Margaret Beaufort: Mother of the Tudor Dynasty (12 page)
After the successful meeting with Henry VI, Margaret, Henry Stafford and Henry Tudor travelled to Woking. Margaret and her son spent a week together at her favourite residence, and it appears that this was treated as a holiday by them and a chance to get to know each other again. For Margaret, who had already spent a considerable time apart from her only child, such moments would have been precious, and after leaving Woking, the pair travelled slowly with Henry Stafford to Maidenhead and Henley-on-Thames before Margaret once again passed her son over to the control of his uncle. By 1471, Henry Tudor was rapidly approaching adulthood: he was already older than Margaret had been when she gave birth to him. Although it must have been a wrench for Margaret to part from her child once again, she recognised that it was time for the boy to make his way in the world and that his uncle, who had shown himself to have they boy’s best interests at heart, was, for the time being at least, the man best suited to be his guardian. It is likely that Margaret also remembered that Henry VI had previously granted Henry’s wardship to Jasper, and whilst this had been annulled by Edward IV, it was likely to be reaffirmed under the new Lancastrian regime.
By meeting with both Henry VI and Jasper Tudor, Margaret made a clear demonstration of her Lancastrian support during Henry VI’s restoration. She, along with everyone else in her party, hoped that the dynasty was firmly replanted on the throne, but it soon became apparent that the restoration was nothing more than a brief Indian summer. By March 1471, rumours had begun to reach England that Edward IV was ready in Flanders with an invasion force, and that month, Margaret received a visit at Woking from her cousin, Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, whilst he tried to persuade Henry Stafford to join the Lancastrian army. Stafford, who was in ill health by 1471, was undecided, and whilst his marriage to Margaret and affection for both her and her son naturally predisposed him to support the Lancastrians, his young nephew, the Duke of Buckingham, who was the head of his family, was firmly a member of the Yorkist camp. Margaret’s sympathies were wholly Lancastrian, but it is unclear whether she attempted to persuade her husband to join Henry VI’s army. If she did, she was unsuccessful, and Stafford was in London when Edward IV entered the city unopposed on 12 April. Perhaps bowing to the inevitable, he joined Edward’s army. Edward IV had always been popular with the Londoners, and he had entered the city after receiving word from his wife and other supporters that it would be safe to do so. He was promptly re-proclaimed as king, immediately ordering Henry VI to be returned to the Tower and removing his family from the sanctuary. For Margaret Beaufort, this must have seemed a disaster and worse was to come. On 18 April 1471, Edward rode out of the city with Henry Stafford as a member of his train and met the Earl of Warwick in battle at Barnet. The outcome of the battle was decisive, and Warwick was killed, allowing Edward to return in triumph once again to his capital. Margaret spent an anxious day waiting for news, and she was devastated to hear that her husband, who was always a somewhat reluctant soldier, was wounded. The nature of Stafford’s wounds is not clear, but as he was allowed to return home rather than play any further role in Edward’s campaign, it appears that they were serious.
On the very day that Edward won his victory at Barnet, Margaret of Anjou, who had been delayed by bad weather in France, finally landed in the West Country. According to Polydore Vergil, news of Warwick’s death and defeat was immediately brought to her:
When she heard these things the miserable woman swooned for fear, she was distraught, dismayed and tormented with sorrow; she lamented the calamity of the time, the adversity of fortune, her own toil and misery; she bewailed the unhappy end of King Henry, which she believed assuredly to be at hand, and, to be short, she behaved as one more desirous to die than live.
Margaret of Anjou had no choice but to press on, and she began gathering soldiers for the inevitable confrontation with Edward IV. On 4 May 1471, she and her daughter-in-law, Anne Neville, retired to a religious house whilst the Lancastrian and Yorkist armies met in battle at Tewkesbury. Fortune was once more against the Lancastrian cause, and the battle proved to be another decisive victory for Edward IV, with Edward of Lancaster, the only child of Henry VI, killed either during the battle or executed soon afterwards. Margaret Beaufort’s cousin, Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, was also captured and executed. Margaret of Anjou was brought back to London as a prisoner by the triumphant Yorkist king. The very night that she was taken to the Tower, Henry VI was quietly murdered, bringing to an end the direct line of the House of Lancaster.
