Welcome, Judith! I am happy you are here!
~ Samantha
Guest Post by Judith Arnopp
I
am often asked why I chose to write about Margaret Beaufort and, although I
hate to answer a question with a question, my usual reply is ‘Why wouldn’t I?’
Poor Margaret has gained quite a negative reputation, especially in fiction and
I think it has a lot to do with her portraits. The portraiture of most of the
women I’ve written about, Anne Boleyn, Katheryn Parr, Elizabeth of York, depict
young, attractive women who’ve the added bonus of a touch of romance in their
lives. Unfortunately for Margaret, her surviving portraits were painted late in
life; she appears dour faced, pious and elderly. I believe this severe image
has tainted the way authors have chosen to depict her.
It
is clear Margaret was never a great beauty, and she never enjoyed a great royal
romance but her impact upon history is undeniable. Margaret’s political
involvement in the wars of the roses helped establish the Tudor dynasty, and
her role in Henry’s government stabilised it. When I write I imagine I am the protagonist.
In Margaret’s case I wanted to access the girl and the young woman, so I put
away the portrait of the old lady and imagined a painfully young child thrust
into the adult world.
Putting
aside the assumptions that have been made and using only the known facts of her
life, I came up with a rather different view of Margaret. Throughout my life I
have favoured York over Lancaster but when it comes to writing I have to be
objective. I do not demonise for the sake of drama, history is exciting enough
without making too much up. Obviously I use my imagination to fill in gaps, add
dialogue etc. but I examine the factual evidence and do my best to consider,
without bias, the deeper character of the person I am writing about. When writing
in the first person I also have to remember that we are all blind to our own
negative side, and Margaret would never have seen her own actions as flawed. This
helps me to illustrate her possible motivations without evoking the almost
pantomime villain she has become.
Margaret
is often blamed for the disappearance of the princes from the Tower but I have
found nothing in the record to prove it; there are plenty of other candidates
who could be held equally as culpable. Unauthorised entry to the Tower was just
not possible; whatever the fate of the boys, it was carried out with either the
knowledge of the king or the Constable of the Tower.
Margaret’s
life, even before her rise to power, was interesting. From infancy she was the
sole heiress of the Duke of Somerset, her hand in marriage pursued almost from
the cradle. She married four times, her first marriage to John de la Pole took
place when she was just six years old but was quickly annulled. Her second marriage,
this time to Edmund Tudor at the age of twelve, was also short lived, his death
leaving her widowed and pregnant at the age of thirteen. In extremity she
turned for support to her brother-in-law, Jasper Tudor and gave birth of her
only son at his stronghold in Pembroke. It is believed the birth left Margaret
so damaged she could conceive no further children.
Her
third marriage to Henry Stafford, second son of the Duke of Buckingham, was of
her own choosing, providing her with access to Edward IV’s court. In the years that followed Margaret trod a
dangerous path through the complexities of the war between York and Lancaster –
her heart lay with her Lancaster kin, but when York finally won the throne she
seems to have bowed to the inevitable and accepted Edward IV’s rule.
With
the royal nursery quickly filling with York heirs, the idea of Henry Tudor ever
attainting the throne at this time would not have occurred to her but she
petitioned instead for his pardon and the return of his estates.
Margaret
managed to survive the upheaval of the next few years while power passed to and
fro between York and Lancaster. Henry Stafford died of wounds received at
Barnet, fighting for York, leaving Margaret widowed again. She remarried
swiftly, choosing for her final husband the powerful northern magnate, Thomas
Stanley. This union brought Margaret even closer to the royal family where she
formed a link with the Queen, Elizabeth Woodville; a relationship which, after
King Edward’s sudden death in 1483, was to develop into intrigue.
