Queen Margaret of Anjou

Today is the 540th anniversary of the death of Queen Margaret of Anjou, widow of King Henry Vi, in 1482. Suitably enough for a member of the royal house of France it is the feast day of her ancestor St Louis.

She was buried with her parents in Angers Cathedral, having eked out a life, or perhaps just an existence, as a widow, bereft of her only son for the previous eleven years, first in England and then from 1476 in France. Something of that bleakness seemed to hover around the dark slab that covers her grave in the choir - a somewhat similar position to that of her son at Tewkesbury Abbey - when I visited in 1993.

It has been said of Queen Margaret that she was the most significant female player in English history between Isabella of France in the early fourteenth century and Katherine of Aragon in the early sixteenth century. With the possible modification of adding in Lady Margaret Beaufort that still seems a fair assessment.

The English, possibly in her own time, and certainly through the pen of Shakespeare and later centuries have tended to dismiss her as a minor member of the French dynasty, tha daughter of a dilettante monarch in King Rene. A quick perusal of her life shows in fact how well and closely she was connnected to the French, Iberian and western Imperial families. Her father’s wider claims extended to the titular Kingdom of Jerusalem.

 The arms of Queen Margaret of Anjou as consort of King Henry VI

The coats give some indication of her genealogy and status from the houses of Capetian and Valois Anjou - Hungary, Sicily, Jerusalem, Anjou, plus Bar and Lorraine - but not her Aragonese ancestry.

Image: Wikipedia 

The Wikipedia biography can be seen at Margaret of Anjou. A somewhat more detailed account of her later years after 1471 can be read at Anjou: The Last Years of Henry VI’s Queen

Wikipedia comments on her place in the Shakespeare History plays. In these she is shown as tough, determined, tragic, prophetic if not necessarily sympathetic … Not mentioned in the list of modern theatrical castings contained therein is Mary Morris’ awesome performance in the BBC production “An Age of Kings” in 1960 - once seen not easily forgotten. Her performance well be of drama rather than of history, but what a dramatic performance! Not a lady to tangle with.

The real historic figure was indeed tough, raised in a family where the women were as likely to take the initiative as their husbands, fathers or sons - and that was by no means unknown in the Wars of the Roses in England. 

There is much that is tragic in her life - the loss of husband, son, loyal adherents, and the miseries of exile and poverty. There is also much of the time a spirited resilience which is impressive.

A bronze portrait medal by Pietro da Milano is probably the brest surviving contemporary portrait of the Queen and it is dated to 1463-4.

It can be seen here from the original in the Victoria and Albert Museum

Her appearance is discussed in So What Did Margaret of Anjou Look Like?