Jasper Tudor was in South Wales when Margaret of Anjou landed, and he had been unable to reach her in time. He and Henry Tudor were at Chepstow when they learned of the disaster, and aware that the Lancastrian cause was lost, Jasper immediately decided to flee. Henry VII’s earliest biographer, Bernard Andreas, later claimed that it was Margaret Beaufort herself who, recognising the danger that her son was in, persuaded Jasper to take Henry Tudor into exile. With the deaths of Henry VI and his son, Margaret and, through her, Henry Tudor suddenly had the best claim to be the heirs of the house of Lancaster. In the late fifteenth century, the idea that a woman could successfully hold the crown was laughable, and it would have been apparent to everyone that Henry Tudor had the potential to emerge as the leading Lancastrian claimant. This meant that, for the first time, Henry’s life was in danger at the hands of Edward IV, who viewed him as a potential rival. There is no evidence that Margaret saw her son after he left her to rejoin Jasper Tudor, but she was certainly in touch with him and approved when he and Jasper sailed from Tenby to go into exile in France.
As well as her worries about her son, Margaret was also deeply concerned about her husband. Henry Stafford had been badly wounded at Barnet, and he returned to Margaret at Woking. Although the cause of his death is not recorded, it is likely to have been due to the wounds he suffered. On 2 October 1471, aware that his death was imminent, he made his Will and died two days later on 4 October 1471. For Margaret, the loss of her husband, coming in addition to the exile of her son, must have been devastating. She also found herself under the suspicion of the King, and aware that, with her husband’s death, she was vulnerable, she was unable to give herself the luxury of time to mourn, instead immediately looking around for a new protector.
During Henry VI’s brief restoration to the throne, Margaret had clearly shown that her loyalties remained with the House of Lancaster, and with the return of the Yorkist king Edward IV, she found herself once again under suspicion. The death of Henry Stafford, who, although mistrusted by the King, had at least made a show of loyalty by fighting for Edward at Barnet, further increased Margaret’s isolation, and within months of her husband’s death, she began to cast her eye around for a further powerful male protector.
In June 1472, only eight months after the death of her third husband, Margaret married her fourth: Thomas, Lord Stanley. None of Margaret’s previous marriages had started as love matches, and her fourth was no exception. Stanley was around eight years older than Margaret and approaching his forties at the time of the marriage. He was a widower and had previously been married to Eleanor Neville, a daughter of the Earl of Salisbury and a sister of the Earl of Warwick. He was, therefore, a cousin by marriage to both Edward IV and to Margaret’s third husband, Henry Stafford, and it is possible that he and Margaret met through the Stafford family. Stanley also had strong connections with the family of Elizabeth Woodville, as his eldest son, George, had married the Queen’s niece, the heiress of Lord Strange.
Although he had a strong Yorkist pedigree, Stanley was adept at keeping himself out of the Wars of the Roses as much as possible. He was a major landowner in Lancashire, and both the House of Lancaster and the House of York had sought his support on various occasions. In September 1459, for example, Stanley’s two kinsmen, his uncle by marriage, the Duke of York, and his fatherin- law, the Earl of Salisbury, requested his aid when they came to face the Lancastrian army at Blore Heath. Stanley’s younger brother, Sir William Stanley, to whom he was close and who was looking to make a name for himself, rushed to aid the Yorkist cause, but Stanley, who never lightly committed either his person or his men to battle, moved towards the engagement only slowly, finally stopping at Newcastle-under-Lyme, six miles away. Stanley had no intention of joining either side, and when word reached him of Salisbury’s victory, he simply sent a letter congratulating him and his apologies that he had been unable to reach the field in time. Stanley’s policy of keeping his distance from any fighting paid off, and when, in November 1459, Henry VI’s parliament considered attainting him for treason for his lack of aid to the King at Blore Heath, the matter was quietly allowed to drop. Stanley was somewhat remarkable as a major landowner in the late fifteenth century in that he never once led his troops into battle in any of the disputes that made up the Wars of the Roses. On Edward IV’s accession, he immediately moved to support the King, receiving the office of Justice of Chester. He blotted this record somewhat by showing support for Henry VI at his restoration, but he refused to aid either side at Barnet and Tewkesbury and soon found himself back in royal favour, once again taking up a seat on the royal council in 1471 and receiving the important office of Lord Steward of the Household, a role that kept him close to the King.
