Margaret Beaufort: Mother of the Tudor Dynasty (15 page)
Morton encouraged Buckingham to link his own rebellion to Henry Tudor’s cause, and the duke wrote to Margaret’s trusted retainer, Reginald Bray, who was with Margaret and Stanley in Lancashire. Bray went immediately to Brecon, where Buckingham asked him to convince Margaret to involve Elizabeth Woodville in the plot and to contact her son in Brittany. Bray hurried back to his mistress to tell her what he had learned, to Margaret’s joy.
It appears that Margaret had already made contact with Elizabeth Woodville, who was still lodged with her daughters in the sanctuary at Westminster, and the two women and their supporters had been planning a rebellion of their own when Buckingham declared his discontent with the King. Richard’s earliest biographer, George Buck, claimed that Margaret was the instigator of the conspiracy, ‘for she was entered far into them, and none better plunged in them and deeply acquainted with them. And she was a politic and subtle lady’. Margaret and Elizabeth shared a physician, a Welshman named Lewis Caerleon, and Margaret brought him into her confidence when she was in London, declaring ‘that the tyme was come that her sonne shoulde be ioyned in mariage with lady Elizabeth daughter and heyre to king Edward, and that King Richard being taken & reputed of all men for the common enemye of the realme, shoulde out of all honour and estate be deiected, and of his rule and kyngedome be clerely spoyled & expulsed’. Lewis went at once to the Queen Dowager and, pretending that the idea for an alliance was his, broached the subject with her. Elizabeth Woodville had, by then, been in the sanctuary for some months and was at the lowest ebb of her fortunes. On hearing the message, she was overjoyed and promised that she would give her daughter in marriage to Henry if he could win the crown from Richard. She also promised to use her efforts to persuade Edward IV’s supporters to turn their allegiance to Henry and, as a gesture of her good faith, she allowed her eldest son by her first marriage, the Marquess of Dorset, to become deeply involved in the conspiracy. Caerleon took Elizabeth’s response to Margaret, and she immediately set to work with Reginald Bray, rousing their supporters. She sent a trusted agent, Hugh Conway, to Brittany with a message for Henry, telling him to be ready to sail to claim the throne. In order to ensure that the message reached Henry, a second messenger, Thomas Rame, was sent separately with a large sum of money, and the pair, by coincidence, arrived in Brittany at the same time. Henry was overjoyed when he received his mother’s message, and he went to the Duke of Brittany to request his support. Francis II, Duke of Brittany, had already been offered money by Richard’s ambassador to ensure that Henry remained a prisoner, but ignoring this, he promised the earl aid. Henry then sent a message to England to declare that he would come and began to make his preparations.
Buckingham’s rebellion initially developed separately to that envisaged by Margaret and Elizabeth Woodville, and it was only through Morton, and Margaret’s own meeting with the duke, that the two conspiracies were joined together. Margaret, by involving herself in the conspiracy to rescue the princes from the Tower, had already proved that she was ready to bring down the King, and as people came to suspect the princes were dead, she persuaded many disaffected people in England to accept her son as a plausible alternative candidate. In this, the key was the agreement of Elizabeth Woodville to Henry marrying her eldest daughter, who was widely regarded as the heir of Edward IV. Henry Tudor had, by 1483, spent nearly half his life in Brittany, and he was an unknown quantity in England. For Margaret to have secured Elizabeth Woodville’s support for her son was a major coup, and for the first time, he began to look like a credible claimant for the throne. It is unlikely that Buckingham saw him as such, and whilst he agreed to join his rebellion to Margaret’s, asking Henry to join him, he did not specifically invite him to claim the throne. It is possible that Buckingham duped Margaret by suggesting that he would support Henry when he really intended to claim the crown himself. Alternatively, the trickery may well have come from Margaret, with her remaining silent on her ambitions for her son in order to secure such influential support.
