Margaret Holland 2nd cousin 17 times removed.
Margaret was born 30th December 1385 in Upholland Lancashire.Like those ladies of the day, she married at a young age, to Sir John de Beaufort the Earl of Somerset.
She later married Thomas of Lancaster the 1st Duke of Clarence, son of King Henry IV and his wife Mary de Bohun. Thomas died in the Battle of Bauge in France in 1421.
From her marriage to Sir John Beaufort she had 5 children
Henry Beaufort 2nd Earl of Somerset b 1401 d 1418
John Beaufort 1st Duke of Somerset b 1404 d 1444 m Margaret Beauchamp of Blesto
Thomas Beaufort Count of Perche b 1405 d 141
Edmund Beaufort 2nd Duke of Somerset b 1406 d 1455 m Eleanor Beauchamp
Lady Joan Queen of Scotland b 1406 d 1455 She married King James I of Scotland
John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, KG (1403 – 27 May 1444) was an English noble and military commander.
On 25 March 1425, Somerset came into his majority, but the estates of his father had to be managed by his mother for the next thirteen years until he was released from imprisonment.
He remained imprisoned until 1438, and after being ransomed became one of the leading English commanders in France.
He had two illegitimate children, and he married in 1439. He would be the 3rd cousin 17 times removed
Margaret Beauchamp (c.1410 – before 3 June 1482) was the daughter of Sir John Beauchamp, de jure 3rd Baron Beauchamp of Bletsoe, and his second wife, Edith Stourton. She was the maternal grandmother of Henry VII.
Margaret Beauchamp, born about 1410, was the daughter of Sir John Beauchamp, de jure 3rd Baron Beauchamp (d. 1412-1414) of Bletsoe, Bedfordshire, and his second wife, Edith Stourton (d. 13 June 1441), daughter of Sir John Stourton of Stourton, Wiltshire.
In 1421 she was heiress to her only brother, John Beauchamp, who died young and unmarried, from whom she inherited the manors of Lydiard Tregoze in Wiltshire, Ashmore in Dorset, and Bletsoe and Keysoe in Bedfordshire, and, according to modern doctrine, the right to any barony of Beauchamp created by summons to Parliament directed to her great-great-grandfather, Roger Beauchamp, 1st Baron Beauchamp (d. 3 January 1380) of Bletsoe.
She married firstly Sir Oliver St John (d.1437), son and heir of Sir John St John and Isabel Paveley, daughter and heiress of Sir John Paveley, by whom she had two sons and five daughters:
She married secondly, after 2 August 1441, John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, by whom she had one daughter:
- Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, who married Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, by whom she was the mother of Henry VII. She would be 4th cousin 17 times
His brother Edmund Beaufort
dmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, KG (1406 – 22 May 1455), sometimes styled 1st Duke of Somerset, was an English nobleman and an important figure in the Wars of the Roses and in the Hundred Years' War.
He also succeeded in the title of 4th Earl of Somerset and was created 1st Earl of Dorset and 1st Marquess of Dorset (previously held by his father and later forfeited), and Count of Mortain. He was known for his deadly rivalry with Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York
He married Eleanor Beauchamp
Eleanor married Edmund Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset sometime between 1431 and 1435 in an unlicensed marriage, although this was pardoned on 7 March 1438.
Eleanor was the daughter of Sir Richard de Beauchamp the Earl of Warwich and his wife Elizabeth de Berkley
Edmund was the son of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset and Lady Margaret Holland. They had the following surviving issue:
Eleanor was the daughter of Sir Richard de Beauchamp the Earl of Warwich and his wife Elizabeth de Berkley
Edmund was the son of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset and Lady Margaret Holland. They had the following surviving issue:
- Eleanor Beaufort, married first James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormond and second Sir Robert Spencer.
- Elizabeth Beaufort (born ca. 1434 – died before 1472), married Sir Henry FitzLewis.
- Henry Beaufort, styled 2nd Duke of Somerset (1436–1464)
- Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Stafford (c. 1437 – 1474), married first Humphrey, Earl of Stafford and second Sir Richard Darell.
- Edmund Beaufort, styled 3rd Duke of Somerset (c. 1439 – 4 May 1471)
- Anne Beaufort (c. 1453 – c. 1496), married Sir William Paston, Esq.
