Dan Snow's History Hit - Margaret Beaufort: Mother of the Tudors

Episode Date: October 30, 2020

Nicola Tallis comes on the show to talk about the extraordinary Margaret Beaufort: 'Mother of the Tudors' and the ancestor of all subsequent royals.

Hello everybody, exciting news. This is a podcast all about Margaret Beaufort and Henry VII. Yes, the one you've all been waiting for. It's the repeat of the excellent Nicola Tallis' podcast that we did more than a year ago now. We bring you the best from the History Archive every week and this is one of them. Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII. This week in 1485, Henry VII was crowned King of England. It was the climax of a rather unexpected journey, and a journey shaped very much by the guiding hand of his mother. Margaret Beaufort is truly the Tudor matriarch. Nicola Tallis is a brilliant historian, and it was great to have her on the podcast.

We bring you these once a week because the whole of the History Archive is now not available on iTunes or wherever you get your pods. It is only available on historyhit.tv. It's our new digital history channel. We've got audio on there. We've got video on there. If you use the code POD1, P-O-D-1, you get a month for free and then you get a second month for just one pound, euro or dollar. So after checking out this podcast, learning all about the beginnings of the Tudor dynasty, you should head over and become a subscriber. Be great to have you there. In the meantime, enjoy this chat with Nicola Tallis.

This is the woman. She's not the Tudor matriarch. She is the woman from whom all our subsequent royals have been descended. Yeah, she absolutely is. And I think that's quite often forgotten. So I'm really pleased that you highlighted that straight away. Who was she in? In the kind of Plantagenet family of her birth, say, was she anywhere near the throne? Yeah, she was, but nobody would have considered her as a potential contender for the throne. The key point with Margaret and her lineage was that she was a great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt,

the third surviving son of Edward III. And so that was where her royal blood stemmed from. Same as Henry IV, Henry V. Yes. But the key factor with Margaret was that she came from the illegitimate Beaufort line because John of Gaunt had as most of us know had a mistress Catherine Swinford and it was by her that he had four children the Beaufords and

John Beauford the eldest was Margaret Beauford's grandfather now at the time of their birth, all of these children were rendered illegitimate. But John of Gaunt did later marry Catherine Swinford and the Beauforts were legitimated legally. But it was still a real bone of contention and lots of people regarded them as bastard stock. OK, good. So then tell me about Margaret's childhood. Well, as far as we know, she had a relatively happy childhood, even though it was tinged with tragedy, because she was just a few days shy of her first birthday when her father died, probably at his own hand, because he'd been engaged in this dismal French campaign as part of the Hundred Years' War and it had all gone badly wrong and ended in his disgrace. And some contemporary

chroniclers suggest that he ended his own life, as I say, just a few days short of Margaret's first birthday. So she would never have known him. She was raised primarily by her mother Margaret Beecham in the Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire countryside Bledsoe Castle and Maxie Castle and she was surrounded by her half siblings because her mother had had five children five surviving children prior to Margaret's birth and she subsequently her mother remarried a man called Lionel Wells by whom she had another child. So Margaret was very much surrounded by this youthful hub of energy and she was really, really close to her half-siblings in later life.

So it all suggests that she was raised in a happy and quite secure environment. And what stage did the War of the Roses start making themselves apparent in this happy family life? For Margaret, the Wars of the Roses don't really have any impact on her until she turns 13, by which time she's married for the second time to Edmund Tudor. And he was more than a decade older than Margaret he was in his mid-20s. Can I stop you so she was married before 13? Yeah she was so she was married it was a

it was a marriage of words only she was betrothed when she was about six years old and underwent some kind of marriage ceremony with the heir of the Duke of Suffolk, John de la Paul. And yeah, they underwent some kind of marriage ceremony of words only that was later dissolved. So she never classified de la Paul as one of her husbands. She counted Edmund Tudor as her first husband. But yeah, quite remarkable. age married at age 13 married at the age of well she was actually married to Edmund Tudor at the age of 12 and pregnant at 13 wow yeah and he would have been in his 20s he was in his 20s who are these Tudors then so the Tudors they were the half brothers of Henry. And they come into being because Catherine of Valois, who was the

wife of Henry V, when Henry V died, she became engaged in this dalliance with a Welsh squire named Owen Tudor. Some say that they were married, but there's no evidence to prove it either way. There's no evidence to prove it either way. But Edmund Tudor was one of the children of the alliance, if you like. And yeah, half brother of Henry VI and very, very close to the throne. Acknowledged? Acknowledged as the king's half brother. Yes.

