Page 53 - All About History - Issue 11-14

Margaret Beaufort was a key
player in ultimately deposing
Richard III and bringing an
end to the War of the Roses

decided by geography, with nobles from all parts
of the country siding with one house or the other
due to a series of complex and often long-standing
allegiances, although with Richard marching
down from the north where he had recruited
much of his army, it seemed like the north was
coming to claim what it believed was rightfully
its property in the south. To many of the nobles
supporting the House of York they were marching
on the capital with their knights, infantrymen
and archers to remove a weak king from power
and restore order to a country on the verge of
disintegration and collapse.
Even the staunchest of Henry VI’s supporters
would have been forced to admit the country had
seen better days. Following a series of French
victories over the English on the continent, they
had grown confident and had begun raiding
English supply lines and vessels in the Channel.
In addition, due to the years of warfare England
was in poor financial shape, while the absence
of a strong king had led to London’s political
scene descending into a series of arguments, “ Richard Plantagenet was now not just a
squabbles and petty confrontations. A
weakened country was slowly bleeding to contender for control of England but also
death from infighting, so in marching on
the capital Richard Plantagenet intended to its kingship, as the leader and figurehead
wrestle back some semblance of control of the House of York”
over it.
The king might have been largely
blind to the threat of the Duke of also sent along with the army and, judging by Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland and
York but, luckily for the House of the comparatively small size of the Lancastrian Lord Thomas Clifford. Turning a defeat into a
Lancaster, the ever-vigilant and army (roughly 2,000 men), it seemed Margaret catastrophe, Henry VI himself was also captured,
ruthless Margaret was not. She expected that there would be no hostilities, with personally apprehended by Richard’s key ally
quickly drummed up support some sort of peace treaty the likely outcome Warwick’s forces as he hid in a local tanner’s
for a hastily assembled army and the status quo maintained. The beautiful shop, abandoned by his advisers and servants
to counter the threat from and resourceful queen was wrong, though. and seemingly suffering from yet another mental
Richard’s forces. Margaret Spectacularly so. breakdown.
dispatched this army The two armies came together at St Albans The following day, York and Warwick marched
Margaret was first
married to the under the command just north of London on 22 May 1455, and after with the now-mad-again king in their custody
Duke of Suffolk’s of her favourite and a a couple of minor skirmishes, the first battle to London. Redepositing the unfortunate Henry
son, John de la sworn enemy of Richard, of the War of the Roses broke out. Richard’s with Margaret, Richard retook the position of
Pole, in 1444, then
only a year old Edmund, Duke of Yorkist force quickly cut down the Duke of Lord Protector and he and Warwick began to
Somerset. The king was Somerset as well as Lancastrian loyal nobles re-establish themselves. An uneasy truce of sorts
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