Lady Margaret Beaufort,
'Domina Fundatrix'
Introduction
Introduction
Lady Margaret Beaufort (c. 1443 – 1509), Countess of Richmond and Derby and one of the most powerful women of her age, is best known at St John’s as our Founder: Domina Fundatrix (Lady Foundress), in the Latin of early documents in the College archives.
A direct descendant of King Edward III’s son John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, she was a fiercely loyal Lancastrian who during the Wars of the Roses was nonetheless astute enough to know when it was necessary to submit to Yorkist rulers, while planning how to bring her son Henry – the future King Henry VII – home from exile. Put under house arrest by King Richard III and deprived of her lands, she both encouraged and enabled Henry to invade England and overthrow Richard.
Queen in all but name
With her son King and her lands restored, Margaret’s influence and wealth was immense. Despite being married to Lord Stanley she was even, in a highly unusual move, granted the legal status of femme sole by Henry’s first parliament, a status usually reserved for unmarried women and widows which gave her sole control over her property and finances. She quickly came to be regarded as Queen in all but name.
Portrait of Lady Margaret by Rowland Lockey (c 1565-1616), copied from an earlier portrait
Grant of lands, 1487
This detail is from letters patent of King Henry VII by which, in March 1487, he granted manors in Devon, Somerset, Lincolnshire, Lancashire, Westmoreland, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Northamptonshire, Dorset and South Wales, and property in London, to his mother, Margaret, Countess of Richmond (Lady Margaret Beaufort).
The initial of 'Henricus' is decorated with a Tudor rose, and on scrolls wrapped around the embellishments at the head and base of the letter are the royal motto 'Dieu et mon Droit' and the Latin phrase 'Domine salvum fac Regem', or 'God Save the King'.
SJLM/4/4/4
Marriages
Margaret Beaufort was married either three of four times, depending on whether one counts, as she did not, her first marriage, aged around 7, to John de la Pole, which was dissolved three years later when both were still children. In terms of marriage contracts made, then, Margaret's second husband was Sir Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, to whom she was married when she was aged 12 and he 24. When he died less than a year later she was pregnant, aged 13, with the future Henry VII. She was married twice more, first to Sir Henry Stafford (died 1471) then to Thomas, Lord Stanley (died 1504). In both cases she had an unusual degree of say in the choice of husband, and seems to have had relationships of mutual respect with both men. Henry VII was her only child.
Will of Sir Henry Stafford
This document is Sir Henry Stafford's will of c. 1470, superseded in 1471 by a fuller version which is held in the National Archives. In both, his wife, Lady Margaret, is named as his executor. In this first version, she is described as chief 'executor' rather than 'executrix', which at the time was the usual form when the executor was female. He entrusts her to 'do for my soul according most after her discretion and wisdom'.*
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* spelling modernised
Benefactor
Lady Margaret was a generous benefactor, particularly so in founding educational establishments for the furtherance of religion. As well as St John’s, established after her death by Bishop John Fisher and the other executors of her will in accordance with her verbal wishes, she also founded Wimborne school, re-founded God’s House in Cambridge as Christ’s College, and established the Lady Margaret Professorships at both Oxford and Cambridge. Her account books form the basis of the collection of her papers held in St John’s College, along with inventories of the contents of her houses, and are some of the most frequently consulted items in the institutional archives. They reveal her generosity in gift-giving as well as an expenditure on luxuries which perhaps belies the austere image presented in her portrait. Her personal involvement in managing her finances is shown by her signature, at the foot of almost every page of the account books.
Inventory of Lady Margaret’s Chapel and other plate, vestments and service books, 1508-09 (SJLM/2/3/2/1)
Accounts 1
These payments listed in the accounts book of Lady Margaret's household in Collyweston, Northamptonshire, show a payment on the 24th April 1503 to 'Mr Fawne, my ladies scoller in Cambryge' of 13 shillings 4 pence for a quarter of a year. John Fawne, Fellow of Queen's College 1495-1513, held the Lady Margaret preachership from 1504, was Vice-Chancellor of the University 1512-1514, and was Lady Margaret Professor in 1515.
The payment is preceded in the accounts book by one for the carriage of ale to Lady Margaret's house in Coldharbour, London (23 shillings 4 pence), and followed by rewards to the hardwareman (3 shillings 4 pence) and to Harry Cotton, her husband's servant (6 shillings 8 pence).
SJLM/1/1/3/1 p. 91
Accounts 2
This example of a page of Lady Margaret's household accounts shows payments, or in some cases 'rewards', or gifts of money, made to:
- the King's "bagpype" (i.e. bagpiper) - 3 shillings 4 pence
- Matthew Baker for carrying in messages to my Lady's grace from the King - 10 shillings
- 'yong Stavnton' (young Staunton) - 6 shillings 8 pence
SJLM/1/1/3/1 p. 110
Inventories 1
On this page of an inventory of the goods in one of Lady Margaret's residences is a list under the heading 'Spices'. Included in it are items of equipment such as vessels used for distillation, strainers in different sizes, and lead weights. Also included are food items which we would not now describe as 'spices', such as prunes, almonds, and loaves of sugar.
SJLM/2/3/3/1 p. 22 (1509)
Inventories 2
This page from an inventory of Lady Margaret's jewels, made after her death in 1509, has as its first entry "a serpentes tonge sett in golde garnishede w[i]t[h] perlis" ("a serpent's tongue set in gold, garnished with pearls").
SJLM/2/3/3/4 p. 4
Inventories 3
Items listed on this page include religious images made of precious materials, such as images made from gold and enamel, one of St John the Baptist and the other of St Jerome. There is also a gold tablet showing Christ crucified, with Mary and John at the foot of the Cross, and on the back of the tablet St John the Baptist.
Some items are decorated with marguerite daisies, one of Margaret Beaufort's favourite symbols, being a pun on her name. Entries on this page include "a little book of gold, containing in it many images, with marguerites in the margins".*
SJLM/2/3/3/4 p. 1
*spelling modernised
A powerful woman
Power held by women in this period inevitably had at its root their relationship to men, deriving from roles as heiresses, wives, and mothers. There was nothing inevitable, however, about how Lady Margaret shaped her life – her priorities, ambitions, decisions, interests and achievements. When circumstances caused her to lose autonomy, she learned from the experience and found a way to regain it, in a way that was unusual for the time in which she lived. Lady Margaret’s legacy can be felt throughout the College, and is symbolised in the magnificent achievement of arms above the Front Gate.
