The woman known to history as Margaret Beaufort
was born on the 31st of May either in 1441 or in 1443 at Bletsoe Castle, Bedfordshire. Her father was John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset,
who was the grandson of John of Gaunt, the fourth son of Edward III, a genealogical connection
that Margaret was to exploit in order to legitimize her son Henry’s claim to the throne during
the Wars of the Roses. Margaret’s mother was Margaret Beauchamp,
the daughter of Sir John Beauchamp of Bletsoe, and the heiress to her family’s fortune
after her only brother John Beauchamp died childless and unmarried in 1421, making her
an attractive and wealthy match for her first husband, Oliver St John, whose death in 1438
made her available for John Beaufort to marry. Margaret’s pursuit of royal power was somewhat
hindered by a series of scandals that had enveloped her family generations earlier. The first of these concerned her own father,
who after being imprisoned by the French following his capture at the Battle of Baugé in 1421
in Henry V’s wars against the French king, paid a staggering £24,000 ransom, equivalent
to 15 million pounds today, to secure his release over 17 years later in 1438. However although he was impoverished by the
extortionate price he had to pay for his release, he did benefit financially when he married
Margaret from the vast estates that she held around Bedfordshire, Wiltshire, and Dorset. Although Margaret was the sole product of
her mother’s marriage to John Beaufort, Margaret Beauchamp was much more fruitful
in her previous marriage, and so her daughter had many half-sisters and half-brothers, namely
John, Oliver, Edith, Mary, Margaret, and Elizabeth St. John, a side of the family that Margaret
Beaufort remained close with throughout her life. After marrying his wife Margaret in 1442,
John Beaufort returned to the battlefield as a commander of an English regiment that
was to fight against King Charles VII of France after his invasion of Gascony in 1443, presenting
him with a perfect opportunity to reignite his military career. After being anointed captain general of Aquitaine
and Normandy, and bestowed with the title of Duke of Somerset by an act of parliament,
John Beaufort set out to prove himself to his contemporaries, but his campaign to France
went disastrously wrong and he was exposed as a poor and cowardly leader, who although
able to take some minor French towns never had the courage to directly engage the French
army, being further lambasted for allowing his men to pillage and plunder at will and
also for his misappropriation of royal funds, which he used to enrich himself. Returning to England after his disappointing
tour of duty, Henry VI was so infuriated with his conduct that he refused to see him, and
John Beaufort was left with no other option but to retire to his country estate in Dorset
where, eaten away with unbearable shame he decided to take his own life on the 27th of
May 1444, his young daughter was barely a year old at the time. The humiliating conduct and death of Margaret’s
father was compounded by another, even more serious family transgression that happened
even earlier, as the Beaufort’s link to royalty was always somewhat tainted, due to
the fact that they originated from an initially illegitimate offshoot following John of Gaunt’s
relationship with Katherine Swynford, the governess to his children from his first marriage
to Blanche of Lancaster. Following the death of John’s wife Constance
in 1394, the woman he had been unfaithful to, his relationship to Katherine was legitimized
after they married in January 1396, which meant that all his future offspring would
be officially recognized as having royal blood, yet despite this, the fact that some of their
children had been born out of wedlock meant that the scandal surrounding John of Gaunt
lived on throughout the years, persisting all the way up to his great-great grandson,
King Henry VII, where it was used as a tool to invalidate his reign. Margaret herself was a woman of remarkable
devotion, kindness, and generosity, and later in her life used her almost inexhaustible
funds to donate heavily to the Church, an institution she had the utmost respect for
and that represented the Christian religion that would serve as a guiding light for her
in some of her darkest hours, especially regarding the safety of her son, as Margaret was a dedicated
family woman who found purpose in her life safeguarding the Tudor bloodline, a desire
that was emulated by the care and attention she always showed towards her beloved Henry,
her only child, a primal protective instinct she also extended to her dearly loved grandchildren,
who she adoringly showered with gifts. The seriousness in which Margaret approached
the survival of her bloodline could often spill over into her mischievous sense of humor,
where all niceties would be set aside for those who had dared challenge her family,
such as the rather overweight Duchess of Burgundy and her equally rotund entourage, who had
supported a pretender to the throne, and were to Margaret, in a letter to the queen’s
chamberlain in April 1496: “great ladies all, and according to their great estates
they have great personages”, yet Margaret, although strong-willed in everything she set
her heart on, was never needlessly cruel to her enemies, something that Henry took great
pains to implement in his own reign. In addition, Margaret, who was renowned for
her love of cards and was even known to place bets on chess, equally relished playing the
game of real estate, and during her early years, when her property was constantly threatened
by her Yorkist rivals, made every effort to maneuver herself into a stronger position
either through political intrigue or marriage, for one of her main aims was to retain her
inheritance for the sake of her son Henry, and it was with this singular dedication to
her son’s welfare that she would eventually harbor the greatest ambition of them all - for
her son to become King of England. At the time of Margaret Beaufort’s birth
in 1443, the kingdom of England was ruled by the House of Lancaster, an offshoot of
the House of Plantagenet which had governed England and its overseas possessions since
1154, and its weak-willed king Henry VI, who led efforts to resist the annexation of English
lands in northern France by French emperor Charles VII and his Burgundian allies in the
closing stages of the Hundred Years’ War. This was a conflict that would not only lead
to the dishonor of John Beaufort, but to the eventual loss of England’s entire realm
abroad during Margaret’s lifetime and to the rise of another branch of the Plantagenets,
the House of York, as serious contenders for the English throne. Following the death of Margaret’s father,
and in conjunction with the fact that she was of royal descent and no longer had a male
protector, many noble houses in the realm became very interested in securing her wardship,
a type of guardianship in which the selected family would be able to determine the fate
of the infant heir’s property, as Margaret, being the eldest child of John Beaufort, had
in combination with her mother’s impressive portfolio, also inherited all of the vast
lands her father held in Kent, Worcestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Somerset, Essex, and
Sussex, making her an extremely wealthy individual at a very young age. Beaufort’s untimely passing, and the fact
that Margaret was technically part of the royal family, sprung King Henry VI into action,
who entrusted her wardship to William de la Pole, the Earl of Suffolk and steward of the
