Edmund doesn't control himself and beds Margaret immediately and gets her pregnant. Her first married is dissolved and at 12 is married to Henry VI's half brother Edmund Tudor. Times being what they are the Duke of Suffolk runs afoul with the government and is exiled and murdered before he can leave the country. Henry VI gives the Duke of Suffolk Margaret's hardship and while she is still a child of 9 she is married to his son. It is suspected he committed suicide leaving Margaret wealthy but unprotected. When Margaret is an infant her father the Duke of Somerset is disgraced in France comes home and does suddenly. Henry VIII, Magaret's grandson, gets all the attention of the Tudor period but for me, Margaret is the star. Margaret Beaufort, the ultimate survivor of the 15th century. It would've gone a long way in helping to tell Margaret's story.Still, this was an excellent read, and provides us with accessible coverage of the life of an underrated lady. I wish the author/publishers would have included pictures of the ruins of Margaret's home, her tomb (which is described in great detail and still survives today), her rooms at the educational institutions she patronized. I took away half a star because the only illustration we have in the entire book is on the cover. Her actions during that time could have cost her her very life. She worked to advance her son's cause when he was banished from England. It's very easy to read, and you don't get bogged down in the nitty-gritty of minutiae. That child was to be Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch and the founder of the most famous royal dynasty in England.I applaud the author's way of telling Margaret's story. Though her three subsequent marriages produced no other children, Margaret cared for her only child with an unmatched zeal. Married off at the tender age of twelve, she was widowed and giving birth to her only child at thirteen. The life of Lady Margaret Beaufort is one well worth reading. This has got to be one of my favorite book's of the year. The book also brings across Margaret's religious devotion, and her charitable and educational work, in which she took a personal interest and role which exceeded that of the merely conventional royal patronage of the age - she was the founder of Christ's and St John's Colleges, Cambridge. Henry's father Edmund Tudor died before he was born, and Margaret's subsequent marriages were made with the view of attaining security for herself as well as protection of her son's interests. Giving birth to him before her fourteenth birthday - extremely young even for the time - and largely perforce separated from him during his childhood and adolescence, she was utterly devoted to him throughout the whole of his life, both as exiled pretender and later as king. The book of course covers the political and military events of the Wars of the Roses and subsequent events, but also brings across clearly Margaret's intense devotion to her son's interests. Later, slightly outliving her son who died in 1509, she was also unofficial regent to her grandson Henry VIII during the first two months of his reign until he came of age and married his brother's widow Katherine of Aragon. This is a very readable and well researched biography of one of the most important female figures of late Medieval English history, mother of the first Tudor king Henry VII and indeed at times, almost his deputy, especially after the death of Henry's wife Elizabeth of York in childbirth in 1503. Nicola Tallis's gripping account of Margaret's life, one that saw the final passing of the Middle Ages, is a true thriller, revealing the life of an extraordinarily ambitious and devoted woman who risked everything to ultimately found the Tudor dynasty. Through Margaret's royal blood Henry was crowned Henry VII, King of England, and Margaret became the most powerful woman in England - Queen in all but name. Surrounded by enemies and conspiracies in the Yorkist court, Margaret remained steadfast, only just escaping the headman's axes as she plotted to overthrow Richard III in her efforts to secure her son the throne.Īgainst all odds, in 1485 Henry Tudor was victorious on the battlefield at Bosworth. But few could match Margaret for her boundless determination and steely courage. She was just thirteen years old.Īs the battle for royal supremacy raged between the houses of Lancaster and York, Margaret, who was descended from Edward III and thus a critical threat, was forced to give up her son - she would be separated from him for fourteen years. A year later she endured a traumatic birth that brought her and her son close to death. The first comprehensive biography in three decades of Margaret Beaufort, the mother of the Tudor Dynasty.ĭuring the bloody and uncertain days of the Wars of the Roses, Margaret Beaufort was married to the half brother of the Lancastrian king Henry VI.
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