Margaret Beaufort: Mother Of The Tudor Dynasty

Lady Margaret Beaufort was the greatest heiress of her time, surviving 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 Tudor monarch. She divorced her first husband at the age of ten, married the king's half-brother, Edmund Tudor, became a widow and bore 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 and embroiled herself in treason and conspiracy as she sought to promote his claims. Even imprisoned by Richard with her lands confiscated she continued to work on her son's behalf, ultimately persuading her fourth husband, Lord Stanley, to abandon the king in favour of Henry. It was Lord Stanley himself who placed the crown on Henry's head on the battlefield of Bosworth.