With March being Women’s History Month, what better person to start our History posts with than Margaret Beaufort – a determined and powerful Matriarch responsible for the start of the Tudor Dynasty.
Who was Margaret Beaufort?
Margaret Beaufort
Margaret Beaufort, The Lady Margaret was born May 31, 1443. She was a major figure in the Wars of the Roses of the late fifteenth century, and the mother of King Henry VII of England, the first Tudor monarch.
She actively manoeuvred to secure the crown for her son. Beaufort’s efforts ultimately helped in Henry’s victory over King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. With her son crowned Henry VII, Lady Margaret wielded a considerable degree of political influence and personal autonomy – both unusual for a woman of her time.
Why is she important to Pembrokeshire?
At the age of 12, Margaret married Edmund Tudor in November 1455.
As a Lancastrian, Edmund would not live to see his child with Margaret as he was captured by the Yorkists and died of the plague in captivity in Carmarthen.
Now in the care of her brother-in-law, Jasper Tudor, Margaret gave birth to a baby boy called Henry Tudor at Pembroke Castle.
The care of her child Henry Tudor fell to his uncle Jasper Tudor, who granted Margaret and her new husband the opportunity to visit him at Pembroke Castle.
Pictures by Pembroke Castle and Art UK
