Margaret Beaufort (1449-1509), Countess of Richmond and Derby, is one of the famous mothers of English history, together with Anne Boleyn, mother of Elizabeth I Tudor, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Closely related to the family of Edward III, Margaret had an eventful life in the turbulent period of the War of the Roses. She married three times, but her great love was her son Henry, that she bore at twelve years of age to Edmund Tudor. She dedicated her life to the the goal of seeing her hounded and a fugitive son, become king of England. The dream came true: with the name of Henry VII Tudor (1457-1509), Henry started the Tudor dynasty.

Margaret was born in 1443, daughter of John Beaufort (1404-1444), first Duke of Somerset, son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and his mistress, later his wife, Kathryn Swynford. Appointed Captain General of Guyenne in 1443, John was accused of treason when, in the Hundred Years War, England lost many of the conquests achieved in France by Henry V Lancaster. He died, perhaps taking his own life, in 1444.

Margaret’s mother, Margaret Beauchamp, Countess of Shrewsbury (1443-1467), on the death of her husband John, was invited by King Henry VI Lancaster to Windsor so that a marriage contract could be negotiated for her daughter with William de la Pole, first Duke of Suffolk. The aim was that the little Margaret, then only one year old, should in due course marry his son John. Margaret Beauchamp possessed a wealth of properties and rents, so she was a coveted heiress. The contract was dissolved three years later, and in 1455 Margaret, then twelve years of age, married Edmund Tudor (1430-1456), who had been appointed her guardian by the king on the death of her father, John Beaufort.

At that time Edmund, half-brother of the King of England Henry VI, was twenty-four whilw Margaret was twelve: even though marriage with young girls was not unusual in that period, it was accepted practice to abstain from the conjugal act until the wife had reached sufficient mental and physical maturity to become pregnant. But what Edmund wanted, immediately, was to take possession of her properties: hence the marriage, which was at once consummated in order to render the appropriation legal. However, as Margaret was slight in body and of delicate health, Edmund’s act was condemned as rape.

The outcome of the pregnancy was a dreadful delivery, and the consequent impossibility of Margaret having any further children. Fate did not allow Edmund to enjoy the wealth which he had seized: the king sent him to fight in Wales, where, taken prisoner by the Yorks, he was left in Carmarthen Castle, where he died of the plague – some say from torture – in November 1457. This left Margaret alone expecting her child, born on 28 January 1457. Some years later Margaret will claim that she had married Edmund after experiencing a vision, and to have loved him greatly.

After Edmund’s death and in the interests of her son, a child as fragile in his health as she, the fifteen-year-old Margaret married Henry Stafford, second Duke of Buckingham and her cousin, twenty years her senior. This was finally a time of happiness, when she could live not too far from her son, entrusted by the sovereign Edward IV York to the care of his supporters William Herbert and Anne Devereux, and with a husband with whom she enjoyed a quiet life in the Midlands, with frequent agreeable trips to London and visits to her various properties. With him she shared a passion for hunting and cultural pursuits, among which was a love of books and reading.

All of this ended when Henry Stafford died in 1471 and, following the death of the pious Henry VI Lancaster, murdered while kneeling in prayer in the Tower, Margaret’s young son became a potential rival to Edward IV York. He had to flee, and his uncle Jasper Tudor hid him in Brittany, guest of Duke Francis II.

At the end of the War of the Roses (1455-87), when the White Rose of York gained the upper hand over the Red Rose of Lancaster, Margaret’s only hope was that her son would be granted his father’s titles, and that he could return to England to live in peace after his exile as a fugitive. This was denied her. Margaret then made a very clever move: she arranged for her son to marry Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV of York and Elizabeth Woodville. So Henry, with the aid of soldiers and money furnished him by Duke Francis, landed in England, and on 22 August 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field, killed the then sovereign Richard III York.

On Saturday 30 October Henry was crowned in London, in Westminster Abbey. On 18 January he married Elizabeth of York. The Red Rose of Lancaster and the White Rose of York were united in the Tudor Rose. Thus began the Tudor dynasty.

In the meantime, in June 1472, Margaret had married Thomas Lord Stanley, a rich landowner. It was a marriage of convenience, she a widow and in need of protection in the violent exchanges of the War of the Roses, he gaining the prestige of her name and her wealth.

Having become the mother of the monarch, Margaret exercised a strong influence over him, advising him by visits and letters – “my dearest sweet Sovereign, and my sole joy in this world”, she would write to him, and she would sign herself “my good and gracious prince, king, and most-beloved only son, Margaret R”.

He listened to her devotedly and gave her the pleasure of grandchildren: Arthur, Prince of Wales; Henry VIII King of England; Margaret, Queen Consort of Scotland; Elizabeth, who died when only three; Mary, Queen Consort of France: she concerned herself lovingly with the education of them all.

In her last years of life Margaret’s religious fervour grew ever stronger: she would stay kneeling in prayer for hours, ruining her knees and back, she gave herself to acts of charity, she became founder and benefactor of colleges at Cambridge and Oxford, she translated devotional books from the French and had them printed by William Caxton. Devastated by the illness and premature death from tuberculosis of her son, which occurred on 21 April 1509, she died soon after, on 29 June of the same year.

She is buried in London, in the splendid Lady Chapel of Westminster Abbey, beside her son.


Translated by Colin Sowden.