Margaret Beaufort

Origins

Lady Margaret Beaufort was the daughter and sole heiress of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset (1404–1444), (a legitimised grandson of John of Gaunt and Gaunt's mistress Katherine Swynford), and John Beaufort's wife Margaret Beauchamp. Lady Margaret was born at Bletsoe Castle, Bedfordshire, either on 31 May 1441 or, more likely, on 31 May 1443. The day and month are not disputed, since she required Westminster Abbey to celebrate her birthday on 31 May.

The year of her birth is less certain. William Dugdale, the 17th-century antiquary, suggested that she had been born in 1441, based on evidence of inquisitions post mortem taken after the death of her father. Dugdale has been followed by a number of Lady Margaret's biographers; however, it is more likely that she was born in 1443, as in May 1443 her father had negotiated with the king concerning the wardship of his unborn child should he die on campaign.

Early years

At the moment of her birth, Margaret's father was preparing to go to France and lead an important military expedition for King Henry VI. Somerset negotiated with the king to ensure that if he were to die, the rights to Margaret's wardship and marriage would be granted only to his wife.

As Somerset was a tenant-in-chief of the crown, the wardship of his heir fell to the crown under the feudal system. Somerset fell out with the king after coming back from France and was banished from the royal court pending a charge of treason against him. He died shortly afterwards. According to Thomas Basin, Somerset died of illness, but the Crowland Chronicle reported that his death was a suicide. As his only surviving child, Margaret was heiress to his considerable fortune and inheritor of his contested claim to the throne. Both effectively rendered Margaret, as her biographers Jones and Underwood write, "a pawn in the unstable political atmosphere of the Lancastrian court".

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.

Margaret was married to Suffolk's son, John de la Pole. The wedding may have been held between 28 January and 7 February 1444, when she was perhaps a year old but certainly no more than three. However, there is more evidence to suggest they were married in January 1450, after Suffolk had been arrested and was looking to secure his son's future by betrothing him to a conveniently wealthy ward whose children could be potential claimants to the throne. Papal dispensation was granted on 18 August 1450, necessary because the spouses were closely related (Lady Margaret and de la Pole being the great-grandchildren of two sisters, Katherine Swynford and Philippa Chaucer, respectively), and this concurs with the later date of marriage. Three years later, her marriage to de la Pole was annulled, and King Henry VI granted Margaret's wardship to his own half-brothers, Jasper and Edmund Tudor.

Motherhood

While in the care of her brother-in-law Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, on 28 January 1457, the 13-year-old Margaret gave birth to a son, Henry Tudor, at Pembroke Castle. As she was not yet physically mature, the birth was extremely difficult. In a sermon delivered after her death, Margaret's confessor, John Fisher, deemed it a miracle that a baby could be born "of so little a personage". Her son's birth may have done permanent physical injury to Margaret; despite two later marriages, she never had another child. Years later, she enumerated a set of proper procedures concerning the delivery of potential heirs, perhaps informed by the difficulty of her own experience.

Shortly after her re-entry into society after the birth, Jasper helped arrange another marriage for her to ensure her son's security. She married Sir Henry Stafford (c. 1425–1471), the second son of Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, on 3 January 1458, at the age of 14. A dispensation for the marriage was necessary because Margaret and Stafford were second cousins; it was granted on 6 April 1457. They enjoyed a fairly long and harmonious marital relationship and were given Woking Palace, to which Margaret sometimes retreated and which she restored. Margaret and her husband were given 400 marks' worth of land by Buckingham, but her own estates were still their main source of income. For a time the Staffords were able to visit Margaret's son, who had been entrusted to Jasper Tudor's care at Pembroke Castle in Wales.

Involvement in the Wars of the Roses

Reign of Edward IV

Years of Yorkist 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. 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.

In 1469 the discontented Duke of Clarence and Earl of Warwick incited a rebellion against Edward IV, capturing him after a defeat of his forces. Beaufort used this opportunity to attempt to negotiate with Clarence, hoping to regain custody of her son and his holdings. Soon, however, Edward was back in power.

