![]() ![]() Margaret’s union with Henry Stafford seems to have been happy. ![]() The desperation of their departure left no time for farewell, and Margaret was not to see her beloved son for fourteen years. Jasper took back control of his nephew until the Lancastrian defeat at Tewkesbury when he and the boy took flight to France, ending up in Brittany. Whatever her feelings may have been, Margaret maintained good relations with Herbert and his wife, wrote to her son often and she and Stafford visited on several occasions.Īfter the battle of Edgecot Moor in 1469 Herbert was taken prisoner by the rebel turncoat Warwick and executed. Henry Tudor was well treated by the Herberts, and given a place almost as a family member, forming a life-long friendship with Herbert’s son. As soon as she was able, Margaret began to campaign for the return of Henry’s birth right. Henry maintained his title of Richmond but his lands and properties went to the new king’s brother, George, Duke of Clarence. How Margaret must have felt at handing her beloved son into the custody of the man responsible for her husband’s death can only be surmised. Her son remained in the care of Jasper but, when Edward IV won the throne, he was placed in the hands of William Herbert to be raised at Raglan Castle in Wales. Within weeks of his birth Margaret had taken her life into her own hands and arranged, with Jasper’s assistance, to marry Henry Stafford, a younger son of the Duke of Buckingham. It was in his cold, lofty fortress that Margaret gave birth to her only child, a son, whom she named Henry after her cousin the king. Margaret turned in her vulnerability to her brother-in-law, Jasper, who provided her with refuge at Pembroke castle. He left the twelve-year-old Margaret unprotected, and six months pregnant with his child. For Margaret, fresh from the nursery at her mother’s home at Bletsoe, it must have been an alien environment.Įdmund fell into dispute with the Yorkist, William Herbert, who imprisoned him at Carmarthen where Edmund died, either of wounds, or plague, or a combination of both. They made their home at Caldicot Castle and Lamphey Palace which Edmund used as a base for his military operations. She followed him to Wales where Edmund battled on the king’s behalf against Gruffydd ap Nicolas. At the age of twelve she became the wife of Edmund, the Earl of Richmond. As the country deteriorated into civil war the king’s brothers, Edmund and Jasper Tudor, were given the wardship of Margaret. Margaret and John’s marriage was quickly dissolved. Shortly afterwards the Duke himself fell into trouble and was killed trying to flee the country. When she was six-years-old she was married to the Duke’s son, John, a boy of seven. In the first year of her life Margaret’s father, out of favour with the king after a failed campaign in France, took his own life and Margaret was placed in the protection of the Duke of Suffolk, William de la Pole. From the day of her birth Margaret was a key figure in the story of what we now refer to as the wars of the roses. I have not made a saint of Margaret but neither is she demonised, she is human, flawed and tested, time and time again.ĭue to their illegitimate roots, the Beaufort family was barred from succession but that did not prevent them from becoming one of the most powerful families in England. Feminists today celebrate the few medieval women who stepped from beneath the thumb of masculine authority but Margaret is seldom found among them. It is not easy to turn a strong, plain woman into a romantic heroine and so, in fiction at least, she has become a harridan, a half-mad zealot. She was not an attractive woman, but she was pious, and she was resilient. It is surprising that a woman of such strength and intelligence has not been more celebrated so in this trilogy I walk in Margaret’s shoes and allow her to give her own (fictional) account.Īuthors have not been kind to Margaret Beaufort. Her childhood marriage to Edmund Tudor and the birth of Henry occurred before her fourteenth year yet she was not beaten by it. Margaret Beaufort’s story reveals a lifetime of challenges. It is not until I examined the Wars of the Roses from Margaret’s point of view that I was able to gain a wider understanding. I have always been fascinated by perspective, intrigued by the way a story can change just by switching the narrator. It wasn’t until I began to delve deeper and to view the events from her perspective that a new, very human figure began to emerge. In almost every novel and drama I’ve seen she appears as a negative figure, a driven woman, irrational and single-minded, and even in non-fiction studies of the Wars of the Roses, she is one dimensional. Margaret Beaufort – The King’s Mother By Judith Arnoppīefore I began to research for The Beaufort Chronicles I hadn’t really thought very deeply about Margaret Beaufort.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |