The Mansels of Gower
The World of Misplaced Men part 3
A great deal has been written about the Ricardian diaspora of the later 15th century and the men who found themselves on the wrong side of history. However, less attention has been paid to the Lancastrian exiles who between 1463 and 1471 sought refuge all over Europe from Lisbon to Lorraine.
One such group of Lancastrian exiles came from south-west Wales and their experiences are representative of many. By1461 Jasper Tudor had recruited a large retinue from the gentry of south and west Wales, centred on his earldom of Pembroke. While most of these men inhabited the area from the town of Carmarthen westwards, two were from the lordship of Gower to the east of Jasper’s holdings and nominally in the ownership of the Duke of Norfolk. These men were Philip Mansel of Oxwich and Hopkin ap Rhys of Llangyfelach, both of whom were Welsh Uchelwyr (High ones) but relatively minor gentry.
Philip Mansel was born c.1420 and inherited his father's estates of Oxwich, Scurlage and Penrice castle in the west of Gower. In 1444 he married Mabli, daughter of Gruffydd ap Nicholas of Newton House, Llandeilo, the most powerful man in Carmarthenshire. It was this marital link that brought him into the orbit of Jasper from 1457 just as the realm became prey to factional strife. Before dying in 1460, Mabli produced three sons - John, Leonard and Jenkin and one daughter, Jane. As an adherent of Jasper, Philip and his neighbour Hopkin joined him in January 1461 on the Mortimer’s Cross campaign where they fought and survived the subsequent Lancastrian rout. Undeterred by the experience, Philip remained in arms against the Herbert brothers’ campaign to cleanse Wales of Lancastrians between 1461 and May 1462 which culminated in the surrender of Philip’s brother-in-law, Rhys ap Gruffydd at Carreg Cenen, in the black mountains
By this time Jasper had retreated to France and from there embarked on Margaret of Anjou’s invasion of the north from Scotland. When this failed during the winter of 1462 Jasper once more became a pensioner of Louis XI. As Louis officially made peace with Edward, he allowed Jasper to plan another descent on Wales. Jasper made plans with the Briton Admiral Arlene de la Motte for a fresh assault in the spring of 1464. To aid his arrival Thomas and Owain ap Gruffydd, Rhys Hopkin and Philip Mansel attempted to capture the strategic centre of West Wales - the town of Carmarthen. They were intercepted near the old Welsh castle of Dryslwyn by Edward IV's Knights of the Body, John Dwnn and Roger Vaughan and roundly defeated. At the subsequent parliament all were attainted for treason and were lucky to keep their heads. Deprived of their estates and excluded from local influence, these remnants of Lancaster now fled abroad, fully aware that Edward’s patience was finite.
Philip and his two older sons did not join Jasper either in Brittany or France and neither did they join Margaret of Anjou’s threadbare court in exile in Couer in Lorraine. Rather they took ship for the Netherlands and the domains of the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good. Philip was somewhat ambivalent over the rivalries of Lancaster and York but his son and heir, Charles Count of Charolais was proud of his Lancastrian descent from a daughter of John of Gaunt. Indeed, Charles had already offered asylum to two close relatives of Henry VI - Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter and Edmund, Duke of Somerset. Exeter was in receipt of a pension by Charles after he was recognised begging door to door, while Somerset was respected for his intractable opposition to Edward IV, who had killed his father and elder brother.
Although young, Somerset was recognised as an experienced and accomplished soldier who readily found a position in the polyglot Burgundian army and it was to Somerset's retinue that the Mansels now attached themselves, taking part in the war of the public weal in France between 1465 to 67 and the battle of Montlehry in 1467. Following the accession of Charles as Duke of Burgundy in 1467, the Mansels remained in Somerset’s company, participating in a number of campaigns in the Netherlands, most notably against the Duke of Guelders.
Everything changed in the autumn of 1470 when Edward IV was driven into exile by his cousin, Warwick, now allied with Margaret of Anjou, and Henry VI was restored to the throne. Although he had won the realm for Lancaster, Somerset and Exeter remained suspicious of Warwick and delayed travelling to England until February 1471. When they did the Mansels travelled with them but played no part in Jasper’s attempts to rally Wales to the cause of Lancaster.
Edward IV returned to England in April 1471 and, landing in Yorkshire, he quickly marched south recruiting as he went. Warwick, deserted by his fickle son-in-law, Edward’s brother Clarence, gave battle at Barnet on 14 April, accompanied by the Duke of Exeter. The battle ended badly for Warwick who was killed alongside his brother, John and Exeter was seriously wounded but survived.
On the very day that Barnet was fought Margaret of Anjou and her son Edward landed at Weymouth and there to greet her was the Duke of Somerset and in his retinue, the Mansel father and sons. Somerset took control of Margaret’s army but the resulting battle at Tewkesbury was a disaster with large numbers of Lancastrians slain, including John and Leonard Mansel who had barely spent four months on English soil. Their father Philip now aged 51 was captured.
Jasper Tudor had failed to join with Margaret and upon hearing of the defeat at Tewkesbury began to retreat to Wales. With the traditional route west blocked by Yorkist partisans, Jasper rode south towards Chepstow which was held by his old enemy, Roger Vaughan who, ten years earlier had led Jasper’s father, Owen, to execution at Hereford. Surprising Vaughan at Chepstow, Jasper took his revenge and had him publicly beheaded in the town square before retreating to Pembroke with his nephew Henry Tudor and escaping to Brittany.
It was to Chepstow that Philip Mansel would be taken by his captor, Sir John Conyers and there, he was publicly executed on the same spot and in revenge for Jasper’s execution of the king's knight, Roger Vaughan. Philip’s death left only one surviving son, Jenkin who was too young to follow the military career of his father and elder brothers. Unsurprisingly, he was one of the first to join Henry Tudor in August 1485, alongside his more famous cousin, Sir Rhys ap Thomas. After Bosworth his attainder was reversed and for his military services to the Tudors, he was given the soubriquet Yr Dewr (the valiant). His loyalty to the Tudor regime ensured that his family, after years of exile, prospered, gaining the Margam abbey estates after the dissolution of the monasteries and founding a line of barons that would continue into the eighteenth century.