king’s household, who secured her betrothal to his own son John de la Pole in 1450, which
was to be carried out when she was 12 and had come of age. However, despite being in the legal custody
of the de la Poles, Margaret never left her ancestral home at Bletsoe Castle, where she
would have shared her childhood with the numerous offspring of her mother’s first marriage
to Oliver St John, including her half-brothers John, and Oliver, and half-sisters Edith,
Mary, and Margaret. At Bletsoe, Margaret enjoyed a privileged
upbringing befitting of a noblewomen of her stature, and here she would be taught to properly
manage and administrate hereditary estates, would listen to the finest musicians hired
to entertain her aristocratic clan, and where she, alongside her half-sister Margaret St
John who would later become Abbess of Shaftesbury, would first be inducted into the Christian
faith. She was taught about the importance of religion
by her own devout mother, who would also instill in the young Margaret a voracious appetite
to read, illustrated by her mother’s will in which she bequeathed to her many books,
all of which were doubtlessly added to the impressive library Margaret fervently maintained
as an adult. Nevertheless, after Margaret’s betrothal
to John de la Pole in 1450, Margaret would find herself at 6 years old, at the center
of a scandal that rocked England, as her guardian, the unpopular William de la Pole, was blamed
for encouraging Henry VI to follow a policy of peace and cooperation with the King of
France, which had resulted in the loss of a significant number of English possessions
on the Continent and the retention of just Calais and Aquitaine by the end of August
1450, charges which were made a lot worse by the further accusation that de La Pole
was planning to take advantage of Margaret’s royal stock to advance his own family’s
claim to the throne by marrying her to his son. Even after William de la Pole was killed by
his enemies after being intercepted in the North Sea on his way to exile in France, Margaret
remained promised to his son while King Henry VI, who had been humiliated by his loss of
territory in France, found his ascendancy challenged by Richard Duke of York, who in
February 1452 marched on London, but although nothing came of it and he was eventually pardoned,
tension continued to rise between the House of Lancaster and the House of York. Henry was keen to consolidate his own support
by awarding honors to those who had stuck by him in the face of the Duke of York’s
open hostility including his half-brother Edmund Tudor, and so, in February 1453, a
nearly 10 years old Margaret was summoned to Henry’s court in London, where her marriage
contract with John de la Pole was nullified, and where she was re-promised instead to Edmund
Tudor, who alongside his brother Jasper Tudor, became her new wards on the 24th of March,
a personal triumph for the brothers who were made rich beyond their wildest dreams, for
they would now share Margaret’s enormous inheritance between them. Now betrothed to a man who was a close confidant
of the king, Margaret eagerly threw herself into court life, attending one of her first
royal functions on the 23rd of April 1453 at Windsor Castle for the Garter celebrations
where she appeared alongside Henry’s glamorous Queen Margaret, bedecked in an exquisite red
dress, a fashion statement that would no doubt have inspired the young and impressionable
Margaret to follow suit after King Henry gifted her 100 marks for clothes on the 12th of May
for her upcoming first meeting with her future husband, Edmund, the man who would tie her
permanently to the Lancastrian cause. With the death of Margaret’s uncle Somerset,
one of Henry VI’s most trusted advisors a few days later on the 22nd of May 1455 at
the Battle of St Albans following the Duke of York’s resumption of hostilities, and
marking the start of the Wars of the Roses, he was to remain her only male protector. Just 12 days after St Albans, on the 31st
of March 1455, Margaret married Edmund Tudor, who was10 years her senior, in the process
elevating herself significantly up the Lancastrian ladder, and taking the title Countess of Richmond
which she retained for the rest of her life. She settled with her new husband at Lamphey
in Pembrokeshire, Wales, where Edmund was tasked with maintaining law and order and
curbing the authority of the rebellious Welsh magnate and Yorkist supporter, Gruffudd ap
Nicholas, who at the time had control of the most important administrative centre in the
region, Carmarthen Castle, this was a period of Margaret’s life that was to be marked
by uncertainty and anxiety. The first fray occurred when Edmund successfully
seized the castle at Carmarthen, compelling the Yorkists to reply by sending a force under
the command of Sir William Herbert and Sir Walter Devereux, whose 2000 strong regiment
proved too strong for Edmund, and whose brief imprisonment on the 10th of August 1455 caused
Margaret great despair, as the couple had successfully consummated the marriage and
she was deeply afraid for the safety of her unborn child. Although Edmund was released to the great
relief of his teenage bride, an even more tragic twist of fate was to happen when Margaret
was just 6 months pregnant, her marriage abruptly ending following Edmund’s death from the
plague on the 1st of November 1456, a disease that Margaret, now alone and vulnerable in
hostile territory, was so terrified would also kill her and the baby growing inside
her, that she requested every medical treatise on the illness that she could find in an obsession
to keep it at bay. Desperate for a protector, Jasper Tudor, fully
aware of the danger his sister-in-law was in, dropped everything to come to her rescue,
and a now heavily pregnant Margaret bid farewell to her marital home in mid-November, accompanying
Jasper through cold winter winds to arrive at Pembroke Castle, where on the 28th of January
1457, after a brutal and exhausting labour, she gave birth to Henry, and thus began an
unbreakable bond between mother and son, one that was to overcome the greatest of trials
and tribulations, but was to be equally bolstered by glorious triumphs, and although Margaret
had survived the ordeal of childbirth, it is likely that the internal damage she suffered
that day meant she could never have children again, for Henry remained her one and only
child. Margaret now underwent the traditional ritual
known as churching, whereby the mother was to spend 5 weeks with her newborn away from
men, and after finishing this period with a ceremony of purification that allowed her
to re-enter society, it was Jasper who would lead the search for Margaret’s next husband,
which commenced in March 1457 with a journey from Newport to Gwent. At the time, being a young, unmarried heiress
of extraordinary wealth, Margaret was considered a very eligible match, and with Jasper ever
eager to strengthen the House of Lancaster, he decided it was best to give her hand in
marriage to one of his loyal supporters, settling on the son of Humphrey Stafford, Duke of Buckingham,
Henry Stafford. However during marriage negotiations, which
did not require the women to be present, Margaret, empowered by a powerful impetus to safeguard
her young son’s interests, showed a remarkable degree of involvement despite being just 13
years old, opting to accompany Jasper to Buckingham’s estate at Greenfield in Newport, a journey
of more than a hundred miles that even though this was only 2 months after she had given
birth, she was willing to make. Despite Henry Stafford’s mother being the
