Albani, ed. Riley, Rolls Ser.; Hardyng's Chron.; Hall's Chron.; Cont. Croyland, Gale's Scriptores, i.; Raynaldus, Eccl. Annales; Æneas Sylvius, Historia Bohemica; Andrew of Ratisbon, Höfler, Geschichtschreiber der Hussitischen Bewegung, ii.; Duck's Life of H. Chichele, Abp. of Cant. 1699; Godwin de Præsulibus; Le Neve's Fasti, ed. Hardy; Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i.; Nichols's Royal Wills; Stubbs's Const. Hist. iii. c. 18; Excerpta Historica, ed. Bentley; Creighton's History of the Papacy during the Reformation]
BEAUFORT, JOHN (1403–1444), first
Duke of Somerset, military commander, was
the son of John Beaufort, eldest son of John
of Gaunt, by Catherine Swynford, who was
created Earl of Somerset and died in 1409.
John the younger succeeded to the earldom
on the death of his brother Henry in 1419. He
was early inured to arms, and fought at the
age of seventeen with Henry V in France.
In 1421 the Duke of Clarence, the king's
brother, being sent against the dauphin in
Anjou, advanced rashly against him with
his vanguard, and being surprised as he
crossed a marsh was killed, and Somerset,
who was with him, was taken prisoner.
Speedily ransomed, the latter continued fighting in France under Henry VI, his nearness to the throne insuring him high command. But though made duke in 1443 and captain
general in Aquitaine and Normandy, the Duke of York was preferred to him as regent of France. Somerset returned home in disgust and died the next year — by his own hand it is said, being unable to brook the disgrace of banishment from court which his quarrel with the government had brought upon him.
[Dugdale's Baronage; Chronicles of Walsingham and Croyland.]
BEAUFORT, MARGARET (1441–1509), Countess of Richmond and Derby,
was daughter and heiress to John, first duke
of Somerset, by his wife Margaret, widow of
Sir Oliver St. John, and heiress to Sir J.
Beauchamp of Bletso. She was only three
years old at the time of her father's death;
but her mother appears to have brought her
up with unusual care until, in her ninth year,
she was brought to court, having passed into
the wardship of the Duke of Suffolk, then in
the height of his power. He hoped to obtain
her in marriage for his son, not without
thought of her possible succession to the
throne. On the other hand, Henry VI destined her for his half brother Edmund Tudor,
Earl of Richmond. A vision inclined her to
the latter suitor, and she was betrothed at once
to him, and married in 1455. In the following year the Earl of Richmond died, leaving
Margaret with an infant son. The breaking
out of the war of the Roses endangered
the safety of any related to the throne, and
the child-widow retired with the future
Henry VII to her brother-in-law's castle of
Pembroke. Here she remained after her
marriage with Henry Stafford, son of the
Lancastrian Duke of Buckingham, and here
she was detained in a kind of honourable
confinement after the triumph of the Yorkists
in 1461. The revolution of 1470 saw Margaret back at court; but the speedy return
of Edward IV, and his final victory at
Tewkesbury, by making the young Earl of
Richmond immediate heir to the Lancastrian
title, increased his danger, and forced him to
escape to Brittany. Margaret remained at
home, and, though keeping up communications with her exiled son, wisely effected a reconciliation with the ruling powers, and took
as her third husband the Lord Stanley, Edward's trusted minister, afterwards Earl of
Derby. The accession of Richard III (1483)
and the consequent split in the Yorkist party
raised the hopes of the Lancastrians, and
Margaret, emerging from her accustomed retirement, took an active part in planning the
alliance between her own party and that of
the Wydviles by the marriage of Henry with
Elizabeth of York, and in preparing for the
abortive insurrection of 1484. Richard's
parliament at once attainted Henry, and deprived Margaret of her title and lands. Further persecution she was spared, for Richard,
though he did not trust, dared not alienate
her husband, Lord Stanley, to whom her
lands were granted for his life, and her person to be kept 'in some secret place at home,
without any servants or company, so that
she might not communicate with her son.'
Yet Stanley's growing sympathy with her
cause enabled her to aid in the preparations
for the rising of 1485, and his final defection
from Richard's side on Bosworth field secured
the throne to her son. After this she took
no part in the active duties of government,
and seldom appeared at court, except for the
christening of a goddaughter or the knighting of a godson; but the king deferred to
her opinion, especially in matters of court
etiquette, and their correspondence shows the
respect he bore her, and that he never forgot
that he derived his title through her, who,
had there then existed a precedent for female
succession, might herself have mounted the
throne. Sharing to the full the religious
spirit and strict orthodoxy of the Lancastrian
house, a life of devotion and charity best
suited her after the anxieties of her early life.
'It would fill a volume,' says Stow, 'to re-