Margaret Beaufort

1443-1509. Countess of Richmond and Derby. House of Lancaster. Married four times, but most well-known as wife of Edmund Tudor and mother of Henry VII.

Margaret Beaufort is associated with the House of Lancaster, because she was the great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, from her father's side. She was the only child and heiress of John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset and his wife Margaret Beauchamp of Bletsoe (Jones & Underwood xviii).

Margaret´s first husband was John de la Pole. But the marriage was annulled in 1453 by Henry VI, so that his half-brother, Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, was able to marry her (ibid. 25). They did so in 1455. Margaret was 12 at the time. Edmund died in November 1456 and left behind his pregnant wife. Their child Henry was born 28 January 1457 (ibid. 28f).

Margaret then married Henry Stafford, the son of the first Duke of Buckingham. Since Margaret and Henry were second cousins, a bishop had to grant a dispensation before the marriage could finally be contracted in about 1459 (ibid. 40f). The marriage lasted for 14 years and turned out to be a good decision, since Stafford was reconciled to the Yorkist King, Edward IV, and lived a prosperous life as they were given a great amount of land by Buckingham and could additionally profit from Margaret´s heritage (Jansen 29; Jones & Underwood 41). Their marriage ended when Stafford died in 1471 in The Battle of Barnet, fighting for the Yorkists.

In 1472 Margaret married Lord Thomas Stanley. Stanley was a Yorkist supporter and so Margaret could return to King Edward IV´s court, despite her being of Lancastrian origin. Supposedly Margaret joined in the unsuccessful rebellion of Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, against Richard III. Richard III accused Margaret of treason. Although her husband´s services at Richard´s court saved her from the Act of Attainder, she was no longer allowed to communicate with her son and all her belongings and her person were under the control of her husband (Ross qtd. in Jansen 29f).

After the failed rebellion Margaret tried to undermine Richard III by arranging a marriage between her son Henry and Elizabeth of York, the daughter of Edward IV. Margaret cooperated with Edward's widow and was - actually and all in all - successful. Henry and Elizabeth married in 1486 (Jansen 30). Before that, however, another momentous event had to happen: In 1485, Henry defeated Richard III in the Battle of Bosworth Field and became King Henry VII. Thus Lady Margaret of Richmond and Derby became “the King´s mother” (Jones & Underwood).

Margaret had a lot of influence in the King´s household as well as in the kingdom. In the household she had an influence on e.g. her grandchildren´s education and their marriages. With regard to the kingdom she advised her son, took care of foreign affairs (e.g. with France) and presided at the Royal Court. In addition she maintained her own household. Margaret lived independently at Collyweston, since she had been declared a femme sole by parliament. This meant that she could keep and administer all her belongings without her husband, but Lord Stanley was welcome to visit her (Jansen 33). Through the years of her son´s kingship the relationship between mother and son had always been a strong one. She had also been the right hand of the queen consort and used to travel everywhere with the couple (Jansen 31f).

After Henry VII´s death in 1509, Margaret was “the chief executor of his will” (ibid. 32). Therefore she arranged his funeral and her grandson Henry VIII's coronation, before she died in June 1509 (ibid; Jones & Underwood 251).

Sources

Jansen, Sharon L. The Monstrous Regiment of Women. Female Rulers in Early Modern Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

Jones, Michael K. & Underwood, Malcolm G. The King´s Mother: Lady Margaret Beaufort, Coutness of Richmond and Derby. Cambridge University Press, 1999.