For 500 years, Margaret \u2013 wife of Henry VI<\/a>, and towering figure in the Wars of the Roses<\/a> \u2013 has been labelled an unfaithful wife, a foreign enemy within, a Machiavellian<\/a> schemer and a bloodthirsty monster who delighted in exacting terrible vengeance on her enemies. Even in modern times, some say Margaret was the inspiration for Game of Thrones<\/em>\u2019 notoriously manipulative monarch Cersei Lannister.<\/p>\n The truth is, inevitably, far more nuanced \u2013 and compelling \u2013 than the stereotype. Margaret was neither the unscrupulous ogre of Shakespeare\u2019s portrayal, nor the innocent bystander that some historians have presented in recent years.<\/p>\n She was a woman who fought with no little skill and tenacity on behalf of her husband, her son Edward of Westminster \u2013 and, of course, herself \u2013 in the maelstrom of one of England\u2019s most protracted and vicious civil wars. She suffered setbacks and endured abuse (much of it a result of her gender) that would have broken many of her contemporaries.<\/p>\n And yet she so nearly realised her aim of securing her son the English throne. That in itself makes her one of the most fascinating figures of the 15th century.<\/p>\n Margaret was born in 1430, probably in Lorraine in modern-day France. Her parents were Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine and Ren\u00e9 of Anjou, brother-in-law of King Charles VII of France. With Ren\u00e9 a prisoner of war for much of Margaret\u2019s childhood, and Isabella called away to the Italian peninsula to oversee her husband\u2019s lands, Margaret lived with her grandmother Yolande of Aragon until she was 12.<\/p>\n War had cast a long shadow over Margaret\u2019s early years, but it was an attempt to negotiate peace that would turn her life on its head. In 1445, at the age of just 15, she was married to Henry VI, king of England, as part of negotiations to bring to an end decades of conflict between England and France.<\/p>\n Her future now lay in a foreign and unfamiliar land. Margaret\u2019s time as queen of England can be divided into two phases: the first being from 1445\u201353, when she largely stayed out of the great affairs of state.<\/p>\n Little of her correspondence survives from that first period, and most relates only to her hobbies or the administration of her lands. One of her early letters shows her intervening on behalf of one of her tenants, who faced prosecution for cutting down trees; another shows her involvement in a marriage case.<\/p>\n Then, in 1453, everything changed. And the catalyst was the birth of a son, Edward of Westminster.<\/p>\n This marked the start of the second period of her tenure (1453\u201361) in which she became a major player in the political chaos and internecine conflict that increasingly consumed the kingdom. By giving her husband a long-awaited heir, Margaret had bolstered her status; she had solidified her role as queen.<\/p>\n She now clearly felt emboldened to actively protect and advance her family\u2019s interests. This new-found confidence would change the course of Margaret\u2019s life.<\/p>\n Shortly before she gave birth, Henry had been laid low by illness \u2013 a form of mental instability that prevented him from fulfilling his duties as king. In early 1454, with parliament having been summoned to decide who would run the country in this time of crisis, Margaret did something unprecedented: she tried to claim the regency for herself.<\/p>\n The Paston letters (written by a Norfolk gentry family from 1422\u20131509) present us with a reasonably reliable contemporary account of what took place. Margaret presented a bill with five articles, \u201cthe first of which is that she desires the whole rule of this land; the second is that she may appoint the chancellor, treasurer\u2026 and all other officers of this land\u201d.<\/p>\n Margaret\u2019s bid to rule in her husband\u2019s stead drew a storm of opprobrium from her contemporaries, and has been heavily criticised by historians since.<\/p>\n One of the chief charges levelled at her was that her gambit was nothing more than a naked power grab. Yet her intent was, it\u2019s likely, not to take over the government for her own selfish ends, but to protect her son\u2019s interests while her husband was ill, and to try to create a unified government to rise above the factionalism plaguing Henry\u2019s regime.<\/p>\n Margaret genuinely believed that, as queen and now mother to the heir, she was the right person to perform this role. This takes us to the second main source of the criticism: Margaret\u2019s gender.<\/p>\n In France and other parts of Europe, there was a long-established precedent for female regents. These included Margaret\u2019s own mother, Isabella of Lorraine, upon whom Duke Ren\u00e9 \u201cbestowed full executive and military authority\u201d, and Joan of Navarre, who had been regent for her young son, John V, Duke of Brittany.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, no such precedent existed in England. Here, there was an ancient animosity to female rule going back to the 12th century and Empress Matilda<\/a>\u2019s attempt to wrest the throne from Stephen in the so-called Anarchy<\/a>. And so both parliament and Margaret\u2019s political rivals were appalled by the prospect of a woman operating the levers of power.<\/p>\n It is surely no coincidence that it is from 1453 that many of the scurrilous rumours about Margaret having extramarital affairs, or being utterly obsessed with power, began to emerge. She had transgressed the social expectations of her society \u2013 and that was unforgivable.