King Richard knew Margaret had been plotting against him but he trusted her husband to keep her under house arrest. She never stopped plotting for her son, and when he finally invaded and rode onto Bosworth Field it was Margaret who provided the ally, the husband she had married for this very moment.

At age twelve Margaret married Edmund Tudor, twelve years her senior, on 1 November 1455. The Wars of the Roses had just broken out; Edmund, a Lancastrian, was taken prisoner by Yorkist forces less than a year later. He died of the plague in captivity at Carmarthen on 3 November 1456, leaving a 13-year-old widow who was pregnant with their child. [15] Jones & Underwood, Michael & Malcolm (1985). "LADY MARGARET BEAUFORT". History Today. 35: 23 – via JSTOR.Margaret Beaufort, a descendant and passionately loyal supporter of the House of Lancaster, was married, while still a child of twelve, to the king’s half-brother Edmund Tudor, as a way of endowing him with her enormous fortune and lands. Even before the annulment of her first marriage, Henry VI chose Margaret as a bride for his half-brother, Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond. This was likely to strengthen Edmund's claim to the throne should Henry be forced to designate Edmund his heir; the king was then without child or legitimate siblings. [14] Edmund was the eldest son of the king's mother, Catherine of Valois, by Owen Tudor. [11] Yes, because you think God wants your son to be King of England. I don’t think your God has ever advised you otherwise. You hear only what you want. He only ever commands your preferences.’ A moment to fully appreciate Margaret’s laudable agency in this pairing is crucial to understand her character. In the mid-15th century, women did not select their husbands at any age. The forethought and autonomy connected to this decision was an outlier for the time, not to be repeated until her great-granddaughter, Elizabeth I, chose to remain unmarried. coeducational interdenominational theological college, having originally begun as a centre for training Catholic laywomen in religion and theology. [79] [80] [81] Portraits [ edit ] Anonymous 17th century portrait of Margaret in widow's garb

As both women had a mutual desire to rid themselves of King Richard, an alliance formed between them which involved supplanting Richard with Henry Tudor. Still able to visit her son, Margaret would however witness her son’s lands handed over to the Duke of Clarence, the new king’s brother. Jones, Michael K. & Underwood, Malcolm G. (2004). "Beaufort, Margaret [ known as Lady Margaret Beaufort], countess of Richmond and Derby (1443–1509), royal matriarch". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online) (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/1863. Archived from the original on 9 February 2019. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) All which thyngs according to your desire and plesure I have with all my herte and goode wille giffen and graunted unto you… I shall be as glad to plese you as youre herte can desire hit, and I knowe welle that I am as much bounden so to doe as any creture lyvyng, for the grete and singular moderly love and affection that hit hath plesed you at all tymes to ber towards me". [61]Presentation miniature of Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers, one of the first books in the English language, printed by William Caxton. The miniature depicts Anthony Woodville presenting the book to Edward IV, accompanied by his wife Elizabeth Woodville, his son Edward, Prince of Wales and his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester Vergil, Polydore (2018). The Anglica Historia of Polydore Vergil, A. D. 1485–1537, edited by D. Hay. University of Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p.411. 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]

The college owes its foundation to the generosity of an extraordinary woman – Lady Margaret Beaufort. She was, variously, a scholar, an astute manager of resources, a shrewd politician and a generous philanthropist. She had by the age of thirteen given birth to Henry Tudor, who was to become King Henry VII in 1485 with the assistance of her third husband, Lord Stanley. The intervention of Stanley’s forces at the Battle of Bosworth was critical in securing Henry’s victory over Richard III. And to insist on viewing Margaret as traditional is a disservice to her contribution to history, for Margaret founded a dynasty. Margaret leveraged her role to advocate for women in her son’s court, insisting that her 9-year-old granddaughter, also named Margaret, not marry the adult James IV of Scotland until she was older and physically mature. Margaret simultaneously developed a close bond with the new Queen Elizabeth of York’s sister, Cecily, arranging a marriage between the princess and her own half brother, John Welles. And upon Welles’ death, when Cecily remarried a man below her station, Margaret advocated on her behalf to the king, saving her from harsh repercussions. Philippa Gregory; David Baldwin; Michael Jones (2011). The Women of the Cousins' War. London: Simon & Schuster. Before her death Beaufort also left her mark on the early reign of Henry VIII; when her eighteen-year-old grandson chose members of his privy council, it was Margaret's suggestions he took. [64] Death [ edit ]Lady Margaret Beaufort was both a highly educated woman and a religious one. The Speculum aureum animae peccatricis ('Mirror of Gold for the Sinful Soul') was written in Latin by Jacobus de Gruytrode (d. 1472) and later translated into French. Lady Margaret, keen to encourage wider circulation of devotional texts, translated it into English from the French version. Her translation was printed by Richard Pynson in 1506, and she appears to have bought fifty copies herself. The mirror of God for the sinful soul. This is a copy of the 1522 edition, printed by Wynkyn de Worde 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"). [42] [43]

In 1502 she established the Lady Margaret's Professorship of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. [70] [71] In 1505 she refounded and enlarged God's House, Cambridge as Christ's College, Cambridge with a royal charter from the king. She has been honoured ever since as the Foundress of the College. A copy of her signature can be found carved on one of the buildings (4 staircase, 1994) within the College. In 1511, St. John's College, Cambridge was founded by her estate, either at her direct behest or at the suggestion of her chaplain, John Fisher. Land that she owned around Great Bradley in Suffolk was bequeathed to St. John's upon its foundation. Her portraits hang in the Great Halls and other college rooms of both Christ's and St. John's, accompanied by portraits of John Fisher. Unusually, both colleges have the same coats of arms, using her crest and motto. Furthermore, various societies, including the Lady Margaret Society as well as the Beaufort Club at Christ's, and the Lady Margaret Boat Club at John's, were named after her. [72] 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 Meanwhile, the care of her child Henry Tudor fell to his uncle Jasper Tudor, who granted Margaret and her husband the opportunity to visit him at Pembroke Castle. Meanwhile, his mother was stripped of all her titles and estates by Richard and forced into house imprisonment at her husband’s home. A total ban was placed on any communication with her son in France.Often referred to as the matriarch of the Tudors, Margaret Beaufort was a powerful member of the royal household and an influential figure in the greater political machinations of the day. leverage to the Stanleys, since Margaret could use any wealth granted to her for her own purposes, thereby circumventing the prevailing idea of coverture. [50] She was a co-ruler of England, housed in every royal palace in the best rooms often with interconnecting doors to her son. She wrote the Book of the Royal Household, determining how state and private occasions should be performed. She was a keen landlord of her vast lands, and took an active part in the government of the kingdom. She outlived her adored son and survived long enough to see her grandson Henryinherit the throne.