Countess of Richmond and Derby, mother of Henry VII of England, the first of the Tudor kings Lady Margaret Beaufort was the daughter of John Beaufort, duke of Somerset, and granddaughter of Edward III by his third son, John of Gaunt and Gaunt’s mistress Katherine Swyn-ford. The family that was given the name Beaufort was made legitimate by an act of the English parliament. Margaret’s first marriage to EdmundTudor resulted in the birth of her only child, Henry. Following the death of Edmund Tudor, Margaret remained active in the lives of the Yorkist kings Edward IV and Richard III and their courts. While her son was safely away from England, Margaret plotted against Richard III, hoping this would lead to the crowning of her son as king of England. In 1485 he defeated Richard at Bosworth Field and started the Tudor dynasty as Henry VII. If the crown had been decided strictly on the right of inheritance, Margaret would have had a claim to the throne following the victory at Bosworth Field. To avert that possibilty, Henry VII claimed the throne by right of conquest as well as inheritance, and Margaret Beaufort assumed her role as the king’s mother.
Margaret enjoyed a central role in the monarchy of Henry VII. Her experience from the Wars of the Roses allowed her to advise her son on both internal and international affairs. Especially during her son’s reign, Margaret was a scholar and patron of such printers as William Caxton. She also founded the Lady Margaret professorships of divinity at Oxford and Cambridge in 1502.When HenryVII died in 1509, he appointed his mother executrix of his will. Margaret died on 29 June 1509, just two months after her son.
Shawndra Holderby
See also Power, Politics and Women; on her patronage of Caxton, see also Printers, the Book Trade, and Women.
Bibliography
Jones, Michael K., and Malcolm G. Underwood.
The King’s Mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Routh, E. M.G. Lady Margaret: A Memoir of Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, Mother of Henry VII. London: Oxford University Press, 1924.
Seward, Desmond. The Wars of the Roses: Through the Lives of Five Men and Women of the Fifteenth Century. London: Constable; New York:
Viking, 1995.
Simon, Linda. Of Virtue Rare, Margaret Beaufort, Matriarch of the House of Tudor. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1982.
World History
