Margaret of Anjou
Marguerite d'Anjou
Queen of England · Queen of France (titular)
1430 – 1482
Biography
Queen consort to Henry VI and effective leader of the Lancastrian cause once her husband's mental collapse left him incapable of rule. She personally directed armies through the bitterest years of the Wars of the Roses, winning at Wakefield and St Albans before catastrophic defeat at Towton and Tewkesbury, where her only son Edward was killed. Ransomed by Louis XI, she died in poverty in France.
Events
Thirty-two years of intermittent civil war between the Lancastrian and Yorkist branches of the Plantagenet dynasty, triggered by the recurring incapacity of Henry VI and the rival claim of Richard, Duke of York. The conflict produced six battles in the 1450s–1460s, the murderous reign of Edward IV, the disappearance of his sons in the Tower, and the final defeat of Richard III at Bosworth in 1485. Resolved by the marriage of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York the following year.
Also there: Henry VI, Edward IV, Richard III, Henry VII
Recommended Reading
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