Margaret of Richmond Beaufort Countess of Richmond and Countess of Derby [3306] ²⁴

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  General Notes:

Founder of Christ's and St.John's Colleges, Cambridge.
http://www.hull.ac.uk/php/cssbct/cgi-bin/gedlkup.php/n=royal?royal01255

Beaufort, Margaret, countess of Richmond and Derby, British And Irish Hist
ory, Biographies

Related Category: British And Irish History, Biographies


Beaufort, Margaret, countess of Richmond and Derby[bO´furt, dAr´bE] Pronun ciation Key, 1443 to1509, English noblewoman, mother of Henry VII. She w as the daughter and heiress of John, 1st duke of Somerset, and great-grand daughter of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster. She was married three time s: to Edmund Tudor, earl of Richmond, who was Henry's father; to Henry Sta fford; and to Thomas, Lord Stanley, afterward earl of Derby. Renowned f or her philanthropy, she endowed professorships of divinity at Oxford a nd Cambridge and with the help of her confessor, John Fisher, founded Chri st's College and St. John's College, Cambridge. She was the patron of ma ny religious houses and of William Caxton and Wynkyn de Worde.


The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia

Margaret Beaufort
(1441-1509)
Born: 31st May 1443 at Bletsoe, Bedfords
Countess of Richmond
Countess of Derby
Died: 29th June 1509
The Countess of Richmond & Derby, commonly called Lady Margaret Beaufor t, was the daughter of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset (son of John of Gau nt by Catherine Swynford), and his wife, Margaret Beauchamp. At the a ge of about seven, she became the child bride of John De La Pole, 2nd Du ke of Suffolk, but the union was later dissolved. The Beaufort stock, thou gh originally bastard, was legitimized by an Act of Parliament in Richa rd II's reign. Thus, on the failure of the heirs of King Henry VI, Margare t's claim to the crown of England became quite a possible one (1471). Su ch as it was, however, the Lancastrian title had originally reste d, if on anything beyond usurpation or parliamentary election, on the excl usion of females.

Henry VI always looked upon the Beauforts as possible heirs and, in 145 5, married the twelve-year-old Margaret to his own maternal half-brothe r, Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond (then aged twenty-five). Her son, afterw ards Henry VII, was born in 1456, and her husband died in the same year. S he, soon afterward, married Henry Stafford, the second son of the Du ke of Buckingham, and submitted to the Yorkist rule; but, after the Batt le of Tewkesbury, she was obliged to send her son, Henry, now the sole ho pe of the Lancastrian cause, to seek refuge in Brittany.

Margaret's third husband was a pronounced Yorkist, Thomas, Lord Stanley, a fterwards Earl of Derby; but his final defection from Richard III on the f ield of Bosworth secured the victory to his stepson, Henry VII. Margare t, though she seldom appeared at her son's court, remained, until her deat h, his constant correspondent and one of his wisest advisers. She took vo ws of religion in 1504, but continued to live out of a nunnery, although s he had founded several.

Her great glory is, however, her foundation of the two Colleges of Christ 's and St. John's at Cambridge, and of the' Lady Margaret' professorshi ps of Divinity at both Universities. She was instigated to these foundatio ns by the advice of John Fisher, afterwards Bishop of Rochester, one of t he glories, as indeed Margaret herself also was, of Renaissance learni ng in England. Margaret was an ardent patron of the Early English Press a nd her grandson Henry VIII's love of learning and books was no doubt a dir ect inheritance from her.

Edited from Emery Walker's "Historical Portraits" (1909).

Margaret married John de la Pole 2nd Duke of Suffolk [3309] [LZLB-WBF] [MRIN: 929], son of William de la Pole 1st Duke of Suffolk [8837] and Alice Chaucer [8831], in 1449. (John de la Pole 2nd Duke of Suffolk [3309] [LZLB-WBF] was born on 27 Sep 1442, died in 1491 and was buried in Wingfield Church, Suffolk.)

  Noted events in their marriage were:

• Marriage Fact, 1452.

Margaret next married Edmund Tudor Earl of Richmond [3310] [LZJP-WX1] [MRIN: 433], son of Sir Owen Tudor [13223] and Catherine de Valois de France Queen of England [11942], on 1 Nov 1455. (Edmund Tudor Earl of Richmond [3310] [LZJP-WX1] was born in 1430, died on 3 Nov 1456 in Carmarthen Castle, Wales and was buried in Saint David's Cathedral, Wales.)

Margaret next married Sir Henry Stafford Duke of Buckingham. [3057] [LZJP-WBJ] [MRIN: 6807], son of Humphrey Stafford 1st Earl of Stafford [3055] [L6HP-15G] and Anne Neville Duchess of Buckingham [2994] [9CWV-JXM], about 1462. (Sir Henry Stafford Duke of Buckingham. [3057] [LZJP-WBJ] died on 4 Oct 1471.)

Margaret next married Lord Thomas Stanley 1st Earl Derby [18343] [MRIN: 8754], son of Thomas Stanley Knight, 1st Lord Stanley of Lathom [18344] and Joan Goushill [18345], before Nov 1482. (Lord Thomas Stanley 1st Earl Derby [18343] was born about 1435 and died on 29 Jul 1504 in Lathom, Lancashire, England.)