Richard III, who was already wary of Buckingham, soon learned of the conspiracy through his spies and set about raising an army. The rebellion, when it happened, came quickly, and the Marquess of Dorset suddenly left the sanctuary at Westminster, where he was staying with his mother, the Queen Dowager, and half-sisters. He went to Yorkshire and began raising men whilst other Yorkist supporters, Sir Edward Courteney and his brother, the Bishop of Exeter, raised men in the West Country. A further rising in Kent was led by Richard Guildford. The rebellions, which began on 18 October 1483, were intended to happen simultaneously, with Buckingham, who led his own men from Wales, intending to join the main force. Unfortunately, the weather that autumn was terrible, and flooding made it impossible to cross the Severn and left many roads impassable. Buckingham, who found himself cut off, discovered that his Welsh tenants, who he had pressed into his army, disliked him and began to desert. He also found that he could rely on less support than he had hoped, and likely to Margaret’s chagrin, Lord Stanley refused to join the conspiracy, remaining conspicuously loyal to Richard. Although the rebels had been confident of widespread support, the only peer to join the revolt, apart from Buckingham and Henry Tudor, was Elizabeth Woodville’s son, Dorset. In the pouring rain, as his troops began to desert, Buckingham finally gave up, hiding at the home of an old servant of his near Shrewsbury.
When his allies heard of Buckingham’s failure, they fled to Brittany, with Dorset and Margaret’s younger half-brother, John, Lord Welles, prominent amongst them. Morton went into hiding and eventually travelled to exile in Flanders. Richard, who had acted decisively to save the situation, quickly issued a reward for Buckingham’s capture, and as the final indignity, Buckingham’s servant promptly betrayed him, leading to the duke being beheaded in the market place at Salisbury on 2 November. Amongst the only people not to be aware of what had happened was Henry Tudor, who sailed from Brittany on 12 October with a fleet of forty ships and an army of 5,000 Breton mercenaries. To add to the rebellion’s poor fortune, his fleet was scattered by storms with many forced to turn back and land in Normandy. Henry himself made it to the Dorset coast from where he saw the shore covered with armed men. The men on the bank attempted to persuade Margaret’s son that they were Buckingham’s army, but unconvinced, he immediately turned round. On his return to Brittany, he found a substantial group of English exiles awaiting him, and in order to ensure that they were bound closely to him, at Christmas 1483, he made a solemn vow in church to marry Elizabeth of York as soon as he was king.
With Buckingham dead, Richard soon turned his attention to the other main conspirators. Henry, Dorset, Morton and Elizabeth Woodville were out of his reach in either exile or sanctuary, but Margaret, unprotected in England, was a focus of his wrath. Richard immediately called a parliament at which Henry and other members of the conspiracy were attainted for high treason. According to
Hall’s Chronicle
, Stanley was expected by many to be amongst those condemned and ‘in this troubleous ceason, nothinge was more merueled at then that the lord Stanley had not bene taken and reputed as an enemy to the king, considerynge the workynge of the ladye Margarete his wife mother to the earle of Richemond’. Stanley, who was usually supremely cautious, must have been furious with Margaret, and it is likely that he felt some regret at having married such a politically controversial bride. In spite of this, he proved to be her protector, and Richard, anxious to maintain the powerful magnate’s support, was forced to be lenient towards his wife. Margaret, like the rest of her son’s supporters, was attainted for treason by parliament at the end of 1483, with the act beginning,
Forasmuch as Margaret Contesse of Richmond, Mother to the kyngs greate Rebell and Traytour, Henry Erle of Richemond, hath of late conspired, confedered, and comitted high Treason ayenst oure soveraigne lorde the king Richard the Third, in dyvers and sundry wyses, and in especiall in sendyng messages, writyngs and tokens to the said Henry, desiryng, procuryng and stirryng hym by the same, to come into this Roialme, and make Werre ayenst oure said Soveraigne Lorde.
Richard was fully apprised of Margaret’s role, and she was also accused of sending large sums of money to Henry for use in the rebellion. The Act is full of frustrated indignation against Margaret and continued, stating,
Yet neverthelesse, oure said Soveraigne lorde, of his grace especiall, remembryng the good and faithfull service that Thomas lord Stanley hath doon, and entendeth to doo to oure said Soveraigne lorde, and for the good love and trust that the kyng hath in hym, and for his sake, remitteth and woll forbere the greate punyshement of atteynder of the said countesse, that she or any other so doeyng hath deserved.
Stanley’s loyalty to Richard III saved Margaret’s life, and her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment rather than the usual death for treason. Even this was lenient, and whilst Margaret’s goods and lands were confiscated, the Act declared that they would, instead, pass to Lord Stanley for the term of his life, ensuring that Margaret, in effect, lost nothing as long as her husband lived. Her imprisonment was also not particularly onerous, and the King commanded that she be kept closely confined by Stanley at one of his residences for the remainder of her life: house arrest.
