Margaret Beaufort: Mother of the Tudor Dynasty (14 page)
On the night that Elizabeth Woodville entered sanctuary, the Archbishop of York assured her ‘be you of good cheer. For I assure you if they crown any other king than your son, whom they now have with them, we shall on the morrow crown his brother whom you have here with you’. On 22 June, only six days after the Queen surrendered her youngest son, a sermon was preached at Paul’s Cross in London, claiming that Edward IV had been the product of an adulterous affair and that his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was invalid. Any reference to Edward IV’s supposed illegitimacy was quickly dropped, perhaps due to the anger of Edward and Gloucester’s mother, Cecily Neville. However, the assertion that Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville had not been truly married, thus making their children illegitimate, was soon elaborated upon. According to the chronicler Philip de Comines, the Bishop of Bath informed Gloucester
that his brother King Edward having been formerly in love with a beautiful young lady, promised her marriage, upon condition he might lie with her, the lady consented, and as the bishop affirmed, he married them when nobody was present but they two and himself. His fortune depending upon the court, he did not discover it, and persuaded the lady likewise to conceal it, which she did, and it remained a secret to that very day.
The lady in question was Eleanor Butler, a noblewoman who had conveniently died several years before. Edward IV had married Elizabeth Woodville secretly when she refused to become his mistress, and it is not impossible that he earlier acted in the same way when confronted with another lady intent on maintaining her virtue. He did, however, acknowledge his secret marriage to Elizabeth, which suggests that, whatever occurred between him and Eleanor Butler, it was not a full marriage. It is possible that the couple entered into a precontract, which, when consummated, could be considered as valid as a full marriage. However, there was little evidence even for this, and most people in England, Margaret Beaufort included, considered Edward IV’s family by Elizabeth Woodville to be his legitimate one.
Once he had possession of the two sons of Edward IV, Gloucester showed his intentions more openly. His greatest supporter was Buckingham, who had always resented his forced marriage to a Woodville, and it is likely that both men were primarily motivated by their fear of the Woodvilles, who had succeeded in winning the young king’s trust. Certainly, in May 1483, Elizabeth Woodville’s brother, Sir Edward Woodville, fled to Brittany. Gloucester also took steps to eliminate other potential supporters of Edward V, and at a council meeting at the Tower of London on 13 June, he had the powerful Lord Hastings seized and executed. According to the later writer Thomas More, Margaret’s husband, Lord Stanley, had tried to warn Hastings to no avail. Gloucester was concerned about Stanley’s loyalty, and at the same meeting, he and John Morton, Bishop of Ely, were arrested and imprisoned. More was a protégé of Morton’s, and his account of Stanley’s conduct, although biased against Gloucester, may well be accurate. Morton was committed to Buckingham’s custody at Brecon Castle. Stanley, however, who always avoided danger wherever he could, agreed to support Gloucester and was soon released unharmed. Stanley, upon whom Gloucester relied for support, was undoubtedly in as grave danger as Hastings had been, and both he and Margaret were relieved that he survived with his offices at court intact. Soon afterwards, Gloucester was declared king by parliament as Richard III, with Edward IV’s children declared illegitimate and the children of Richard’s other elder brother, George, Duke of Clarence, declared to be barred from the throne due to the their father’s attainder for treason.
No king of England has a more controversial reputation than Richard III, and he was later slandered by the Tudor dynasty, with one writer fancifully recording that ‘this tyrant King Richard, who was born at Fotheringhay in the country of Northampton, retained for two years in his mother’s womb and issuing forth with teeth and hair down to his shoulders’. He was also described as a hunchback and the murderer of Henry VI, his brother’s two sons and his own wife. Much of what has been written about the King is inaccurate, and it is clear that Margaret was, at least at first, content to make a show of support for the new king.
Both Margaret and her husband were prominent figures at the coronation of Richard III and his wife, Anne Neville, the widow of Edward of Lancaster, the Lancastrian Prince of Wales, on 6 July 1483. The new king liked to dress well to show his kingly rank. A letter from Richard to the keeper of his wardrobe survives:
We will and charge you to deliver to the bringers hereof for us the parcels following: that is to say, one doublet of purple satin lined with Holland cloth and interlined with busk. One doublet of tawny satin lined in likewise; two short gowns of crimson cloth of gold, the one with drips [tassels], and the other with nets lined with green velvet; one stomacher of purple satin, and one stomacher of tawny satin; one cloak with a cape of velvet ingrained, the bow lined with black velvet.
