Margaret Beaufort Facts and Timeline

Also see: Margaret Beaufort Biography 

Margaret Beaufort Facts

Known for: founder of the (British royal) Tudor dynasty through her support for her son’s claim to the throne
Dates: May 31, 1443 – June 29, 1509 (some sources give 1441 as birth year)

Background, Family:

• Mother: Margaret Beauchamp, an heiress. Her father was John Beauchamp, and her first husband was Oliver St. John.
• Father: John Beaufort, earl of Somerset (1404 – 1444). His mother was Margaret Holland and his father was John Beaufort, first earl of Somerset.
• Siblings: Margaret Beaufort had no full siblings. Her mother had six children with her first husband, Oliver St. John

Margaret’s mother, Margaret Beauchamp, was an heiress whose maternal ancestors included Henry III and his son, Edmund Crouchback.  Her father was a grandson of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, who was a son of Edward III, and of John’s mistress-turned-wife, Katherine Swynford. After John married Katherine, he had their children, given the patronym Beaufort, legitimized through a papal bull and royal patent.  The patent (but not the bull) specified that the Beauforts and their descendants were excluded from the royal succession.

Margaret’s paternal grandmother, Margaret Holland, was an heiress; Edward I was her paternal ancestor and Henry III her maternal ancestor.

In the wars of succession known as the Wars of the Roses, the York party and the Lancaster party were not completely separate family lines; they were much interconnected by family relationships.  Margaret, though aligned with the Lancaster cause, was the second cousin of both Edward IV and Richard III; the mother of those two York kings, Cecily Neville was the daughter of Joan Beaufort who was the daughter of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford. In other words, Joan Beaufort was the sister of Margaret Beaufort's grandfather, John Beaufort.

Marriage, Children:

1. Contracted marriage with: John de la Pole (1450; dissolved 1453). His father, William de la Pole, was Margaret Beaufort’s guardian. John’s mother, Alice Chaucer, was the granddaughter of the writer Geoffrey Chaucer and his wife, Philippa, who was the sister of Katherine Swynford.  Thus, he was a third cousin of Margaret Beaufort.
2. Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond (married 1455, died 1456). His mother was Catherine of Valois, daughter of King Charles VI of France and widow of Henry V. She married Owen Tudor after Henry V died.  Edmund Tudor was thus a maternal half-brother of Henry VI; Henry VI was also a descendant of John of Gaunt, by his first wife, Blanche of Lancaster.
   • Son: Henry Tudor, born January 28, 1457
3. Henry Stafford (married 1461, died 1471).  Henry Stafford was her second cousin; his grandmother, Joan Beaufort, was also a child of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford.  Henry was a first cousin of Edward IV.
4. Thomas Stanley, Lord Stanley, later Earl of Derby (married 1472, died 1504)

Timeline

Note: many details have been left off.  See: Margaret Beaufort biography

Next: Margaret Beaufort Biography