Margaret Beaufort

Marguerite Beaufort (May 31, 1443 – June 29, 1509) was the mother of King Henry VII of England and paternal grandmother of King Henry VIII of England. A member and passionate supporter of the House of Lancaster, she became a key figure in the Wars of the Roses and an influential matriarch of the House of Tudor. She founded two Cambridge colleges.

Childhood

Marguerite was born at Bletsoe Castle, Bedfordshire, on May 31, 1443 or 1441. The day and month are known with certainty, as at one point she requested that Westminster Abbey celebrate her birthday on the 31st. of May. The year of her birth is uncertain. According to William Dugdale, historian of the 17th century , she could have been born in 1441, judging by the interrogations carried out at the death of the Margaret's father Dugdale's thesis has many followers, but it is more likely that she was born in 1443, since in May of that year Margaret's father arranged with the king the guardianship of his unborn child in the event that he died in the war.

Marguerite was the only legitimate daughter of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset and Earl of Kendal, and Margaret de Beauchamp, heiress to the barony of Bletsoe. Margaret's father was a great-grandson of King Edward III through his third surviving son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. When Margaret was born, her father was preparing to leave for France at the head of an important military expedition in support of King Henry VI of England. In the event of his death in this campaign, Somerset had agreed with the king that guardianship and the decision about Margaret's marriage would fall exclusively to his wife. However, Somerset fell out with the king after his return from France, was banished from court and was nearly accused of treason. He died shortly afterwards, believed to be due to illness, according to Thomas Basin, but in the Croyland chronicle it is stated that his death was due to suicide. Margarita, her only daughter, inherited her entire fortune.

When Margaret was one year old, the king broke the agreement with her father and placed the girl under the guardianship of William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, although Margaret continued to live with her mother. Margaret's mother was pregnant when she was widowed, but the baby did not survive and Margaret was left as the sole heir. Margaret was the only legitimate descendant of John Beaufort, although she had two half-brothers and three half-sisters from her mother's first marriage, whom maintained after his son's ascension to the throne.

Marriages

First marriage

Marguerite married Suffolk's son, John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk. The wedding could have taken place between January 28 and February 7, 1444, when she was between one and three years old, although there are studies that suggest that they were married in January 1450, after the arrest of Suffolk, which would have attempted to do so. Secure your child's future. On August 18, 1450, a papal dispensation was granted, necessary because the spouses had close blood ties, which coincides with the second date of the wedding. Three years later, the marriage was dissolved and Margaret was placed under the guardianship of the King Henry VI's half-brothers, Jasper and Edmund Tudor. Margaret never recognized this marriage: in her will, given in 1472, Margaret refers to Edmund Tudor as her first husband. According to canon law, the marriage contract was not binding on Margaret, since she had been married before she was twelve years old.

Second marriage

Even before the annulment of his first marriage, Henry VI had decided to marry Margaret to her maternal brother Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond. Edmund was the eldest son of Catherine of Valois, mother of the king, and Owen Tudor.

Marguerite was 12 years old when she married the 24-year-old Edmund Tudor on 1 November 1455, shortly after the Wars of the Roses broke out. Edmund, a Lancastrian supporter, was taken prisoner by Yorkist forces a few months later. He died of the plague in November 1456, while held captive at Carmarthen, leaving Margaret widowed at 13 years of age and seven months pregnant.

Marguerite was welcomed by her brother-in-law Jasper Tudor at Pembroke Castle, where on January 28, 1457 she gave birth to her only son, Henry Tudor, the future Henry VII of England. The birth was particularly difficult, and both Margarita and the baby nearly died due to the mother's youth and her small build. This difficult birth left her unable to conceive again.

Marguerite and her son remained at Pembroke until the triumph of the House of York in 1461; then the earldom of Pembroke and his guardianship passed into the hands of William Herbert. From the age of two, Henry lived with his father's family in Wales, and at the age of fourteen he went into exile in France. During this period, the relationship between mother and son was maintained by mail except for some visits.

The countess was always very respectful of Edmundo's memory. In 1472, sixteen years after his death, Margaret specified in her will that she wished to be buried next to him, despite having enjoyed a long, stable and close relationship with her deceased third husband. in 1471.

Third marriage

On 3 January 1458, Margaret married Henry Stafford (1425-1471), son of Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham. Margaret and Henry were second cousins, so a papal dispensation was requested, granted on April 6, 1457. The countess enjoyed a long and harmonious marriage to Stafford. Buckingham gave land worth 400 marks to the spouses, although the couple's main source of income was Margaret's estates. The marriage had no children.

Margarita was widowed again in 1471.

Fourth marriage

In June 1472, Margaret married Thomas Stanley, Lord High Constable and King of Mann. This wedding was a marriage of convenience, and recent studies suggest that Margaret never considered herself a member of the Stanley family.

