In Our Time: History Margaret Beaufort
Wealth Made Margaret A Political Prize
- Margaret Beaufort's wealth and descent shaped her life from infancy.
- As sole heir to John Beaufort she controlled ~£1,000/year in lands across Somerset, Lincolnshire, Kent and Devon, making her a very valuable ward.
A Widow At Thirteen Gave Birth To Henry Tudor
- Margaret gave birth to Henry Tudor aged 13 after Edmund Tudor died of plague.
- Jasper Tudor escorted her to Pembroke where the traumatic birth may explain why she had no further children and remained a widow with an infant heir.
Marriages Were Political Tools For Protection
- Margaret used marriages strategically to secure protection and negotiate her son's inheritance.
- Her 1471 marriage to Thomas Stanley placed her inside the Yorkist court and helped win Edward IV's agreement (by 1482) to restore Henry's lands and allow his return.
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the woman who, as a child bride, became mother to the boy who would eventually become the first king in the Tudor dynasty. Lady Margaret Beaufort (c1443-1509) was twelve when she married Edmund Tudor, half his age, and gave birth to their son Henry when she was thirteen and Edmund was already dead from the plague. Margaret Beaufort made it her life's work to protect Henry during the Wars of the Roses, which had begun soon before his birth and, as many more obvious successors to the crown died or were killed in the wars, she pivoted to supporting Henry when he became the strongest contender against Richard III. She was to survive Richard III declaring her a traitor and went on to see Henry become Henry VII, the first Tudor king, and herself become the King's Mother. Outliving her son by a few months, she was then to help her grandson Henry VIII succeed and the Tudor dynasty continue.
With
Joanna Laynesmith Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Reading
Katherine Lewis Honorary Professor of Medieval History at the University of Lincoln and Research Associate at the University of York
And
David Grummitt Staff Tutor in History at the Open University
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Reading list:
Nathen Amin, The House of Beaufort (Amberley Publishing, 2017)
Rachel Delman, 'The Vowesses, the anchoresses, and the aldermen's wives: Lady Margaret Beaufort and the Devout Society of Late Medieval Stamford' (Urban History 49, 2022)
David Grummitt, A Short History of the Wars of the Roses (revised edition, Bloomsbury Academic, 2025)
Michael Hicks, The Wars of the Roses (Yale University Press, 2010)
Lauren Johnson, Margaret Beaufort: Survivor, Rebel, Kingmaker (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025)
Michael K. Jones and Malcolm G. Underwood, The King's Mother: Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby (Cambridge University Press, 1991)
Rebecca Krug, Reading Families: Women's Literate Practice in Late Medieval England (Cornell University Press, 2008), especially the chapter ‘Margaret Beaufort's Literate Practice: Service and Self-Inscription'
J.L. Laynesmith, Cecily Duchess of York (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017)
Susan Powell, The Household Accounts of Lady Margaret Beaufort, 1443-1509 (The British Academy, 2022)
Nicola Tallis, Uncrowned Queen: The Fateful Life of Margaret Beaufort, Tudor Matriarch (Michael O'Mara, 2019)
Micheline White (ed.), English Women, Religion, and Textual Production, 1500-1625 (Ashgate, 2016), especially ‘Lady Margaret Beaufort’s Translations as Mirrors of Practical Piety’ by Brenda M. Hosington In Our Time is a BBC Studios production
Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 is essential listening for the intellectually curious. In each episode, host Misha Glenny and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.