Nearly 600 years ago, England was torn apart
by a series of bloody battles for the throne.
In just 30 years, the crown changed hands seven times.
(BATTLE CRIES)
Tens of thousands were slaughtered.
(SQUELCHING) Agh!
It was one of the most turbulent and violent periods in British history.
It's known as the Wars of the Roses.
This is Bosworth Field, this is where it all ends,
with the most famous battle of this whole violent time.
Henry Tudor, a minor noble and rank outsider,
beats the infamous Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth
and becomes Henry VII,
the first Tudor king.
But how on earth does Henry Tudor, a royal nobody,
come from nowhere to defeat the King of England?
Well, I think his victory's engineered by one person.
Not a duke or a baron, but a woman.
She manipulates and politics her way to the heart of a royal revolution
that will change the course of English history.
Her name is Margaret Beaufort.
Margaret Beaufort's story spans the whole of the Wars of the Roses.
She works in the shadows through three decades of turmoil
to protect her only child.
(BATTLE CRIES)
Unbelievably, in a time of warrior kings,
it's this woman who ends the conflict
when she manoeuvres her son, Henry Tudor,
onto the throne of England.
(WIND HOWLS AND BIRDS CAW)
(BELL TOLLS)
(BATTLE CRIES)
As England descends into bloody chaos,
in a windswept castle in Wales...
Aargh!
Agh!
...a 13-year-old girl is in labour.
(SOBS)
Aaargh!
Even by Mediaeval standards,
Margaret Beaufort is obscenely young to be pregnant.
- Come forth... - Aargh!
(TINKLING)
(LABOURED BREATHS)
Argh!
The birth is so traumatic she will never bear another child.
(ECHOES) Aaaaargh!
All her hopes are bound up in this one baby boy.
She christens him Henry, Henry Tudor.
This 13-year-old girl and her baby son
will change the face of England.
Right from the start, Margaret and her son
are in a struggle for survival.
As if being a mother at 13 wasn't enough, Margaret's also a widow.
Her husband, little Henry's father, was an obscure nobleman,
Edmund Tudor, who died of plague three months ago.
In the Mediaeval world, power and control are exercised by men.
Without a husband, Margaret is virtually helpless.
Now her only protector is Edmund's brother, Jasper Tudor.
- I'm sorry... - No, no, he may enter.
But Jasper's power to protect her is limited.
May I?
Margaret's late husband Edmund Tudor, and his brother Jasper Tudor,
are half-brothers of the King.
Henry.
Unfortunately, it's the wrong half.
Edmund and Jasper share the same mother as the incompetent Henry VI,
but their father was no king.
He was the dowager queen's handsome Welsh squire
Owen Tudor, basically a nobody.
Because their connection to royalty is through their mother,
it's so obscure it's basically worthless.
Everything the Tudor boys have is owed to the grace and favour
of their half-brother, Henry VI.
As long as little Henry's uncle is on the throne,
looking favourably on them, Margaret and her baby son
are relatively safe.
But Henry VI is a useless king.
His rule is under attack.
(BATTLE CRIES)
If the King goes, Margaret and baby Henry could lose everything.
(BABY CRIES)
As a Mediaeval widow, Margaret knows what she must do to protect herself
and her baby son.
(CRIES)
Find a new husband.
But that decision comes with a heavy price.
It's time.
Under Mediaeval law, if she remarries Margaret must give up her son
to his nearest male relative.
She can't take him with her.
But Margaret's smart, and at 13 already a ruthless pragmatist.
She knows her baby will be safe at Pembroke,
looked after by his trusted uncle, Jasper.
Just two months after Henry's birth,
with Edmund barely cold in the ground,
Margaret rides out from here with Jasper to find a new husband.
And that's pretty extraordinary. She's practically a child.
She's just been through a traumatic birth,
and she's riding through a plague-ridden
and politically unstable land.
Plus, as a Mediaeval woman, the job of finding her a husband
would normally been down to her guardian.
So this is someone who wants control of her own destiny.
And what she really wants is the power and the influence
to protect herself and her son.
She's got the perfect match in mind.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
In January 1458,
after the bare minimum period of mourning,
Margaret marries her second husband, Henry Stafford.
They look an unlikely couple.
She's barely a teenager, he's in his thirties.
But in reality, Margaret's engineered an incredibly smart match.
(LAUGHTER AND CHATTER)
As a man from an important noble family
Stafford's got power, but as a second son almost no money.
Margaret is the sole heir to the Beaufort fortune. She's loaded.
But as a woman she's powerless.
Together they have the essential ingredients to prosper
in a Mediaeval world.
Money and power.
