Some Famous Women

by Louise Creighton

Photo: Emery Walker.

Margaret, Countess of Richmond.

The baby was small and weakly and to it Margaret gave all her care. It was an anxious time for the members of the Lancastrian family. Their rivals the Yorkists were beginning to rise into power, and the little Henry, both on account of his great possessions and because through his descent from John of Gaunt he was so nearly related to King Henry VI., was not likely to find them friendly to him and his mother. Margaret was glad to stay in quiet seclusion at Pembroke Castle under the protection of Jasper Tudor, her husband’s brother, now owner of the castle.

Even had he wished, Henry VI. could not have befriended her. He was powerless, sometimes in the hands of those who called themselves his friends, sometimes flying before his enemies, whilst the country was distracted with the struggles of the Yorkists and the Lancastrians. Margaret thought it best to seek a protector for herself and her son by marrying Lord Henry Stafford. When Henry VI. was in power she and her son were able to visit the court, but at other times she was only safe in her castle in Wales. At last Edward of York became king as Edward IV. and Henry VI. was cast as a prisoner into the Tower. Edward IV. seized the lands belonging to the little Henry, and his mother feared lest even his life might not be safe, so she was willing that he should escape to France under the care of his uncle Jasper.

Henry was then fourteen. Margaret had watched anxiously over his delicate childhood, moving him about to different places in Wales for the good of his health. He was an intelligent boy, and once when his uncle Jasper had taken him to court to see Henry VI., the king is reported to have said, when he looked at him, “Surely this is he to whom both we and our adversaries shall hereafter give place.” His tutor said that he had never seen a boy of so much quickness in learning. But now the poor boy had to leave his mother and his country. The wind drove him and Jasper to land on the coast of Brittany, and when the Duke of Brittany heard of their arrival, he ordered them to be brought to his castle at Vannes. There he kept Henry as a sort of prisoner, but refused to give him up to Edward IV., and though not allowed to leave Vannes, he was at least safe.

Edward IV.
From an original painting belonging to the Society of Antiquaries.

For fourteen years Henry was obliged to remain in Brittany, separated from his mother. The Yorkist king, Edward IV., was on the throne, and Margaret, separated from her son, lived as quietly as possible on her estates in the country, anxious to save what she could of her money and her lands for Henry. She seems to have stayed in different parts of the country. Wherever she lived, she devoted herself to the care of the poor and the good of the Church. Staying at one of her houses in Devonshire, she found that the priest’s house was at some distance from the church so that he had some way to walk to and fro. She therefore presented to the church for ever her own manor-house, with the land around it, for the priest’s use, as it was close to the church. She lived chiefly at Collyweston in Northamptonshire, where she built herself a fine house. She was deeply religious, and during these long years she spent much of her time in prayer. She used to get up at five o’clock and spend the hours till ten, which was in those days the hour for dinner, in meditation and prayer. The rest of the day she spent partly in ministering to the wants of the poor and sick, partly in study. Books in those days, just before the introduction of printing, were scarce and precious. Margaret busied herself with translating into English some books of devotion from the French. Amongst other things she was the first to translate into English part of that famous book, “The Imitation,” by Thomas à Kempis, which has helped and comforted so many people. We know little of her second husband, and do not know how much he was with her. He died after they had been married twenty-two years, and in his will he spoke of Margaret with warm love and trust. Shortly after his death, Margaret married for a third time, Lord Stanley, himself a widower with a large family, and one of the most powerful nobles at the court of Edward IV. In those days great people married more from policy than from love. Margaret probably felt that, now that it seemed as if the power of the Yorkists was established, it would be well for her to gain the protection of a powerful noble at court, who might in time help to make it possible for her son to return to England. She now left her quiet life and came to live in a great house in London belonging to her husband. Very shortly afterwards everything was changed by the unexpected death of Edward IV. When his brother, the Duke of Gloucester, made himself king as Richard III., and caused his little nephews to be murdered in the Tower, there was such discontent in England that it seemed to the friends of the house of Lancaster a good opportunity to destroy the Yorkist power.