As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Affiliate disclosure.
Historical person
1443–1509
Margaret Beaufort was the daughter of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, and became the mother of Henry Tudor at the age of thirteen. Widowed during the Wars of the Roses, she navigated successive Yorkist regimes while preserving her son’s remote claim to the throne. Her alliance with Elizabeth Woodville helped support Henry’s invasion and marriage.
Margaret's dynastic importance increased during the Wars of the Roses as the prospects of her only son, Henry Tudor, rose. She helped sustain his claim while he was in exile and participated in political negotiations that preceded his victory in 1485. After Henry VII became king she exercised considerable influence, endowed religious and educational institutions and became a major patron of Cambridge colleges and printing.
Sarah Gristwood’s Blood Sisters follows Margaret of Anjou, Cecily Neville, Margaret Beaufort, Elizabeth Woodville, Elizabeth of York, Anne Neville and Margaret of York as they navigated deposition, sanctuary, widowhood and shifting dynastic allegiance. Nathen Amin’s Son of Prophecy begins with the Tudors of Penmynydd and follows Owen Tudor’s relationship with the widowed queen Catherine of Valois, the advancement of their sons Edmund and Jasper, and the marriage of Edmund to Margaret Beaufort. Further fictional perspectives on Margaret Beaufort can be found in Paul Doherty’s Dark Queen Waiting and Paul Doherty’s Dark Queen Wary. For broader historical treatment of Margaret Beaufort, see Nathen Amin’s The House of Beaufort, Leanda de Lisle’s Tudor, and Alison Weir’s Queens at War.
Periods
Series
The Margaret Beaufort Mysteries begin in the aftermath of the Yorkist victories of 1471, when Edward IV controls the English crown and Margaret Beaufort’s son, Henry Tudor, survives in exile. Margaret cannot challenge the regime openly, so her household becomes a centre of guarded correspondence, covert alliances and…
All books in this series
The Tudor Dynasty sequence traces the family’s survival during the later Wars of the Roses. First of the Tudors centres on Jasper and Edmund Tudor, Margaret Beaufort and the protection of the young Henry Tudor after the collapse of Lancastrian power. The Tudor Crown continues with Henry in…
All books in this series
The Tudor Trilogy traces the dynasty from its unlikely origins to the establishment of Henry VII’s monarchy. Owen begins with the Welsh courtier Owen Tudor and Catherine of Valois, whose secret relationship creates the family from which the Tudor claim will emerge. Jasper follows their son Jasper Tudor…
All books in this series
The Wars of the Roses series follows the fictional Elder family through the dynastic conflicts that divided England between 1459 and 1485. Beginning with a private Yorkshire feud, the family is drawn into the struggle between Lancaster and York and repeatedly finds its survival tied to the fortunes…
All books in this series
The Plantagenet and Tudor novels form a chronological sequence of connected but independently readable stories about women near the English throne. They move from the Lancastrian court and the Wars of the Roses through the rise of the Tudors, Henry VIII’s marriages, the mid-Tudor religious crisis and the…
All books in this series
The Tudor Saga recounts the dynasty from Henry VII’s exile and victory in the Wars of the Roses to the final years of Elizabeth I. Historical rulers, ministers and royal relatives occupy the centre of the sequence, while fictional attendants and agents reveal how decisions at court affect…
All books in this series
The Tudor Rose Trilogy follows three generations of the dynasty through novels centred on Elizabeth of York, Henry VIII and Mary I. Beginning in the final decades of the Wars of the Roses and ending with Mary’s death in 1558, it traces how family memory, contested legitimacy and…
All books in this series
Standalone books
Non Fiction
Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.