Yeah, absolutely. And treated very, very well by him and was very close to him. And that is why Henry VI arranged for Edmund to be married to Margaret, who was a wealthy heiress as a result of her father's death. OK, so they're very much on Henry VI's side in this civil war that's brewing. Yeah very much so yeah so Margaret's family and the Tudors are all die-hard Lancastrians who are all extremely steadfastly unshakably loyal and devoted to Henry VI and for Margaret she would continue to be loyal to Henry the sixth right until um the point of his death even though at some point she did you know because of the the shaky times she had to mask this allegiance quite carefully on occasion so she's 13 years old yeah she's having a baby yeah is that unusual it's period well it, yes, because even though the church declared that 12 was the age at which a girl could legally cohabit with her husband and 14 was prescribed for boys, it still was unbelievably young.

And many of Margaret's contemporaries often chose to wait for a while before they consummated their unions but Edmund Tudor it seems was so eager to secure an interest in Margaret's lands and her inheritance through consummation and the production of an heir that he just wasn't prepared to wait and so yeah Margaret immediately or almost immediately after the marriage becomes pregnant. That's extraordinary and you chart in the book that the delivery apart from the well we can't we don't know but we can imagine that was potentially extraordinarily traumatic of end but the the birth would be just as traumatic. Yeah absolutely and we know that it nearly cost Margaret and her child their lives.

And certainly it made its mark on her psychologically and possibly physically as well. We don't know for sure, of course, 500 years later, what the probable possible physical implications were. But certainly it really sort of traumatised her and had a huge effect on her mindset. You suggest, though, that it made her very close to her son. Yeah, absolutely. We know that from the moment of Henry's birth that this extraordinarily deep bond was forged between mother and son. And I really feel like from that moment when Margaret became a

mother it really became an integral part of her identity and it really shaped every decision that she made in the future and you know we can see this because later in life when Henry VII her son becomes King of England Margaret immediately in an effort to identify herself with him, begins referring to herself as My Lady, the king's mother. Big spoiler alert there, dude. Hold on a second. Sorry. So, okay, so we've got...

So, interesting, I didn't really realise that. So, this young Henry Tudor's baby has now got the blood of the Valois in his veins, the kings and queens of France, the royal line of France, and also the blood of John of Gaunt through his mother, and so the Plantagenet. Okay, got it. There's no suggestion at this point that Henry Tudor is destined for anything other than just being a wealthy magnate.

That's exactly it. I mean, at this point, nobody would ever have considered the idea of having Henry Tudor as King of England, because, you know, at that time, first and foremost, of course, Henry VI was on the throne, and he also had an heir, a male heir at this point. So nobody would have given Henry a thought he was only important really in Margaret's own eyes things would change though wouldn't they tell me how does this little teen then the very young teenage mother and her little baby how do they navigate through the next few years of upheaval um well Margaret um immediately as I said as soon as she becomes a mother it really begins to change

her outlook on life because suddenly there's another life other than her own to consider and it's really interesting because even though she is 13 at this point and um is important i should have said that her husband died just a couple of months before Henry Tudor's birth. He died of the plague and this left Margaret alone and incredibly vulnerable. She was under the protection of her brother-in-law Jasper Tudor at Pembroke Castle which was where Henry Tudor was born but she realised that she needed another powerful protector in order to safeguard her own interests and those of her infant son. So what's really interesting is that despite her age she was so eager to avoid another husband who wasn't of her own choosing being thrust upon her that she actually began her

