Today in 1509 Lady Margaret Beaufort died. She was Henry VIII’s grandmother, and she lived long enough to watch her son, Henry VII, become King, and to see the first bloodless transfer of power in England in over fifty years when her grandson Henry inherited the throne and was crowned.
Lady Margaret gets a lot of flack in popular fiction, which I’ve talked about here before, and I don’t like it. She was a woman who gave birth at the age of 12 in a horrific situation – her husband was already dead when her son Henry was born. She kept him alive, negotiating the court at an impossible time during the Wars of the Roses, and, and negotiated a way for him to become King when the opportunity arose. She loved her family, she supported education, and she was devout and devoted. So, RIP Lady Margaret.
That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th century England through the Renaissance English History Podcast at englandcast.com where there is an episode on Lady Margaret Beaufort.
Suggested links:
Episode 42: Lady Margaret Beaufort
Episode 17: Lady Margaret Beaufort
From my shop:
Lady Margaret Beaufort Tudor Women Charm Necklace
Ps. All products are made on-demand and can take a few weeks to ship.
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast,  one of the longest running indie history podcasts, going since 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. She writes books, created the original Tudor Planner (a yearly diary filled with Tudor history) and in 2019 created the world's first Tudorcon (you can "attend" online this year!). She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.