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Jun 21, 2021 · Yet Margaret is arguably best remembered from William Shakespeare ’s history plays as the ‘She-Wolf of France’ – a ruthless queen who assumed leadership during the Wars of the Roses when Henry VI suffered a physical, or possibly mental, breakdown.
- A Patriarchal Society
- Three Margarets
- Margaret The Soldier
- A Time of War
- The Matriarch
- Margaret of Anjou
- A Horrible Year
- Defeat
- A Strong-Laboured Woman
- Double Standards
Although it was theoretically possible for a queen to rule in her own right, this had never really happened in English medieval history since the Norman conquest. Queen Matilda had come closest, but had never ruled as an undisputed monarch in her own name. Edward II’s wife Queen Isabella deposed him. While she briefly ruled as regent it was only wi...
It is tempting to relegate medieval women to entirely passive roles, subordinate to and largely dependent upon the senior men in their lives for governance and direction. Such a view of women of this time would see them as almost entirely deferential and largely unable to actively influence and shape important events in their own lives. But this vi...
The Pastons lived in turbulent times. In the 1440s, they entered into a land dispute with Lord Moleyns, a powerful magnate. This dispute looked increasingly like it would become violent. So Margaret set about organising for the defence of the family estates. She wrote to her husband in 1448 asking him to send her weapons for this purpose: In the sa...
As the events of the Wars of the Roses played out around them, the Pastons inevitably found themselves embroiled in the conflict from time to time. In 1469 Margaret had to martial the family resources once again to resist armed enemies. She wrote to one of her sons, to instruct him to come to his brother’s aid:
When her eldest son fell out with her husband, Margaret did not simply follow her husband’s lead. Instead she wrote to him to urge him to make up with his son. She also actively involved herself in the marriage plans of her children. Margaret worked to find her son a prospective bride. She also threatened her daughter with being turned out of the h...
One of the most remarkable women of the C15th was Margaret of Anjou. At the age of just 15 she was married off to King Henry VI of England. On the positive side, the marriage saw her elevated from one of the younger daughters of a relatively impoverished duke to the queen of England. On the negative side, all was far from well at the English court....
1453 was a horrible year for Margaret. It had started out well enough as Margaret discovered she was pregnant with her first child. However, as the year wore on the English suffered a humiliating decisive defeat in France and, shortly afterwards, her husband suffered a complete mental breakdown. Henry’s mental breakdown was so severe that he was vi...
Then, just as suddenly as he had fallen ill, Henry VI recovered. He dismissed Richard of York and released Somerset. However, by this time the level of suspicion and bad blood between the two factions quickly spilled over into open war. At the first battle of Saint Albans, Richard emerged victorious. His arch-rival Somerset and many of Somerset’s k...
The events of the early 1450s appear to have galvanised Margaret into action. She no longer wanted to take a back seat and let others determine her destiny. From 1456 onwards, she became much more actively engaged in politics and, eventually, war. She stubbornly refused accept any possibility of a Richard of York regency and absolutely would not st...
Today, history remembers Margaret as a formidable and courageous leader. But not in quite the same way as some of her male contemporaries (such as Warwick or Edward IV). These men were every bit as ruthless and ambitious as Margaret, probably even more so. Yet their behaviour is often presented as somehow more acceptable and reasonable than Margare...
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Maurer argues that Margaret's aims in the later 1450s were twofold - to exercise practical power drawing on and reasserting the king's authority and to nullify the threat posed by York and the Nevilles, drawing them back into the Lancastrian polity.
Nov 22, 2022 · Margaret officially accused the Earl of Warwick, the Duke of York, and other Yorkist nobility of treason in October 1459, decrying the duke’s “most diabolical unkindness and wretched envy.” Each side blaming each other for the outbreak of violence, they prepared for war.
Apr 22, 2018 · Though she is far from alone in heightening political tension in the early 1450s her very existence as a French queen caused tension; her support and favouritism of Somerset contributed to escalation; her bid to be Regent fuelled instability; her reluctance to work with the Regency council on fiscal reform was a source of frustration and her ...
Margaret of Anjou Queen Consort 1445-1461 and 1470-71 1430-82 Married Henry VI in 1445 when she was 15. Like other French queens of England she was a victim of propaganda, blamed for English problems. Recent research suggests she played a more positive role than is suggested by Shakespeare calling her the ‘She-wolf of France’.
Jan 25, 2016 · Everything of course changed in 1470 when Lancaster had no option but to look for anyone with Royal blood and glanced briefly at Henry Tudor. Any claim he had came through Margaret – but no one thought she herself could be Queen.