own marriage negotiations for a third husband and her choice fell upon Henry Stafford, who was the second son of the Duke of Buckingham, who was another nobleman who was closely allied with Henry VI. And we know that she married him in 1458. She probably left Henry Tudor behind under the custodianship of her brother-in-law Jasper Tudor so it was probably in Jasper's care that Henry was raised for the first few years of her life so she didn't really see that much of him during that time and that must have been a real emotional tug for her um we don't really know why why she wouldn't have taken him with her but um but whatever the circumstances they didn't spend much time together during Henry's youth that's for sure and what happens then to this um political clique this this

the the team that they're allied to as it were as the as the walls the roses progresses yeah so everything changes in 1461 and in that year edward of march who was like henry the sixth who was also um descended from edward the third he won a decisive victory, first at Mortimer's Cross and at the end of March 1461 at the Battle of Towton. And Henry VI is deposed, Edward is proclaimed Edward IV, and for Margaret's family, this is disastrous. Her husband, Henry Stafford, had fought for Henry VI at Towton so she had a really good reason to be fearful because Jasper Tudor had also unsurprisingly fought for Henry VI. Edward decided to be merciful and Henry Stafford was pardoned for his role in taking up arms against Edward but for Jasper Tudor he was forced to flee and And this, of course, left Margaret's son,

Henry, incredibly vulnerable. When Edward IV's supporter, William Herbert, went to take control of Pembroke Castle, Jasper's stronghold, he found the four-year-old Henry Tudor inside. And the following year, he officially became Henry Tudor's guardian and Henry was taken to live at Ragland Castle which was Herbert's stronghold and you know this really signals the beginning of a period of Margaret's life when she was forced to bend her knee to a new royal house that were enemies to her own but she did so remarkably well and she really did do her best to ingratiate herself with her enemies however painful it may have been for her then the Lancastrians come back then the Lancastrians come back and there's this tale that at that time Margaret takes her son Henry to London to meet Henry VI and that he the king apparently predicted that one day

Henry was going to become king of England and wear the throne it's definitely a tale that's circulated in the Tudor period, unsurprisingly, but actually it's highly unlikely that Henry VI could have said any such thing because at that time he has his own son. So it's not very likely that he would have pinned all his hopes on Henry Tudor, but they did certainly, they did certainly get to meet, Henry Tudor did get to meet Henry VI at that time, who was his uncle. And we know that Henry VI probably would have taken a great interest in him as the son of his dead half-brother, Edmund Tudor. But yes, it wasn't destined to last for long,

the Lancastrian restoration to the throne. Everything changes again in 1471. I get the feeling that you do not want to make edward the fourth angry no he could be very merciful and very affable but yeah he he wasn't somebody that you wanted to cross and get on the wrong side of because he invades marches south he's in he's in top he's match fit and he gets rid of henry and this time henry the sixth has gone for good yeah exactly he henry the sixth is murdered in the tower of london and um as his heir had been killed at the battle of tewkesbury this effectively wipes out all of

the main lancastrian male figureheads and and heirs to the throne. And Margaret recognises the potential peril that this places her son Henry Tudor in, who by now is 14 years old. And some sources say, and I do think that they're accurate, that Henry was urged to flee abroad for his own safety by his mother because she was so fearful of the potential consequences of Edward's wrath and so Henry and his uncle Jasper Tudor set sail from Tembe and though they're aiming for France they actually end up in Brittany as a result of the weather where they become the hostages of Duke Francis II. So so far he doesn't look like he's picked out to be a great sovereign of the future. No. He's not going well. No absolutely not. And Edward IV looks pretty secure on the

throne right? Great warrior king. Yeah exactly great warrior king. He's got two male heirs, surviving male heirs. So the Yorkist dynasty looks pretty solid at this point. And Margaret, at this point, there's nothing to suggest that she had any interest or any intentions for her son for kingship. At this point, all she's concerned about is Henry's safety and ensuring that you know that he survives basically and we know that she was working very hard to try and ingratiate herself with Edward IV in an attempt to try and secure a pardon for Henry so that he could return home and retain his liberty. How old is she now roughly? At this point she was so in the let's think okay the 1480s she would have been she would have been approaching uh her 40s ancient ancient at that

