Uncrowned queen : the life of Margaret Beaufort, mother of the Tudors
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"In 1485, Henry Tudor triumphed over staggering odds to become the first Tudor King of England. His victory owed much to his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort. Born a Lancaster during the War of the Roses, which saw her house fighting with the Yorks for supremacy, Margaret was caught up in male relatives' plans for the fate of England. She was married to Edmund Tudor, half-brother to the Lancaster King Henry VI. At thirteen, with her husband dead from plague, she gave birth to her only child: a son she named Henry. Over decades and across countries, Margaret schemed to install her son on the throne and, once he was in place, she orchestrated the union that would at last put an end to over thirty years of war, Henry's marriage to Elizabeth of York. Once Henry was crowned, Margaret's extraordinarily close relationship with her son, coupled with her active role in political and ceremonial affairs, ensured that she was treated-and behaved-as a queen in all but name. She is remembered as a severe and shrewd woman-even murderous, for her rumored role in the disappearance of the princes in the Tower of London. But against a lavish backdrop of pageantry and passion, court intrigue and war, Tallis dispels these myths, revealing a woman far more complicated and contradictory than our popular conception. Frequently stereotyped as overly pious and dour, Uncrowned Queen introduces us to a woman who can also be wildly extravagant and materialistic, one funny and indefatigable. She was iron-willed, but it was her charm that ultimately was her greatest weapon-essential in ingratiating herself to Richard III at court even as she was planning to overthrow him by installing her son, and in courting the Yorks to offer their child as her daughter-in-law. Drawing on fresh readings of primary sources, Tallis rehabilitates Margaret as a dynamic political operator and devoted mother, asking what it means for women to hold power and how they wield i.t"--,Provided by publisher.