Uncrowned Queen: The Fateful Life of Margaret Beaufort, Tudor Matriarch

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Margaret Beaufort is known for being the formidable mother of Henry Tudor, but what was she before war and hardship turned her into the cold, angular woman we picture when we think of her? Arnopp does an excellent job of answering that question with this story covering Margaret's earliest years. Though the story ends when Margaret is only thirteen, she has already become a widowed mother with an unknown future lurking before of her. It can’t have been easy for her to be betrothed at the age of six then married to Edmund Tudor at twelve, finding herself pregnant almost immediately afterwards. This was apparently considered a bit hasty of him, even by the very different standards of the time, so it is hard to have much sympathy when Edmund dies of the plague before he even sees his son. Years of York forces fighting Lancastrian for power culminated in the Battle of Towton in 1461, where the Yorkists were victorious. Edward IV was King of England. The fighting had taken the life of Margaret's father-in-law and forced Jasper Tudor to flee to Scotland and France to muster support for the Lancastrian cause. [19] Edward IV gave the lands belonging to Margaret's son to his own brother, the Duke of Clarence. Henry became the ward of Sir William Herbert. Again, Beaufort was allowed some visits to her son. Most people have an idea of who Henry VII was and that he was the first Tudor monarch and founded the Tudor dynasty. Lady Margaret Beaufort was Henry Tudors mother. Krug, Rebecca. Reading families: women's literate practice in late medieval England Cornell University Press, 2002 ISBN 0-8014-3924-8

Part of the secret is the skillful way Arnopp slowly builds a relationship between Margaret and Edmund. This is so sensitively and realistically done that theirs becomes an unlikely love story. However, the seeds for Margaret's future sternness are also planted. No one goes through what she did without starting to form a crusty shell, and her devotion to her only child is well established. Upon her first birthday, the king broke the arrangement with Margaret's father and granted the wardship of her extensive lands to William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, although Margaret herself remained in the custody of her mother. Margaret's mother was pregnant at the time of Somerset's death, but the child did not survive and Margaret remained the sole heir. Although she was her father's only legitimate child, Margaret had two maternal half-brothers and three maternal half-sisters from her mother's first marriage whom she supported after her son's accession to the throne. [8] Monumental brass of Edmund Tudor, St David's Cathedral, PembrokeshireSt. John's College, Cambridge, Painting of Lady Margaret Beaufort smuggled to Cambridge to protect it from King Henry VIII’s henchmen unveiled, https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/painting-lady-margaret-beaufort-smuggled-cambridge-protect-it-king-henry-viiis-henchmen-unveiled Gristwood, Sarah (2013). Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses. New York: Basic Books. p.48. Beaufort is believed to have initiated discussions with Woodville, via mutual physician, Lewis Caerleon, who conveyed secret correspondences between the two women. Together they conspired to supplant King Richard and by joint force replace him with Margaret's son, Henry Tudor. Their solidified alliance further secured the subsequent dynasty by the agreed betrothal of Henry to Elizabeth of York. They hoped this proposal would attract both Yorkist and Lancastrian support. [27] Gristwood, Sarah (2013). Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses. New York: Basic Books. p.70.

Philippa Gregory; David Baldwin; Michael Jones (2011). The Women of the Cousins' War. London: Simon & Schuster. As arranged by their mothers, Henry married Elizabeth of York. The Countess was reluctant to accept a lower status than the dowager queen Elizabeth or even her daughter-in-law, the queen consort. She wore robes of the same quality as the queen consort and walked only half a pace behind her. Elizabeth's biographer, Amy Licence, states that this "would have been the correct courtly protocol", adding that "only one person knew how Elizabeth really felt about Margaret and she did not commit it to paper." [41]

Jones & Underwood, Michael & Malcolm (1992). The King's Mother: Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p.49.