Margaret Beaufort: Mother of the Tudor Dynasty by Elizabeth Norton

have purchased food for the household in readiness of their arrival. She took an interest in the minutiae and ordered that one of her gentlewomen’s saddles be mended, presumably so that she could ride alongside her mistress. Margaret probably looked forward to such trips eagerly, and it is clear that she regularly accompanied her husband on his travels. On an earlier trip, the couple were ferried by boat into the city together. Margaret engaged the services of a boatman again a few days later when she went by water to visit a bishop. For Margaret, the visits to London may have been a chance to socialise; whilst they were in London for the parliament, they paid the expenses of one of their servants for waiting on ‘my Lord Edwarde’ on their behalf.
    Margaret and Henry Stafford also received a visit from the King at Woking in December 1468, and they entertained him at their hunting lodge in a tent of purple sarsenet. Margaret purchased luxurious materials for clothes to wear for the visit, including velvet and expensive Holland and Brabant cloth, clearly intended to impress the King. She may also have found that she had something in common with the King, and they shared a love of books, with the King collecting a number of texts, such as religious works and histories, including a copy of the chronicle of Jehan Froissart, detailing the usurpation of the throne of Henry IV, which ultimately led to the Wars of the Roses. The visit was a success, and whilst Edward IV’s feelings towards the couple were ambivalent, it is perhaps fair to say that Henry Stafford was not in any danger from the King, he was simply not trusted enough to be a member of his inner circle. This all changed in 1469, when, as the King’s own fortunes ebbed, Margaret’s actions led to both her and her husband incurring his displeasure.
     

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    THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER: 1469-1471
     
    During the early years of Edward IV’s reign, Margaret settled down into a retired and contented life with her husband, enjoying occasional visits to her son at Sir William Herbert’s residence of Raglan Castle. Everything changed in 1469 when the troubles in Edward IV’s own kingship bubbled up to the surface, and for the first time in eight years, the House of Lancaster was able to mount a credible opposition to the Yorkist king.
    Edward IV began his reign on a wave of public support, but within years of his accession, the situation was very different. At a council meeting in 1465, shortly after his cousin, the powerful Earl of Warwick, had returned to England after making attempts to negotiate a French marriage for the King, Edward was forced to admit that he was already secretly married. His bride was Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of a knight. Her mother, Jacquetta, the widow of Henry V’s brother, John, Duke of Bedford, had caused a scandal similar to that caused by her sister-in-law, Catherine of Valois, by taking a lowly member of her household as her second husband. Elizabeth Woodville, the eldest child of Jacquetta’s second marriage, was very beautiful, and after her husband was killed fighting for the Lancastrians at Towton, she decided to petition the new king, Edward IV, for the return of her lands. According to legend, Elizabeth positioned herself under an oak tree with her two young sons, knowing that Edward was due to pass that way whilst out hunting. Edward was immediately smitten with the pretty widow, although, at first, he had no intention of actually marrying her, as a contemporary, Dominic Mancini, records:
W the king first fell in love with her beauty of person and charm of manner, he could not corrupt her virtue by gifts or menaces. The story runs that when Edward placed a dagger at her throat, to make her submit to his passion, she remained unperturbed and determined to die rather than live unchastely with the king. Whereupon Edward coveted her much the more, and he judged the lady worthy of a royal spouse, who could not be