time yeah amazing she's done a lot of living hasn't she she has so she'd be very well i mean and now are you uh this is the thought the sources for this period the source about her, are you, the sources for this period, the source about her life, are you able to get a sense of her as an operator, as a human, her character? The sources for earlier in her life are a bit shaky and it is difficult to gauge much of her character at this time. would say that she was very politically astute and you know she she knew when to when to bow down and when to when to show loyalty in the the face of adversity and you know she knew when to keep quiet and and take a back seat and wait for her moment to come so she wasn't being she wasn't punished by over the fourth particularly no she wasn't punished by over the fourth she was very fortunate but i think he was certainly certainly to begin with he was very mistrustful of her but as the 1470s progressed we see that margaret began to take a more active role in court ceremonial and this was highly influenced by her fourth husband, Thomas Stanley. So Henry Stafford, her third husband,

he had died shortly after the Battle of, shortly after the Battle of Tewkesbury, possibly as a result of battle injuries inflicted at Barnet. And Margaret then sort of looked towards making another matrimonial alliance with someone who was closely aligned with Edward IV. another matrimonial alliance with someone who was closely aligned with Edward IV. And Stanley was an integral member of Edward's household. So he was increasing presence. Sorry, his presence was often required at Edward's court. And Margaret also becomes an increasing presence as a result of this. And we see gradually over time, I think Edward did begin to be to begin to trust her a bit more

and we know that she took an active role in the reburial of Edward's father in 1476 and she also carried the king's youngest daughter Princess Bridget to her christening in 1480 so suggests that gradually over time he did begin to trust her a bit more she'd done well she did really well considering where she'd come from yeah absolutely her son though still languishing in brittany yes okay so then edward the fourth dies yeah and that's that throws everything up into the air everything into uncertainty because margaret had done really well with edward the fourth in so much that she had managed to persuade him to draft a pardon for Henry Tudor to return home.

But then Edward dies and it just throws Henry's future into complete uncertainty because as we know, within a matter of months of Edward IV's death, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Edward's brother, had taken over the throne and disinherited Edward's two sons. And Margaret had learnt from this and seen the way that Richard had acted and seen that he was capable of ruthless behaviour. And it left her certainly feeling very wary and anxious about where the future of her son lay. When do you think she dared to dream that her son might one day ascend to the throne? I think it was in 1483. I think it was quite late. Well, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Not until then. Because as I said, prior to Edward IV's death,

the Yorkist dynasty had seemed really quite solid and secure. And there was no reason to believe that anything was going to go wrong. And then suddenly you get this huge situation of political uncertainty when Edward IV dies, and everything that happens with Richard and the disappearance of the princes in the tower and I think that it's it's only then that Margaret begins to see an opportunity for her son and she's determined to try and take it. Land a Viking longship on island shores, scramble over the dunes of ancient Egypt and avoid the Poisoner's Cup in Renaissance Florence. Each week on Echoes of History, we uncover the epic stories that inspire Assassin's Creed. We're stepping into feudal Japan in our special series Chasing Shadows, where samurai warlords and shinobi spies teach us the tactics and skills needed not only to survive but to

conquer whether you're preparing for assassin's creed shadows or fascinated by history and great stories listen to echoes of history a ubisoft podcast brought to you by history hits there are new episodes every week Why though? Because surely in a lifetime of war and conflict, like she's got a nice life, it's all going well. Why suddenly risk everything on a roll of the dice? I think she had no reason to believe that Richard III would treat her son well.