The list continued, and it is likely that Richard required these items for his coronation, which he intended to be a spectacular affair. Margaret also appeared at the coronation magnificently dressed, and she received ten yards of scarlet cloth from the King, the same amount granted to the other countesses in attendance on the Queen. According to the King’s Wardrobe Account, a further grant was also made for Margaret’s clothes:
To the Countesse of Richemonde, a longe gowne made of vj [6] yerds of crymysym velvet and purfiled with vj yerds of white cloth of gold; and a long gowne made of vj yerds of white cloth of gold; and a longe gowne made of vj yerds di’ of blue velvett, and purfiled with vj yerds di’ of crymysyn cloth of gold.
Margaret looked magnificent in her finery at the coronation, and she was given a position of great honour, being appointed to bear the Queen’s train. During the ceremony, as a mark of her high rank, she was permitted to sit to the left of the Queen. Margaret watched Stanley take an equally prominent role as he carried the mace before Richard III as he entered Westminster Abbey. At the coronation banquet, Margaret sat at the same table as the Duchess of Norfolk, close to the Queen. Richard was grateful for Stanley’s support, and he was determined to reward both him and Margaret. There is, however, evidence that, even by the time of Richard’s coronation, Margaret had begun to plot against him.
The sixteenth-century historian John Stow, who had access to documents now lost, recorded that, soon after Richard’s coronation, four men were arrested for treason against the king:
Robert Russe sergeant of London, William Dauy pardoner of Hounslow, Iohn Smith groome of King Edwardes stirrop, and Stephen Ireland wardrober in the Tower, with many other, that they should haue sent writings to the earles of Richmond and of Pembroke, and the other lords: and how they were purposed to haue set fire on diuers partes of London, which fire, whilest men had beene staunching, they woulde haue stolen out of the Tower, the prince Edward [Edward V], & his brother the Duke of Yorke.
Few details of this conspiracy survive, but the decision to contact both Henry and Jasper Tudor in Brittany is interesting. Some recent historians have suggested that Margaret was involved in the plot to rescue the princes in the Tower, whose bid for the throne would then be supported by Henry and Jasper commanding a force from Brittany. This was also suggested by Richard’s earliest biographer, George Buck, who, whilst often unreliable, had access to a number of now lost sources. He claimed that Margaret was only dissembling when she attempted to open negotiations with the new king in an attempt to bring her son home and that she was a ‘cunning countess’, suggesting that she was already plotting with Richard’s enemies. Margaret’s involvement is possible, and whilst she attempted to keep on good terms with Richard, she was already also beginning to plot with some of his leading opponents. The attempt to rescue the princes was small in scale and disorganised, and its leaders were executed. It was around this time that the princes were last seen alive at the Tower. Whether the princes were murdered and on whose orders is still passionately debated. However, regardless of what the truth was, they were certainly soon believed to have been murdered on the orders of their uncle by most of their contemporaries, Margaret Beaufort included.
With the likely murder of Edward IV’s sons, Margaret’s actions on behalf of her own son changed from an attempt to secure his safe return to England towards an active bid for him to be recognised as the heir to the House of Lancaster and acknowledged as King of England. Richard III’s actions, in snatching the throne, had demonstrated once again that, in many respects, a king in the late fifteenth century was the man who could successfully win and hold the throne rather than, necessarily, the man with the best hereditary title. One person who came to realise this in the summer of 1483 was Richard’s great supporter, Margaret’s nephew, the Duke of Buckingham.
As well as being a descendant of Edward III through his youngest son, Buckingham was also the son of another Margaret Beaufort, the daughter of Margaret’s uncle, Edmund Beaufort, 4th Earl, and 2nd Duke, of Somerset. Edmund Beaufort’s three sons had all been killed during the Wars of the Roses, leaving no children of their own and his line therefore descended to his daughters. Buckingham, as the most prominent grandson of Edmund Beaufort, was in the strongest position to claim to be his heir and, effectively, in the eyes of some, the male heir to the Beaufort claim to the throne. Buckingham himself was fully aware of this.