Margaret's marriage to Stanley allowed her to return to the court of King Edward IV and his wife Elizabeth, who distinguished her by naming her godmother to one of his daughters.

After the death of Edward IV and the accession of Richard III to the throne, Margaret returned to the court of the new queen, Anne Neville, whom she served as lady-in-waiting at her coronation. However, Richard III approved a parliamentary law that stripped Margaret of all her titles and property, although not completely, since she transferred the possessions to her husband.

While serving the new kings, Margaret conspired with the dowager queen, Elizabeth Woodville, and it is highly likely that she participated in Buckingham's rebellion. Like Queen Elizabeth's sons, the Princes in the Tower, they had allegedly been murdered, the betrothal of Margaret's son, Henry Tudor, to Elizabeth of York, eldest daughter of Elizabeth and Edward IV, was agreed upon, thus creating a marital alliance that could count on the support of both Yorkist and Lancastrian supporters.

Although he had fought in the ranks of Richard III during Buckingham's rebellion, Margaret's husband did not want to intervene in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, even though the king was holding his eldest son, George Stanley, hostage (Baron Strange). After the battle, it was Stanley who placed the crown on the head of his stepson Henry VII, who later created him Earl of Derby. Thereafter Margaret became Countess of Richmond and Derby.

At a certain point in her marriage, the countess decided to live alone. In 1499, with permission from her husband, she took a vow of chastity in the presence of Richard Fitz James, Bishop of London. These types of vows were unusual during marriage, although there were precedents. The countess separated from Stanley and retired to Collyweston, although she received frequent visits from her husband, who had her own rooms in her house. Margaret renewed her vows in 1504.

Mother of the king

After her son won the crown at the Battle of Bosworth, Margaret elevated her status without becoming entitled to the title of Queen Mother, as she was not a dowager queen. Her son's first parliament recognized her right to own property independently of her husband, as if she were single, and as such, she enjoyed a legal and social independence far superior to that usual among married women (subject to the legal doctrine of "coverage"). Towards the end of his son's reign, he obtained a special commission to administer justice in the north of England.

As his mother had agreed, Henry married Elizabeth of York. The countess was reluctant to accept a status lower than that of the dowager queen Elizabeth Woodville or even that of her daughter-in-law, her queen. She wore clothes as luxurious as the queen and walked only half a step behind her. Amy Licence, Isabel's biographer, states that this "would have been correct court protocol", and adds that "only one person knew Isabel's true feelings towards Margaret and she never wrote it down." Despite everything, Margaret had to comply with the orders of Isabel, of higher rank than her since she was a princess in her own right and queen by marriage.

Margarita signed for years as «M. Richmond", but in 1499 she changed her signature to "Margaret R.", probably to underline her royal authority (the R could stand for Regina or Richmond). Additionally, she included in the signature the Tudor crown and the legend et mater Henrici septimi regis Angliae et Hiberniae ("and mother of Henry VII, king of England and Ireland").

Many historians believe that the Dowager Queen Elizabeth Woodville's departure from court in 1487 was partly due to the maneuvers of Henry's influential mother, although there is no incontrovertible evidence. The countess was a cultured and pious woman and Her son had a strong inclination for her. Henry died on April 21, 1509, having appointed Margaret as regent and executor of his will, who was also responsible for organizing the funeral of her son and the coronation of her grandson. At the king's funeral, Margaret preceded the rest of the women of the royal family.

Her fourth and last husband, the Earl of Derby, died on July 29, 1504.

Death

The countess died in the residence of the dean of Westminster Abbey on June 29, 1509, aged 66, two months after the death of her son and one day after her grandson turned 18. She is buried in the abbey's Henry VII Chapel, in a black marble tomb surmounted by a canopied gilt bronze effigy, currently situated between the tomb of William III and Mary II and the funerary monument of Mary I of Scotland.

Legacy

In 1497 he announced his intention to build a free public school in Wimborne Minster (Dorset), for which he bequeathed an amount in his will.

Fisher influenced Margaret to found the Universities of St. John and Christ;"He also founded two more chairs of divinity at both Oxford and Cambridge. In 1502 he founded the Lady Margaret Chair of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, where Fisher became in 1503 the first rector of the Lady Margaret Chair of Divinity at Cambridge.

In 1505 she expanded the God's House faculty in Cambridge, renaming it Christ's College with a royal charter, which is why she is considered the founder of this college. In 1511 she founded Saint John's College in Cambridge, with the legacy of the lands that Margaret owned near Great Bradley (Suffolk). Her portrait hangs in the main hall of both schools, which also display her coat of arms and motto on the respective shields. The Lady Margaret Society, the Beaufort Club of Christ's College and the Lady Margaret Rowing Club are named after her.

Lady Margaret Hall, the first female residence at the University of Oxford, was also named in her honour.

Ancestry of Margaret Beaufort

In fiction

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