Because as I say, this was a man, whatever your views on Richard III would treat her son well, because, as I say, this was a man, whatever your views on Richard III are, this was a man who had a history of violence, and she had no way of knowing how he was going to act, because he had shown himself to be, like I say, very ruthless. He'd also treated Margaret's husband Lord Stanley quite badly as well during his coup to take the throne and there was there was just no knowing which way it was going to go with with him and Henry Tudor and I think Margaret realised that Ed I'm sorry Richard's move to become king was quite controversial and unpopular and saw suddenly an opportunity that had never really been there before.

And I think she kind of decided to roll the dice and take a gamble. And do you think that's coming from her or her son? No, I think that's very much coming from Margaret. Yeah, absolutely. I think it shows some of her desperation as well because she hadn't seen her son for a very, very long time. And, you know, she barely knew him, really.

But I think, you know, she realised that in order for him to be able to come home, perhaps the only way for him to come home at this point was to be King of England. So it's maybe do or die I mean we all like seeing our fang members but organising a gigantic rebellion and enthroning one of them is really that's out there yeah she's going yeah yeah yeah okay so she's working now against Richard III to bring her son back is she involved in that conspiracy raising troops planning all that sort of stuff. Yeah, yeah, she's very, very much involved in all of that. Now, what I will say is that she did realise that because Henry had spent much of his life in exile, he was a completely unknown entity in England.

Nobody had any idea who he was. And she also realised that his blood alone wasn't enough to stake a claim to the throne because people were dubious about this sort of this Beauford lineage and so she realised that he needed someone to help strengthen his claim and this was where she really saw an opportunity because many people believed that Edward IV's eldest daughter Elizabeth of York many people classified her as being the rightful heiress to the throne in the aftermath of her brother's disappearance. And Margaret saw this as the ideal opportunity to marry her son to Elizabeth of York, and thereby obviously unite

the houses of Lancaster and York, and also to hopefully bring an end to years of war and bloodshed and she saw this also as a way of being able to curry valuable support and she began plotting with Elizabeth's mother Elizabeth Woodville who was at this time living in penury in sanctuary at Westminster Abbey and the two women using their physician Dr Lewis as an intermediary began to plot together and Margaret was able to draw on the support of possibly um uh sorry she was able to draw on the support of the Duke of Buckingham, who had been one of Richard's very close allies, but had somehow become disaffected. And they began planning this rebellion,

which is known as the Buckingham Rebellion, and are able to draw on support from some of Edward IV's former supporters also. And we know that Margaret was sending her members of her household across the channel to Henry Tudor, sending him money and messages of encouragement and support and basically telling him what to do, telling him that he needed to head this invasion force over to England. Meanwhile, though, will he get away from Brittany?

Is he still a hostage or has he sorted that situation out? Meanwhile, though, will he get away from Brittany? Is he still a hostage or has he sorted that situation out? So by this time, no, by this time he was able to court the support and the favour of Francis II who agreed to back him and to lend him money and troops. And that's exactly what he does. Perfect. That's what Prince of the Royal Blood,

that's what exiled prince of the royal blood are for yeah perfect for francis little pawns they can move around yeah yeah okay so then okay so what happens now with the buckingham revolt so what happens is unfortunately everything goes badly wrong uh richard iii found out about it quite early on um henry tudor set sail from brittany but when he arrives on the English coast, the people there try to persuade him that Buckingham has been successful and that Richard's dead. But he's very wary and cautious, and he has good reason to be so, because actually, as I say, everything went wrong. The rebellion was a dismal failure.

Buckingham was captured and executed and Henry Tudor turns around and returns to Brittany. But for Margaret, sadly, there's nowhere to go and she's forced to sit and wait for the consequences of her plotting. Right, exactly. She's been caught red-handed. She's been caught red-handed. She's been caught red-handed and she had every reason to be fearful for her life. But actually it was Richard's own vulnerability

that ended up saving her because Richard realised that he couldn't afford to risk alienating Margaret's husband, Lord Stanley, by ordering the execution of his wife. So Stanley was too powerful for him to risk offending him too deeply. So Margaret was spared the death penalty, but that didn't mean that she was going to go unpunished. And instead, Richard ordered that all of her lands were to be confiscated from her. And in some ways, I think that this would have been a punishment worse than death for Margaret, because she was always really, really passionate about her lands.

