Born: 23 March 1430, France
Died: 25 August 1482
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: NA
This biography, written by Catherine Capel, is shared with permission from Team Queens, an educational history blog run by a collective of historical scholars. All rights reserved; this material may not be republished without the author’s consent.
Margaret of Anjou was the second eldest daughter of René, Duke of Anjou, Count of Provence and King of Naples and Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine and Queen of Naples. In 1445, aged fifteen, she was formally betrothed to Henry VI as a symbol of peace between France and England.
Her time as queen, like so many before her, was dominated by conflict. Henry VI’s long-term illness from 1453 placed her at the head of the Lancastrian forces during the Wars of the Roses.
The birth of her first and only son, Edward, in the same year increased her stake in the kingdom. Margaret’s forces saw some considerable victories in 1460 at the Battle of Wakefield, where Richard, Duke of York, was killed and in 1461 at the Second Battle of St Albans.
These victories, however, we short lived. The Battle of Towton was won by Edward, future Edward IV, in 1461 and he deposed Henry, forcing Margaret to flee to the court of her cousin, Louis XI.
Despite the brief restoration of Henry VI to the throne in 1470, defeats at the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury in 1471 put an end to the Lancastrian war effort and led to the death of her son Edward. Margaret spent the last years of her life in France, and she died in 1482 an impoverished and forgotten queen.
Recommended Reading
Helen E. Mauer, Margaret of Anjou: Queenship and Power in Late Medieval England (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2005)
Helen E. Mauer and B. M. Cron, eds., The Letters of Margaret of Anjou (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2019)
Patricia-Ann Lee, “Reflections of Power: Margaret of Anjou and the Dark Side of Queenship,” Renaissance Quarterly 39, (1986): 183-217.
From Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.:
Margaret of Anjou, queen of England, was born at Pont-à-Mousson, a castle in Lorraine, March 23, 1429, and died at the chateau of Dampierre, August 25, 1451. Her childhood was passed amid many troubles that befell her family, in Italy, France, and Lorraine. As a Provençal princess, she was well educated, and at an early period of her life manifested considerable talent.
Report of Margaret’s beauty reached Henry VII of England from a gentleman of Anjou, who acted under the inspiration of Cardinal Beaufort, and her portrait was obtained for his inspection. This decided the king’s action, and commissioners were appointed to negotiate a truce with France and Burgundy, Charles VII favoring the marriage of Henry and Margaret, with the view of making it the basis of peace between France and England.
The Earl of Suffolk had the chief part in the transaction on the English side, and the ceremony by proxy was arranged to take place at Nantz in November, 1444. Margaret did not reach England until the next April. In 1447, occurred the death of the Duke of Gloucester, of which she has been considered guilty by some historians, but without evidence. She soon became unpopular, and the English connected the loss of their French possessions with her marriage.
Margaret’s only child, a son, was said by her enemies to be either the offspring of adultery, or a supposititious child. Prince Edward was born while his father was suffering from one of his fits of imbecility, and when the queen was at the head of the government. The Duke of York was made protector, but on the restoration of the king s health he was dismissed, whereupon he asserted his rights by an appeal to arms, and the Yorkists won the first battle of St. Albans, which restored them to power. Parliament censured the queen and her friends, but in 1456 Henry assumed his rights, and the government was virtually in Margaret s hands.
Personal ill-feeling between the queen and the Earl of Warwick caused a renewal of the war, and the Lancastrians were at first victorious; but the Yorkists rallied, defeated their foes, and obtained possession of the king’s person, who recognized York as his successor.
Margaret fled with her son, first to Wales, and thence to Scotland. Receiving assistance from the Scotch, she returned to England, and was joined by her supporters in the northern counties; York advanced to oppose her, but was defeated and slain at Wakefield. Marching to London, she defeated Warwick in the second battle of St. Albans, and released her husband.
The Londoners, disgusted with the ferocity of her northern troops, would not admit her into their city, but recognized York’s eldest son as king, by the title of Edward IV. She retreated north and was followed by Edward. The great battle of Towton, 1461, was fatal to the Lancastrian cause. Margaret fled to Scotland with her husband and son. Thence she went to France, in the hope of obtaining aid from Louis XI, in which she met with little success.
She returned again to Scotland, and afterward went to Flanders. After remaining some time at Bruges, she took up her residence in her father’s dominions, where she superintended her son’s education. She visited the French court, at Tours, in 1469, during which time the daughter of the Earl of Warwick was betrothed to the queen’s son.
From now on, she continued to be buffeted about by the fortunes (often misfortunes) of war until the battle of Tewkesbury, May 4, 1471, when she fell into the hands of the victor, her son having previously been slain. Her husband was put to death a few weeks later. She was imprisoned in the Tower, and afterwards at Windsor and Wallingford, until November 3, 1475, when she was ransomed by Louis XI, who paid 50,000 crowns for her liberty, her father having ceded Provence to him for the purpose, and returned to her father’s protection. She formally renounced all the rights her English marriage had given her and resided in deep seclusion at Reculee, near Angers, one of the possessions of her father, seldom leaving that retreat.
Her last days were passed in the chateau of Dampierre, in suffering and bitter regrets.