- John Beaufort, Earl of Dorset (c. 1455 – died 4 May 1471)
- Lady Joan Beaufort (c. 1447 – d. 11 August 1518), married first Sir Robert St. Lawrence, and secondly, Sir Richard Fry.
- Thomas Beaufort (c. 1450 – c. 1463)
- Mary Beaufort (born ca. 1441
Lady Margaret Beaufort had an interesting life. She was bethrowed in 1450 to John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk at the age of 6. King Henry VI annulled the marriage in 1453.
( La Pole married Lady Elizabeth of York daughter of Richard II and Cecily Neville)
In 1458 she married Sir Henry Stafford, she was 14.
In 1472 she married Thomas Stanley 1st Earl of Derby
She was married to Edmund Tudor Earl of Richmond before 1457. With him she had her only child, when she was aged 12. His name Henry VII. He would be 5th cousin 17 times removed
Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond (1431 – 1 or 3 November 1456), also known as Edmund of Hadham (Welsh: Edmwnd Tudur), was the father of King Henry VII of England and a member of the Tudor family of Penmynydd, North Wales.
In 1436, his mother retired to Bermondsey Abbey where she died in 1437. Therefore he and his brother Jasper were brought up in the care of Katherine de la Pole, abbess of Barking, with whom they remained till 1442.
The abbess then brought them to their half-brother Henry VI's notice, who in turn sent them over as the charges of certain priests to be educated. When Edmund grew up, Henry kept him at his court.
Edmund was knighted on 15 December 1449, summoned to parliament as Earl of Richmond on 30 January 1452, and created Earl of Richmond and premier earl on 6 March, acceding on 23 November, and Jasper was created Earl of Pembroke. In the parliament of 1453 Edmund was formally declared legitimate.
Henry made him large grants, particularly in 1454.
Margaret's life
Margaret Beaufort (usually pronounced: /ˈboʊfərt/, BOH-fərt; or /ˈbjuːfərt/, BEW-fərt), Countess of Richmond and Derby (31 May 1443 – 29 June 1509) was the mother of King Henry VII and paternal grandmother of King Henry VIII of England.
These buildings are beautiful
St John’s College was founded on the 9th April 1511, its charter sealed by the executors of the foundress, Lady Margaret Beaufort (mother of King Henry VII) who had begun the process of transforming the ancient hospital of St John the Evangelist, Cambridge, into a college for students in the liberal arts and theology.
Margaret was born at Bletsoe Castle, Bedfordshire, on 31 May 1443 or 1441. The day and month are not disputed, as she required Westminster Abbey to celebrate her birthday on 31 May. The year of her birth is more uncertain.
William Dugdale, the 17th century antiquary, has suggested that she may have been born in 1441; this suggestion is based on evidence of inquisitions taken at the death of Margaret's father.
Dugdale has been followed by a number of Margaret's biographers; however, it is more likely that she was born in 1443, as in May 1443, her father had negotiated with the King about the wardship of his unborn child in case he died on a campaign.
She was the daughter of Margaret Beauchamp of Bletsoe and John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset. Margaret's father was a great-grandson of King Edward III through his third-surviving son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.At the moment of her birth, Margaret's father was preparing to go to France and lead an important military expedition for King Henry VI. Somerset negotiated with the king to ensure that, in case of his death, the rights to Margaret's wardship and marriage would belong only to his wife.
Somerset fell out with the king after coming back from France, however, and he was banished from the court and was about to be charged with treason. He died shortly afterwards.
According to Thomas Basin, Somerset died of illness, but the Crowland Chronicle reported that his death was suicide. Margaret, as his only child, was the heiress to his fortunes.
On Margaret's first birthday, the King broke his arrangement with Margaret's father and gave her wardship to William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, although Margaret remained with her mother. Margaret's mother was pregnant at the time of Somerset's death, but the child did not survive and Margaret remained sole heir.
Although she was her father's only legitimate child, Margaret had two half-brothers and three half-sisters from her mother's first marriage, whom she supported after her son's accession.
