Cylchgronau Cymru

SIR ROLAND VELEVILLE AND THE TUDOR DYNASTY: A REASSESSMENT* IN a short article published in 1967, the late Professor S. B. Chrimes rejected the tradition, accepted by several Welsh historians, that Sir Roland Veleville, who held the office of constable of Beaumaris castle for many years in Henry VIII's reign, was an illegitimate son of Henry VII, born in Brittany in the years before the founder of the Tudor dynasty came to the throne.1 Professor Chrimes went on to give a brief outline of Veleville's career as recorded in published sources, concluding with the comment: 'In the absence of any specific evidence, we can only conclude that all Henry Tudor had to do with him was perhaps to have brought him over among his Breton followers in 1485, to have employed him at court, and to have shown him some slight favour'. He attributed the origin of claims concerning Veleville's royal parentage entirely to the following passage, quoted in his article, in Angharad Llwyd's history of Anglesey, published in 1833:2 I find by the Lleweny Papers that, in the 1st of Henry VII, he appointed his illegitimate son, Sir Roland Velville, alias Britany, constable and captain of this place (Beaumaris) but the conduct of the garrison, was so offensive to the neighbourhood, that the king gave orders for its removal. Lord Combermere of Combermere Abbey, is in possession of the original grant of the constableship to his maternal ancestor, Syr R. Velville, dated "apud Caernarvon, Julii 3, 1st Henry VII", he died in 1533, describing himself in his will, made in that year, as "constable of Beaumaris Castell". Professor Chrimes's view that this passage was the sole source of later claims concerning Veleville's Tudor parentage was not well founded. Fifty years before the publication of Angharad Llwyd's book, Veleville was described as the 'reputed base son of Henry VII' in Thomas Pennant's well known account of north Wales, and her description of Veleville may have been derived from this source.3 In the passage quoted, she was not, as Professor S. B. Chrimes, 'Sir Roland de Veleville', ante, vol. 3, no. 3 (1967), pp. 287-89; Professor Chrimes's rejection of the tradition concerning Veleville's parentage is accepted in R. A. Griffiths and R. S. Thomas, The Making of the Tudor Dynasty (Gloucester, 1985), pp. 108, 174-75: no evidence has been found to support the statement that Henry VII made Veleville constable of Beaumaris castle 'not long before the king's death' (P. 174). A. Llwyd, A History of the Island of Mona, or Anglesey (Ruthin, 1833), pp. 131-32. 1 Thomas Pennant, A Tour in Wales (2 vols., London, 1778-83), vol. II, pp. 244-45. am very grateful to Dr. Steven Gunn, who kindly read a draft of this article and made valuable comments on it.