granddaughter of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford, making him closely related to Margaret,
a dispensation was granted by the Pope on the 6th of April 1457, and after Margaret
had completed the customary year of mourning for her deceased husband, the couple married
on the 3rd of January 1458, marking the start of a relationship quite at odds with the loveless
political unions of the time, for it seemed Margaret and Stafford developed genuine feelings
for each other, illustrated by the fact that they regularly celebrated their marriage anniversary
every year thereafter with sumptuous feasts. On the other hand, only five days later on
the 8th of January, the joy of Margaret’s wedding would be contrasted with the news
that her son Henry was to become the joint ward of Jasper Tudor and the king’s treasurer,
the Earl of Shrewsbury, although Henry would stay the majority of the time with Jasper
at his castle at Pembroke, where the young prince could be assured of his safety, and
where Jasper filled the void left by the death of the youth’s father, developing his own
unbreakable bond with his nephew, who he treated like his own son. With Margaret assured that Henry was being
lovingly cared for by his uncle, Margaret settled back into a life of aristocratic splendor
with Henry Stafford at his residence in Bourne, and although the union produced no children
she would live happily alongside her new spouse, but her thoughts would always turn back to
her son Henry who she now saw infrequently, and who as a child was often sickly, his frail
health worrying Margaret immensely and heightened by the sorrow of their separation. Nevertheless, as Margaret fretted about the
health of her infant son while tirelessly proving herself as a devoted wife, political
developments remained ominous, and despite King Henry VI’s effort to mend the deepening
divide of the Yorkist and Lancastrian folds at a ceremony known as Loveday on the 24th
of March 1457, in which the Duke of York symbolically followed in the steps of Henry and his Queen
for the realm to see, tensions continued to rise, culminating in a major Lancastrian defeat
at the Battle of Northampton on the 10th of July 1460, resulting in the capture of King
Henry VI by the Duke of York, who forced Henry to name him heir to the throne, and also the
death of Margaret’s father-in-law and head of her husband’s house, the Duke of Buckingham. Consequently Queen Margaret fled to Scotland,
and on the 30th of December 1460 after being provided with an army by Mary of Gueldres,
and with a group of vengeful English nobles at her back, achieved a stunning victory at
the Battle of Wakefield, resulting in the deaths of the Duke of York and his 17 year
old son Edmund, Earl of Rutland, yet Margaret and her family’s jubilation was to be short-lived,
coming to a sudden end after York’s eldest surviving son Edward defeated Lancastrian
forces at the Battle of Towton on the 29th of March 1461, and with Henry VI and his queen
taking flight to France, the resurgent Yorkist rebel crowned himself Edward IV, a moment
of utter devastation for Margaret, for now she believed her very life and the life of
her beloved Lancastrian son were in the gravest danger they had ever faced. However luckily for Margaret, it quickly became
clear that Edward was not out for blood, and in an attempt to patch the realm up the king
was exceedingly forgiving of his enemies, on the 25th of June 1461 issuing a pardon
to the family of Henry Stafford and to his younger brother John, who had fought against
Edward at Towton, an act of clemency perhaps made a lot easier given that Henry Stafford
was the cousin of the new king, as their mothers were both sisters. On the other hand, despite Margaret’s inheritance
and titles being relatively unaffected by the Yorkist changeover, Jasper Tudor was branded
a traitor, and as a result the wardship of Henry, now 5 years old, was entrusted instead
to one of his own henchmen, William Herbert, the same man who had captured his father Edmund
at Carmarthen, who to help further his cause paid the king 1000 pounds, around 643,000
pounds in today’s money, for the honor of being Henry’s guardian, resulting in Henry
moving across Wales from Pembroke to his new home at Raglan Castle. Like before, Margaret would endeavor to maintain
as much contact as possible by frequently sending her son letters, who for the first
time would be able to mix with other children of noble stock at Raglan as William Herbert,
and in particular his wife Anne Devereaux, took a serious interest in the wellbeing of
their young charge, providing him with great comfort and support, something the young Henry
would never forget even as king, when he later welcomed Anne Devereaux to his court with
open arms, yet even though Henry was treated gracefully by Edward, to Margaret’s anger
this did not stop the new king from disinheriting many of his lands and giving them to his brother
George, Duke of Clarence, and although Henry had been stripped of his title, his mother
would still refer to him as ‘Lord Richmond’, ever hopeful she could return to him his birthright. For now, the best course of action was to
reconcile with the House of York, and alongside her husband Henry Stafford, proved herself
a skillful political maneuverer throughout the 1460s, able to work her way into the good
graces of Edward’s regime at the same time as disassociating herself with the traitorous
actions of some of her family members such as the Duke of Somerset, who in 1463 deserted
Henry VI for the Yorkists, but after gaining great favor from Edward betrayed him by switching
his allegiance back to Lancaster, and was captured and executed on the battlefield on
the 15th of May 1464 after being defeated by Edward’s armies at the Battle of Hexham. In addition, with the later capture of King
Henry VI in Lancashire in July 1465, and his subsequent imprisonment in the Tower of London
for five years, it was more crucial than ever for Margaret to gain the favor of Edward,
which by December 1466, after Edward granted her the previously confiscated Beaufort manor
at Woking which had belonged to her disgraced father, she had seemingly won, and for the
next few years with Stafford she would live a carefree existence in the Surrey countryside,
visiting the local church of St Peter, going on day trips to local towns such as Guildford
for household supplies, and where she even tried her hand at hunting and hawking. However, despite her idyllic living situation,
and her increasing closeness with Stafford’s family, whose mother and brother John became
close companions, as well as her many trips to another of her childhood homes, Maxey Castle,
to see her own mother Margaret Beauchamp, such as at Christmas 1466 when alongside her
half-sister Elizabeth St John she spent 6 weeks there, Margaret was always concerned
about Henry, and in September 1467 she would make the journey to Raglan Castle to visit
him for a week, perhaps for the first time in many years, for it was the first recorded
visit in Stafford’s accounts, and it was likely that the trip was far too short for
Margaret and tinged with jealousy for William Herbert and his wife, a couple who Margaret
had no strong affinity for but who had been given the privilege of raising her son, something
that Margaret doubtlessly longed to do herself. Nevertheless, to realize her dream of getting
her son back, Margaret would again have to play politics, and in December 1468, she made
enormous preparations to receive the king himself, buying for herself a luxurious red
