LADY MARGARET BEAUFORT | My Lady the King’s Mother | The real red queen | mother of Henry VII

it's August 1485 and Henry tutor has just won the Battle of Bosworth defeating and killing Richard III and effectively ending the wars of the Roses which was the multi-generational struggle for the English Throne fought between two branches of the plantagenet family the Yorks and the lancasters a lancastrian by birth he is now King Henry VII and his 42 year old mother Lily Margaret Beaufort who has spent decades promoting his interests in England and Wales while Henry was in Exile on Mainland Europe has just become the mother of the Monarch and the most powerful woman in the land if this was a Disney movie it would probably end right here with the sense that they all lived happily ever after but this was 15th century England and things weren't that simple as the tutors were about to discover gaining the throne was one thing keeping it was something else the next 24 years would bring rebellions betrayals by family members Pretenders to the throne marriage alliances and the births and sometimes tragic deaths of the next generation of Royal princes and princesses Margaret would be there for it all helping her only child to protect his fledgling Dynasty and securing her own legacy along the way sometimes with ruthless efficiency this is history calling where I bring you new videos every week on all aspects of the past and today we're going to look at what Margaret did next foreign [Music] at the time the 28 year old Henry took the crime Margaret hadn't seen him for 14 years during which time he had been on the run from Edward IV and Richard III mostly staying in what is now France with his paternal uncle Jasper Tudor sometime Earl of Pembroke as soon as his victory over Richard and his Assumption of the throne was done though he traveled to London then to Guildford and to Margaret's home at woking where he spent two to three weeks with his mother catching up and no doubt plotting for what was to come next Henry had spent very little of his life in England he was actually a Welshman by birth and hadn't been on the island we know I called Great Britain at all since his very early teens he was going to need a lot of help in order to learn the ropes of government and become familiar with the country he now ruled and it quickly became clear that there was no one he trusted more than his mother despite their long separation Henry's respect for and gratitude towards her were evident right from the start not just because he made a beeline for her as soon as events after Bosworth permitted but because of the lengths he went to to ensure her Financial Security and personal autonomy indeed although Margaret was then the wife of Thomas Lord Stanley whose brother William had used his military might to help Henry win at Bosworth her son gave her far more wealth and power than was normal for a married woman of this era she was provided with the house of Cold Harbor for her London residence and he took the virtually unprecedented step of having his first Parliament declare her a femme Soul meaning she was an independent woman with control of her own property and finances despite her married status she was also made one of the wealthiest people not just women people in England Henry granted her a whole tranche of houses and Estates including one at colly Weston which we'll come to in a minute and a grand of land in 1487 that provided a huge income of a thousand pounds per year but he ensured that anything he gave her after 1485 was for her alone and could not be taken by her husband still she was no angel and she could be greedy using her Newfound position of par to obtain lands which one of her ancestors had lawfully willed away to a hospital for instance and thereby showing that the avaricious streak her son is more famous for probably came from her as for her title Margaret was in the unusual position of being the mother of a king but not a queen director or even a Dodger princess of Wheels this wasn't unheard of for even in the recent past Edward IV and Richard III's mother were Cecily Neville Duchess of York but Margaret evidently wanted greater recognition as Henry's parent as it was she was the director Countess of Richmond from her first marriage to his father Edmund shooter and her son made her current husband the Earl of Darby in the Autumn of 1485 so she was also the Countess of Darby however she very quickly became known even an official documents as my lady the King's mother in 1499 she took things a step further changing her signature from Margaret Richmond to Margaret R this was a very clever move the r could be interpreted as still standing for Richmond or it could be seen as standing for Regina the Latin word for queen this would mean Margaret was practically calling herself the queen for the only other people to sign their names like this were her son and daughter-in-law Margaret didn't just grab the cash and titles and run though she was to play an integral part in her son's rein Henry and Margaret's own Royal Blood was weak to say the least descended from Edward III's third son John of gone Duke of Lancaster through his long-term affair with Catherine swinford Margaret's paternal grandfather had been born out of wedlock and only legitimized in his twenties after his parents finally married and the pope retroactively declared him and his siblings trueborn which was a farce