This makes it a marriage of mutual respect,
even affection.
This is quite a turnaround for Margaret.
Her estates are flourishing, she's in a successful marriage,
and her son is secure.
But then, just three years into her marriage,
her comfortable life is turned upside down.
(GRUNTS)
It all goes wrong for Margaret on a frozen battlefield in Yorkshire.
Henry VI's army is annihilated.
Now there's a young and charismatic new king.
Aagh!
Edward IV.
- Long live the King! - (MEN) Long live the King!
Margaret's family is on the losing side.
Her husband, Stafford, fought against Edward in the battle.
Move it!
He's lucky to escape with his life.
And it just gets worse for Margaret.
Pembroke Castle, where he son lives with his uncle, Jasper,
is taken by Edward's men.
Jasper escapes.
But Margaret's little boy Henry, just five years old,
is left behind.
- He must be here somewhere. - We can still find him.
- We'll go right. - Make sure you search everywhere.
- Cupboards, wardrobes. - Yes, sir.
- Anything? - He's not here.
- Right, back to the courtyard. - He must've gone. Now, soldier.
- (SIGHS) A waste of time. - (FOOTSTEPS RECEDE)
(DOOR BANGS SHUT)
(FIRE CRACKLES)
(LOUD THUD)
- Got you, boy. - Aargh!
- Long live the King! - (MEN) Long live the King!
DRAMATIC MUSIC
(BELLOWS)
Margaret's son, Henry Tudor,
is in the hands of one of the new king's men.
As a noble child he is at least being honourably brought up
and is safe from harm.
But separated from his family he's effectively a prisoner.
And worst of all, the new king strips little Henry of all his lands.
The thing to understand is that in the Middle Ages land means security,
it brings you power, it makes you important.
Ultimately, it protects you.
Without his lands, Henry's position is increasingly shaky -
and Margaret knows it.
(NEIGHS)
So now Margaret has a new mission.
Get her young son's lands restored to him.
To do that she must turn her enemies into allies
and ingratiate herself with the new king, Edward IV.
This can't have been easy for Margaret. She was allied emotionally
and physically with Henry VI.
After all, her son is his nephew.
And now, in order to protect her son,
she has to cosy up with Henry's mortal enemy.
Her husband Stafford swears loyalty to the new king
and gets them both a pardon.
Finally, after five years of hardcore schmoozing,
Margaret persuades Edward IV to return an estate to her
that he'd snatched from her Beaufort family.
This is what remains of Woking Palace,
a place we know was very dear to Margaret's heart.
Now, today, it's just a few brick walls,
but in its time this was a huge and sprawling manor house.
Now the fact that Margaret was allowed all of this splendour
and wealth, in an age where land equals power, is a sign
that she'd finally persuaded
King Edward IV that he could trust her.
Two years later, always keen to promote her interests,
Margaret and her husband Stafford
invite Edward to Woking for a hunting party.
(ANIMAL SNORTS)
(SQUELCH) (SQUEALS)
(NEIGHS)
Now 25,
Margaret dresses for the King in her finest velvets
and orders the very best hospitality.
- My Lady Margaret. - Your Grace,
we are honoured by your presence.
You are truly the mightiest of hunters.
Your lands are most abundant for the hunt.
Truly, there is so much game here.
Perhaps I should regret returning this estate to your care.
But, I do not believe it could be in more loyal hands.
Margaret must be feeling pretty confident that the restoration
of her young son's lands can't be far away.
But then, barely nine months later, everything's turned on its head.
Edward IV falls out with his most powerful ally, the Earl of Warwick.
Your move, cousin.
(BANGS OPEN)
Your Majesty, Warwick's troops are close.
(WOMEN SCREAM)
They're coming through the East Gate.
Warwick stages a coup, the King is forced to run for his life
from Warwick's men.
On October 3rd, 1470,
Warwick releases Henry VI from the Tower.
Long live the King!
And, unbelievably, puts him back on the throne.
This is an incredible opportunity for Margaret,
and she seizes it with both hands.
With her son's uncle back in power,
this is Margaret's chance to get her boy's lands back.
So without missing a beat, she heads straight to London
and comes here, to the Palace of Westminster,
to sort things out with the King himself.
But after cosying up to Edward IV,
the bloke who kicked Henry off the throne,
this is a risky play.
- My Lady Margaret. - My Liege...
...and true king. It gladdens my heart to see you restored
to your rightful place after so long.
But Margaret has an ace up her sleeve.
My son.
After nine years, she's reunited with Henry,
now almost 14. She's brought him to meet his uncle,
and there's a lot riding on his debut at court.
