Margaret Beaufort
1443 – 1509 · Generation XX
Margaret Beaufort (1443–1509). Married Edmund Tudor in 1455. One of their children is recorded in this archive. Widowed and a mother at thirteen; spent a lifetime steering her only son to the throne. Sole heiress of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, she carried a contested claim descending from Edward III. After Edmund’s death she married Sir Henry Stafford, who died of wounds taken at Barnet in 1471, and then Thomas Stanley, a match that returned her to Edward IV’s court. Under Richard III she conspired with Elizabeth Woodville, agreeing that her son would marry Elizabeth of York, and apparently helped fund Buckingham’s failed rising of 1483 — which cost her her titles and estates. Once Henry had won at Bosworth, his first Parliament made her a feme sole, free to hold property and go to law in her own right, and as “My Lady the King’s Mother” she wielded real influence at court. She founded Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1505 and began St John’s. Outliving her son by two months, she saw her grandson Henry VIII crowned before she died at Westminster.
Place in the family
- Margaret Beaufort was a grandmother of King Henry VIII.
- The archive records 118 of her descendants, across 20 generations.
Line of descent: King William I The Conqueror → King Henry I → Matilda the Empress → King Henry II → King John → King Henry III → King Edward I Longshanks → King Edward II → King Edward III → John of Gaunt → John Beaufort → John Beaufort → Margaret Beaufort.
Parents
- John Beaufort (1404 – 1444)
- Margaret Beauchamp (1410 – 1482)
Partners
- Married Edmund Tudor (1430 – 1456) in 1455 — one child together
Children
- King Henry VII (1457 – 1509)
Life
- 1443 — Born
- 1455 — Married Edmund Tudor
- 1509 — Died