but there you go see last week's video for more information on this John and Catherine's descendants were still barred by a 1407 Act of parliament from taking the throne however and so Henry Tudor had no meaningful blood claim on it furthermore even if he had his mother would have had a stronger claim being a generation above him instead Henry claimed the crime by Conquest effectively hitting the reset button on the line of succession so that all future monarchs claimed and still claim this room through their descent from him and negating the claims of other competing lines just as William the Conqueror had done back in 1066 or Henry IV in 1399 or Edward IV in 1461 and 1471 and just as William III and Mary II would do in 1688 still when one gained the throne in this manner it was prudent to neutralize any other potential blood claimants so that they couldn't copy your example there were three classic ways to do this marriage imprisonment and death Henry would eventually use all three often with his mother's assistants and we're going to start with her involvement in his marriage whilst Henry was in Exile and Margaret was plotting how to secure away home for him she had conspired with Edward IV's Widow Queen Elizabeth Woodville that if he managed to secure the throne he would marry the Dodger Queen's eldest daughter princess Elizabeth of York as Edward IV and Elizabeth woodville's Sons known to history as the princes in the tar had disappeared in 1483 and were presumed dead their older sister was neither senior yorkist Clement to the throne and had the aversion to a female Monarch not being so strong at this time we might be calling her Elizabeth the first as it was by marrying her Henry could unite two of the competing plantagenet Bloodlines prevent princess Elizabeth from marrying elsewhere and producing a new line of clearance and ensure that the children of their Union had a better blood right to the throne through their mother than the children of any of her younger sisters would Margaret and Elizabeth Woodville have been planning this Union since at least 1483 though it had been murdered back in the 1470s by Edward IV 2. when they had engaged in an uprising alongside the Duke of Buckingham to overthrow Richard III this Uprising had failed leading to Buckingham's execution and to Margaret being effectively stripped of her lands and money and placed under house arrest in the custody of her husband but the union remained the goal of both her and her son and Henry had sworn to marry princess Elizabeth and ran cathedral in December 1483. once he was Monarch measures were quickly put in place to make this happen starting with sending princess Elizabeth to live with Margaret while he applied for a people dispensation to marry his distant cousin and had the act of parliament which had delegitimized her during the reign of her Uncle Richard III reversed ensuring that Richard could be presented as a userber and that the blood claim on the throne which Elizabeth would pass to her children was valid once more the king also had Margaret act as guardian for two of the other potential Clements from the York branch of the plantagenet family these were both children and both boys one was his wife's paternal cousin the son of Edward IV and Richard III's brother George Duke of Clarence he was called Edward Earl of Warwick he and his sister another Margaret had been barred from the throne because their father had been found guilty of treason and executed back in 1478 but as I've already shown legal impediments like that could be reversed so it was best to keep the child in custody he doesn't appear to have actually stayed with Margaret though she was given worship of him and instead he was installed in the Tower of London for maximum security the other boy was the third Duke of Buckingham son of the man who had tried to help Henry take the throne back in 1483 and also of Catherine Woodville Elizabeth of York's maternal Aunt he was therefore another first cousin of the soon-to-be Queen as The Buckinghams were descended from a son of Edward III just like all the plantagenic Clements on the throne he too had a claim on it and had to be kept secure by granting the worship of these children to Margaret Henry also provided her with another lucrative source of income but he went further too by having Catherine Woodville Dodge her Duchess of Buckingham marry his own uncle Jasper Tudor now Duke of Bedford thereby preventing anyone else getting a foothold in the Buckingham Estates by marrying the little Duke's mother sadly for Warwick and Buckingham though spared in the aftermath of Bosworth both ultimately came to unfortunate ends but you'll have to stay till the end of the video to find out how and why Henry was crying at Westminster Abbey on the 30th of October 1485. in what must have seemed like the culmination of all her efforts and sacrifices since the day Margaret had been married off to his father at the age of 12. she was so overwhelmed by the change in her fortunes remember she'd been under house arrest just a few months earlier that she was seen to be weeping profusely with the emotion of it all a few months later in January 1486 she gained a daughter-in-law when Henry married the 19 year old princess Elizabeth the family's hold on the throne was immeasurably strengthened that September when Margaret's first grandchild Prince Arthur arrived now Margaret was of a lower rank