<\/p>\n A ballad, written a number of years after the event, demonstrates how some people tried to frame Margaret\u2019s actions in 1454: \u201cIt is a right great perversion a woman of a land to be a regent \/ Queen Margaret, I mean, that ever has meant \/ To govern all England with might and power \/ And to destroy the right line was her intent\u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n Margaret\u2019s bid to rule as regent \u2013 and her opponents\u2019 reaction to it \u2013 would have enormous consequences. This deteriorating relationship helped plunge England into the Wars of the Roses, which would see the houses of York (initially headed by Richard, Duke of York) and Lancaster (with Margaret to the fore) engaged in a brutal, three-decades-long struggle for the throne.<\/p>\n Margaret and Richard, Duke of York first clashed during Henry VI\u2019s initial bout of illness, when York attempted to have a key ally of Margaret\u2019s executed, as well as using his power to deny her funds. This caused Margaret to see him as a threat to her position, and that of her son.<\/p>\n Her fears were confirmed in 1455, when escalating tensions exploded into armed conflict. In May that year, the houses of Lancaster and York came to blows at St Albans, the opening battle of the Wars of the Roses<\/a>.<\/p>\n For the following six years, the forces of York and Lancaster were engaged in a struggle for supremacy in which Margaret\u2019s fortunes ebbed and flowed wildly. A low point arrived in July 1460 when her husband was captured and taken into captivity following defeat at the battle of Northampton.<\/p>\n In December that same year, the Lancastrians gained some degree of revenge with victory at the battle of Wakefield, a clash that would result in the death of Margaret\u2019s nemesis, Richard, Duke of York.<\/p>\n A myth quickly developed that the queen was at the battle, where she tormented the defeated duke, thus giving birth to the violent, vindictive and unnatural tyrant of Shakespeare\u2019s imagination. However, in more recent years historians have established (with the help of her correspondence) that, as the battle raged at Wakefield, Margaret was in Scotland, attempting to raise troops.<\/p>\n Margaret did indeed get her army and was able to wrest her husband out of enemy hands in early 1461. But, as she attempted to enter London, her fortunes plunged again. With rumours swirling that she was plotting to murder Henry and marry her alleged lover, the Duke of Somerset, the people of London baulked at the idea of allowing the \u201cevil\u201d queen and her army of \u201cbarbaric\u201d Scots within the city walls.<\/p>\n In March 1461, as Margaret was embroiled in negotiations with the people of London, Richard, Duke of York\u2019s son seized the initiative and had himself crowned Edward IV<\/a>. Edward sealed his triumph by defeating the Lancastrians at the battle of Towton<\/a>, possibly the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil.<\/p>\n The royal family was driven into exile and Henry formally deposed. After this point, Margaret became the true leader of the Lancastrian cause, not least because so many devoted Lancastrian nobles had been killed in the previous years.<\/p>\n She spent the next two years on the run with Edward of Westminster, in Wales, Scotland and France. But her dreams of securing her son\u2019s rightful inheritance, the English crown, weren\u2019t entirely dashed yet.<\/p>\n In October 1462, with the backing of the new French king, Louis XI, Margaret landed back in England at the head of an army of 800 soldiers. They made landfall in Northumberland, and secured Bamburgh<\/a> and Alnwick castles. Yet they were soon driven out of their new gains and, in August 1463, Margaret and Edward were forced to sail back to France.<\/p>\n Victory over her Yorkist enemies must now have seemed as distant as ever. But in the summer of 1470, after seven more years in France entertaining exiled Lancastrian lords, Margaret\u2019s fortunes changed again. She would have one final shot at victory.<\/p>\n Margaret of Anjou is born to Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine and Ren\u00e9 of Anjou, brother-in-law of King Charles VII of France.<\/p>\n Margaret weds Henry VI, king of England, as part of a peace treaty between England and France.<\/p>\n Margaret gives birth to Edward of Westminster. The following year, Edward is invested as Prince of Wales.<\/p>\n With Henry VI incapacitated by mental instability, Margaret bids, unsuccessfully, to rule England as regent.<\/p>\n Some of Margaret\u2019s key allies are killed at the battle of St Albans, the opening clash of the Wars of the Roses. Later that year, her enemy Richard, Duke of York, is appointed protector of the realm.<\/p>\n Edward IV wins a crushing victory at Towton. Henry VI is now formally deposed and Margaret and her son driven into exile.<\/p>\n Margaret lands in Northumberland with the aim of seizing the throne from Edward IV. She is soon forced to sail back to exile in France.<\/p>\n An invasion headed by Margaret\u2019s ally, Warwick the Kingmaker, forces Edward IV into exile.<\/p>\n Seventeen-year-old Edward of Westminster is killed by Edward IV\u2019s forces at the battle of Tewkesbury. Henry VI dies soon after.<\/p>\n Having lived the final years of her life in exile, Margaret of Anjou dies in her father\u2019s lands in France.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> That change of fortune would come from an unlikely source: Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, also known as Warwick the Kingmaker<\/a>. Warwick had previously been a close political ally of Edward IV but the two had fallen out, and now he had arrived in France with a plan to restore Henry VI to the throne.