As King Henry VI's Uterine brothers Jasper and Edmund Tudor were also on very good terms with Richard Duke of York, even this good that both brothers were likely to be arrested for treason when they jointed York to London in January 1454 during King Henry VI's insanity. They even supported York at the council meeting when he received protectorship during the King's illness and not even the 1st Battle of St. Albans seemed to have changed their support to York.
During York’s brief protectorate
attempts to discipline Griffith ap Nicholas in South-West Wales failed but when Edmund did succeed in this four months
after York had lost his protectorship a second time, it was a great embarrassment
to York. The significance of the whole campaign centered on York’s
determination to assert his control over the government by acting as the
legitimate constable of the castles and neutralizing potentially dangerous
rivals in the principality. At this point Edmund seems to be a rival. In April York’s men, Sir Walter
Devereux and his son-in-law Sir William Herbert, decided to make their move by
gathering a force of about 2000 men from around Herefordshire and causing for many local skirmishes which escalated
in June when an attempt was made for an invasion on Kenilworth, with affirmed
intensions to kill the King.
From there William Herbert, Walter Devereux and members of the Vaughan
family joined their forces, proceeding their attentions on asserting York’s
authority and directed for West Wales,
for Carmarthen Castle, for Edmund. They
immediately seized the castle and took Edmund prison. From there,
they went on to other places in West-Wales, re-establishing York’s
authority after he earlier had lost those in Westminster. It is not clear at all why William Herbert changed
side at the first place, for at
first he appears to be on very good terms with both Edmund and his younger brother Jasper, A phrase from a contemporary poem composed by Lewys Glyn Cothi in 1452 in praise of William Herbert also suggests this:
...If Jasper was being pounded,
he’d [=William] pound through a
thousand men.
The nobleman’s full of
sincerity
(that will serve him well);
Gwilym [=William] is true and
skilled
for one God before everything
else,
also for the Crown, kindly
eagle,
and above for the earl of
Pembroke and his men.
Unfortunately Edmund would not be able to demonstrate
more of his abilities in Wales, for he died at Carmarthen on 1 November 1456.
Although suggested is the plague for a possible cause of death, an ample possibility,
although there is no exact proof, is that Edmund’s sudden death so soon after
the events of that summer, which was clearly a great shock and gives inevitable
suspicion of violence or neglect during his imprisonment, is that Edmund suffered
from wounds caused by opposing the force led by agents of the Duke of York.
Attempts to
condemn the Deveraux-Herbert upheavals happened on 15 February 1457 at a Great
Council, which opened at Coventry and closed some time before 14 March.
Unfortunately there are no contemporary accounts of this council that survives
but there is still the preface of 1459's act of attainder of the Duke and his
followers. According to the preamble, the chancellor made divers rehearsals to
the Duke of York which the Duke of Buckingham, on behalf of all the lords
present, stated that the Duke of York could only lean on the King’s grace.
Going on demanding York should be punished, should there be any repeat, but the
preamble does not say of what. The document of the indictments makes no direct
accusations to York which makes it difficult to directly blame him for Edmund’s death, even though Herbert and Devereux had to appear before the
oyer and terminer sitting at Hereford from 2 to 7 April.
For Herbert and Devereux the legal process went on for a few months and at the
end it is difficult to see why King Henry responded to these men like he did,
Herbert received a general pardon but Devereux was imprisoned and York received different modest gestures of reconciliations.
