Margaret Beaufort
Survivor, Rebel, Kingmaker
Lauren Johnson’s vibrant biography of Margaret Beaufort ably reveals the mother and grandmother of English kings.
“Without Margaret Beaufort, we would have had no Henry VII, no Henry VIII and therefore no Tudor dynasty,” Johnson argues, setting the stage for her engaging, in-depth biography of the Tudor matriarch. Born in 1443, Margaret was an asset set up for strategic marital alliances. Her marriage to Edward Tudor at the age of twelve, and her difficult birth at thirteen to her only child, future King Henry VII, are said to have damaged her ability to conceive in her two later marriages. Restoring Henry’s estates and claims to the throne in the tumultuous years of the Wars of the Roses became Margaret’s sole goal in life.
Margaret is fleshed out as a pragmatic, understated political player who often benefited from luck. The narrative is also womancentric, arguing that Margaret’s “womanhood” is the element most missed by previous historians. It takes time to develop the vast network of women whom Margaret, known for her Lancastrian roots, looked to and learned from as she weighed her alliances during the Lancaster-York conflict.
Resources including Margaret’s household accounts are drawn upon to reveal her agency and acumen in securing her son’s position. Dozens of pages of bibliography and endnotes support the book’s breathtaking conclusions. The sheer number of people involved, and their ever-shifting factional alliances, would be daunting sans the book’s dramatis personae, which helps to navigate its flood of information.
An absorbing, benchmark biography of a powerful monarch, Margaret Beaufort celebrates the woman who steered a rocky course to the throne for her Tudor descendants, initiating one of the most consequential dynasties in English history.
Reviewed by
Peggy Kurkowski
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
