Since I know some of you will appreciate my delight in this this – I finally managed to get a copy of Roger S. Thomas’ dissertation on Jasper Tudor! I had been trying to avoid having to order a copy, so I was very happy to finally see it turn up through the Center for Research Libraries (of which my university is a member) in digital form. Now I just need to find the time to read it. 🙂
Let us know what it has to say about the “Ellen/Helen Tudor as mother of Stephen Gardiner” rumor. Also, in Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel mentions another rumor that apparently developed around the same time — that Jasper had another daughter, Joan, who was the mother (grandmother?) of Thomas Cromwell’s brother-in-law.
Modern biographers have pretty much demolished the Gardiner story — I haven’t really checked into the Cromwell story, although Mantel was not making it up — but I’m interested in why these “folk legends” became current and why Jasper was claimed as the point of genealogical origin. If Thomas’ dissertation discusses them, please post a little blurb.
I’ll definitely keep an eye open for things like that while I’m reading it. It’s over 500 pages, but thankfully it is mostly in double-spaced type!
I am so happy for you. I know how delirious I am whenever I get new information on Charles Brandon. There is really nothing like that feeling. I just hope you learn a lot that you didn’t know! That is the best thing I can wish for you.
One of the things that will be the most useful from finally getting the dissertation is getting all of his source notes. Thomas was a co-author on “The Making of the Tudor Dynasty” because a lot of his work on Jasper and the early Tudors got rolled in to the book, so I’m not sure how much will be totally new to me (although I’m sure some will be). I’ve just been reading the narrative part right now, but I’m going to go back and read it again and refer to the footnotes as I work through it and see what other goodies I can find.