dress for the occasion, and sparing no expense as she splashed out on an enormous 5 course
meal, complete with an assortment of the finest seafood, an exuberant purple hunting tent,
and the most talented musicians in the land, in a visit aimed at determining her loyalty
to the Yorkist regime, as a rift between Edward and one of his most important allies, the
Earl of Warwick was steadily growing, with many appalled at Edward’s choice of Queen,
Elizabeth Woodville, a woman of low noble stock who Edward had married, quite controversially,
for love. Yet Margaret’s fealty to Edward, however
necessary, would once again land her son in great peril, for her son Henry, accompanying
his guardian William Herbert, became involved in the ensuing conflict between the king and
the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Edgecote on the 24th of July 1469, a crushing defeat
for the Yorkist faction that led to the capture and execution of William Herbert, and when
news of the outcome came to Margaret she feared for her son’s life, spending an inordinate
amount of money to find out if he had been struck down like his guardian, but to her
relief Henry had indeed survived, and had been whisked far away to Weobley Castle in
the care of Anne Devereux, and with Henry VI seemingly in the ascendancy and William
Herbert deceased, Margaret pounced on the opportunity to reclaim custody of her son
and his birthright in a visit to London on the 24th of August, but to no avail. However, when the realm was re-settled on
the 3rd of October 1470 and Henry VI was reinstated, Margaret’s luck turned for the better when
she was finally given the opportunity to meet Henry again, this time in the company of the
king himself, keen to meet the progeny of his greatly missed half-brother Edmund, who
granted them an audience at Westminster on the 27th of October, and although it was decided
that Henry was to resume being Jasper’s ward, it was also proclaimed that Henry should
spend some quality time with his mother beforehand. Margaret was elated, and in the next month
November she would spend 2 weeks with her teenage son who accompanied them to Woking,
where she entertained him with a tour of the Surrey countryside, and where most likely
the bond between mother and son was reinforced even further, but before long Margaret would
be heartbroken again as Henry left her company to join Jasper on the 11th of November, a
grief that would be intensified for, unbeknownst to both, the next time they would meet would
be 15 years later, as Edward IV bounced violently back onto the scene. On the 11th of April 1471, Edward, who was
popular in the capital, marched on London to great fanfare, declaring himself king and
imprisoning Henry in the Tower of London, and on the 4th of May he went on to defeat
a rescue force sent by Henry’s wife Queen Margaret at the Battle of Tewkesbury, brutally
slaughtering the young heir to the throne Edward of Westminster, before banishing Queen
Margaret back to France and murdering King Henry VI on the 21st of May, an unexpected
turn of events that had profound consequences on the standing of the young Henry Tudor. Margaret did not openly grieve the deaths
of her Lancastrian kinsmen, for now with the extinction of the Beaufort male bloodline,
the Crown was passed onto the female line, of which Margaret was the oldest and by extension
her son Henry. At her urging Henry and Jasper fled the country
in October, and after entering the North Sea, strong winds diverted their path to Brittany,
where they were received graciously by Duke Francis II as noble captives, but Margaret’s
misfortunes were not at an end, as on the 2nd of October 1471, her husband Henry Stafford,
who had been injured fighting for Edward’s cause at the Battle of Barnet, succumbed to
his injuries, and in a testament to the love and respect he had for his wife’s abilities
he named her the principal executor of his will, and most of his earthly possessions
he bequeathed to “my beloved wife Margaret, Countess of Richmond”. In the meantime, being the mother of a potential
rival to Edward IV, Margaret found herself in an incredibly precarious position, and
in order to improve her standing she opted for a pragmatic marriage with pro-Yorkist
Thomas Stanley, the steward of the King’s household, and while Margaret benefitted from
the closer proximity to the Yorkist fold, Stanley profited from the sizable inheritance
his marriage to her entailed, a union of convenience cemented by a wedding ceremony that took place
on the 12th of June 1472, but despite Margaret’s essential political shift she was also looking
out for her son, placing some of her own ancestral lands in Devon and Somerset in a trust on
the 2nd of June 1472 for Henry to claim in the event that he returned. Margaret however, was not content with living
life on the sidelines, and with her powerful new husband, an influential landowner with
possessions in Cheshire, Lancashire, and northern Wales where he exercised considerable local
heft, began making her mark on high society and allaying Edward’s suspicions about her,
accompanying Stanley to his manors in Lathom and Knowsley, settling land disputes in Liverpool
in 1473 and 1474 where in one particular case she acted as one of the main judges, all the
while becoming an influential presence at the royal court, where in 1476 she accompanied
the Queen and her daughters for the reburial ceremony at Fotheringhay of Richard, Duke
of York. Despite her newfound popularity at the Yorkist
court, Margaret maintained secret communications with her vagabond son, urging him not to return
to England and to regard Edward’s pledges with suspicion, for the Yorkist king was trying
to lure Henry back to England with promises of wealth, titles, and even marriage to his
own daughter, which were no doubt insincere and would only lead to the young prince’s
death, and it was clear that Henry deeply respected his mother’s council, for in November
1476, after Francis II agreed to return Henry to Edward on the condition he was treated
respectfully, Henry, faking illness, managed to escape the clutches of the English envoys
sent to apprehend him by taking refuge in a church, and after Henry’s pursuers were
driven off by townsfolk offended that they would breach the sanctuary of God, Francis
was then persuaded to rescind his offer. Yet, despite her son’s close call, Margaret
continued to bend the knee to Edward, and by 1480, after being entrusted with carrying
Edward’s youngest daughter Bridget to the font where she was to be christened, it was
clear that Margaret had improved her position considerably, and as she rose through the
Yorkist ranks, she started to entertain the possibility that she could negotiate Henry’s
safe return. By June 1482, after the death of her beloved
mother, Margaret, she finally produced some tangible results, agreeing with Edward that
Henry was to be permitted to receive a portion of his grandmother’s inheritance, an arrangement
marked by the king’s stamp on a document dated the 3rd of June 1482, in which it was
proclaimed that if Henry were to return that he would “be in the grace and favor of the
king’s highness”, but with the stage set for Henry’s return, Margaret’s dreams
would be crushed again with the unexpected death of Edward on the 9th of April, and with
the agreement yet to be finalized, Henry’s fate became uncertain once more. The English crown was now usurped by Edward’s
brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who like many had always despised the lowly origins
of Edward’s Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, who now fought to prevent Richard from involving
