Margaret Beaufort: Mother of the Tudor Dynasty

Elizabeth Norton

Sep 2010 · Amberley Publishing Limited

About this ebook

The extraordinary true story of the 'Red Queen'. Born in the midst of the Wars of the Roses, Margaret Beaufort became the greatest heiress of her time. She survived a turbulent life, marrying four times and enduring imprisonment before passing her claim to the crown of England to her son, Henry VII, the first of the Tudor monarchs. Margaret's royal blood placed her on the fringes of the Lancastrian royal dynasty. After divorcing her first husband at the age of ten, she married the king's half-brother, Edmund Tudor, becoming a widow and bearing her only child, the future Henry VII, before her fourteenth birthday. Margaret was always passionately devoted to the interests of her son who claimed the throne through her. She embroiled herself in both treason and conspiracy as she sought to promote his claims, allying herself with the Yorkist Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, in an attempt to depose Richard III. She was imprisoned by Richard and her lands confiscated, but she continued to work on her son's behalf, ultimately persuading her fourth husband, the powerful Lord Stanley, to abandon the king in favour of Henry on the eve of the decisive Battle of Bosworth. It was Lord Stanley himself who placed the crown on Henry's head on the battlefield. Henry VII gave his mother unparalleled prominence during his reign. She established herself as an independent woman and ended her life as regent of England, ruling on behalf of her seventeen-year-old grandson, Henry VIII.

Ratings and reviews

The best biography I've read on Margaret Beaufort so far. She doesn't make assumptions or paints her as this ultra religious fanatics as so many have done lately but states the facts and draws her conclusions from the primary sourcws. After you read this book you come to admire Margaret more.

Very informative

About the author

Elizabeth Norton gained her first degree from the University of Cambridge, and her Masters from the University of Oxford. She has written many books on the Tudors and England’s Queens for Amberley. She lives in Kingston Upon Thames.