Margaret Beaufort: Mother of the Tudor Dynasty (19 page)
Margaret usually dined with her household, and Parker’s anecdote demonstrates that she enjoyed a joke, as well as insisting on strict religious adherence in her household.
As the mother of the King, Margaret was able to live in some style when she was not at court. Parker recorded an anecdote of one Christmas period at Margaret’s residence when he was aged around fifteen. This information, coupled with the fact that Margaret’s half-brother, Lord Welles, who was present, died in 1499, suggests a date of Christmas 1498 or, perhaps, a year before. According to Parker, Margaret lived in luxury and was able to entertain on a lavish scale:
In Cristmas tyme she kept so honorable a house, that upon one newe yeares day I being her carver off the age of fyftene yeares, had fyve & twentye knights folowing me of whom myne owne father was one, and sytting at her table the erle of derby her husband, the vicount Wellys, the olde Lord Hastings, the Byshoppe of Lincolne, and by her person under her clothe of estate the lady cecyle king Edwardes doughter your [Queen Mary I’s] awnte. In her hall from nyne of the clock tyll it was sevyn off the clock at night as fast as one table was up another was sett, no pore man was denayed [denied] at that sayde feast of cristmas if he were of any honestye, but that he might come to the Buttrye, or to the cellar to drinke att his pleasure, her liberalytie was such that ther came no man of honour or worship to her as ther came many of the greatest of the realme.
Parker claimed that Margaret employed a household of 440 people, including ladies, gentlemen, yeomen and officers and that she surprised everyone by knowing the names of all her attendants. The size of Margaret’s household might be an exaggeration, and it is very unlikely that she employed such a high number of people on a daily basis. It is, however, clear that she lived in a royal manner as befitted the mother of the King.
Although few of either Margaret’s or Henry’s letters survive, it is evident from those that do that the pair enjoyed a warm relationship throughout Henry’s reign, and they are amongst the most personal documents of the pair to survive. Margaret’s first surviving letter to her son, which dates to 1501, demonstrates the familiar way in which they coupled affection with a businesslike manner:
My own sweet and most dear King, and all my worldly joy.
In as humble manner as I can think, I recommend me to your grace, and most heartily beseech our Lord to bless you. And my good heart, where that you say that the French King hath at this time given me courteous answer, and written letter of favour to his Court of Parliament, for the brief expedition of my matter, which so long hath hanged; the which I well know he doth especially for your sake, for the which my ……ly beseech your Grace it …… to give him your favourable …… thanks, and to desire him to continue his …… in……e…… me. And, if it so might like your Grace, to do the same to the cardinal; which, as I understood, is your faithful, true, and loving servant. I wish my very joy, as I oft have shewed, and I fortune to get this, or any part thereof, there shall neither be that or any good I have, but it shall be your’s, and at your commandment, as surely and with as good a will, as any ye have in your coffers; and would God ye could know it, as verily as I think it. But, my dear heart, I will no more encumber your Grace with further writing in this matter, for I am sure your chaplain and servant, Dr. Whytston, hath shewed your highness the circumstances of the same; and if it so may please your Grace, I humbly beseech the same, to give further credence also to this bearer. And our Lord give you as long good life, health, and joy, as your most noble heart can desire, with as hearty blessings as our Lord hath given me power to give you.
