Margaret Beaufort was born May 1443 in England. Her father was John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset. The writer of this post has a sneaking suspicion that this is a cursed title, but we don’t have time!
John Beaufort had recently suffered a devastating loss and embarrassment on the battlefield. So, when he passed away quite unexpectedly not long after, may speculated that he had died of suicide. An act that would have been a huge source of shame for this family. That sucks. That really sucks to say and know, but that is the thing with history. There are like a lot of assholes in it.
However, given her blue blood, Margaret was still considered a hot commodity on the marriage market. That’s why her family was so excited to celebrate her first marriage in 1444. Yup, you’re reading that right. Maggie was a bride for the first time at the age of 1.
Fun fact: it’s a common misconception that people from the day of yore often married at exceedingly young ages. And you might believe this when taking in that our main character in this story was married at ONE FUCKING YEARS OLD. But actually, this was only commonplace in the nobility. Normal folks tended to wait until their 20’s
However, this was annulled soon after. But don’t worry little Maggie B doesn’t stay single for long. At the age of 9 she was betrothed to the king’s half brother. A guy named Edmund Tudor. The Tudor family was very new to being in with the English nobility.
It was an honor for the Beauforts, is what I’m getting at. And by the age of 12 she was married and sent to live with the Tudors in Wales. We have to imagine that this was scary for Maggie, who had never spent time away from her mother. Now, this was not unheard of at the time. A young wife would go live with her new family, but would live with her husband more as a sister than anything else. What I’m saying is that, due to how dangerous childbirth was then, husbands with very young brides would typically wait until his wife was older. Like 15 or 16 at least.
BUT NOT EDMUND TUDOR. This fucking guy brought 12 year old Maggie to bed right away, and poor baby ended up pregnant before she was even done growing.
Yeah, that’s fucking gross. And sad. But don’t worry, Edmund isn’t in this story long because while Margaret sat there growing more and more pregnant Edmund is taken hostage and dies. So, now that she’s scared, away from home and pregnant now she is a widow. By age 13.
Unsurprisingly, the birth of her child (whom she named Henry to remind everyone of his relation to the king Henry VI) was difficult. Margaret was already small for her age, so carrying a full size baby to term and then delivering him was not something she was built for yet. Much to everyone’s surprise, Margaret survived. However, she never had any more children so it’s often assumed that the stress this delivery put on her body did permanent damage.
WHAT WE’RE GETTING AT IS 12 YEAR OLDS SHOULD NOT GET PREGNANT.
The Wars of the Roses
Let’s switch gears and talk about the Wars of the Roses. This could be it’s very own, very long post (and probably will be one day), so let’s do some skimming.
A very quick TL;DR? Have you ever watched Game of Thrones? That’s the Wars of the Roses. But to give you a little more context than all that here’s what you really need to know.
The Lancasters and the York are the two branches of the Plantagenet family and the Plantagenets are the people in charge of England. The current king, Henry VI, is sadly super mentally unstable and can’t really do his job, so his cousins go to war over who should run the show.
Bada-binb-bada-boom you got the Wars of the Roses.
This was a bloody war and likely no family in England didn’t lose a family member in one of the battles. However, for the sake of brevity, let’s just say that this went on for so long, that her baby Henry was literally the only claimant to the throne on Team Lannister Lancaster left. And Margaret took that seriously.
The things this woman has endured that I hope none of us ever have to experience. I believe that her life was just one ball of anxiety until she decided to reach across the aisle to a very cool lady named Elizabeth Woodville. Liza W had not always been a friend. Liza was the widow of the previous York king and Maggie the hopeful mother of the next Lacanstrian king.
Richard III is king and no one is into it. Elizabeth Woodville’s son was supposed to be king. But then Richard III (in a nutshell) murdered her son and took the throne for himself. Then he killed a bunch of other people for not great reasons.
Liza and Maggie decide that the enemeny of my enemy is my friend. They agreed that their children would marry eachother. This would end the wars of the rose and her son could finally claim the throne for himself.
Their plan worked and these two women ( WHO COLLECTIVELY JUST LIVED THROUGH LIKE SO MUCH TRAUMA) were guiding a brand new dyasty.
My Lady the King’s Mother
Marget is now the mother of the king and she loved every minute of it. Her son, Henry VII, relied heavily on her in all things. She’d been around the block and he was the outsider. He needed her advice and guidance and she was happy to provide it.
Margaret Beaufort sadly outlived just about everyone in her life, including her son. After Henry VII died Maggie hung on just long enough to ensure the peaceful transfer of power to her grandson, Henry VIII. She passed away less than a week after his coronation. She died in her bed of natural causes ensuring that the wars were really over.
Some sources: