Margaret Beaufort

Throughout her life, both as princess and queen of England, Elizabeth of York (1466-1503) abided by the prescriptive texts of the English royal house.  Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII and Elizabeth’s mother-in-law, wrote several specific, highly detailed essays concerning the ordinance, conduct, and apparel of women, but hers were merely the latest in a series of documents going back to the thirteenth century.  These texts dictated protocol during various ceremonies and other elite activities for both men and women.  The royal prescriptive texts universally expressed the need for differentiation among the king, the royal house, and the ranks of nobility.  Conspicuous consumption was required, most of all from the king and queen.  Using the texts, narrative accounts, and financial information, this paper will examine key events in the life of Elizabeth of York and the ceremonial opulence that she would have been required to display as an elite and as a female.  These activities expressed both her status and the power she wielded by virtue of that status.  Notably, Henry VII chose to venerate Elizabeth’s death in childbirth at her exequies.  By dying in a manner that could not be experienced by any king or prince, Elizabeth of York’s gender became a celebrated element in her procession and funeral.

The Wars of the Roses and the implications they had on kingship have been
studied at length by scholars. But these wars also had implications on queens and queenship since queens shared the king’s central role at court and in government. Questions of legitimacy were at the heart of the Wars of the Roses, so queens were necessarily involved as the person who would produce an heir and, for some, as they participated actively to the politics. Many questions drove my research. How did a woman become queen? What role was she expected have? Where did she drew her power from? How did she exercise it? To focus my study of the queens to the Wars of the Roses allowed me to bring out the regular aspects of queenship that had been practised for a long time, but also to study the power that queens could have and how they exercised it in times of political troubles. Moreover, the four queens I studied come from four different backgrounds and accessed the throne under different circumstances.

This article investigates a devout society centring on the household of Margaret Beaufort (d. 1509) at Collyweston in Northamptonshire and St Katherine's guild in the neighbouring market town of Stamford in Lincolnshire. The discussion unveils Margaret Beaufort's place at the heart of a vibrant devotional community, whose members, among them a core group of lay and religious townswomen, were united by their geography and shared devotional interests. Ultimately, this article sheds new light on the overlapping spiritual networks of an important market town and the household of a highly influential noblewoman, whilst also demonstrating how Margaret's sponsorship of the society informed her self-fashioning as a pious matriarch of the house of Tudor.

This chapter looks at Beaufort's work as a translator in her English translation of Book IV of Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ. This chapter argues that the paratextual and rhetorical choices made in Book IV reflect Beaufort's use of literary work to authorize Tudor regnal authority. The book's dedication to Margaret and the printer's declaration that the entire translation project was done at the behest of "pryncesse Margaret, moder to our lorde and kinge," as well as the inclusion of the royal Tudor Portcullis and other insignia throughout the book make the devotional text into something more than what it purports to be. While Beaufort's translation does not change the words of the original work beyond what is needed for English readability, the prominence of her heraldry and royal title changes the nature of the ethos behind the text's first-person narration from spiritual to political authority. Her translation translates more than on a linguistic level because she is a highly visible translator. The paratextual signs of her royal position create correlations for the reader between the text's instructions about religious faith and the importance of being faithful to England's Tudor monarchy. The text ceases to invite the reader to see themselves in the generalized "I" of the narrative persona, but rather re-positions them as subordinate to the royal voice attached.

This chapter examines the Margaret Beaufort-directed annotations of Tudor births and deaths in the manuscript Beaufort Beauchamp Book of Hours' (BBBOH) calendar as a form of life writing. Although life writing is not a genre traditionally associated with the middle ages, the BBBOH offers textual evidence of the genre being used. Beaufort documented the Tudor's past to create a family history that not only justified Henry VII's ascension to the throne but explained his kingship as the event that set right the Yorkist overthrow of Henry VI. Margaret Beaufort had a vested interest in building up the Tudor claims to the crown to secure her family's future. The annotations are not revisions of historical accounts; they all happened, but not every event or figure is included. Instead, the Calendar annotations draw attention to the genealogical elements of Margaret's choosing that trace Henry VII's Lancastrian relatives through his mother and grandmother, Katherine Valois. The Calendar includes his victories over Richard III and other rebellions, thus offering a version of Henry's life and kingship that focuses on the life moments justifying the establishment of the Tudor monarchy. Life writing itself is a narrative shaped by choices, as decisions about what memories to include and what memories to discard effect the trajectory of story. The life story being told varies distinctly from a chronological historical rendering that includes everything that happened. Margaret's annotations are selective and reflect a composer whose interest lays in describing Henry VII's lineage and life as reestablishing the succession of true kings. While a Book of Hours may seem an unusual place to find public relations-like material for the Tudors, it was not a book intended for strictly private use. Margaret's will includes specific instructions that the BBBOH be given a place of prominence in Henry VII's newly constructed Lady Chapel, the resting place of many of the Tudor figures features in the annotations. Book and architectural space work together, like objects in a scrapbook with memories written down, to create the public image of an ordained monarchy.