Henry Tudor,
named for you, my king.
Come.
Closer.
Out of the blue, Henry VI makes an astonishing prediction
about his young half-nephew.
One day
you will assume the helm of state.
You are destined to hold everything in your grasp.
He seems to be suggesting that Henry will one day succeed him as king.
That's a pretty amazing thing for Margaret to hear,
but it must at least encourage her to know that
she's on track to get her son's lands back.
And, after all, that's the one thing she really cares about.
But just six months later,
Margaret's world is turned upside down
yet again.
Margaret's here at Woking when she receives this letter
from her husband, Henry Stafford.
Now the original is at St John's College, Cambridge,
and is a mere scrap of paper, hardly legible,
but when we blow it up to this size you can see it's been written
in a real hurry, and it's in Stafford's own hand.
And he says, "I bequeath my soul to Our Lady St Mary"
and all the holy company of heaven,
"and my body to be buried whereas it shall best please God that I die."
So this is Stafford's very hastily made will,
and the fact he's sending it here to Margaret is incredibly poignant,
because he's sending her a message, he's telling her
that he's going into battle and he might never make it home.
(WIND HOWLS)
Edward IV has returned to take back the throne from Henry VI.
Stafford swore loyalty to Edward to protect his family.
Now he's got to make good on that promise.
This is a nightmare for Margaret.
She's caught between her loyalty to Henry
and her husband's pledge to Edward.
On the 14th of April, 1471,
Stafford goes into battle alongside Edward at Barnet,
to crush the man who put Henry VI back on the throne.
The Earl of Warwick.
Forward!
(BATTLE CRIES)
(CLANKING)
Argh!
- Yah! - Aargh!
Argh!
(FIRE CRACKLES)
Margaret can't go to the battleground herself.
But she can't just sit around and wait for news.
She dispatches a rider from Woking
to find out what's happening to her husband.
(BATTLE CRIES)
♪ I cross this land
♪ I cross the sea
♪ I cross my heart
♪ That you come home to thee
♪ I take your hand
♪ To save my soul
(LOUD SQUELCH)
♪ In your embrace
♪ I found my home... ♪
(DOOR BURSTS OPEN)
When Margaret's rider returns he brings grave news.
(GROANS)
No!
Edward IV is back,
and this time he's not in a conciliatory mood.
He begins a purge of the old king's allies.
Make sure it's done.
He has two of Margaret's closest relatives put to death.
(DULL THUD)
This is incredibly traumatic for Margaret.
If Edward IV is exterminating the old king's relatives,
then she must realise that her son, Henry VI's nephew,
will be next on the list.
So forget fighting for his lands, forget about politics,
now she's just a mother fighting for the life of her son.
Her young son Henry is with his uncle, Jasper, at Pembroke Castle.
Margaret sends one of her loyal servants to save his life.
Go to my son this instant.
She sends one very simple message.
What should I tell him, My Lady?
Run.
Run for your life.
14-year-old Henry Tudor flees England.
(DOOR OPENS)
- My Lady. - Is he safely gone?
He is.
Exiled in Brittany, Henry is safe,
but Margaret has no idea if she will ever see her son again.
(FIRE CRACKLES)
(BIRDSONG)
It's a disastrous year for Margaret.
She not only loses her son,
she loses her husband.
In October, Stafford dies of his battle wounds.
At the age of 28, Margaret is a widow for the second time.
She's alone and vulnerable.
She's already lived through three regime changes and two husbands.
Every time she blinks, the world around her changes.
But her mission hasn't. To save her son, save herself.
Well, her son's safe in exile, now she needs to survive, too.
She does what she always does.
Takes a deep breath and makes the pragmatic call.
She's faced with the same problem she had as a 13-year-old widow.
She needs security.
She needs protection.
In Mediaeval England that means only one thing.
A husband.
In June 1472,
Margaret marries Lord Thomas Stanley.
Little do they know that their match will change history.
Unlike her previous husband, Stanley is immensely rich.
But that's not really what Margaret's interested in.
She's got enough wealth of her own.
What she wants is Stanley's influence,
because Stanley is Steward to Edward IV household,
so virtually every day of his life he's in the same room as the king,
and that means Margaret now has a hotline direct to Edward IV.
It's an astounding political play.
Stanley's status makes Margaret a royal insider
at the Court of King Edward and his wife, the Queen, Elizabeth Woodville,
a future ally.
For 11 years, England enjoys a period
of unparalleled stability under Edward.
Margaret takes every opportunity to ingratiate herself with Edward.
- A fine move, Your Grace. - Thank you.
Ten years after marrying Stanley, Margaret, now 40,
finally manages to get what she wants for her son.