himself in the affairs of government and to make sure that the kingship smoothly transitioned
to her son, Edward V, yet her plans soon disintegrated after Richard, in combination with the Duke
of Buckingham, the grandson of Margaret’s ex father-in-law, who had his own gripe with
Elizabeth since he had been forced against his will to marry her lowborn sister, intercepted
the 12 year old Edward V at Northampton, and while the Queen and the rest of her children
took refuge at Westminster Abbey, Edward, and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York
were instead sent to the Tower of London, where their claim was deemed illegitimate
by Richard, who crowned himself king on the 6th of July 1482. With Margaret’s husband briefly arrested,
and Richard illustrating he would stop at nothing to eliminate all those who opposed
him after the brutal beheading of Lord Hastings, one of Edward IV’s most trusted councilors,
Thomas Stanley was left with no choice but to indicate his support for Richard, and although
Margaret attended the coronation banquet, deep down she resented her new king for ruining
the arrangement that would finally have seen Henry returned to her. Always thinking of what was best for her son,
Margaret may have been involved in a failed plot to rescue the incarcerated princes from
the Tower of London, as it is likely she thought that Henry would be more favorably received
if Edward V, a young princeling of 12 years old, was on the throne. However, this was not to be, as although no-one
knows for certain, the most widely accepted version of events is that Richard, realizing
that the security of his position would always be threatened by the princes, ordered them
to be murdered but whatever their fate they were never seen again. With the dissappearance of the young princes,
and with the popularity of the usurper Richard III, who proclaimed his own son Edward as
his heir, dwindling as a result of the widespread rumor that he had sanctioned the killings
of his own nephews, Margaret’s dedication to her son took on a whole new dimension,
as now it was her mission to make Henry, with his pure Lancastrian blood, the king of England,
yet first she would have to legitimize his claim, as Henry was unknown to many people
having spent a large portion of his life in exile. First Margaret would have to arrange a marriage
that would further validate his claim in the eyes of the people, and so began negotiations
with the family of the deposed Queen Elizabeth, the Woodvilles, whose daughter, Elizabeth
of York was the perfect candidate, for since the deaths of her brothers in captivity many
in the realm believed her to be the rightful heir to the throne. With the Woodvilles being heavily guarded
at Westminster Abbey by Richard’s men, Margaret employed the help of her trusted Welsh physician
Dr Lewis of Caerleon, who, entrusted with the marriage proposal, was able to pass through
to Queen Elizabeth on the pretext that he was seeing a patient, and without arousing
the suspicion of the men outside he was able deliver Margaret’s message which Elizabeth,
stricken with grief for the disappearance of her two sons and offered a chance to exact
revenge on their murderer, firmly agreed too. With the conspiracy set in motion Margaret
became its architect, enlisting the support of many of Edward IV’s former henchmen,
including Giles Daubeney, Richard Guildford, Thomas Ramney, John Cheyney, and most significantly
the Duke of Buckingham, the man who had originally conspired with Richard to place him on the
throne, but who now regretting his involvement, especially the in light of the young princes’
demise, was willing to change allegiance, and as Margaret stepped up recruitment she
informed Henry of her plan, assuring him that if he were to sail to Wales then he would
find support waiting for him there. However, by the 11th of October, King Richard
had cottoned on to the conspiracy, and initially believing that the Duke of Buckingham was
the mastermind, he had him immediately outlawed as the Duke rose up in Wales on the 18th of
October as planned, yet heavy rain prevented them from entering England across the River
Severn, and soon the Duke was on the run from royal authorities as Henry, unaware of developments,
landed in England a few days later but turned back after growing suspicious of the claims
that the Duke’s uprising had been a success. The whole enterprise was a disaster, and with
the Woodvilles’ uprising in Kent was also put down at the same time. Following the capture and decapitation of
the Duke of Buckingham at Salisbury marketplace on the 2nd of November, Richard became aware
of Margaret’s involvement in the plot and suddenly she was at his mercy, and her life
was only spared because the king, aware that he was deeply unpopular, realized he needed
the support of her husband Stanley as a counterbalance to ensure his own political survival, but
despite Margaret’s miraculous escape, Richard was able to dish out reprisals for her treachery
in other ways, and in a devastating blow to her prestige, declared that all of her lands,
which she had sought to protect and maintain throughout her life, were to be transferred
to her husband Stanley, and that for the foreseeable future she was to remain under house arrest,
with her husband as her jailor. But even though Margaret was locked up, she
was still able to smuggle messages, probably with the knowledge of Stanley, out to Henry,
who during her incarceration was busy drumming up support for a second invasion at the same
time as avoiding Richard’s efforts to apprehend him, as with Duke Francis’ health failing
him, his treasurer Pierre Landois proved more susceptible to Richard’s bribes, compelling
Henry and his uncle Jasper Tudor to flee Brittany and to disguise himself as a commoner in order
to seek asylum with the King of France Charles VIII, at the time a 13 year old boy, whose
sister and Queen regent Anne de Beaujeu luckily accepted him. Richard III was not so fortunate, as his own
son Edward had suddenly died on the 9th of April 1484, and with his Queen, Anne, unable
to bear more children, rumors began to emerge that to the alarm of Margaret, Richard was
planning to marry Henry’s betrothed, Elizabeth of York, whose beauty had started to become
noted by the courtiers and nobles of the realm, adding a real sense of urgency as Henry organized
his second attack. As Richard prepared his army and set up his
headquarters in Nottingham for the coming invasion, he also took care to mount a scathing
propaganda campaign against Henry, and it was here that Margaret’s checkered family
history came back to haunt her, as in a bid to delegitimize his rival Richard, he made
sure to point out that her great grandfather John of Gaunt had committed ‘double adultery’,
and that as a result Henry’s claim to the throne, predicated on an untainted connection
to the royal bloodline, was invalid. With Margaret communicating with her son every
step of the way, Henry, with a 3000 strong force at his back, which he was hoping would
increase once in he was in Britain, set off from Harfleur on the 1st of August 1485, and
on the 7th of August he disembarked at Milford Haven, in Pembrokeshire, on the Welsh coast,
marching through Wales unopposed before setting up camp at Merevale Abbey, where in the evening
of the 21st of August Henry was joined by his loyal followers including John Welles,
Margaret’s half-brother. The next day on the 22nd of August both armies
met at Market Bosworth, and with Richard the more experienced battle commander and possessing