On the surface, Richard III and Buckingham parted in friendship after the coronation, but in reality, the duke had already decided to oppose the new king. A number of contemporary and nearcontemporary sources speculated that Buckingham’s opposition to Richard was due to the King’s refusal to grant him the earldom of Hertford, which he had demanded, or to allow his daughter to marry the new Prince of Wales. The chronicler Edward Hall claimed that Richard spoke harshly to the duke about the matter before the coronation and that Buckingham was so furious that he feigned illness and had to be compelled to attend the ceremony. That this was the sole cause of Buckingham’s discontent is debateable, and in fact, Richard did grant him the lands of the earldom of Hertford soon after his accession. More likely, Buckingham’s decision to rebel against Richard was motivated by jealousy, and ‘the duke of Buckyngham was a highe mynded man, and euill coulde beare the glory of another, so that I have heard of some that saw it, that he at such tyme as the crowne was set vpon the protectours hed, his eye could neuer abyde the sight therof, but wryed his hed another way’.
Buckingham returned home to Brecon Castle soon after the coronation, where he was holding John Morton, Bishop of Ely, on Richard’s orders. Morton had been renowned for his loyalty to Henry VI and only turned to support Edward IV when it became clear that the Lancastrian cause was lost. He became equally attached to Edward and refused absolutely to support Richard III, vowing loyalty to Edward IV’s two sons. On his arrival at the castle, Buckingham sought out the Bishop, and the pair spoke about Richard, with Morton flattering the duke by declaring that he wished God would give the king ‘some suche other excellente vertues mete for the rule of the realme, as our lord hath planted in the person of your grace’ . Buckingham listened intently and, emboldened, Morton continued, speaking of Richard’s tyranny, before stating, ‘But nowe my lorde to conclude what I meane towarde your noble persone, I saye and affirme, yf you love God, your lynage, or youre natyue contrye, you muste yower selfe take vpon you the Crowne and diadem of thys noble empire.’
Buckingham took a day to think about all that Morton had said before returning to the bishop. He stated that he had indeed thought of taking the crown:
I sodainly remembred that lord Edmond duke of Somersett my grandfather was with kynge Henrye the sixte in the ii and iii degrees from Ihon duke of Lancaster [John of Gaunt] lawefully begotten: so that I thought sure my mother being eldest doughter to duke Edmunde, that I was nexte heyre to kyng Henry the sixte of the house of Lancaster.
He had been considering this as he journeyed towards Brecon, and as he travelled along the road from Worcester to Bridgnorth, he happened to come across Margaret Beaufort, which reminded him of her own superior claim. He and Margaret spoke for some time about Henry Tudor before they parted, with Margaret travelling on to the residence of the Countess of Worcester.
Margaret’s meeting with Buckingham is interesting, and it is very unlikely that the pair met by chance. In the early weeks of Richard’s accession, Margaret was still hopeful that the King would ratify the agreement that she had made with Edward IV to allow her son to return from exile. Buckingham, who was believed to be Richard’s greatest supporter and was also Margaret’s nephew by marriage, would have seemed an excellent choice for an intercessor between her and the King. Buckingham apparently informed Morton that
the countess of Richemonde in my returne from the newe named kyng metyng me in the high way, praied me fyrste for kinred sake, secondarily for the loue that I bare my grandfather duke Humphrey, whiche was sworne brother to her father, to moue the kynge to be good to her sonne Henry erle of Richemond, and to licence him with his fauor to returne again into England: and yf it were his pleasure so to do, she promised that the erle her sonne shoud mary one of kyng Edwardes daughters at the appoinctement of the kyng, without any thing to be taken or demaunded for the saide espousals, but onely the kynges fauour, whiche request I sone ouer passed and gaue her fayre wordes & so departed.
It was this meeting that persuaded Buckingham to admit both Margaret and her son into his conspiracy, and it is likely that, when Margaret realised that her nephew was opposed to the King, she spoke to him of a separate conspiracy in which she was already involved.