Margaret of Anjou
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Margaret of Anjou, in a Victorian imaginary portrait |
Margaret of Anjou (
Marguerite d'Anjou,
March 23,
1429 –
August 25,
1482) was the Queen consort of
Henry VI of England from
1445 to
1471, and a major protagonist, heading the
Lancastrian contingent, in the
Wars of the Roses.
Margaret was born in the
duchy of Lorraine, an Imperial fief east of
France that was ruled by the cadet branch of the French kings, the
house of Anjou. Margaret was the daughter of
Rene I of Naples,
Duke of Anjou,
King of Naples and
Sicily and
Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine in her own right. Margaret married King Henry VI, who was eight years her senior, on
April 23,
1445, at
Titchfield in
Hampshire.
Henry, who had more interest in religion and learning than in military matters, was not a successful king. He had reigned since he was a few months old and his actions had been controlled by
regents. When he married Margaret, his mental condition was already unstable, and by the time their only son,
Edward of Westminster, was born, on
October 13,
1453, he had suffered a complete mental breakdown. Rumours were rife that he was incapable of fathering a child and that the new
Prince of Wales was the result of an adulterous liaison on Margaret's part.
Margaret seems to have been quite mild-mannered until her husband was threatened with deposition by the ambitious
Richard, Duke of York. With the king captured, Margaret managed to escape, and immediately began raising an army in Wales and the north of England, where she was assisted by Henry's half-brother,
Jasper Tudor. In
1459, hostilities resumed at the
battle of Blore Heath, where Margaret is said to have witnessed her commander,
James Touchet, Lord Audley defeated by a Yorkist army under
Richard Neville.
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Coin featuring Margaret of Anjou |
Moving her headquarters to
York, she gained a major success at the
Battle of Wakefield on December 30,
1460, when the combined armies of the Duke of York and the Earl of Salisbury were destroyed. Margaret had both beheaded, and ordered their heads displayed on the gates of the city of York. She followed up with a victory at
St Albans on 22 February 1461, at which she defeated the Yorkist forces of
Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, and recaptured her husband.
On March 4,
1461, the Lancastrian army was beaten at the
Battle of Towton by the son of the late Duke of York,
Edward IV of England, who deposed King Henry and proclaimed himself king. Margaret was determined to win back her son's inheritance, and fled with him into
Wales and later
Scotland. Finding her way to France, she made an ally of King
Louis XI of France, and at his instigation she allowed an approach from Edward's former supporter,
Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, who had fallen out with his former friend and was now seeking revenge for the loss of his political influence. Warwick's daughter,
Anne Neville, was married to Margaret's son, Edward, Prince of Wales, in order to cement the alliance, and Margaret insisted that Warwick return to England to prove himself, before she followed. He did so, restoring Henry VI briefly to the throne towards the end of
1470.
By the time Margaret, her son and daughter-in-law were ready to follow Warwick back to England, however, he had been defeated and killed by the returning King Edward IV, and Margaret was forced to lead her own army at the
Battle of Tewkesbury in
1471, at which they were defeated and her son was killed. Over the previous ten years, she had gained a reputation for aggression and ruthlessness, but now she was a broken spirit, imprisoned at both
Wallingford Castle and in the
Tower of London until ransomed by the French king in 1478. She died on August 25,
1482, in Anjou, where she was buried.
*Maurer, Helen E.
Margaret of Anjou: Queenship and Power in Late Medieval England. Boydell Press, 2003.
