In this episode of the Renaissance English History Podcast, I talk about one of the two women who were founders of the Tudor dynasty – Lady Margaret Beaufort, Henry VII’s mother.
Book recommendation:
Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses by Sarah Gristwood
[advertisement insert here: if you like this show, and you want to support me and my work, the best thing you can do (and it’s free!) is to leave us a rating on iTunes. It really helps others discover the podcast. Second best is to buy Tudor-themed gifts for all your loved ones at my shop, at TudorFair.com, like leggings with the Anne Boleyn portrait pattern on them, or boots with Elizabeth I portraits. Finally, you can also become a patron of this show for as little as $1/episode at Patreon.com/englandcast … And thank you!]
Episode Transcript:
Hello, and welcome to the Renaissance English History Podcast. I’m your host, Heather Teysko. It’s been a long time since I’ve been with you and a lot has changed. For me, the biggest change is that I’m now a mom of a sweet little three-month-old girl called Hannah. And some of you have sent me some lovely Facebook messages congratulating me and I really appreciate them. It’s been a long road to get her and now that we have her, we’re just so excited and trying to enjoy every moment, even the 3 am feedings.
Anyway, onto the Renaissance. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how the Tudors came to power. If anyone is watching The White Queen, which was on BBC One and Starz, you are already familiar with the two powerful women who were Henry VIII‘s grandmothers portrayed in that series. I wanted to dig a little deeper into the lives of these two women who were two of the founders of the Tudor dynasty.
Henry VII’s mother was Margaret Beaufort and his mother-in-law was Elizabeth Woodville. Elizabeth and Margaret should have been bitter enemies, one was firmly Lancastrian and worked tirelessly to pave the way for her son to become the king. The other was the widow of a Lancastrian knight, killed in the early days of the Wars of the Roses, who wound up capturing the heart of the young Yorkist king and becoming his queen. These two women who both experienced grief and loss, were able to come together to strike a deal that would unite their two families for good and their descendants would even wind up uniting England and Scotland. Today I’m going to talk about Margaret Beaufort, and in the next episode, I’ll discuss Elizabeth Woodville.
Margaret Beaufort was probably born in 1443, and was the great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, the third son of Edward III. Even though he was her great great grandfather, Edward III hangs over the Tudors, as he was living proof that you can in fact have too much of a good thing. He had five sons who survived to adulthood and set the stage for the Wars of the Roses, which was appropriately known as the Cousin’s War at the time, because all of his descendants are fighting each other for the throne.
This isn’t the time or place to go into the details of the Wars of the Roses, we could spend a dozen episodes on it and still not cover everything. And plus it’s a smidgen before our time, so we’ll just dip in and out as needed to provide context for the lives and the politics of the later Tudor monarchs.
It’s interesting that Henry VII’s claim to the throne on both his mother and father’s sides are traced back to illegitimate relationships. Though ultimately, of course, his greatest claim to the throne would be that he defeated the reigning king Richard III at Bosworth Field. But back to the illegitimate relationships, Margaret Beaufort, Henry’s mother, was descended from Edward III through his third son, John of Gaunt. But it was from John’s third marriage to his longtime mistress, Katherine Swynford. All of the Beauforts were barred from the throne because they were all declared illegitimate. But people seem to be declared illegitimate, and then legitimized all the time in medieval England, so it really wasn’t going to stop anyone.
Margaret was an only child, and her father died when she was still very young. And since she was his only child, she was an heiress to a substantial fortune and landholdings. She was really lucky to spend her early childhood living at home with her mother, but she was still knocked around like a ping pong ball back and forth, officially married before she was even a year old to the Duke of Suffolk, who had inherited her wardship. Wardship was important because whoever had it had the right to get income from her lands. So the Duke of Suffolk was having a rough time, he was being blamed for some military disasters in France.
Another side thread to all of this was that the Hundred Years’ War was in full force here, and not going very well for England at the moment. So he was losing some battles in France, and people blamed him. And when he was arrested, he quickly moved to have Margaret marry his son in order to protect the status and the wealth of his family. This was actually not the smartest move that he thought that it would be. Because of that, the House of Commons would bring charges against Suffolk saying that he had purposefully had his son marry Margaret, because he presumed her to be the next in line to the throne. So eventually, the marriage would be dissolved and the little girl’s wardship would be given to Edmund and Jasper Tudor.
The Tudor side of the family tree is also quite scandalous. After her husband Henry V died and her son became King Henry VI as a young boy, Queen Catherine was still only 21 years old and decided to do something quite radical. She married her Welsh steward Owen Tudor, and had six children with him. Their children would have been half-siblings to King Henry VI, who, while still young, decided that he wanted peace within his family, and gave most of his half-brothers earldoms. He also gave little Margaret Beaufort’s wardship to Edmund and Jasper and eventually married Edmund Tudor to her.
It’s interesting that Margaret would later say that she chose Edmund to be her husband or rather, God and the saints told her to marry him. The truth was, she would have no choice in the matter. Women even, and especially noblewomen, couldn’t choose their husbands. They were pawns in the game that their fathers and uncles and brothers were playing, and they would not have had the opportunity to make their wishes known or respected.