And she took a great interest and great personal care in their administration. So I think to have them taken away from her would have come as a huge blow for her. And she was also held under house imprisonment under the custodianship of her husband and banned from communicating with her son. But this period doesn't last long then? No, no. And Margaret has absolutely no intention

of forgoing contact with her son. And actually she continued to plot on Henry's behalf because the Buckingham Rebellion had shown that there were quite a few people in the country who were really disaffected with Richard and who were prepared to rise against him and at some point it's clear that she began plotting with her husband to bring about Henry's return. And by 1485, by the summer of 1485, Henry is ready to sail for England once more. And again, we know that Margaret had been sending him messages of support and had also been sending him money. And on the 1st of August 1485, Henry landed at Milford Haven. Land a Viking longship on island shores,

scramble over the dunes of ancient Egypt and avoid the Poisoner's Cup in Renaissance Florence. Each week on Echoes of History, we uncover the epic stories that inspire Assassin's Creed. We're stepping into feudal Japan in our special series, Chasing Shadows, where samurai warlords and shinobi spies teach us the tactics and skills needed not only to survive, but to conquer. Whether you're preparing for Assassin's Creed Shadows

or fascinated by history and great stories, listen to Echoes of History, a Ubisoft podcast brought to you by History Hits. There are new episodes every week. And Richard III marches out to meet him, saying this is going to be the greatest battle of all time, crush my enemies once and for all. absolutely and he had every reason to be confident because he was by far the most experienced in military terms i think lots of people forget that henry tudor had never fought a battle it doesn't sound like he's done much in his life no he hasn't poor man he's just lived in penury and in exile in britain life and. Yeah, in Brittany and in France a bit as well.

And he, I think, he didn't really have much reason to feel confident when he landed because men were not rallying to his banner in the sorts of numbers that he had hoped for. And by the time that he reaches Leicestershire, you know, he's really sort of panicking a bit and really anxious and hoping that his stepfather, Lord Stanley, is going to lend him the support that he very much needs. But this time, at this point, Richard's feeling pretty confident and with good cause because his army is by far the bigger and better prepared and at this stage um our hero is is not involved she's she's what what's she doing it's really frustrating because we don't know for sure because there aren't any sources that tell us exactly what she's doing but I can say that it would have undoubtedly been a very anxious time for her. Margaret took a huge

interest in every aspect of Henry's life and we do know that she owned a book of hours which had come to her from her mother and she used it to record all of the important events in her life and we do know that she took care to record the date on which Henry landed at Milford Haven so it's clear that she is aware of his movements and trying to keep tabs on him as far as she possibly can um but and she must have been trying to draw up support I mean she knew everyone she's trying to draw up support yeah yeah it's still an era in which great aristocrats would have had some retainers that all sort of private armies almost yeah yeah yeah exactly and uh we know that margaret's members of margaret's family and close associates of hers were lending their support to henry and fighting by his side so undoubtedly margaret would

have been busy drumming up support for him and doing all that she could to try and encourage people to rally to Henry's banner. That might have made a difference in the decisive battle because it's a confused old thing, Bosworth. Yeah, it is. It's very confused. There's not very much detail about Bosworth because there aren't any contemporary accounts. But we do know that it was over within about two hours and though the odds had been very much stacked in Richard's favour somehow some yeah somehow it's like a miracle Henry manages to win the battle and Richard is cut down and killed and a contemporary chronicler posed a really interesting question,

which I really feel might have reflected Margaret's own feelings on it, which was, you know, it was basically along the lines of, you know, was this luck? Surely, actually, it must have been God's judgment and divine intervention. And I think that that's very much the way that Margaret would have seen it. Well, that could also have been God's judgment and divine intervention and I think that that's very much the way that Margaret would have seen it. Well that could also have been her intervention because there was people switching sides at the last minute and waiting to see I mean. Yeah that's exactly so yeah that's exactly what what her husband Stanley does and his brother William