3 times as many men, Margaret would doubtlessly have been worried about the outcome of the
battle, for in contrast Henry had no battlefield experience, but as the skirmish commenced
it was Margaret’s own husband Stanley who betrayed Richard and turned the tide in Henry’s
favor, and Richard was struck down as his horse slipped at the edge of a bog. To great fanfare, Henry entered Leicester,
and to shouts of “God Save King Henry” passed the first decree of his reign, informing
the public that Richard was dead and that the men who fought the battle could all return
back home, while Margaret penned the auspicious news in her Book of Hours, simply writing:
“this day King Henry the VII won the field where was slain King Richard the third”. Following Henry’s triumph at the battle
of Bosworth, it is reported that upon hearing the news of her son’s victory that Margaret
started sobbing uncontrollably in the belief that such a great success was bound to be
followed up with a disaster, but luckily her fears were mistaken, for instead the coronation
ceremony of King Henry VII went ahead without issue on the 30th of October 1485, and it
would be his faithful uncle Jasper who was bestowed the ultimate honor of carrying Saint
Edward’s Crown up the aisle of Westminster Abbey. It was the culmination of Henry’s first
few weeks of office, a period of time he chose not to spend in London but instead, in a clear
sign of his affection, with his mother at their ancestral home in Woking, where as a
teenager he had spent a joyful 2 weeks with his mother before his exile, and a place that
would always be dear to his heart, and throughout his reign, Henry would show himself eternally
grateful for the tireless support of his mother, writing in a letter to her: “I shall be as glad to please you as your
heart can desire it, and I know well, that I am as much bounden to do so, as any creature
living for the great and singular motherly love and affection that it hath pleased you
at all times to bear towards me” And indeed, convening his first parliament
on the 7th of November 1485, Henry gave everything to his mother, proclaiming her to be to be
a ‘femme sole’, a women who did not require her husband’s consent and was solely responsible
for all of her business affairs, at a stroke making Margaret one of the most powerful women
in England, and as an illustration of the implicit trust he had for his mother, Margaret
was lavished with further honors and responsibilities, including the wardship of the young Duke of
Buckingham on the 3rd of August 1486, whose father had sadly perished in Margaret’s
first unsuccessful attempt to bring down Richard III. Margaret was further honored by her son in
1477, when she was allocated all of the estates formerly belonging to Henry Holland, duke
of Exeter, including Coldharbour mansion on the Thames which she made her principal residence
alongside more estates in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and Kendal, and at Christmas 1477, she was
given robes and a circlet matching those of a Queen, and as the leading female figure
of the reign, whose power was greater than even that of her daughter-in-law Elizabeth
of York, she also assumed the title of ‘My Lady the King’s Mother”. Margaret relished her new standing, using
her income to become a great patron of the arts, her first major achievement in this
area occurring in 1489, when she commissioned a translation of the French romance Blanchardin
and Egalatin with the help of writer, diplomat, printer and translator William Caxton, and
by 1494 her reputation as a lover of literature was so renowned that Wynkyn de Worde, the
editor of a re-issued version of Scale of Perfection, a religious work originally written
by Walter Hilton, dedicated the entire volume to her. Margaret herself was an expert translator
of religious works, setting aside an enormous portion of her waking hours to the translation
of The Mirror of Gold for the Sinful Soul from French, as well as the fourth book of
the Imitation of Christ, published originally by Thomas à Kempis and released in 1504 and
1506, which became the standard translated edition until it was replaced by another in
1531. In addition to promoting the best literary
works of her day, Margaret’s personal chapel, overseen by 34 members of staff almost equal
in size to the King’s chapel, became an important centre for the innovation of polyphonic
music, and the same site where Margaret practiced as a committed Christian, a quality that was
even recognized by the Pope in 1494 when he proclaimed her as a paragon of the Church
for her ceaseless promotion of the feast of the Name of Jesus. Although Margaret was a devout woman of God
she was also brutally practical, and could be particularly cutthroat in her property
dealings, as was the case in 1492, when she advanced her own claim on lands situated in
Wiltshire and Somerset as heiress of her great uncle, Cardinal Henry Beaufort, whose original
philanthropic intentions to use them to fund the hospice of St Cross in Winchester was
ignored by Margaret, who upon acquiring them also disinherited Edward Plantagenet, the
earl of Warwick and Salisbury, in the process. On the other hand, Margaret could be equally
as generous on occasion, and evidence suggests she was highly concerned with the welfare
of her Lincolnshire tenants, to which she was a popular landlord promoting and funding
many developments in the area including the building of a tidal sluice in the seaside
town of Boston, and the establishment of a royal commission that worked to make the River
Witham more navigable. Although Margaret always kept herself busy,
she always reserved time for her grandchildren and always generously gave them many gifts:
to her grandsons Prince Edward and Henry she bought many fine clothes and books, including
a copy of Cicero’s De Officiis to Edward in 1495, and to her granddaughter princess
Margaret she sent precious jewellery and brooches on many occasions, also being a proud godmother
to her alongside the youngest Prince Edmund. She was also heavily involved in the marriage
arrangements of her grandson Arthur prince of Wales to Katherine of Aragon before his
tragic death in 1502, requesting in 1498 that the young Spanish princess learn French to
communicate and also to accustom herself to drinking wine, as the water in England was
not drinkable, before she entered the royal court, and in an indication that she liked
to know everything about a newcomer entering her beloved family, she even had a list of
Katherine’s attendants drawn up. With Arthur and Katherine of Aragon married
by proxy in 1499, Margaret eagerly recorded Katherine’s arrival to Plymouth in her Book
of Hours on the 2nd of October 1501, and she was in attendance for their wedding on the
14th of November, preparing a great celebratory feast at Coldharbour afterwards intending
to impress her Spanish guests, and on the 5th of July 1503 she would again play the
role of gracious hostess by entertaining the entire royal family before her granddaughter,
Margaret, went north to marry James IV of Scotland to become the Queen of the Scots. Later in her life, Margaret changed her main
residency from Coldharbour to Collyweston in Northamptonshire between 1499 to 1506,
where she set up a court complete with council house and prison, and was imbued with so much
authority that on some occasions she was empowered to speak on behalf of the king, illustrated
by a letter she wrote to administrators in Coventry addressing the plight of a wronged
citizen, and at other times she was permitted to intervene in cases usually reserved only