Margaret appears to have spent her ‘imprisonment’ at Stanley’s residences of Lathom and Knowsley, and whilst she was officially cut off from the world, her husband allowed her a great deal of leeway, ensuring that she remained in contact with her son. There is also some evidence that Stanley, in spite of his conspicuous show of loyalty to the King, was in contact with Henry Tudor and actively supported his wife in her attempts to win the crown for her son.
BOSWORTH FIELD: JANUARY 1484-AUGUST 1485
For Margaret, the year 1483 saw her fortunes change. She went from being a respected noblewoman with a position at court to an attainted traitor, condemned to life imprisonment, and she began 1484 at her lowest ebb. As ever with her life, Fortune’s Wheel continued to turn, and within eighteen months, she found herself at the height of her power and prestige.
With the failure of Buckingham’s rebellion, the future must have looked bleak to Margaret. Henry Parker, who served in her household during the last decade of her life, provided the only evidence for Margaret’s own feelings on her imprisonment when he recorded that ‘neither prosperitye made her proude, nor aduersytye overthrewe her constant mynde, ffor albeyt that in king richards daies, she was often in jeopardy off her lyfe, yet she bare patiently all trouble in such wyse, that it ys wonder to thinke it’.
Margaret looked forward to a day when she could secure her release. Although a prisoner, she continued to support Henry, and the pair remained in contact. Henry had built a court of English exiles around him in Brittany, who addressed him as though he were king already. From his exile, he began to try to gather support in England, and he sent over a circular letter to leading figures in the kingdom, adopting a regal style and asking for their support:
Right trusty, worshipful, and honourable good friends, I greet you well.
Being given to understand your good devoir and entreaty to advance me to the furtherance of my rightful claim, due and lineal inheritance of that crown, and for the just depriving of that homicide and unnatural tyrant, which now unjustly bears dominion over you, I give you to understand that no Christian heart can be more full of joy and gladness than the heart of me your poor exiled friend, who will, upon the instant of your sure advertising what power you will make ready, and what captains and leaders you get to conduct, be prepared to pass over the sea with such force as my friends here are preparing for me.
And if I have such good speed and success as I wish according to your desire, I shall ever be most forward to remember and wholly to requite this your great and most loving kindness in my just quarrel.
Given under our signet. H.R.
It is unclear what response Henry received to his letters, but Richard was sufficiently concerned to once again make efforts to secure Henry’s extradition from Brittany. He sent ambassadors to Francis II, promising him the confiscated revenues of Henry and the other exiled noblemen. He also offered the Bretons the support of 1,000 English archers in the event of an attack from France. Francis II was in ill health, and the ambassadors spoke to his treasurer, Pierre Landais, who disliked Henry and agreed to hand him over in late 1484. It appears that Lord Stanley, who was one of Richard III’s councillors, heard of the plot at a council meeting and informed Margaret. She immediately sent her chaplain, Christopher Urswick, whom she trusted implicitly, to Bishop Morton in Flanders. The two men conferred, and Urswick then travelled to the French court to obtain a safe-conduct for Henry. With this safely received, Margaret’s chaplain hurried to her son in Brittany to warn him of the danger that he was in. Henry was apparently oblivious to what was happening and, after nearly thirteen years in the duchy, may have considered himself safe. With no time to lose, he donned a disguise and slipped out of his house in the city of Vannes accompanied by only five servants, without even waiting to inform his English supporters. The danger that Henry was in was very real, and he rode hard, crossing the border into Anjou only an hour ahead of Breton soldiers, who had been sent in pursuit. Margaret must have felt a sense of dread as she waited to hear whether her message had had an effect, and she was no doubt quickly informed that Henry was well received by his kinsman, the fourteen-year-old King Charles VIII of France. When Francis II of Brittany recovered from his illness, he was furious to learn of how his guest had been treated and paid for all the English exiles in Brittany to join Henry’s new court in exile in Paris. Henry was safe, but he remained uncomfortably aware of the changeability of fortune. Shortly after arriving in France, he had to forcibly prevent the Marquess of Dorset from returning to England after the peer received a message from his mother, Queen Elizabeth Woodville, urging him to abandon Henry and make terms with Richard.