MARGARET (countess of Richmond and Derby),
the learned and pious mother of Henry VII. was born Margaret,
at Bethloe in Bedfordshire, in 1441; and was the sole
heiress of John Beaumont duke of Somerset, grandson
to John of Gaunt. Her mother was the heiress of
Lord Beauchamp of Powick. Whilst yet very young,
the great duke of Suffolk, minister to Henry VI. or
rather to Queen Margaret, fought her in marriage to
his son; and she was at the same time solicited by the
king for his half-brother Edmund earl of Richmond.
To the latter she gave her hand. Henry VII. was the
sole fruit of this marriage, his father dying when he
was but 15 weeks old. Her second husband was Sir
Henry Stafford, knight, second son to the duke of
Buckingham; by whom she had no issue. Soon after
his death, which happened in the year 1482, she
fought consolation in a third husband, Thomas Lord
Stanley, who, in the first year of her son's reign,
was created earl of Derby. He died in the year 1504,
without issue, being then high constable of England.
She survived her lord not quite five years, dying at
Wellminster in June 1509, in the 69th year of her
age. She was buried in Henry VII.'s chapel; on
the south side of which was erected to her memory
an altar-tomb of black marble, with her statue of
brass.
From her funeral sermon preached by her confessor
bishop Fisher, who, says Ballard, knew the very secrets
of her soul, we learn, "that she possessed almost all
things that were commendable in a woman, either in
mind or body." She understood the French language
perfectly, and had some knowledge of the Latin. She
was devout even to austerity, in humility, romantic,
profuse in the encouragement of learning, and singu-
larly chaste; but this last virtue became conspicuous
only towards the latter end of a third marriage. "In
her last husband's days (says Baker), she obtained a
licence of him to live chaste, whereupon she took upon
her the vow of celibacy." "A boon (says Mr Wal-
pole), as seldom requested, I believe, of a third hus-
band, as it probably would be easily granted." Her
life, from the turbulence of the times, and vicissitude
of her son's fortune, must necessarily have been subject
to infinite disquiet, which however she is said to have
supported with singular fortitude.—She wrote, 1. The
mirreure of golde for the sinful soule, translated from
a French translation of a book called Speculum aureum
peccatorum. Emprynted at London, in Flete-strete,
at the signe of St George, by Richard Pynson, quarto,
with cuts on vellum. 2. Translation of the fourth
book of Dr Gerfen's treatise of the imitation and fol-
lowing the blessed life of our most merciful Saviour
Christ. Printed at the end of Dr Wm. Atkinson's
English translation of the three first books, 1504. 3. A
letter to the king; in Howard's collection. 4. By
her son's order and authority, she also made the Orders
for great estates of ladies and noble women, for their
precedence, and wearing of robes at funerals, over
the chins and under the same.