for ecclesiastical courts, such as a lawsuit concerning John Stokesley, a churchman in
line for the prestigious bishopric of London, whose accession was hampered when it was alleged
he had committed a plethora of crimes, the most unusual of which involved the baptism
of a cat for the purposes of finding a secret treasure, and another involving the Holy Maid
of Leominster, whose fantastical claim that she only needed the bread and wine of the
eucharist to survive was quickly found to be patently false. By 1504, Margaret’s annual income was over
£3000 a year, allowing her to splash out on the finest jewels and to increase the size
of her household to such a degree that it rivaled even the king’s, but at the same
time Margaret always took her duties very seriously and made sure that her royal status
was always highlighted either through the royal insignia embellished on her surviving
book of hours, or through her carefully styled signature of ‘Margaret R’ which she began
to adopt from 1499. Her dedication to the maintenance of the Tudor
regime was further seen in her desire to keep up-to-date with foreign relations such as
when she requested a detailed pamphlet be sent to her concerning the visit of King Phillipe
of Castille in 1506, or the way in which she tirelessly attempted to strengthen the Tudor
position by relentlessly pursuing her family’s claim to the lands of Orléans in France,
which were in her mind, wrongfully owned by King Louis XII. She felt so strongly about the matter that
in 1502, despite being 52 years old, she undertook the grueling journey to Calais to lodge her
grievance. It was also in this phase of her life that
Margaret became a major benefactor for the university of Cambridge. A 1503 charter illustrates that she used her
considerable wealth to secure funding while also appointing men from her own household
to the most important posts, such as John Fisher who was made chancellor of Cambridge,
and who accompanied Margaret for the opening of Christ’s College in 1506, a now world-famous
centre of education whose development was kickstarted by Margaret’s purchase of the
manors of Malton and Roydon, and another of Margaret’s followers, Henry Hornby, made
the dean of the chapel, later went on to supervise the progress of St John’s College, built
between 1505 and 1509 thanks to a sizable donation from Margaret of £1625. At New Year 1507, 3 years after the death
of her husband Stanley on the 29th of July 1504, Margaret received the news that her
son Henry, now 50 years old, had become dangerously ill with quinsy, a bacterial infection of
the tonsils, the seriousness of the matter becoming evident after he was unable to eat
or drink for 6 days straight, causing Margaret’s motherly instincts to kick in, and so determined
was she to nurse him back to health that she moved to Richmond Palace to take charge of
the king’s household, but alongside medical supplies she also insisted that black material
be delivered to her, such was her fear that Henry would slip into death, but fortunately
by the autumn, and to Margaret’s relief, Henry had fully recovered. When the king fell ill once again in 1508,
and with the realization that the sickness was persistent, thoughts turned to Henry’s
successor, the future Henry VIII, a popular figure at court who had turned 16 years old
in June 1507, and a grandson that Margaret doted on and had that month given him his
first ever saddle and harness to celebrate his first joust, but the young prince found
he would have to adapt to kingly life quicker than he thought in February 1509, when Henry
VII once again was struck down by pestilence, this time tuberculosis. Margaret again rushed to Richmond, and ready
to stay there as long as possible arranged for all of her belongings, including even
her favorite bed, to be transported, but Margaret and all who attended the dying monarch realized
at once that the diagnosis was grave, as according to one source: “all that stood about him
scarcely might contain them from tears and weeping” and on the 21st of April, after
taking his last Mass, Henry VII died later that day, leaving Margaret absolutely heartbroken. Now it was up to Margaret, who was placed
at the top of the king’s executors on his will, and who was herself experiencing ailing
health, to arrange a proper send-off for her son, whose body was first embalmed and then
moved from the privy chamber to the great chamber of Richmond, where he lay for 3 days
to the sounds of daily dirges and masses, before being transferred to the great hall
and then the chapel for 3 days each. Finally, his coffin was carried from Richmond
to St Pauls, where after a moving sermon and mass overseen by Bishop Fisher on the 10th
of May, he was then interred in his tomb at Westminster the next day, his household staff
throwing in their staves of office in the grave before leaving to celebrate Henry’s
life in a great feast afterwards. With her dear son laid to rest, Margaret did
not let grief nor ill health get in the way of preparing the way for her grandson’s
accession, as in the interregnum she was recognized by all as the unofficial queen and used her
authority to make sure that Henry was surrounded by the right people when he finally took office,
which involved reaffirming the loyalties of the men who had served her son well such as
John Fisher, Charles Somerset, Margaret’s illegitimate cousin, and Richard Fox, the
Bishop of Winchester, as well as removing some corrupting influences from the royal
household such as Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley, Henry’s much reviled tax collectors,
the latter of which Margaret had a personal grudge against after he acted unfaithfully
in a previous property deal, and both of whom were arrested and then executed. When the young Henry VIII married the Spanish
princess Katherine of Aragon on the 11th of June 1509, it was unclear whether his grandmother
herself was in attendance, as she was becoming increasingly frail, something that Margaret
herself was very aware of, and after turning 66 years old in May, one chronicler noted
how she feared that if she was to live longer: “Her body daily should have waxen more unwieldy,
her sight should have been darked, and her hearing should have dulled more and more,
her legs should have failed her by and by. And all the other parts of her body waxed
more creased every day, which things should have been matter to her of great discomfort” Despite despairing of her own physical condition,
Margaret was able to hold on just long enough to attend the joint coronation of Henry and
his new bride Katherine on the 24th of June, a grandiose affair in which the royal couple
walked the streets of London to great aplomb, in the same finery that Henry’s father and
his first wife Elizabeth of York had worn for their special day a generation earlier,
and with their new subjects cheering and applauding they made their way from the Tower of London
to Westminster for the ceremony, a procession in which Margaret, wearing a black bonnet
and a dress made out of velvet, satin, and silk, watched from the comfort of a private
residence in Cheapside she had bought specially for the occasion, and at Westminster Abbey
she opted to be similarly low-key, tucking herself away in a private viewing chamber
while she observed the coronation service, overseen by the Archbishop of Canterbury,
and in the same manner as she had done when she had first heard the news that her son
Henry had triumphed over Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth, she cried for the difficulties
