when Henry landed and he finally set foot on this very small beach here that we'll go down to in a moment, he knelt and kissed the ground. Ah, well, whether it happened exactly like that, of course, we can't say. But the image does endure and it does speak to something deeper. This was not just an invasion for Henry, it was a return to his homeland and to claim what he believed, what the Lancastrians believed was his birthright.
So we'll carry on from our plaque and make our way downhill. Rather uneven ground, and I'm trying not to fall over, but as you walk down, what you see is the land and the seascape begins to open and you start to understand more and more why this place mattered.
Because it is hidden from the sea. It would be difficult to spot unless you were looking at it and from the land.
Most importantly, it gave Henry space, time, options.
He only had a small number of men with him, remember, he needed time to gather men around him, people from his homeland who would be loyal to Henry and the Lancastrian cause and would muster beneath his Banner and Mill Bay gave him that precious opportunity.
That was everything.
So, having crossed another field, we come through a kissing gate and then down a flight of quite steep steps, hewn into a muddy pathway. And as we get closer to the shoreline, I can't help thinking more about the man himself.
At the time of the invasion, Henry, he was 28 years old, and as we've already mentioned, he spent a long time away from the country. He was now trying to claim he had no real experience of leading a campaign, a kind of campaign that lay ahead of him. And yet here he is on this beach, right in front of me, standing on this shore, knowing that everything now depends on what happens next.
Would those family networks that he had cultivated as a young man, a young boy in Wales, would they rally around him? Would the Welsh come to his banner?
Would he be ready to face the Yorkist King Richard III on the battlefield?
It's easy, of course, with hindsight, to see inevitability, to look back from Bosworth and trace a straight line, and to say, of course Henry was going to be the victor.
But at this moment, here on this beach, there was nothing inevitable about it.
Everything.
It could have ended here. Just like the invasion of Perkin Warbeck later under Henry VII's reign in 1497 could have been all evaporated into nothing.
Henry could have been captured and executed.
A failed landing, a scattered force and a name just simply lost to history.
[01:17:52] Speaker F: Sam.
[01:18:29] Speaker D: So now we reach the end of our journey here. We arrive at the little cove and the tiny beach that Henry is said to have landed on on that day in August 1485. And you do see why this place mattered. It is hidden. Although the other thing that strikes you is just what a job it must have been to get all the people, the horses, the munitions, everything out of this space and onto the road.
But nevertheless, as we said before, this place, this hidden alcove, was what Henry needed and depended upon to create movement.
He didn't need immediate confrontation, and we know that from here he marched inland through Wales, with the likes of Rhysap Thomas also gathering support as he went on a different journey through the heartland of the Welsh countryside.
Now, Henry didn't arrive strong, but he did arrive hopeful and hopefully needed time to become strength.
And then, my friends, you reach it.
Mill Bay and. And the small cove and beach that Henry is said to have landed on.
It's quiet here, it's isolated, it's unassuming and strangely indifferent to its own historic past.
The sea moves as it always has. The tide comes and goes.
And there's no monument down here to announce exactly what happened.
And yet, my friends, this is where it all began.
All the drama and the colour, all the historic events that would follow, all started right here.
And now I'm literally right by the sea.
I can see the ships in my imagination anchored just offshore and the little rowing boats bringing men and armaments to the beach here, the waves rolling in and Henry striding through the waves as they break on the beach, and perhaps kneeling down in the sand, maybe even very close to where I'm standing, to give thanks for his arrival back in his homeland.
It's a really very moving spot, largely because so few people come here.
And when you think about does all
[01:21:41] Speaker C: begin here,
[01:21:43] Speaker D: all the drama that's going to follow over the next hundred or so years, all the historic events that will happen, all have their genesis right here on this shoreline.
From this point, Henry Tudor marched into Wales, through Wales, gathering men, gathering belief, even as people flocked to his cause.
And then, as we all know, just over two weeks later, at the Battle of Bosworth, everything will change.
A king and a mighty royal house, the House of York, will fall.
A crown will be claimed and the new Tudor dynasty will begin.
But standing here, here with the sound of the sea and the wind off the cliffs bouncing around me, buffeting me, I should say it doesn't feel like the beginning of a dynasty.
It feels like something much smaller.
A landing.
A man taking a risk, stepping ashore with just enough behind him and everything ahead of him still uncertain.
[01:24:15] Speaker F: Ram.
[01:25:34] Speaker B: So that concludes our two part series focusing on the early years of Henry vii, from conception through to his landing back on Welsh soil. I do hope you have enjoyed this particular travel in time and so I would like to thank, of course, those special guests who joined me on the journey for their knowledge, their time and their expertise. I hope you thoroughly enjoyed our time together this month.
And of course I will be back as ever next month with a new episode. And in fact, it's a return journey. Yes, I'm going back to the Weald and Downland Museum and we're going to be exploring the development of domestic architecture, picking up from the first podcast that I did there a couple of years ago now, when we focused on the late medieval, early Tudor buildings. Now we're going to look and see how people develop their living space and use their living space.
Ordinary people. Not the palaces, not the castles, no, the ordinary people of England through the remainder of the Tudor period. So I hope you will join me on our guest expo but they're on location next month. Until then, my friends, I'll see you on the road again soon.
[01:27:15] Speaker C: Thank you. Tuning in to today's episode of the Tudor History and Travel Show. If you've loved the show, please take a moment to subscribe, like and rate this podcast so that we can spread the Tudor love.
Until next time, my friends. All that remains for me to say is happy time traveling.
[01:27:42] Speaker F: Sa.