Warwick's continued insurrection resulted in the brief reinstallation of the Lancastrian Henry VI in 1470–71, which was effectively ended with the Yorkist victory at the Battle of Barnet. Faced with York rule once again, Margaret allegedly begged Jasper Tudor, forced to flee abroad once more, to take 13-year-old Henry with him. It would be 14 years before Beaufort saw her son again.

In 1471, Margaret's husband, Lord Stafford, died of wounds suffered at the Battle of Barnet, fighting for the Yorkists. At 28 years old, Margaret became a widow again.

In June 1472, Margaret married Thomas Stanley, the Lord High Constable and King of Mann. Jones and Underwood have suggested that Margaret never considered herself a member of the Stanley family. Their marriage was primarily one of convenience; marrying Stanley enabled Margaret to return to the court of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. Indeed, Gristwood speculates Beaufort organised the marriage with the sole aim of rehabilitating her image and securing herself a prime position from which to advocate for her son. Evidently her efforts were successful; Margaret was chosen by Queen Elizabeth to be godmother to one of her daughters.

Holinshed, a Tudor chronicler, claims King Edward IV later proposed a marriage between Beaufort's son and his own daughter, Elizabeth of York, intending to force Henry Tudor out of his safe haven on the continent. Poet Bernard Andre seems to corroborate this, writing of Tudor's miraculous escape from the clutches of Edward's envoys, allegedly warned of the deception by none other than his mother.

Reigns of Edward V and Richard III

Following Edward IV's death in April 1483 and the seizure of the throne in June by Richard III from Edward V, Margaret was soon back at court serving the new queen, Anne Neville. Margaret carried Anne's train at the coronation. Seeking her son's return to England, Margaret appears to have negotiated with Richard.

Despite what these negotiations may suggest, Lady Margaret is known to have conspired with Elizabeth Woodville, mother of the two York princes whom Richard confined to the Tower of London, after rumours spread of the boys' murder. It was at this point, according to Polydore Vergil, that Beaufort "began to hope well of her son's fortune".

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.

As to the fate of the princes, it is widely held that Richard III ordered the death of his two nephews to secure his own reign. Gristwood, however, suggests that another was responsible; Henry Tudor's path to the throne was certainly expedited by their disappearance, perhaps motive enough for his mother – his "highly able and totally committed representative" – to give the order.

Despite this suggestion, no contemporary sources corroborate the implication, whilst most contemporary accounts outline "her outstanding qualities, her courage, presence of mind, family loyalty, and a deeply felt awareness of the spiritual responsibilities of high office," as clarified by Jones and Underwood. Before Jones and Underwood, there was no consensus within the scholarly community regarding Margaret's role or character: historiographical opinions ranged from celebrating her to demonising her.

It was not until the 17th century that religious retrospective speculations began to criticise Lady Margaret, but even then only as a "politic and contriving woman," and never anything beyond shrewd or calculating. All things considered, the words of her own contemporaries, such as Tudor historian Polydore Vergil, continue to extol Lady Margaret's noble virtues as "the most pious woman," further removing her from accusations of wickedness.

Margaret Beaufort in power

After her son's victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the Countess was referred to in court as "My Lady the King's Mother". Her son's first Parliament reversed the attainder against her and declared her a feme sole. This status granted Beaufort considerable legal and social independence from men. She was allowed to own property separately from her husband (as though she were unmarried) and sue in court – two rights denied to contemporary married women.

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."

Margaret had written her signature as M. Richmond for years, since the 1460s. In 1499, she changed her signature to Margaret R., perhaps to signify her royal authority (R standing either for regina – queen in Latin as customarily employed by female monarchs – or for Richmond). Furthermore, she included the Tudor crown and the caption et mater Henrici septimi regis Angliæ et Hiberniæ ("and mother of Henry VII, king of England and Ireland").

Many historians believe the departure from court of dowager queen Elizabeth Woodville in 1487 was partly at the behest of Henry's influential mother, though this is uncertain.

Beaufort exerted considerable political influence within the Tudor court. The power she exercised was evidently obvious; a report from Spanish envoy Pedro de Ayala dating to 1498 claimed Henry was "much influenced by his mother and his followers in affairs or personal interest and in others." In the earlier years of her son's reign, records indicate Margaret usually accompanied the royal couple when they traveled.