than the new Queen Elizabeth of York and even her mother too the director Queen Elizabeth Woodville but as her biographers Michael K Jones and Malcolm G Underwood have pointed out and their book is linked in the description box for you she didn't really act like it nor was she treated as a lesser member of the royal family she dressed in clothing as opulent as her daughter-in-laws sat right next to the queen at her coronation in 1487 and the Royal couple's first daughter was named not Elizabeth after her own mother but Princess Margaret after her paternal grandmother who was also her godmother Margaret's rooms and Royal residences including the Tower of London were right next to her sons so that they could meet and Converse easily and foreign Court visitors remarked on the whole she had over him with the Spanish Ambassador Don Pedro de Ayala saying in 1498 that the king is much influenced by his mother the surviving letters between mother and son of which you see an example here often referred to their love for one another and also indicate a genuinely strong emotional bond it's true that Henry didn't always give Margaret her way he took her house at walking off her in 1505 for instance because he wanted it but there can be no doubt that he truly thought the world of her he treated her with exceptional kindness generosity and genuine respect for her knowledge and opinions that is not to say that he didn't love his wife or listen to her advice as well when I get to my videos on Elizabeth of York will look at their relationship in more detail but Margaret could be considered one of his top advisors even if she didn't hold an official position on his Council regarding Margaret's relationship with her daughter-in-law this appears to have been a bit hit and miss with the two getting along better at some times than at others we've established that Margaret was very protective of her position using her clothes signature and even physical proximity to her son and daughter-in-law to emphasize it observers even said that she walked barely half a piece behind Elizabeth at times and we know that she held a lot of sway with Henry but what did the queen think of this well remember when I told you a minute ago that Pedro de Ayala said in 1498 that the king is much influenced by his mother well that wasn't the whole quote the entire thing reads the king is much influenced by his mother and his followers in Affairs of personal interest and in others the queen as is generally the case does not like it in another letter that July he told King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile that the queen is a very Noble woman and much beloved she is kept in subjection by the mother of the king these comments have naturally fueled the idea that the relationship was tense but Underwood and Jones are a little more cautious saying that the women's relations were tinged with ambiguity they note that Margaret had supported the marriage in the first place though I would say that was for dynastic reasons Elizabeth was the best potential Queen and couldn't be allowed to marry elsewhere and that the women worked together on projects to do with literary patronage it's true that that could have been for sure but Margaret was also known to fret when the queen was unwell and doted on her children the Ayala's first quote also doesn't make clear if Elizabeth was resentful of Margaret or of the other followers of the king whom the Spaniard mentioned or indeed both and we don't know how much he interacted with the two women in order to form his opinions they certainly spend a great deal of time together due to Margaret's closeness to Henry and had there been constant rise and bad feelings I suspect we would have greater evidence of them Margaret may not have been the easiest mother-in-law but the two women seem to have made their situation work even if Elizabeth had to grit her teeth sometimes as for Elizabeth Woodville she wasn't a rival to Margaret's position as matriarch of the family for long in February 1487 the director of queenslands were taken back by the king and given to her daughter while she herself suddenly withdrew from court to burmancy Abbey no one is quite sure why this happened but one Theory which I have serious doubts about is that her resentment at Margaret's elevated position had led her to become involved in a plot against Henry you can hear more about this episode in my video on Elizabeth's later life but for now what matters is that she lived the remainder of her days at the Abbey and died in 1492. the plot she may have been involved in was one of the early serious threats to the Tudor dynasty when a child named Lambert seminal was passed off as Edward Earl of Warwick having gained the support of another York cousin John de la paule Earl of Lincoln whose mother was Edward IV and Richard III sister as well as their other sister Margaret of York Duchess of burgundy Lambert Seminole got as far as being crimed King Edward VI in Christchurch cathedral in Dublin on the 24th of May 1487. of course Henry had the real Warwick in custody in the tar and was able to show him off in London to disprove simnal's claim after a battle between crowned forces and those of Lincoln at Stoke on the 16th of June the Earl was killed and the little imposter was captured he was put to work in the Royal kitchens and was still alive as lit as 1534. more serious were the efforts of perk and