This is the first post I write and I'm feeling very nervous, but also excited to start this whole new journey with you. So, as you can read, the first step of our journey into the 16th century starts with a mother and her only son, the boy that one day will be King of England, a new conqueror, the second of the English history.
But how this boy became King? Long is the way to the throne, and a little help is always very welcomed. Now, since I started to study about Tudor, the first name that came out every time was the one of Margaret Beaufort. Not every historians have a same opinion about her - some of them portrayed her as a vile woman, other as the most pious creature the world had ever knew - but all of them agrees that she was the matriarch a new royal dynasty, the one that stopped forever the civil war between Lancaster and York, the dynasty that generated the most powerful monarchs of all times: the Tudor.
In today's post we're going to try to find everything useful to give to this woman a realistic portrait, let's start.
Early years
Early years
Born in 1443, she was the only child of John Beaufort, duke of Somerset and Margaret Beauchamp, so she was raised in a Lancaster family. When her father died in mysterious circumstances (some of his contemporaries believed he committed suicide) in 1444 she was one of the most influent and wanted girl on the marriage market: she was John of Gaunt's niece. In 1450 she was contracted to John de la Pole, a de futuro arrangement for a marriage that was easily annulled three years later when she was married de facto to Edmund Tudor, the half brother of king Henry VI of Lancaster, recently made earl of Richmond. The wedding took place at the Bletsoe Castle on 1st November 1455, he was 24 and she was almost 13 years old. Their union was tactical plan to assure to their children the crown of England through her Plantagenet blood.
In 1453 the Lancaster king fell in a seventeen months lasting sleep and Richard, duke of York became the Protector of the Realm. The Queen, Margaret of Anjou, was furious and when the king finally woke up, he got rid of the protector causing a new break in the country. On 22nd May 1455 the first battle of St. Albans was fought between the two sides and the king was take as prisoner.
Gryffydd made war with the troops under Edmund, capturing the castles at Aberystwyth, Carmarthen and Carreg Cennen by June 1456. The rebellion didn't last long, and by early August, Edmund's forces had retaken those castles although minor skirmishes continued for several months longer. While Edmund was in Wales, the King had deposed York. In retaliation, York sent 2,000 men under William Herbert on 10th August to take South Wales. When they arrived at Carmarthen Castle, they took the stronghold and captured Edmund Tudor. On 3rd November 1456, Edmund became infected with the bubonic plague and died leaving on this world a pregnant widow.