While Margaret's position in the royal court was, to some extent, an expression of gratitude by her son, she was likely far less the passive recipient of Henry's favor one might expect. As Gristwood suggests in the following, Beaufort instead actively contrived to further her standing:

Death

Margaret had been ill for several days, as legend has it, after eating a cygnet (a young swan) for dinner. The Countess died in the Deanery of Westminster Abbey on 29 June 1509. This was the day after her grandson Henry VIII's 18th birthday, 5 days after his coronation and just over two months after the death of her son.

She had made her will and a schedule of bequests in February 1509, making arrangements for her funeral and donations to religious foundations. She made bequests of her jewellery and gold cups to Catherine of Aragon, Margaret Tudor, and Mary Tudor, and a chalice to the parish church at Collyweston.

Margaret is buried in the Henry VII Chapel of the Abbey. Her tomb is now situated between the later graves of William III and Mary II and the tomb of her great-great-granddaughter Mary, Queen of Scots.

Her tomb was created by Pietro Torrigiano, who probably arrived in England in 1509 and received the commission in the following year. The gilded bronze sculpture on the tomb depicts Margaret with her head resting on pillows and her hands raised in prayer, wearing garments characteristic of widowhood; the face was probably sculpted from a death mask. The black marble tomb is embellished with heraldic bronze insignia, including a yale, her heraldic badge, at her feet.

Erasmus wrote the Latin inscription on her tomb. In English it reads: "Margaret, Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII, grandmother of Henry VIII, who donated funds for three monks of this abbey, a grammar school in Wimborne, a preacher in the whole of England, two lecturers in Scripture, one at Oxford, the other at Cambridge, where she also founded two colleges, one dedicated to Christ, and the other to St John, the Evangelist."

In 1539 iron railings, elaborately painted with coats of arms and other ornaments, were erected around the tomb. The ironwork was sold off by the Abbey in 1823 but recovered and restored a century later.

Legacy

She was bounteous and lyberal to every Person of her Knowledge or acquaintance. Avarice and Covetyse she most hated, and sorowed it full moche in all persons, but specially in ony that belong'd unto her. She was of syngular Easyness to be spoken unto, and full curtayse answere she would make to all that came unto her. Of marvayllous gentyleness she was unto all folks, but specially unto her owne, whom she trustede, and loved ryghte tenderly. Unkynde she woulde not be unto no creature, ne forgetful of ony kyndeness or servyce done to her before, which is no lytel part of veray nobleness. She was not vengeable ne cruell, but redy anone to forgete and to forgyve injuryes done unto her, at the least desyre or mocyon made unto her for the same. Mercyfull also and pyteous she was unto such as was greyved and wrongfully troubled, and to them that were in Poverty and sekeness, or any other mysery.

Lady Margaret Beaufort was a lifelong artistic patron and supporter of academia. Margaret commissioned the first English parody mass from Robert Fayrfax based on his earlier motet, O bone Jesu.

While married to Lord Stanley Margaret endowed the building of chapels in Wales. Like Edward IV and his court, she was also involved with the advances in printing of William Caxton and his successor Wynkyn de Worde, not only as a patroness but for her own acquisition. The first book she commissioned from Caxton in 1483 was the 13th-century French romance Blanchardin et Eglantine, which mirrored fairly closely the match she was forging in secret between her son Henry and Elizabeth of York, with the aid of Elizabeth Woodville, then in sanctuary from Richard III in Westminster Abbey. Six years later, after Richard's defeat by Henry at Bosworth, she commissioned an English translation of the romance from Caxton: it heralded the beginning of a period of Tudor patronage. Apart from encouraging book production and building her own library, Margaret also achieved considerable success as a translator, becoming the first English translator of the Imitation of Christ known by name, as well as translating the 15th-century Netherlandish treatise The Mirror of Gold for the Sinful Soul from a French intermediary.

In 1497 she announced her intention to build a free school for the general public of Wimborne. Following her death in 1509, Wimborne Grammar School came into existence, to become Queen Elizabeth's School, Wimborne Minster.

