This study of Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII and the founder of two Cambridge colleges is the first biography to explore the full range of archival sources and one of the best-documented studies of any late-medieval woman.

Excerpt from Life of Margaret Beaufort: Countess of Richmond and Derby, Mother of King Henry the Seventh The Crown of England after a lapse of glorious years again encircles the brow of a female Sovereign. Though few Queens have swayed the sceptre of these realms, they have all been descended from Margaret Beaufort, the eminent lady whose eventful career is recorded in the following pages. As the progenitrix of the present Royal family of England, her name alone would attract attention, even were it not connected with the pedigree on which King Henry the Seventh founded his chief pretension to the Throne. But, the Countess of Richmond has higher claims to respect than any arising from mere hereditary distinctions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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The first comprehensive biography in three decades of Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII, the first Tudor king.

A sumptuous biography of Lady Margaret Beaufort, matriarch of the Tudor dynasty In 1485, Henry VII became the first Tudor king of England. His victory owed much to his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort. Over decades and across countries, Margaret had schemed to install her son on the throne and end the War of the Roses. Margaret's extraordinarily close relationship with Henry, coupled with her role in political and ceremonial affairs, ensured that she was treated-and behaved-as a queen in all but name. Against a lavish backdrop of pageantry and ambition, court intrigue and war, historian Nicola Tallis illuminates how a dynamic, brilliant woman orchestrated the rise of the Tudors.