Beaufort, Lady Margaret

Beaufort, Lady Margaret (1443–1509). The mother of Henry VII, Margaret Beaufort was one of the most remarkable women of the 15th cent. She was married to Edmund Tudor, earl of Richmond, as a child and conceived Henry when she was only 12. Tudor died when she was six months pregnant; she outlived two further husbands, but had no more children. She was separated from her son in 1461, when he was 4, and apart from a one‐week reunion in 1470, did not See him again until he was king. Nevertheless, she devoted herself to his cause, throwing herself into the conspiracy which triumphed on the field of Bosworth. As mother of the king, for 24 years Margaret wielded immense political influence. She was the founder of two colleges at Cambridge, Christ's and St John's. At Oxford, she founded the first chair of divinity, and the first women's college, Lady Margaret Hall (1879), was named after her.