Of Virtue Rare: Margeret Beaufort, Matriarch of the House of Tudor

Lady Margaret Beaufort, founder of the royal House of Tudor, was one of the most influential figures of medieval England.

A descendant of Edward III, she relinquished her own claim to the throne in favour of her son and shaped the course of history as she fashioned destiny for Henry Tudor and his offspring. Her legacy to England was Elizabeth I.

Last living grandchild of John of Gaunt, wife, widow, and mother by the age of fifteen, Margaret Beaufort survived the decades of bloodshed later romantically dubbed by historians as the Wars of the Roses; defeated Richard III; ousted the Yorkists from power; put her son on the throne; and united England through the marriage of Henry VII to Elizabeth of York. 

Recognizing that a dynasty is only as lasting as its successions, Lady Margaret then ensured Tudor endurance by taking in hand every detail of the royal household, from the young queen's bedchamber during her confinements to the rearing of the royal grandchildren. 

The result was over 100 years of Tudor rule, the glorious Age of Elizabeth, and the establishment of the nation states that were to dominate Western history for 300 years.

This formidable great lady was as obsessed by family ambition as she later was to be by spiritual matters. Though she survived to witness the coronation of six kings, two of whom were men of her own blood, untenable sorrow coloured her every moment. 

She was powerful, rich, and widely loved, but only by leading an exemplary life could she justify her existence to herself and expiate the sins of the violent world in which she lived. Her piety dictated that, just as one had to look over one’s shoulder, one must look inside the soul as well. 

This otherworldly view, so at odds with the quest for power that dominated her life, perhaps enabled Lady Margaret Beaufort to attain what men born to rule had failed, with all of their armies, to achieve.

Of Virtue Rare brings to life one of England's great dynastic struggles and the central role in it of a mother with a driving ambition to see her son king. Fleshing out the shadowy figure of Margaret Beaufort, Linda Simon writes vividly of late Medieval Europe, its extraordinary people and events from Joan of Arc to the young Henry VIII. With contemporary folklore and culture as much as with historical documents, Simon re-creates the mixture of supernatural and mundane evident in fifteenth-century life.

Linda Simon has taught in New York since 1997 and is currently Professor of English Emerita at Skidmore College. Her previous biographies include Alice B. Toklas and Thornton Wilder. She has also written in the The New England Quarterly, Salmagundi and Literature and Philosophy.