warbeck to be recognized as the younger of the princes in the tar Richard of Shrewsbury at Duke of York beginning in 1491 he traveled around Europe perpetuating this lie and was even recognized as Richard by Charles VII of France Margaret of York Duchess of burgundy again she was a real piano in Henry VII side and Maximilian King of the Romans King Henry's own Chamberlain of the household Sir William Stanley who was Margaret's brother-in-law and the man who had helped the king win at Bosworth was fined to be complicit in the plot to use warbeck to displace Henry and was executed in 1495. Henry also had to invade France in 1492 in order to ensure that Charles VII would cease supporting his rival an Expedition which Margaret donated considerable funds to and in July 1495 he had to fend off a small invasion in his own country and endure the affront of having his Northern neighbor James IV of Scotland recognized this fraud as the real Duke of York and even marry him off to a member of the Scottish nobility lady Catherine Gordon this was all the more insulting as the king's younger son the future Henry VII born in 1491 had been declared Duke of York in 1494. with Margaret playing a prominent role in the investiture ceremonies and celebrations Henry VII had to deal with another attempted Invasion by warbeck in 1497 but Perkin was at last captured the king showed remarkable leniency and even allow the Imposter to remain at court at first so I would imagine Margaret saw him there but after he tried to run in 1498 he was locked up in the tour of London there he concocted another Escape scheme with the now 24 year old Earl of Warwick which led to them both being executed in November 1499 it had been a very bumpy 12 years for the royal family but Margaret had stood by her son's side throughout and done all she could to bolster his position one way in which she did so was to travel with the wider royal family on progresses around England making sure that they were seen by the people and recognized as the rightful ruling family one such tour in 1498 took them around the southeast of the country for instance Margaret also used some of her great wealth to indict religious and educational institutions which not only played into her interest in these areas but helped to Born The Establishment she patronized to the throne and present the Tudor dynasty as benevolent rulers whose position at the top of the societal pyramid benefited everyone of the most famous establishments she was involved with was Cambridge University where she endowed Christ's College in 1505 though this did build on the pre-existing God's house which was already about 70 years old at that time Margaret was protective over her maternal family as well her mother had had children both before and after Margaret was born with her other husbands and in 1494 she maneuvered matters so that her half-nephew Richard Paul could marry Margaret plantagenet the daughter of the long dead George Duke of Clarence and sister of Edward Earl of Warwick this was advantageous to Richard but as Jones and Underwood have stated it was Margaret's most serious political misjudgment which caused her family problems for decades to come the issue it was partly to do with the younger Margaret's claim to the throne which meant that the wise thing to do would have been to leave her unmarried and with no children instead she was later created the Countess of Salisbury by Henry VIII passed on her plantagenate blood to her Offspring and to massively simplify a much more complicated situation ended up having a son called Reginald who ultimately had a huge falling out with the King over the Amber Lynn marriage and England's break from Rome ultimately leading to his unfortunate mother being executed in May 1541 pretty much out of spite because Henry couldn't get at the exiled Reginald speaking of people Henry VII had executed this might be a good point to tell you whatever happened to the little Duke of Buckingham whose wardship had been granted to Margaret after the battle of Bosworth long story short he was accused of treason and Henry had him killed in 1521 but back to Margaret and the state of her third marriage the Stanley marriage had originally been made back in 1472 and was more for financial and practical purposes than for Love at the time the recently widowed Margaret needed the protection of a good yorkist supporter and Lord Stanley was no doubt attracted to her large Estates nevertheless there is nothing to suggest that this was not an immable marriage but it certainly was an unusual one after Henry VII came to the throne and allowed Margaret the kind of legal and financial freedoms usually reserved for man in 1499 their Union took another near unprecedented turn when Margaret with Thomas's permission took a volley of Chastity and set up a separate household from him at colly Weston though he did visit and there were always rooms for him in her homes possibly the fall and execution of his brother William and Henry VII General suspicion of the Stanley family's loyalty played into this decision but it's difficult to be sure in any event the arrangement lasted only five years for she was widowed for the final time in 1504. Thomas did not leave her as the executrix of his will but she did observe full mourning for him and attended religious services for his soul Margaret was also involved in arranging the marriages of her grandchildren starting