that were bound to follow in the wake of such a happy and momentous occasion, and although
she made a public appearance at the great feast that followed after she did not take
part in the entertainments afterwards, instead making her peace with God and removing herself
to the abbot’s house in Westminster Abbey where she awaited her death. food poisoning that finally took her over
the edge, for by the 28th of June, on Henry’s eighteenth birthday, Margaret was on her deathbed
having done everything in her power to ensure that Henry was properly prepared for kingship,
and the next day on the 29th of June 1509, according to a witness who was by her side: “the bishop said mass before her, and as
he lift up the precious host this worthy Lady expired, and so as she had honoured the blessed
sacrament, even so the last thing that ever she saw as I do think was God” It was a fitting end for a woman who had spent
so much of her time an ardent worshipper of “Is now joyful in that celestial court of
heaven, where she shall be in eternal felicity for ever”. Being an extremely wealthy heiress at a young
age, Margaret would become embroiled in the political affairs of the realm through no
choice of her own, her loyalties to the Lancastrian fold pre-determined by the men who early on
ran her life and dictated her future, as in her formative years after the death of her
father, when as a 1 year old baby she had no independence of her own, Margaret would
prove a useful political pawn for Henry VI to auction off to the highest bidder, and
with the added attraction of her royal blood, however tainted, he was easily able to find
buyers, the first being William de la Pole who decided to immediately betroth her to
his son John de la Pole. As an oblivious 6 year old girl, Margaret
would become the centre of a scandal that rocked the very foundations of the kingdom,
after accusations that William de la Pole was using his young charge to make his own
beeline for the throne, and just as quickly Margaret’s fate would be determined again
by powerful men, taking her down a path that would ultimately put her squarely in the Lancastrian
camp during the Wars of the Roses after it was decided she would marry Edmund Tudor,
and from this brief and heartbreaking union would emerge the most important person in
her life, Henry, and from the moment she first set eyes on him, she vowed she would do everything
in her power to safeguard what was owed to him by birthright: his inheritance. With Edmund dying of the plague, Margaret
entered into her second marriage with Henry Stafford, who would be an assuring and loving
presence as her son Henry, only a few months old, was taken from her and transferred into
the custody of his uncle Jasper Tudor to be raised and protected in Pembroke Castle, Wales,
but although Margaret found it easy enough to settle into a peaceful existence in the
Surrey countryside she constantly thought about her son, keeping in regular communication
with him and receiving frequent updates about how he was faring. But with the ousting of King Henry VI in 1461
by Edward IV, Margaret was suddenly struck with fear for her son’s safety as the Yorkist
clan consolidated their rule of the kingdom, yet luckily for her the new monarch proved
magnanimous, and with Jasper Tudor following his half-brother the king into exile, Henry’s
guardianship was allocated instead to Lord William Herbert where he was treated with
love and respect, but with her son still separated from her, Margaret embarked on a new strategy
throughout the 1460s, one that involved proving her loyalties to the Yorkists with the aim
of preserving Henry’s inheritance. By 1470, after Henry was briefly reinstated
as king, the future looked bright for Margaret, who was reunited with her cherished son and
was able to spend a blissful 2 weeks with the teenager at her Woking manor, yet Margaret
would be left inconsolable once again after Edward IV returned to the throne and Henry
was forced to flee into exile with his uncle Jasper, and throughout the 1470s and early
1480s, a devastating period where smuggled letters were to be her only form of communication
with Henry, she knew she would have to win back Edward’s good graces all over again
if she were ever to see her son granted safe passage back to his homeland. By 1482, with the help of time and calculated
political gestures, Margaret had improved her position in the royal fold to such a degree
that Edward was willing to allow Henry to return and for him to be legally endowed with
property, but Margaret’s plans were to be totally ruined with the usurpation of the
crown by Richard III, a vindictive and cruel ruler, and following the murders of Edward’s
successors at the Tower of London, Margaret sprung into action, determined to place her
own son on the throne, and employing her signature political astuteness arranged the marriage
of Elizabeth of York with Henry to further legitimize his claim by joining the houses
of York and Lancaster, but with Margaret’s first scheme to destroy Richard’s regime
going terribly wrong, her life only spared by her marriage to her third husband Stanley,
whose support the increasingly loathed Richard needed to guarantee his own political survival,
Margaret remained undeterred by the house arrest and the confiscation of all her properties
that followed, still keeping secretly in touch with Henry, whose defeat of Richard III at
the Battle of Bosworth finally liberated her from her shackles and reunited her with her
son after 15 long and arduous years, and with Henry crowned the King of England she finally
became the arbiter of her own destiny. As the king’s mother, Margaret became the
most powerful woman in the realm, and with her inheritance and income now assuredly protected
by her femme sole status, she began shaping England in her own image: enriching and entrenching
the Tudor family into the very fabric of society via her hawkish accumulation of landed estates,
setting up her own judicial system in the east Midlands at Northampton where her sound
and respected judgement saw her regularly intervene in normal as well as ecclesiastical
courts, using her vast resources to fund the translation of monumental literary works,
nursing the intellectual heritage of the realm by heavily investing in Cambridge University,
all the while molding herself into a paragon of faith and making sure to give generous
offerings to religious institutions and to diligently follow the rituals and rites of
Christianity for her own salvation, a faith that would indeed be tested by the premature
deaths of many of her grandchildren, most notably prince Arthur, but most significantly
by the passing of her own son Henry, whose death affected her so immensely that she was
barely able to hold on to her own life for much longer thereafter, but as always, driven
by a sense of familial duty she made it her mission to survive until she was assured of
the continuity of the Tudor dynasty, and after it was confirmed by the coronation of her
grandson King Henry VIII her life’s work was seemingly completed, and Margaret, retiring
to the sanctuary of Westminster Abbey passed away a mere 2 weeks later, doubtlessly eager
to reunite with Henry, for she could not live without him. What do you think of Margaret Beaufort? Do you think she was singlehandedly responsible
for Henry VII’s accession to the throne and do you think she was a consistently effective
political manipulator or that her passion for the welfare of her son made her prone
to misjudgments? Please let us know in the comment section,
and in the meantime thank you very much for watching.
