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had one daughter, Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, who was born in bletsoe castle on 31 May, although it remains in dispute whether she was born in 1441 or 1443. 

Margaret, the mother of Henry VII and grandmother of Henry VIII. , gives birth to the future Henry the seventh In 1457. So that ambiguity as to her birth is important. If she was born in 1443, she is 13 at the time of his birth. And it is a matter of record that she was both physically and psychologically damaged by their birth, Suggesting she was too young to become a mother. Especially a widowed mother, so a single mum on her own in Wales, separated from her family.

within two months of childbirth, she sets off across Wales to go and arrange another marriage,” Johnson explains. Travel in 15th-century Britain was slow, physically demanding and potentially dangerous – especially for a woman recovering from childbirth.

“She’s still going to be suffering the physical after-effects,” Johnson says.

The implication is that she must have been desperate to escape Pembroke Castle – and connections to her former husband. She also left behind her infant son. This was not entirely unusual among the nobility – children were often fostered in other households –but, says Johnson, it seems as if “she gets away from that child as quickly as she can.”

• Read more | The medieval childbirth guide: 6 tips for pregnant mothers in the Middle Ages

Within a year, Margaret had remarried and established a new life in Lincolnshire. Henry, meanwhile, remained in Wales under the care of male guardians.

There’s no evidence of any emotional closeness between Margaret and her child at that stage, and certainly no clever political designs for him. “That baby is actually the source of a lot of pain and difficulty for her,” Johnson says.

Margaret Beaufort: mother of the Tudors

She was pregnant at 12, widowed by the Wars of the Roses and almost died at the hands of Richard III. But, writes Michael Jones, nothing could prevent the indomitable Margaret Beaufort from engineering the rise of her son, Henry VII, to the English throne...

On 14 February 1453, a nine-year-old girl was travelling to London to be introduced to the court of King Henry VI. Her name was Margaret Beaufort, the only child of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, and inheritor of a large landed estate.

Margaret (born on 31 May 1443) had royal blood in her veins. But it was tainted blood, for her family was the illegitimate offspring of the king’s great-grandfather, John of Gaunt, by his mistress, Katherine Swynford. When Gaunt subsequently married Katherine, the Beauforts were legitimised – but barred from succeeding to the throne. As Margaret approached the royal court that day in 1453, her family harboured hopes that that Henry VI would overturn this provision.

Margaret’s father had died shortly before her first birthday and so she was brought up by her mother, Margaret Beauchamp. Her mother instilled in her a strong sense of personal destiny and family pride. Despite her young age, Margaret was bright and remarkably self-assured. Above all, she was well aware of the opportunities beckoning her.

That she would go on to take full advantage of these opportunities is beyond doubt. For, in the face of huge obstacles and sometimes mortal peril, Margaret played the 15th-century game of power-politics with bravery and determination. And, on 22 August 1485, her perseverance was rewarded when her son, Henry Tudor, defeated Richard III at the battle of Bosworth to become king. Charting Margaret’s role in Henry VII’s rise to power – and the establishment of the Tudor dynasty – reveals the skill-set of one of the great political survivors of the late Middle Ages.

Margaret Beaufort's early life

As the young Margaret travelled towards the royal court in February 1453, she found herself at the centre of a high-stakes tug-of-war. Three years earlier, Henry VI’s chief minister, William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, had arranged her marriage to his son John. The dynastic implications of this planned alliance would not have been lost on Margaret for King Henry, married for eight years, as yet had no heir. The House of Commons had nervously claimed that Suffolk was steering his son towards the throne through the rights of his prospective wife, whom he “presumed and pretended to be next in line to the crown”.

Fresh stories were eddying around the court: Henry VI intended to annul Margaret’s match with Suffolk and instead marry her to his half-brother, Edmund Tudor. Young Margaret’s importance in such schemes was clear. But contemporaries imagined her role would be passive: by the standards of the time, she was merely a commodity in the medieval marriage market.

Few at Henry’s court were in much doubt as to what would happen next. Margaret would meet her two suitors – John de la Pole and Edmund Tudor – and accede to the king’s wish. But Margaret had other ideas. The young girl solemnly told the astonished gathering that, as the matter was of such gravity, she should be allowed more time to decide.

Margaret’s experience of marriage was harsh. She conceived Edmund Tudor’s child at the age of 12, and lost her husband to plague before the baby was born

Margaret’s spiritual adviser John Fisher tells us what happened next: “Being then little more than nine years old, and doubtful in her mind what she were best to do, she asked counsel of an old gentlewoman, whom she much loved and trusted, who did advise her to commend herself to St Nicholas, the patron and helper of all true maidens, and to beseech him to put in her thoughts the right course to take. This counsel she followed, and made her prayer full often, and especially that night, knowing that in the morning she would be required to give her answer. And as she lay in prayer, calling upon the saint – whether asleep or awake she could not remember – about four o’clock in the morning a figure appeared before her, dressed in white, rather like a bishop, and naming Edmund, bade her take him as her husband.”

Margaret duly did – but not before she had made the entire Lancastrian court await her decision.

Marriage and the birth of the future Henry VII

Margaret’s experience of marriage was harsh. She conceived Edmund Tudor’s child at the age of 12, and lost her husband to plague before the baby was born. The young widow was forced to seek the protection of Edmund’s brother Jasper, giving birth to a son, Henry Tudor, on 28 January 1457 at Pembroke Castle in west Wales.

The recollections of John Fisher reveal that the birth was a very painful one, because of her small build and young age, and Margaret, now 13, was almost certainly physically damaged by it. She would never bear another child.

Jasper Tudor, with the young mother and child under his protection, took charge of proceedings. According to the Welsh chronicler Elis Gruffydd, Jasper named the boy Owen, in memory of his own father. But Margaret, now well enough to attend the baptism, commanded the bishop to halt the service, begin again, and give her son the name of Henry. She spoke with such assurance that the entire assembly meekly followed her wishes.

Margaret Beaufort did not wait upon events. No sooner had the ‘churching’ – the 40 days of ritual purification after the birth of a child – been completed, she was already making moves to avoid another husband being forced upon her. In March 1457, she entered into an agreement to marry the Duke of Buckingham’s second son, Sir Henry Stafford. Jasper Tudor and his retinue accompanied her to the duke’s manor of Greenfield, near Newport, but it was the 13-year-old Margaret who struck a bargain with one of the most powerful aristocrats in the country.

Yet the wheel of fortune was to turn against her once more. For much of Margaret’s early life, England was ravaged by the Wars of the Roses, a bloody conflict that pitted the Lancastrian king Henry VI against his enemies, now led by Edward, Duke of York.

In March 1461, Edward seized the crown (as Edward IV), and crushed Henry’s army at the battle of Towton. One of Edward’s first moves as monarch was to grant the wardship of Henry Tudor to one of his closest supporters, William Lord Herbert. Margaret and her son were separated, and Henry brought up at Herbert’s stronghold at Raglan Castle. Margaret refused to be discouraged, however, keeping in touch with her son through a stream of messages and occasional visits.