Margaret’s ‘French matter’ concerned a ransom due to her family from the family of the Duke of Orléans, who had become King of France as Louis XII in 1498. In 1412, the stepfather of Margaret’s father, Thomas, Duke of Clarence, had made a treaty with the then Duke of Orléans at which it was promised that in order to stop Clarence from attacking France with his army, a large sum of money would be paid. As a pledge, Orléans’ younger brother Jean, Count of Angoulême, and six others were surrendered as hostages to Clarence. On Clarence’s death, custody of the hostages and the entitlement to the debt passed to his widow, Margaret’s grandmother, and was in turn inherited by Margaret’s father. On his death, Margaret’s mother, Margaret Beauchamp, inherited the entitlement, and she arranged to release Angoulême in return for a promise to pay the sums outstanding by instalments. The payments quickly fell into arrears, and on her mother’s death, Margaret took up the cause, taking the matter to court in France in 1482, where it was adjourned indefinitely. During Richard III’s reign, Margaret and Stanley approached the King personally for his assistance in obtaining what was, by then, a vast sum outstanding, but with Margaret’s disgrace following Buckingham’s rebellion, the matter had once again become dormant. With Henry’s accession, Margaret pressed for her matter to be settled, and Henry, as her heir, enthusiastically supported her. By the early sixteenth century, with the heir to Clarence’s claim represented by the King of England and the heir to the Orléans debt represented by the King of France, the matter had taken on a new political dimension, of which both Margaret and Henry were aware. The old English claim that their King was also King of France had never been abandoned, and both Margaret and Henry, in their correspondence, show that they were aware of the leverage the claim gave them if they chose to press it. In 1504, Margaret formally surrendered her interest to Henry.
A letter of Henry’s from July 1504 survives, demonstrating again the closeness that existed between mother and son and the pair’s joint political awareness:
Madam, my most entirely well-beloved lady and mother.
I recommend me unto you in the most humble and lowly wise that I can, beseeching you of your daily and continual blessings. By your confessor the bearer, I have received your good and most loving writing, and by the same, have heard at good leisure such credence as he would shew unto me on your behalf, and thereupon have sped him in every behalf without delay, according to your noble petition and desire which resteth in two principal points; the one for a general pardon for all manner causes; the other is for to alter and change part of a licence which I had given unto you before, for to be put into mortmain at Westminster, and now to be converted unto the University of Cambridge for your soul’s health, etc. All which things according to your desire and pleasure, I have with all my heart and good-will given and granted unto you. And my Dame, not only in this but in all other things that I may know should be to your honour and pleasure, and weal of your soul, I shall be as glad to please you as your heart can desire it, and I know well that I am as much bounden so to do as any creature living, for the great and singular motherly love and affection that it hath pleased you at all times to bear towards me. Wherefore, my own most loving mother, in my most hearty manner I thank you, beseeching you of your good continuance in the same. And, Madam, your said confessor, hath moreover shewn unto me on your behalf, that ye of our goodness and kind disposition, have given and granted unto me such title and interest as ye have or ought to have in such debts and duties which is owing and due unto you in France, by the French king and others; wherefore, Madam, in my most hearty and humble wise I thank you. Howbeit, I verily think it will be right hard to recover it without it be driven by compulsion and force, rather than by any true justice, which is not yet as we think any convenient time to be put in execution.
Nevertheless it hath pleased you to give us a good interest mean, if they will not conform them to reason and good justice, to defend or offend at a convenient time when the case shall so require hereafter. For such a chance may fall that this your grant might stand in great stead for a recovery of our right, and to make us free, whereas we be now bound, etc. And verily, Madam, and I might recover it at this time or any other, ye be sure ye should have your pleasure therein, as I and all that God has given me, is and shall ever be at your will and commandment, as I have instructed Master Fisher [Margaret’s confessor] more largely herein, as I doubt not but he will declare unto you. And I beseech you to send me your mind and pleasure in the same, which I shall be full glad to follow with God’s grace, which send and give unto you the full accomplishment of all your noble and virtuous desires.
Henry signed his letter ‘with the hand of your most humble and loving son’ and it is clear that he both sought Margaret’s advice and discussed his own political actions with her. By the time that his letter was written, he had already invaded France in 1492 both as part of England’s ancient claim to the country and in support of Brittany, and whilst he had quickly accepted the peace terms offered by Charles VIII of France, Margaret’s claim did provide him with a useful excuse to make war again if he ever chose to. As it happened, Henry never did press the claims, and it was left to his successor, Henry VIII, to finally receive payment of the funds, a century after they had first become due.