Lord Stanley was prominent at court at the time of his marriage to Margaret, and whilst Edward IV, who could rely on the loyalty of so few of his nobility, may not have entirely trusted him, he was cautious enough to keep any suspicions to himself. The Stanley family were one of the leading families in the North West, and it was widely acknowledged that no king could govern the area without their support. In 1471, with the deaths of Henry VI and his son, there was no credible rival to the throne, and it appeared to everyone that the Yorkist dynasty, represented by the King and his children, was the future of England. For Margaret, therefore, Stanley offered her a role in the Yorkist regime and protection for her lands and position. It is also likely that she hoped, at a later date, to use his influence to secure the rehabilitation of her son. At the time of the marriage, Margaret was widely considered to be infertile, and Stanley, who already had a large family of children, had no dynastic need of a wife. For him, the advantage of marriage to Margaret was her prestigious family name, her royal descent and, also, her wealth. There is evidence that the couple approached their marriage as something of a business arrangement, and when, in 1485, their marriage contract was restated by parliament, it recorded, in an Act addressed to Henry Tudor, who was then king,
That where certeine appointments and agreements were late made by youre said Moder [Margaret] and her said Husband [Stanley], that is to say, that the said Erle shuld cause a sufficiaunt and lawfull Estate of Lordshipps, Mannors, Lands and Tenements of his inheritaunce, to the yerely value of v c . [500] Marcs over all charges, to be made to youre said Moder, or to certeine Feoffees to her use, for terme of her lyfe, in full recompense of all her Joyntures and Dower, hereafter in eny wise to be claymed or had by youre said Moder, in any Lordshipps, Mannors, Lands and Tenements, the which the said Erle, or any other to hys use, hath or hereafter shall have; and that the said Erle shuld be made sure, for the terme of hys lyfe, of such parte of th’enheritaunce of yowre said Moder, as shulde amounte to the yerely value of viii c. [800] Marks over all charges.
In order to ensure that both could rely on the life interests promised in the other’s property, Margaret and Stanley made leases of a number of their manors to a group of protectors. Whilst Stanley, with his promise of only 500 marks to Margaret, appears to have had the stronger hand in the negotiations, receiving back 800 marks from Margaret, it is clear that she was fully involved in all arrangements, and the protectors chosen, who included Margaret’s friend, John Morton, Bishop of Ely and Reginald Bray, a prominent member of Henry Stafford’s household who had remained with Margaret following her husband’s death, demonstrate that she was also able to insist upon her own interests being safeguarded.
Whilst Margaret and Stanley’s relationship began as a business arrangement, the development of their feelings for each other is less easy to determine. In his Will dated 28 July 1504, written after over thirty years of marriage, Stanley directed that he be buried in Buscough Priory with his executors ‘having provided a tomb to be there placed, with the personages of myself and both my wives, for a perpetual remembrance to be prayed for’. This suggests that a space for Margaret to be buried with Stanley was available, if she wished, and may perhaps show some evidence of feeling. However, this must be countered by the fact that Stanley had already paid for similar tombs to be made in the same priory for his parents, grandfather and great-grandfather, and it may be that he simply desired to create a Stanley family mausoleum with Margaret, as the most prominent member of the family by that time, included only for the sake of completeness and prestige. In the same document, Stanley also made a bequest to the canons of the priory in order that they would ‘say mass in the said chapel for my soul, and for the soul of my lady now my wife, after her decease, and for the soul of Eleanor late my wife, and for the souls of my father, mother, ancestors, children, brethren, and sisters, and for the soul of William late Marquess Berkeley’. Again, there is a sense that Stanley fully considered Margaret to be a member of his family, but she was not singled out for any particular display of affection. He left no bequests to Margaret in his Will, although he did declare that ‘I will that my lady my wife shall peaceably enjoy all the lordships, manors, &c. assigned for her jointure, as by act of parliament’. Following her son’s accession in 1485, Margaret distanced herself from Stanley somewhat, receiving a declaration from parliament that her actions would be as valid as those of a widow (rather than a wife, who, by law, was under her husband’s control) and also making, with his consent, a vow of chastity. The couple were both in their fifties by the time the vow was made however, and it may be that any physical relationship between them had simply come to an end. They remained associated with each other until Stanley’s death in 1504, with the couple jointly welcoming Henry VII and his wife, Elizabeth of York, on a visit to Stanley’s home at Lathom in 1494. Margaret was not, however, above using her superior influence with the King after her son’s accession to her own advantage. In one letter to her son from his reign, she asked him to help her actively deceive her husband: