Sir Rhys ap Thomas and His Family: A Study in the Wars of the Roses and Early Tudor Politics Paperback – Illustrated, 15 January 2014

Obviously a lot of research has gone into this book and it shows. This is not a book that you will read 'in one go' but it is certainly worth taking the time to read the history of a man, his family and his role in the life of Henry VII.

My husbands many greats grandfather so thrilled it was in print.

Sir Rhys ap Thomas and his Family:A Study in the Wars of the Roses and Early Tudor PoliticsBy Ralph A. GriffithsReviewed May 29, 2022King Henry won the dayThrough the strength of our master:Killing Englishmen, capable hand,Killing the boar, he shaved his head,And Sir Rhys like the stars of a shieldWith the spear in their midst on a great steed.~ Translation of Welsh poem by Guto’r Glyn praising the victory of Henry Tudor at BosworthI have been researching my family’s history for several decades now, and for a long time stuck to what took place on this side of the Atlantic. When I finally took the dive to search for ancestors across the ocean, I never really expected to find much but I had reached a point where I’d taken my family as far as I could here in the States and, as these were Colonial family lines that began with predominantly English puritans settling in Massachusetts and Connecticut, the next logical step was to look into where these men and women came from. So thanks to books, libraries, genealogical societies, and online websites, I started looking to see what I could find in the British Isles.More often than not, a family line disappeared from the records after a generation or two, but there were a few instances where I struck genealogical gold, and with these families I was able to trace some of these lines to Anglo-Norman lords and even royalty! And of course, there were many surprises along the way.One such surprise came about 10 years ago when I started looking deeper into the history of the Rice family line (4x great grandparents who lived in Athens County, Ohio in the early 1800s). I found that the family originated in Wales (which ties in with family DNA results), and that the name Rice had once been ap Rhys or just Rhys. The biggest surprise was discovering that one of the ancestors of this line was Sir Rhys ap Thomas. With my near-lifelong interest in Richard III, you can imagine what it was like to find that a 15x great grandfather is the man alleged to have delivered the death blow to the king! And this is what has led me to look further in the life and family of Sir Rhys ap Thomas, and why I bought this book when I came upon it.That and I happen to love the book cover and own a copy of the print, Graham Turner’sThe Battle of Bosworth – King Richard III’s Charge".The Wars of the Roses has been described by at least one historian (G. M. Trevelyan) as “to a large extent a quarrel between Welsh Marcher lords, who were also great English nobles, closely related to the English throne.” That might be over simplifying things a bit, but it does point out that Wales and the Welsh often played important roles in these dynastic struggles.This book looks at one specific family – that of Sir Rhys ap Thomas and his descendants – and examines their contributions to the Lancastrian/Tudor cause during the Wars of the Roses, and their influence in early Tudor politics.The book is in two parts. Part One is "Servants and Victims of Lancastrian, Yorkist and Tudor Monarchs" and covers the family’s rise to distinction, the life and career of Sir Rhys, the crisis and catastrophe created by his grandson Rhys ap Gruffydd, and the restoration and rehabilitation of the family.Part Two is a reprint of a 17th century "Life of Sir Rhys ap Thomas and his immediate forebears". It was written by Henry Rice in 1620 with the aim of supporting his family’s campaign to recover lands and inheritances that had been confiscated by the Crown when Rhys ap Gruffydd was executed for treason. The original manuscript has been lost, and so this section is based on a 1796 copy.The quick version of Sir Rhys ap Thomas’ post-Bosworth career goes something like this. He was one of the “pillars of the new regime in the realm at large” after having proved himself capable and loyal on Bosworth Field, and was highly valued for his qualities as a military commander by Henry VII and his son, Henry VIII. He was with the royal army that crossed to France in 1492, providing 9 men-at-arms, 250 demi-lances, 200 footmen with long spears, and 60 archers. His military presence was prominent in the 1497 preparations for the Scotland expedition, and the following year he commanded a detachment of several hundred cavalry that was dispatched to capture Perkin Warbeck at Beaulieu. Sir Rhys’ close connection to Henry VII in not just military matters is demonstrated by Henry commissioning Sir Rhys to build a Purbeck marble tomb for his father Edmund.The family continued its close connection with Henry VIII, with Sir Rhys’ son Gruffudd ap Rhys joining Prince Arthur’s household at Ludlow, “and formed a close personal attachment to him.” At Prince Arthur’s wedding to Catherine of Aragon in 1501, Sir Gruffudd was made a knight of the Bath and soon after married a kinswoman of Henry VII’s, Catherine St. John.Family fortunes took a severe downturn following Sir Gruffudd’s death in 1521, when the lawless behavior of Sir Rhys’ grandson, Rhys ap Gruffudd (who contrary to tradition was never knighted) ultimately led to the young man’s execution for treason in December 1531, but like so many such events of that time, there’s more to the story than a “simple” matter of treason. And this is where my family connection comes in, as it is through the descendants of Rhys ap Gruffudd and his wife, Catherine Howard (not the queen, but another great-granddaughter of John Howard, Duke of Norfolk) who by this time were using the Anglicized version Rice as their surname.In tone the book is very much in line with the traditional Tudor view of the Wars of the Roses and Richard III, but that came as no surprise to me. After all, the book is about the man who helped put Henry Tudor on the throne so of course it would be pro-Tudor but I confess to doing a mental double-take when I read the author refer to “the enlightened authoritarianism of King Henry VIII”. Where’s that eyeroll emoji when you need one?I found it interesting that this book, originally published in 1993 and reprinted in 2014 and 2018, hasn’t bothered to update the Forward to the New Edition where it refers to “the excavation of what is alleged to be the skeleton of King Richard III (my emphasis) at the site of the former Franciscan friary in Leicester, where the king was buried after the battle...” By the time of the first reprint, the skeletal remains had been confirmed by the University of Leicester as Richard’s (February 4, 2013), so let’s just put that “alleged” nonsense to rest.From a genealogical perspective, I found it an excellent resource for learning more about ap Thomas, his ancestors and his descendants. It is certainly much better than most of what I found online, and is filled with much more information about the man than I found in a related book, The Man Who Killed Richard III by Susan Fern.

Very interesting account, a good book