First marriage
Margaret was married to Suffolk's son, John de la Pole. The wedding may have been held between 28 January and 7 February 1444, when she was perhaps a year old, but certainly no more than three.However there is more evidence to suggest they were married in January 1450 after Suffolk had been arrested and was looking to secure his son's future. Papal dispensation was granted on 18 August 1450 because the spouses were too closely related and this concurs with the later date of marriage
Three years later, the marriage was dissolved and King Henry VI granted Margaret's wardship to his own half-brothers, Jasper and Edmund Tudor
Margaret never recognised this marriage.
In her will, made in 1472, Margaret refers to Edmund Tudor as her first husband. Under canon law, Margaret was not bound by the marriage contract as she was entered into the marriage before reaching the age of twelve.
Even before the annulment of her first marriage, Henry VI chose Margaret as a bride for his half-brother, Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond. Edmund was the eldest son of the King's mother, Catherine of Valois, by Owen Tudor.
Margaret was 12 when she married the 24-year-old Edmund Tudor on 1 November 1455. The Wars of the Roses had just broken out; Edmund, a Lancastrian, was taken prisoner by Yorkist forces less than a year later. He died of the plague in captivity at Carmarthen the following November, leaving a 13-year-old widow who was seven months pregnant with their child.
Taken into the care of her brother-in-law Jasper, at Pembroke Castle, the Countess gave birth on 28 January 1457 to her only child, Henry Tudor, the future Henry VII of England. The birth was particularly difficult; at one point, both the Countess and her child were close to death, due to her young age and small size. After this difficult birth she would never give birth again.
Margaret and her son remained in Pembroke until the York triumphs of 1461 saw the castle pass to Lord Herbert of Raglan. From the age of two, Henry lived with his father's family in Wales and from the age of fourteen, he lived in exile in France. During this period, the relationship between mother and son was sustained by letters and a few visits.
The Countess always respected the name and memory of Edmund, as the father of her only child. In 1472, sixteen years after his death, Margaret specified in her will that she wanted to be buried alongside Edmund, even though she had enjoyed a long, stable and close relationship with her third husband, who had died in 1471.
Third marriage
On 3 January 1458, Margaret married Sir Henry Stafford (c.1425–1471), son of Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham. A dispensation for the marriage, necessary because Margaret and Stafford were second cousins, was granted on 6 April 1457.
The Countess enjoyed a fairly long and harmonious marital relationship during her marriage to Stafford. Margaret and her husband were given 400 marks worth of land by Buckingham, but Margaret's own estates were still the main source of income. They had no children.
She became a widow again in 1471.
Fourth marriage
Margaret's marriage to Stanley enabled her to return to the court of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. She was chosen by Queen Elizabeth to be one of her daughter's godmothers.
Following Edward's death and the seizure of the throne by Richard, Margaret was soon back at court serving the new queen, Anne Neville. Margaret carried Anne's train at the coronation. Nevertheless, Richard III passed an act of Parliament stripping Margaret of all her titles and estates, although he stopped short of a full attainder by transferring her property to her husband.
However, whilst serving the new king and queen, Margaret was secretly plotting with the dowager queen, Elizabeth Woodville, and was almost certainly involved in Buckingham's rebellion. As Queen Elizabeth's sons, the Princes in the Tower, were presumed murdered, it was agreed that Margaret's son, Henry, would be betrothed to Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of Elizabeth and Edward IV, thus creating a marriage alliance with potential to attract both Yorkist and Lancastrian support.
Margaret's husband Stanley, despite having fought for Richard III during the Buckingham rebellion, did not respond when summoned to fight at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, remaining aloof from the battle, even though his eldest son, George Stanley (styled Lord Strange), was held hostage by Richard.
After the battle, it was Stanley who placed the crown on the head of his stepson (Henry VII), who later made him Earl of Derby. Margaret was then styled "Countess of Richmond and Derby".
Later in her marriage, the Countess preferred living alone. In 1499, with her husband's permission, she took a vow of chastity in the presence of Richard FitzJames, Bishop of London. Taking a vow of chastity while being married was unusual but not unprecedented; around 1413, Margery Kempe also negotiated a vow of chastity with her husband.
The Countess moved away from her husband and lived alone at Collyweston. She was regularly visited by her husband, who had rooms reserved for him. Margaret renewed her vows in 1504.
No comments:
Post a Comment