Stanley and I think they'd certainly given Henry some assurance of their support, but they wait on the sidelines, not committing to either side. And then just as, you know, the battle is coming to a real crux, William Stanley, Margaret's brother-in-law, rides in with his men and comes to Henry's aid and saves the day, supposedly. I think her fingerprints are all over this battle yeah very much so i agree and i mean it's so fascinating these are stanley's who are edward the fort these are these are like two of the like stalwarts the house of york who intervene for henry and lancaster at this final battle it's an extraordinary but yeah and therefore is mar is Margaret that key? Is she the link between the remnants of the House of Lancaster and the disenchanted Yorkists?

Yeah, I think you could see her that way. I think the Stanleys are really slippery characters. And even Edward IV never really fully trusted them because they had this tendency to kind of switch sides during the wars of the roses or they'd have one brother on one side and one on the other um and i i think i think by 1483 following the buckingham rebellion they had also kind of become aware that yeah there was this great unpopularity towards Richard III and I think Margaret probably really really played on that and was able to to persuade her husband to support her son and I think he was probably he probably knew that the rewards would be quite great for him if Henry were to succeed. So Henry wins the battle what doesley get stanley does quite well out of it he gets an

earldom so he becomes earl of derby which is you know yeah that's quite quite nice for him um and then margaret becomes the queen's mother margaret becomes the king's mother she does yeah she becomes the king's mother all her lands back, I'm guessing. independence from stanley um which i think is a huge huge thing for her but there's strangely there's no evidence that he kind of resented this or was unhappy about this and they seem to have still got along rather well with each other but yeah and then how long did she go on living she went on living until 1509 um So she actually died after her son. So she, well, she died a couple of months after her son. So she witnessed the entirety of his reign

and the very first few weeks of the reign of her grandson, Henry VIII, who, of course, the Tudor dynasty's most famous king. That's amazing. Yeah. And is she active, do we think, during Henry VII's reign? She's so active during this time this is the period of her life when we know the most about her um because we've

got quite a complete set of accounts um from her during this time so we know what she was spending her money on we know where she was going who she was going there with um and we know who she was going who she was going there with um and we know kind of who she was communicating with and um we know that she she was almost a constant presence at Henry VII's court for probably the first decade of his reign and we know that mother and son were really really very close to one another at some of the royal palaces their apartments even interlinked so they were always in very close proximity quite close in age yeah exactly same generation yeah yeah exactly quite close in age um we know even that Henry entrusted Margaret with the role of his unofficial lieutenant in the Midlands and it was there that she began to establish her authority

and assert her authority as the king's mother in that region. She began to administer justice on Henry's behalf there as well. This was all done from her Northamptonshire Palace of Collyweston where she had among other buildings she had a counting house and a jail built there and with the support of her council she began hearing and deputising on all sorts of cases including very bizarrely one against a man who was accused of the baptism of a cat so well what... Well, I imagine she'd seen it all in her life. Exactly, she did. So that did not come as a particular surprise. No.

Well, thank you so much for bringing the life of this absolutely remarkable woman to my attention. Thank you. And to the audiences. The book is called? Unprowned Queen, The Fateful Life of Margaret Beauford, Tudor Matriarch. Nicola, thanks so much for coming on the podcast.

It's been a pleasure. Hi everybody, just a quick message at the end of this podcast. I'm currently sheltering in a small windswept building on a piece of rock in the Bristol Channel called Landy. I'm here to make a podcast. I'm here enduring weather that frankly is apocalyptic because I want to get some great podcast material for you guys. In return, I've got a little tiny favour to

ask. If you could go to wherever you get your podcasts, if you could give it a five-star rating, if you could share it, if you could give it a review. I really appreciate that. Then from the comfort of your own homes, you'll be doing me a massive favour. Then more people will listen to the podcast. We can do more and more ambitious things and I can spend more of my time getting pummeled.

Thank you. you