<\/p>\n One of Warwick\u2019s conditions was that his 14-year-old daughter, Anne Neville<\/a>, be married to the young Edward of Westminster, by then aged 16. Following a complex round of negotiations, Margaret agreed to throw her weight behind Warwick\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n But she and her son wouldn\u2019t be allowed to depart for England just yet. Louis XI would not give them permission to sail until Warwick upheld his side of their deal: to attack the French king\u2019s Burgundian enemies after he\u2019d put Henry VI back on the English throne. Warwick fulfilled his part of the bargain, forcing Edward IV into exile in the autumn of 1470.<\/p>\n Bad weather then delayed Margaret\u2019s crossing even longer. Everything was working against her: perhaps she should have taken it as a sign. For, by the time she did finally land at Weymouth on 14 April 1471, with an army consisting largely of French mercenaries and Lancastrian lords, her moment to strike had come and gone.<\/p>\n While Margaret and her son had languished in France, Edward IV had returned from exile at the head of an army, hellbent on regaining the throne from Henry VI. By a cruel twist of fate, on the very day that Margaret landed at Weymouth, Edward IV defeated and killed the Earl of Warwick at the battle of Barnet<\/a> and returned victorious to London.<\/p>\n When Margaret heard the news, her first instinct was to flee back to France with her son. The Duke of Somerset and others, though, persuaded her to stay and meet up with the forces of Jasper Tudor (Henry\u2019s half-brother) in Wales.<\/p>\n Together their combined army could still beat Edward. It wasn\u2019t to be. Edward intercepted the Lancastrian army at the battle of Tewkesbury<\/a> in Gloucestershire on 4 May. Although the battle was initially hard-fought, the Yorkists emerged victorious, decimating their enemies and killing Edward of Westminster.<\/p>\n There is some doubt over precisely what happened to him: most say he was killed in the battle or just afterwards, but one or two contemporary sources suggest that Margaret\u2019s beloved son was brought before Edward IV alive after the battle and murdered.<\/p>\n Regardless of what actually happened, Edward IV would never have let his Lancastrian rival live. Margaret was taken from Tewkesbury back to London, reportedly conveyed in a cart, staring blankly ahead. She was, finally, a broken woman. Although she was taken to the Tower of London<\/a>, she and Henry were kept apart and he died in suspicious circumstances two weeks after the battle.<\/p>\n As for Margaret, she was eventually sold back to France in 1475 as part of a treaty, spending the last seven years of her life living in relative poverty on her father\u2019s lands in France until her death in August 1482.<\/p>\n In the five centuries since her demise, Margaret of Anjou\u2019s reputation has taken a battering. Yet look beyond the stereotypes at the hard evidence and there can be little doubt that she was a formidable, accomplished leader who didn\u2019t know when she was beaten.<\/p>\n In fact, if Margaret had been able to act of her own volition and raise troops without Louis\u2019 conditions, that last throw of the dice at the end of 1470 may well have ended in triumph. If that had happened, we might view her very differently: as a heroic warrior-queen who emerged victorious against the odds.<\/p>\nMargaret of Anjou\u2019s route to power<\/h3>\n
First phase of her time as queen<\/h3>\n
![\""An\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/05\/2M65HDA-92f0b78.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"An\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Second phase: rise of a political powerhouse<\/h3>\n
\u201cDesires the whole rule of this land\u201d<\/h3>\n
Margaret did something unprecedented: she tried to claim the regency for herself <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
Plight of the medieval queen<\/h3>\n
![\""A\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/05\/GettyImages-464462463-046e739.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"A\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Margaret and the Wars of the Roses<\/h3>\n
Margaret of Anjou\u2019s changing fortunes<\/h3>\n
Lancastrians defeated, and a new leader emerges<\/h3>\n
The people of London baulked at the idea of allowing the ‘evil’ queen and her army of ‘barbaric’ Scots within the city walls <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
![\""Margaret\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/05\/0231519-3875e31.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Margaret\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Timeline: the life of the \u2018She-wolf of France\u2019<\/h4>\n
23\/24 March 1430<\/h6>\n
22 April 1445<\/h6>\n
13 October 1453<\/h6>\n
Early 1454<\/h6>\n
22 May 1455<\/h6>\n
29 March 1461<\/h6>\n
October 1462<\/h6>\n
3 October 1470<\/h6>\n
4 May 1471<\/h6>\n
25 August 1482<\/h6>\n
Margaret and the Kingmaker<\/h3>\n
![\""Edward\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/05\/GettyImages-463950051-2ea2079.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Edward\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Her moment had come and gone<\/h3>\n
Battle of Tewkesbury: fall of the Lancastrians<\/h3>\n
When Margaret heard the news of the defeat at Barnet, her first instinct was to flee back to France with her son. The Duke of Somerset and others, though, persuaded her to stay <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
![\""Miniature\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/05\/GettyImages-601101716-2f5052a.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Miniature\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Margaret of Anjou\u2019s legacy: what if\u2026<\/h3>\n