We wish it known that Henry Tudor, called Earl of Richmond,
shall receive a settlement of land from his mother,
the Countess of Richmond, to the value of 600 marks.
An official agreement with the King himself for her son to have
his lands back and return to court.
To be in the grace and favour of His Majesty.
Margaret must be ecstatic.
After 20 years, her charm offensive had paid off.
This is Henry's ticket home.
But life in the Wars of the Roses turns on a dime.
The wax is barely dry on the agreement seal
before disaster strikes.
It's a good game.
Edward IV dies.
Margaret's back to square one.
(CHORAL MUSIC)
Three months later, England has a new king.
Edward IV's younger brother, Richard.
On July 6th, 1483,
Richard III is crowned King of England here at Westminster Abbey.
It's the denouement of one of the most shocking and controversial
pieces of political skulduggery imaginable.
Richard has snatched the crown from his nephew,
Edward IV's 12-year-old son,
and locked him and his brother up in the Tower of London.
Richard ropes Lord Stanley and his wife, Margaret Beaufort,
into the Coronation.
She carries the new Queen's train.
He carries the King's mace.
Because Richard needs to shore up his dodgy claim to the throne.
So what does Margaret make of Richard?
Well, in a sense, she could see his rise to power as just another period
of political chaos to be safely negotiated,
but I think she'll see this one rather differently.
Margaret knows the young princes from her time at court,
certainly she knows their mother, Elizabeth Woodville.
And Margaret's a woman with a highly developed instinct for protecting
her own son, so I think she'll see Richard
as her most dangerous opponent yet.
By September 1483, pretty much everyone believes that Richard
has had his nephews, the Princes in the Tower,
murdered.
(MUFFLED CRIES)
This changes everything for Margaret.
Richard is a child-murdering tyrant who could turn on anyone.
There is no deal Margaret can do with him that will protect her son.
Now that Margaret can't fall back on simple politics,
she's forced to think more radically.
She could run away and live in exile with her son,
she could stay, keep her head down, and never see her son again.
Instead, she thinks way, way outside the box
and comes up with an absolutely breathtaking idea.
Richard must go -
and she has the perfect replacement.
Her son, Henry Tudor.
It sounds crazy,
but there aren't really any alternatives.
Almost everyone else on the royal line has died or been murdered.
Margaret starts to sniff out potential allies.
Richard has made so many enemies, she's spoiled for choice.
- Long live the King! - (MEN) Long live the King!
Margaret's decision is one of THE pivotal moments in English history.
But what she's planning would be extraordinary for anyone,
let alone a Mediaeval woman.
She's going to usurp the crown of England.
This is crazy.
Or it would be for anyone but Margaret.
Her biggest problem is her exiled son's
desperately weak claim to the throne.
All his royal connections come through women.
They're almost worthless.
Margaret's plan is rather brilliant because it hinges on the one person
who hates Richard more than anyone else.
Elizabeth Woodville,
Edward IV's widow.
Elizabeth's father and brother have been executed.
And her two little boys have disappeared, presumed murdered,
at Richard's hand.
(SIGHS)
Now Elizabeth's trapped here at Westminster Abbey,
in sanctuary, with her five daughters.
But Richard has the Abbey surrounded by soldiers.
Luckily, Margaret and the old Queen share a physician,
Lewis Caerleon,
who can pass freely.
Pray enter, good doctor. You are most welcome.
Caerleon puts Margaret's proposition to Elizabeth.
Margaret wants to plug her son into the Royal Family.
Her idea is to marry Henry Tudor to Elizabeth's daughter by Edward IV,
Elizabeth of York.
Unite the English nobility and make their children King and Queen.
The old Queen accepts, and the deal sets in motion
a sequence of events that will end in blood.
The only question is, whose?
In late September, 1483,
Margaret sends "a good great sum of money to Henry" in France
to fund an invasion.
Wait.
Within a month, Henry sets sail,
with seven ships and 515 men.
But Margaret's grand plan goes disastrously wrong.
(THUNDERCLAP)
A storm blows up in the Channel, and Henry's fleet is scattered.
They end up off the coast of Devon, where Richard's men are waiting.
Henry's forced to scuttle back to France
with his tail between his legs.
Margaret's rebellion has been a disaster,
and worse, Richard now knows exactly who his enemies are.
Margaret Beaufort, and her son, Henry Tudor.
Richard orders Stanley to isolate his wife,
remove all her servants and prevent her communicating with her son.
Margaret has committed high treason.
Richard III has murdered his enemies for less.
But he needs powerful men, like Margaret's husband, on his side.