Initially
she seems to have accepted Richard of Gloucester’s claim to the throne, bearing
the new Queen, Anne Neville’s train at the coronation. It was not until later that
she began to plot actively to place her own son on the throne but there is
nothing to suggest she was complicit in any plan to murder the princes. In fact,
there is no actual evidence that they were killed at all – they disappeared,
there were later murmurings against Gloucester but nothing has ever been
satisfactorily proven. It is the mystery surrounding this period in history
that makes it so interesting and irresistible to authors. There are as many
theories as there are candidates for the crime (if any existed).
After
Bosworth, when Henry became king, Margaret was finally in a position of power.
She is often portrayed as the ‘mother-in-law from hell’ but, while there may
have been initial resentments between Margaret and Henry’s queen, Elizabeth of
York, as there often are between in-laws, ultimately relations between the two
women were amicable. While the queen confined her interests to the royal
nursery and charitable works, playing no part in administration, Margaret took
a leading role in Henry’s government. She was one of his chief advisors, taking
charge of finances and the running of the royal household, overseeing the
upbringing and education of the royal children.
In
my novels that form The Beaufort Chronicles, writing from Margaret’s perspective, I
try to illustrate her motives, show the events and the people of the fifteenth
century through her eyes. I have to ‘know’ only what she may have known. I give
voice to her inner self, her passions, even the negative thoughts we all have
but never speak aloud. Novels are, of course, only fiction but after the
treatment she has received in both fiction and non-fiction, I think she is
deserving of a voice.
People
love to have someone to blame, and Margaret being plain, pious and forthright provides
the perfect scapegoat. She was clearly no beauty but her portraits were taken in
later life; the purpose was not to display her good looks but rather her piety,
her charity and her intelligence which were, in those days, virtues to be proud
of. It seems strange that today these characteristics have come to be regarded in
the negative.
Piety
in the middle ages was the norm; it would have been far more remarkable if
she’d been atheist or lax at prayer. In the twenty-first century we have become
uneasy around intense devotion to God, and because of this, in trying to make
sense of emotions that are foreign to us, authors have resorted to portraying
her as a religious fanatic. But perhaps, if we had to endure the unsanitary
conditions of the fifteen century; the child mortality, the frequent bouts of
pestilence and famine, and the ever-present threat of death we too might turn
to the protection of a greater supernatural power.
I
won’t deny that Margaret was a forthright woman but determination gets things
done and Margaret is one of the few medieval women to have set out, virtually
unaided, to achieve her goals. Initially, she seems to have accepted York’s
rule, she was compliant under Edward IV and in the early part of Richard III’s
reign but at some point, her agenda altered and she began to work toward what
she saw as the rights of her son.
Margaret
played a huge part in providing Henry with the means to invade England and take
possession of the throne. After Bosworth and the reward of seeing her only
child crowned King of England she could have sat back and enjoyed her dotage.
Instead, she continued to work diligently for the Tudor cause. She assisted in
the establishment of the dynasty and was a key figure at Henry’s court,
building the public Tudor image, attending to the administration of the court,
and overseeing the raising of the Tudor heirs.
Tudors
are not everyone’s favourite royal dynasty and there are those who will never
see virtue in Margaret Beaufort’s role in the wars of the roses but, dynastic
preferences aside, she was a strong determined person, a religious person who
did not rely on beauty to buy her way into power. She relied solely upon her
remarkably agile mind. If she were a man she’d be hailed as a political genius.
Connect with Judith
Judith’s historical novels offer a view of
the Tudor court from the perspective of the women close to the throne.
Her
work includes:
The Beaufort Bride: Book One of The
Beaufort Chronicles
The Beaufort Woman: Book Two of The
Beaufort Chronicles
The King’s Mother: Book Three of The
Beaufort Chronicles – coming soon
A Song of Sixpence: the story of Elizabeth
of York and Perkin Warbeck
Intractable Heart: the story of Katheryn
Parr
The Winchester Goose: at the court of
Henry VIII
The Kiss of the Concubine: a story of Anne
Boleyn
Medieval
Novels
The Song of Heledd
The Forest Dwellers
Peaceweaver
