Margaret of Anjou

1430 – 1482 · Generation XX

Margaret of Anjou (1430–1482). Married Henry VI of Windsor in 1445. One of their children is recorded in this archive. Led the Lancastrian cause in the field when her husband could not. A daughter of René of Anjou, titular king of Naples, she was wed at fifteen in a match meant to seal peace with France; the surrender of Maine that followed left the French-born queen mistrusted in England. In 1448 she obtained a licence to found Queens’ College, Cambridge. Henry’s collapse around the birth of their son Edward in 1453 drew her into a deepening rivalry with Richard of York, and after the Yorkist victory at Towton in 1461 she fled with the boy to Scotland and then France. There she allied with the estranged Earl of Warwick, marrying her son to his daughter Anne Neville, and Henry was briefly restored in 1470. Defeat at Tewkesbury in May 1471 cost Edward his life and her her liberty. Ransomed by Louis XI in 1475, she passed her last seven years in France dependent on the king’s charity and died impoverished at Dampierre-sur-Loire.

Place in the family

Margaret of Anjou married King Henry VI, a great-uncle of King Henry VIII.

Partners

Married King Henry VI (1421 – 1471) in 1445 — one child together

Children

Edward of Westminster (1453 – 1471)

Life

1430 — Born
1445 — Married Henry VI of Windsor
1482 — Died