In the end, what saves her is her smart marriage to Stanley.
Margaret can actually count herself lucky.
If she'd been married to anyone else she'd be in even bigger trouble.
But, inwardly, she must be seething.
She's lost her lands and her status, she's reduced to a mere wife.
It's not really her style.
So, more than ever before, she's determined that Richard has to go.
And Margaret's not the only one thinking that way.
Richard has stripped her rebel allies of their lands and titles, too.
Now in exile, they have nothing left to lose and no way back
as long as he's on the throne.
After the failure of the rebellion, most of the nobles involved fled
straight into the waiting arms of Henry Tudor.
Now he's effectively set up an alternative Royal Court,
in France, with him at the centre.
The failed rebellion certainly hasn't dented Henry's confidence,
as evidence here at the British Library reveals.
This is a 17th-century copy of a letter originally sent
by Henry Tudor to his supporters in England.
And it's a passionate call to arms in what he describes as
"my just quarrel against the unnatural tyrant Richard."
But what's really interesting is the way he's signed himself.
It's an "H" and an "R",
and the "H" is obviously his name,
but "R" stands for "Rex". He's calling himself Henry the King.
Margaret's work preparing her son to be king has clearly paid off.
He's primed.
All she has to do now is pull the trigger.
She sends a message to Henry to land in Wales.
She'll have money and men waiting for him.
On the 7th of August, 1485,
loyal servant Christopher Urswick is sent to Margaret by her son.
But he hasn't come from France.
He's come from the port of Milford Haven, in Wales.
Henry's back -
with an army.
To avoid Richard's men in South Wales,
Henry marches north, then east.
He crosses into England via the River Severn here at Shrewsbury.
When he reaches the city gates, Margaret's sent Urswick back to him.
In mid-August,
Urswick reaches Henry with a huge amount of money from his mother
to pay his soldiers.
This is open defiance of Richard's order.
Stanley is supposed to be keeping his wife under house arrest.
Instead, she's been doing absolutely everything she's been banned from.
Using her servants, communicating with her son,
directing his insurrection.
Margaret's husband's status won't save her from Richard a second time.
She knows that soon she'll either be mother of the King of England,
or they'll both be dead.
On the 22nd of August, 1485,
Henry and Richard finally come head to head here at Bosworth Field.
(CAWING)
(DRUM TAPS)
Henry has an army of around 5,00 men,
but Richard has him comprehensively outnumbered,
with as many as 15,000 troops.
Watching over the battleground is Lord Stanley,
with his brother William - and 3,000 men.
Waiting for their moment.
Nobody knows which way they will side.
(NEIGHING)
Although Margaret is architect of the whole rebellion,
by the time she hears back from the battlefield
her fate has already been sealed.
The battle began early.
Henry seized the initiative and his troops marched along this track
at first light, leaving Richard's men scrambling into battle order.
(BATTLE CRIES)
The fighting is ferocious.
Both Richard and Henry are in the thick of it.
(METALLIC CLATTERING)
Then, in the heat of battle,
Richard spots Henry just a stone's throw away - almost unprotected.
He knows if he kills him, he's won.
Up on the rise, the Stanleys are still sitting on their hands
when Richard seizes his moment and charges at Henry Tudor.
In the next minutes,
the future King of England will be decided.
And there's a delicious irony to what happens next.
Even though Margaret was absent from the field
the battle hinged on her actions,
because she'd turned her husband Stanley to Henry's cause.
And it was Stanley's intervention that decided the outcome.
Richard is only seconds away from Henry
when the Stanleys finally make their move.
Charge!
(BATTLE CRIES)
Stanley's men raced down from that rise.
Richard was charging towards Henry, sword drawn,
when Stanley's men waded in.
In the melee, Richard was unhorsed.
(BATTLE CRIES)
(METALLIC CLANKING)
The end was quick - and it was brutal.
(GASPS)
Henry Tudor, 28,
a minor noble and an absolute rank outsider in the royal line,
has taken the throne.
Margaret Beaufort has triumphed.
Richard's crown is taken from the battlefield
and placed on the new king's head
by Margaret's husband, Stanley himself.
(WIND HOWLS)
Long live
the King!
(MEN) Long live the King!
Margaret Beaufort is mother of the King of England.
She's still only 42 years old.
Margaret protected herself and her son
through one of the bloodiest periods in our country's history.
And not only that, she outlived Henry
and was here at Westminster Abbey for the Coronation of her grandson,
Henry VIII.
She died a few days later, and this splendid tomb is a monument
to a 13-year-old single mum
who founded the most famous dynasty in Britain.
Now that's quite a woman.