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But when Edward IV became King in 1461, Jasper Tudor, a Lancastrian, was forced into exile abroad. When Edmund died, Jasper undertook to protect the young widow Margaret Beaufort and son Henry. The boys stayed in the care of Catherine de la Pole until 1442 when their half-brother King Henry VI took over the care and education of the boys. When her son’s regents John of Bedford and Humphrey of Gloucester (brothers of Henry V) denied her permission to marry John Beaufort Duke of Somerset, she married Owen in secret.Ī resolution was passed in 1428 which forbade dowager queens to marry without permission which brought the validity of Catherine and Owen’s marriage into question but later Henry VI recognised their ranks and legitimised their line.Įdmund and Jasper were cared for by Catherine de la Pole after their mother retired to the abbey of Bermondsey in 1436 where she died soon after. Owen was a squire at the court of Henry V and was a keeper of the queen’s wardrobe. Maybe she overcompensated for the shame of her father’s suicide.Henry Tudor’s uncle and great advisor Jasper Tudor was the son of Owen Tudor and Catherine of Valois, the widow of King Henry V and mother of Henry VI. Perhaps her early days as Henry VI’s heir left a craving for queenship. Her true motives to secure her son’s place seem less saintly in this light. Later in life, Margaret signed her name Margaret R likely for “regina” and scarcely yielded precedence to the queen. Margaret’s ironwill and strategic mind likely resulted from her harsh early days in an age when political missteps led to death and winner took all. Noble sons commonly boarded in other noble households for networking purposes. This doesn’t mean Margaret was a bad mother. This was her first visit in several years, and Seward notes it wasn’t as though Henry was a prisoner. While touring the West Country in 1467, Margaret “found time,” as historian Desmond Seward puts it, to visit Henry for a week at Raglan Castle. Herbert wanted Henry’s titles restored since Herbert intended to wed him to his daughter. While she would have undoubtedly preferred a higher-born Lancastrian, her interests and Herbert’s aligned. Margaret probably didn’t seethe at Herbert’s custodianship. After Jasper lost at Towton, Edward IV sold Herbert Henry’s wardship. Jasper may have looked after Henry until he was about five.

There is evidence from later in her life that sex repulsed her and she never had children again – either due to the damage from the delivery or avoidance. In a wind-torn tower at Pembroke Castle, the physically immature Margaret nearly died birthing a sickly Henry Tudor. Immediately, she travelled across plague-infested Wales to seek Jasper’s protection. Being a potential claimant during a fight over who gets to be king endangered the heavily pregnant Margaret. Meanwhile, the Wars of the Roses had begun and Edmund left Margaret to fight, where Yorkists captured him and he succumbed to plague that November. By mid-1456, Edmund succeeded: Margaret was thirteen years old and pregnant. If he could impregnate Margaret, he would share in her estates for life. Spurred on by greed, he hastily consummated the marriage. Henry probably decided to marry Margaret to Edmund to bolster his claim to the throne.Įdmund married Margaret shortly after she turned twelve, the age of consent. Henry VI dissolved Margaret’s marriage and gave her wardship to his half-brothers Edmund and Jasper Tudor. Queen Margaret of Anjou summoned Margaret and her mother to court. With her guardian now dead, Margaret’s life sharply altered course. Sailing to Calais, Suffolk’s enemies captured his ship, staged a mock trial, and beheaded him on the shore. Suffolk’s detractors charged he intended to use the Beaufort marriage to crown his son, so Henry VI banished Suffolk for five years. When Margaret was six, people came to see her as an heir to the childless Henry VI.

Suffolk quickly betrothed and possibly married one-year old Margaret to his two-year old son – an act that proved to be a fatal mistake.