The marriage would have taken place when she was 12, the age of consent, and she gave birth to her son, Henry Tudor a year later when she was only 13. And the birth nearly killed her. She was left in such a bad state that she never had another child after Henry again. Edmund Tudor wound up dying in 1456, before his son Henry Tudor, the future King Henry VII was born, and Margaret was back on her own again.
Margaret married again when she was 14 to Sir Henry Stafford and he was close to 20 years older than her. He was a Lancastrian supporter in the early stages of the Wars of the Roses, but he switched sides midway through and died fighting for the York cause. Her marriage to Stafford was a happy one. And later when she was the mother of a king, she actually spent time and money restoring his house in his memory.
After he died, Margaret was again on her own, this time in her late 20s. And with the Yorkists in power again, and her loyalties to them would be suspect, of course, because her son was the heir to the Lancastrian line. She never actually stopped believing that her son Henry Tudor, would become the king of England, but with the Yorkists ruling, she couldn’t really afford to make that sentiment well known.
She married a man of property, Thomas, Lord Stanley. Lord Stanley’s main accomplishment during this time was that he had been able to navigate his way through all of the changing monarchs, without ever actually declaring his support for any of them. He was a widower and he had had children from his previous marriage. So he was okay with the fact that he probably wouldn’t have any with Margaret. The marriage was a business partnership, she increased his status, and he gave her protection with the Yorkists. Together, though, they worked behind the scenes to plot and plan for an opportunity for Margaret’s son, Henry Tudor to come back to England and make his claim to the throne.
Margaret was able to go back to court and serve Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, and she would also serve Anne Neville, Richard III’s wife after he seized the throne when his older brother Edward died. Secretly though she was working with Edward’s widow, Elizabeth Woodville the whole time to plan a return for her son and to get Richard III out of the way. Elizabeth Woodville certainly wasn’t a fan of her brother-in-law Richard III, particularly after he most likely murdered her two sons to clear the way for him to take the throne.
While working for Richard’s Queen Anne, she hatched a plan with Elizabeth Woodville, the previous queen, that her son Henry Tudor would marry Elizabeth’s daughter, Elizabeth of York (there are so many Elizabeths). Presumably, this would unite the houses of York and Lancaster and give both sides who were getting fed up with Richard, something to support. The children of the marriage would have legitimacy from both parents. And since their parents had united the two warring factions, presumably they wouldn’t face the same challenges to their inheritance. And it also helped that a lot of the nobility by this point was dead.
So when Henry Tudor raised his army and faced Richard III on Bosworth Field, his stepfather, Lord Stanley, kept true to his noncommittal word and stayed out of the battle, even though he had a son who was effectively being held hostage by Richard III. Some say that he finally joined in at the end, and that was enough to tip the forces towards Henry Tudor. Stanley was the one who finally placed the crown on Henry VII’s head after the battle. Margaret stayed married to Lord Stanley, then later on she preferred to live alone, not surprisingly, once she was secure as the mother of a king.
After everything she’d been through, she really wanted to have some peace and quiet. So she took a vow of chastity in 1499 even though she was still married, and she lived alone, though her husband did visit her often, and that demonstrated what a good friendship and partnership they had developed all those years.
Henry VII’s first Parliament recognized her right to hold property on her own, and she enjoyed the independence that wasn’t afforded to most women in her time. There have always been rumors that she may have been the mother-in-law from hell. Elizabeth Woodville left court in 1487. Margaret certainly hadn’t liked accepting a lower rank than her despite the fact that Elizabeth had been a queen, whereas Margaret was simply the mother of a king.
And there’s very little actual fact about the relationships between the women at court during this time. But what we do know is that Henry VII was absolutely devoted to his mother, and he also had a fairly happy and successful marriage. Margaret outlived her son, but only by two months. She did live long enough to see her grandson Henry VIII become king, and one can only imagine how proud she must have been to see the dynasty that she fought so hard for, to carry on successfully.
That’s it for this week, except for the book recommendation, which is Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses by Sarah Gristwood, which I’ve been reading during my middle of the night feedings and really enjoying. I’ll put a link up to purchase it on the blog. You can also visit the blog to send me comments, story ideas, or other general thoughts. And I’m adding some portraits of Margaret Beaufort there. The address is https://www.englandcast.com or you can also find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/Englandcast.
And also just because I’m a proud mom, now I’m throwing up some pictures of Hannah on there, so you know, if you want a cute baby fix, you know where to go. Thanks so much for listening, and I’ll talk with you next time about Margaret’s counterpart Elizabeth Woodville. Meanwhile, if you’re in the US, Happy Thanksgiving, talk to you soon!
[advertisement insert here: if you like this show, and you want to support me and my work, the best thing you can do (and it’s free!) is to leave us a rating on iTunes. It really helps others discover the podcast. Second best is to buy Tudor-themed gifts for all your loved ones at my shop, at TudorFair.com, like leggings with the Anne Boleyn portrait pattern on them, or boots with Elizabeth I portraits. Finally, you can also become a patron of this show for as little as $1/episode at Patreon.com/englandcast … And thank you!]