Jasper Tudor, 1st Duke of Bedford

Jasper Tudor
Duke of Bedford Earl of Pembroke
Coat of Arms of Jasper Tudor
Spouse	Catherine Woodville
Issue Helen or Ellen illegitimate
Noble family	Tudor
Father	Owen Tudor
Mother	Catherine of Valois
Born	November 1431 Hatfield, Hertfordshire
Died	21 December 1495 (age 64) Thornbury Castle, Gloucestershire
Buried	Keynsham Abbey, Somerset

Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford, Earl of Pembroke, KG (Welsh: Siasbar ab Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudur ap Goronwy) (c. November 1431 – 21/26 December 1495) was the uncle of King Henry VII of England and the architect of his successful conquest of England and Wales in 1485. He was from the noble Tudor family of Penmynydd in North Wales.

Jasper Tudor bore the King's arms, with the addition of a bordure azure with martlets or (that is, a blue border featuring golden martlets).

Jasper was the second son of Owen Tudor and the former Queen Catherine of Valois, the widow of Henry V of England. He was the half-brother to Henry VI, who, on attaining his majority in 1452, named Jasper Earl of Pembroke. Through his father, Jasper was a direct descendant of Ednyfed Fychan, Llywelyn the Great's renowned Chancellor. This connection added greatly to his status in Wales.

Jasper was born at the Bishop of Ely's manor at Hatfield in Hertfordshire in 1431, his parents' second child. His older brother, Edmund, was born at Much Hadham Palace in 1430. His younger brother, Owen, was born in 1432 at Westminster Abbey, when the Dowager Queen was visiting her eldest son and her water broke prematurely, forcing her to seek the help of the Abbey's monks. According to Henry VII's personal historian Polydore Vergil, Owen was taken and raised by the monks to become a member of the order, living under the name Edward Bridgewater until his death in 1502. Vergil also mentions a daughter who became a nun, but little is known of her. Catherine's last child would be born in 1437, mere days before her own untimely death on 3 January.