The extent of Margaret’s influence over Henry VII is debateable, and his early biographer Bacon claimed that he listened only to his own mind and that ‘his mother he reverenced much, heard little’. This may have been true in some instances, but it is clear from his correspondence that Henry did indeed actively seek his mother’s advice. He also allowed Margaret to adopt the status of a queen, and her more formal letters adopted a quasi-regal tone, with an early letter to the Bishop of Exeter, for example, declaring,
Right reuerend Fader in God and oure right welbiloued. In our harty wise, we commaund vs vnto you, and for asmoche as John Dalkyn, receiuor of oure Lordshippe of Holdernes belonging vnto oure cousin of Bukes hath not commen vp and made his accompt as he ought to doo by raison of his said office, but hath sodenly departed from hous othrewise than according to the trust that was put in hym: We therefore desire and herty pray you to send us by this bringer a pryve seill for the said John after the tenure of this bille whiche we send you herein closed, as our specialle trust is in you and as we may doo for you at your desires hereafter, whereunto we shalbe always redy by Goddes grace who send you right good lif and long.
Yeuen vndre our signet at oure place of Colde Harborowe, the 21st day of Marche. My lord y pray you y may her of your newes of Flaundyrse.
This letter was signed ‘M. Rychemound’, a usual signature for a member of the nobility, where the first name was commonly abbreviated and the title written in full. After only a few short years, however, Margaret adapted her signature to the more regal ‘Margaret R’, which, whilst it could stand for ‘Margaret Richmond’, could equally be read as ‘Margaret
Regina
’, an ambiguity that she undoubtedly intended. Henry made no protest to this, and it was clearly done with his tacit approval, again suggesting that he was aware of his mother’s ambitions and supported them. In many respects, mother and son can be seen as a partnership, and the assessment of the Spanish ambassador in 1498 may therefore be correct when he wrote ‘the king is much influenced by his mother and his followers in affairs of personal interest and in others. The queen, as is generally the case, does not like it’. Within months of Henry VII’s accession to the throne, Margaret had established herself as an independent and regal political force beside the King, and she was reluctant to give up any of her position when Henry finally married Elizabeth of York in January 1486.
MARGARET R: JANUARY 1486-JULY 1504
Margaret Beaufort has a reputation as a somewhat difficult and formidable mother-in-law, and to a certain extent, this is justified. In most areas, she was able to overshadow her daughter-in-law, Elizabeth of York. Margaret, who was used to being the dominant female force in her only child’s life, was reluctant to cede her position to his wife.
Although Henry was determined to be seen to claim the throne as the heir to the House of Lancaster, most people in England considered the real heiress to be Elizabeth of York, who had been declared to be legitimate by him in his first parliament. Elizabeth spent the months following Henry’s accession with her mother, Elizabeth Woodville, in London, although, from the date of birth of her first child, it is possible that she and Henry had begun to cohabit some weeks before their marriage on 18 January 1486, soon after the papal dispensation had been received. Although, during the reign of her uncle, Richard III, there is some evidence that Elizabeth of York had an ambitious character, once she became queen, there is little information on her thoughts and personality, and she was, from the first, dominated by Margaret and by her own mother, the Queen Dowager. Elizabeth fell pregnant either shortly before her marriage or immediately afterwards. Henry, who was anxious to stress the links of his dynasty to the mythical ancient kings of Britain, insisted that she enter her confinement at Winchester, the ancient capital of the Anglo-Saxons and a city that was believed to have been linked to King Arthur. The birth of an heir to continue the Tudor dynasty was of great importance to both Henry and his mother, and Margaret threw herself into ensuring that everything was just right for the birth.
In preparation for the birth of her first grandchild, Margaret prepared a remarkable set of ordinances, which set out the correct protocol for the Queen’s confinement, the christening of the child and arrangements to be made for the royal nursery. The ordinances are a testament both to Margaret’s determination to express the grandeur of her son’s dynasty and her eye for detail. She began by setting out the furnishings and decorations to be prepared in the Queen’s chamber: