Teen Moms in History: Lady Margaret Beaufort

Editor’s Note:  We hear occasionally that teen pregnancy is a new phenomenon, or even that it’s “trendy.” Teen pregnancy existed long before MTV discovered it. Today’s post marks the first in a series of “Teen Moms in History” that we’re hoping to feature!

Today is King Henry VII of England’s 554th birthday. It is also the 554th anniversary of the day his mother, Margaret Beaufort, became a mother at age 14.

When Henry was born, England was in the middle of the Wars of the Roses. These wars were – most essentially – a family feud among the descendents of Edward III as to who had the strongest claim to the throne. The family was divided into two factions: the descendents of Edward’s third son John, Duke of Lancaster (thus, the House of Lancaster), and the descendents of his fourth son, Edmund, Duke of York (thus, the House of York).

There were four things you had to do to be King of England at this time:

1. Say that you are King. If someone else is already referring to himself by that title, refer to yourself as “the true King.”
2. Claim that everyone else who has a greater or equal claim to the throne was “illegitimate,” that is, that their parents weren’t married at the time they were born. Illegitimacy makes an individual ineligible to inherit the crown. You can make this claim even if it means harming the reputation of your own great-grandmother (to disinherit those pesky second cousins), your own mother (when you’re trying to eliminate your older brother’s claim) or your sister-in-law (when you’re trying to eliminate your young nephews’ claims).
3. Have enough money to raise an army.
4. Be lucky.

In this messy struggle for the crown, Henry Tudor came out on top. (Note: This is not Henry VIII, he-of-many-wives, but his father). How did Henry win, when at the time his distant cousins had done a much better job of establishing themselves as the royal family (and probably did have a better claim)? Of course, there were many, many political, social, and economic factors that went into it. There was also his mother.

Margaret Beaufort gave her son royal blood; it was through her – and not his father – that he was descended from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and thus had any claim to the throne. She also gave him her unassailable reputation – she was widely known as virtuous, and took a widow’s vow of chastity even while married to her third husband (See #2 above to realize why this is so important.) And, it is widely acknowledged by historians that after being widowed, she choose her second and third husbands based on who would be most likely to support her son’s claim and be able to finance an army for Henry to fight for that claim. Without the redoubtable Margaret Beaufort, it is possible history would have turned out quite differently.

It may be frustrating for us to look back nearly 600 years in history and feel that these contributions are limited: she was chaste? She married well? This is how she helped her son? But Margaret Beaufort was a product of her time, and she knew what the mother of a king needed to look like and do in order to be victorious. She also suffered much: there are accounts that she nearly died giving birth to Henry, and during his childhood she was forced to spend long periods of time apart from him. But she showed strength, resilience, and a political savvy that ultimately ensured the establishment of the House of Tudor.

Through her son, Margaret Beaufort is the ancestor of every English monarch since 1485. Consider that next time someone suggests that young parents – or their children – have limited potential.

Want to read more about Margaret Beaufort or the Wars of the Roses? I recommend Alison Weir’s Lancaster and York: The Wars of the Roses, Jones and Underwood’s The King’s Mother, or Philippa Gregory’s fictional novel, The Red Queen.