(countess of Richmond and Derby), the learned and pious mother of Henry VII. was born at Bethloe in Bedfordshire, in 1441; and was the sole heiress of John Beaufort, 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, sought 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 sought 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 Westminster 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 singularly 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 vow of celibacy." "A boon, (says Mr Walspole), as seldom requested, I believe, of a third husband, 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 mirroure of golde for the sinful soule, translated from a French translation of a book called Speculum aureum peccatorum. Emprynted at London, in Fleet-street, 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 following the blest 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 barbes at funerals, over the chin and under the same.

daughter of Woldemar III., king of Denmark, styled the Semiramis of the North; she succeeded her father in the throne of Denmark, her husband in that of Norway, and the crown of Sweden was given her as a recompense for delivering the Swedes from the tyranny of Albert their king. Thus pos- Margaret of Anjou, daughter of René D'Anjou, king of Naples, and wife of Henry VI. king of England; an ambitious, enterprising, courageous woman. Intrepid in the field, she signalized herself by heading her troops in several battles against the house of York; and if she had not been the author of her husband's misfortunes, by putting to death the duke of Gloucester his uncle, her name would have been immortalized for the fortitude, activity, and policy with which she supported the rights of her husband and son, till the fatal defeat at Tewksbury; which put an end to all her enterprises, the king being taken prisoner, and prince Edward their only son barely murdered by Richard duke of York. Margaret was ransomed by her father, and died in Anjou in 1482. See ENGLAND, n° 190.—198.