Portraits

There is no surviving portrait of Margaret Beaufort dating from her lifetime. All known portraits, however, are in essentially the same format, depicting her in her later years, wearing a long, peaked, white headdress and in a pose of religious contemplation. Most of these were made in the reign of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I as symbols of loyalty to the Tudor regime. They may be based on a lost original, or be derived from the sculpture on her tomb in Westminster Abbey, in which she wears the same headdress.

One portrait by Meynnart Wewyck in 1510 shows her at prayer in her richly furnished private closet behind her chamber. The plain desk at which she kneels is draped with a richly patterned textile that is so densely encrusted with embroidery that its corners stand away stiffly. Her lavishly illuminated Book of Hours is open before her, with its protective cloth wrapper (called a "chemise" binding), spread out around it. The walls are patterned with oak leaf designs, perhaps in lozenges, perhaps of stamped and part-gilded leather. Against the wall hangs the dosser of her canopy of estate, with the tester above her head (the Tudor rose at its centre) supported on cords from the ceiling. The coats-of-arms woven into the tapestry are of England (parted as usual with France) and the portcullis badge of the Beauforts, which the early Tudor kings later used in their arms. Small stained-glass roundels in the leaded glass of her lancet windows also display elements of the arms of both England (cropped away here) and Beaufort. The painting, which measures 180 cm by 122 cm, is notable as the first large-scale portrait of an Englishwoman.

In 2023, restoration work on the Wewyck portrait revealed that it had been overpainted several times throughout its history, with Margaret's original facial expression made more sombre and pious.

Depictions in the media

In historical fiction

Betty King, The Lady Margaret (1965), a story about the marriage of Margaret Beaufort and Edmund Tudor, parents of King Henry VII

Betty King, The King's Mother (1969), sequel to the above, the story of the widowed Margaret Beaufort, mother of the future King Henry VII

Iris Gower, Destiny's Child (1999). This novel was originally published in 1974 as Bride of the Thirteenth Summer, under the name Iris Davies.

Philippa Gregory, in the series The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels (in publication order):

The Constant Princess (2005), about the young Catherine of Aragon and her early life in England

The White Queen (2009), about Elizabeth Woodville

The Red Queen (2010), about Margaret Beaufort herself

The Lady of the Rivers (2011), about Jacquetta of Luxembourg

The Kingmaker's Daughter (2012), about Anne Neville

The White Princess (2013), about Elizabeth of York

Rebecca Gablé, Das Spiel der Könige (translated: The Game of Kings) (2007), the third installment (1455–1485) of the Waringham series by the German author; Margaret ("Megan") Beaufort is one of the characters

Livi Michael, Succession (2014), about Margaret of Anjou and Margaret Beaufort

Paul C. Doherty, in the Margaret Beaufort series (in publication order):

On screen

Lady Margaret was portrayed by Marigold Sharman in eight of the 13 episodes of the BBC's Shadow of the Tower (1972), with James Maxwell as her son Henry VII.

Channel 4 and RDF Media produced a drama about Perkin Warbeck for British television in 2005, Princes in the Tower. It was directed by Justin Hardy and starred Sally Edwards as Lady Margaret, opposite Paul Hilton as Henry VII, Mark Umbers as Warbeck, and Nadia Cameron Blakey as Elizabeth of York.

In 2013, Amanda Hale portrayed Lady Margaret Beaufort in the television drama series, The White Queen, an adaptation of Gregory's novels, which was shown on BBC One, Starz, and VRT.

In the 2017 series The White Princess (a follow-up to The White Queen), Margaret is portrayed by Michelle Fairley. She is portrayed later in life by Harriet Walter in 2019's The Spanish Princess, a follow-up to both The White Queen and The White Princess.

Margaret is the main protagonist of the three-part 2021 series Royal Bastards: Rise of the Tudors, in which the story of the Wars of the Roses is dramatised and told from three viewpoints: the House of York, the House of Lancaster and Margaret herself. Margaret is portrayed by two actors (younger and older); Nina Marlin and Phoebe Sparrow.

In music

In 2020, Renée Lamb portrayed Margaret Beaufort on the cast recording of A Mother's War, a musical based on the Wars of the Roses.