with the negotiations to have Prince Arthur where the Spanish Princess Catherine of Aragon together with Elizabeth of York she suggested that Catherine be taught French for instance so that they might more easily converse with her if you're wondering why they didn't suggest English I don't know Catherine certainly ended up having to learn it the couple were eventually wed in Saint Paul's Cathedral in November 1501 in the presence of Arthur's grandmother as well as the rest of the Royal Family The Prince and the new princess of Wheels were also entertained at Cold Harbor which Margaret had spent a fortune refurbishing for the event again see Underwood and Jones's book for more details as it's the main secondary source used for this video their marriage was tragically brief though for Arthur died in April 1502 and the royal family suffered another huge loss when Elizabeth of York died the following February from childbirth complications her baby was a girl by the way and also died soon after the birth Margaret was neither senior adult female at court once more and she helped to complete the marriage arrangements for her granddaughter Princess Margaret and the King of Scotland these had begun while Elizabeth was still alive and in the earlier part of the negotiations both women had shown a touching respect for the well-being of the princess in 1498 King Henry who had his own reservations to mention that the queen and my mother are very much against this marriage they say if the marriage were concluded we should be obliged to send the princess directly to Scotland in which case they fear the king of Scots would not wait meaning he wouldn't wait to consummate the marriage but injure her and endanger her health Margaret's fears for her granddaughter are easy to understand given her own experience of a very young marriage and a husband who cared more about getting a child from her and therefore being able to control her money more fully than protecting her health little Margaret was still sent to Scotland at the age of 13 but to his credit James IV doesn't seem to have taken what we might call the Edmond tutor route for it was several years later before their first child was born when the princess was leaving England Margaret hosted her and her Entourage a collie Weston for three weeks giving the girl an excellent send-off she seems to have built a good relationship with Prince Henry too watching him joist in 1507 having even paid for the Saddle and Harness he used by this point she may have suspected that it wouldn't be long before this teenager was King Henry VII's Health worsened between 1507 and 1509 and on more than one occasion his life was feared for raising the possibility of a minority government yet he held on until the 21st of April 1509 when at the age of 52 he died at Richmond Palace he had been the one constant in Margaret's life since she was 13 and even when they could not be together his welfare was what Drew her in all her major life decisions she was the main executrix of his will and in charge of organizing his funeral which took place on the 11th of May before his burial in Westminster Abbey but it is perhaps unsurprising that with this anger in her life gone and her own health already failing she didn't last long herself she lived to see Henry VIII marry his sister-in-law Catherine of Aragon and be crying together on the 24th of June but just five days later she joined her only child in the grave dying on the 29th of June at the age of 66. she too was buried in Westminster Abbey close to though not in the same vault as her son and an impressive two Monument complete with a life-size Effigy Of Her lying in Repose Still Remains to this day it had been an extraordinary life full of every type of high and low there had been a dangerously young marriage and childbirth experience and enforced separation from her son three widowhoods and Decades of trying to stay on the right side of the wars of the roses and avoid losing her titles money property and even life but there had also been the triumphs of seeing her son and Grandson Ascend to the throne and her granddaughter become the Queen of Scotland Margaret had never really been able to relax though working for the benefit of the tutor Dynasty from the age of 12 until the week of her death she knew how quickly Good Fortune could become bad and no doubt it contributed to her noted avarice and piety two things which we don't usually think of as going together but which it did combine in Margaret of all the women who fought for their own their husbands and their children's rights in the wars of the Roses I think Margaret is the clearest winner but she had paid a heavy price along the way when we look at the family members she lost and the stress she endured still hers is a remarkable story and one which is deservedly remembered I hope you've enjoyed hearing about it let me know in the comments below if you think she really was an awful mother-in-law and if you want to learn more about this era of English History try one of these options next whatever you choose please enjoy and until next time keep learning

Channel: History Calling

Views: 34,457

Keywords: Lady Margaret Beaufort, Henry VII, My Lady the King's Mother, Woman who won the Wars of the Roses, Wars of the Roses, Women of the Wars of the Roses

Id: UGM_auVPcTc

Length: 26min 51sec (1611 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 07 2023