The extraordinary true story of the 'Red Queen'. Born in the midst of
the Wars of the Roses, Margaret Beaufort became the greatest heiress of
her time. She survived a turbulent life, marrying four times and
enduring imprisonment before passing her claim to the crown of England
to her son, Henry VII, the first of the Tudor monarchs. Margaret's royal
blood placed her on the fringes of the Lancastrian royal dynasty. After
divorcing her first husband at the age of ten, she married the king's
half-brother, Edmund Tudor, becoming a widow and bearing her only child,
the future Henry VII, before her fourteenth birthday. Margaret was
always passionately devoted to the interests of her son who claimed the
throne through her. She embroiled herself in both treason and conspiracy
as she sought to promote his claims, allying herself with the Yorkist
Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, in an attempt to depose Richard III. She was
imprisoned by Richard and her lands confiscated, but she continued to
work on her son's behalf, ultimately persuading her fourth husband, the
powerful Lord Stanley, to abandon the king in favour of Henry on the eve
of the decisive Battle of Bosworth. It was Lord Stanley himself who
placed the crown on Henry's head on the battlefield. Henry VII gave his
mother unparalleled prominence during his reign. She established herself
as an independent woman and ended her life as regent of England, ruling
on behalf of her seventeen-year-old grandson, Henry VIII.
