This provided the spark that ignited a civil conflict that lasted for more than 30 years, decimated the old nobility of England, and caused the deaths of thousands of men, including her only son, Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471.

Margaret was born on 23 March 1430[2] at Pont-à-Mousson in Lorraine, a fief of the Holy Roman Empire east of France ruled by a cadet branch of the French kings, the House of Valois-Anjou.

Margaret was baptised at Toul in Lorraine and, in the care of her father's old nurse Theophanie la Magine, she spent her early years at the castle at Tarascon on the river Rhône in Provence and in the old royal palace at Capua, near Naples in the Kingdom of Sicily.

Her paternal grandmother, Yolande of Aragon, ruled the Duchy of Anjou as regent for her son while Margaret was a child, repelling an English military presence and supporting the disinherited Charles VII of France (Dauphin).

[7][9] The marriage was negotiated principally by William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, and the settlement included a remarkably small dowry of 20,000 francs and the unrealised claim, via Margaret's mother, to the territories of Mallorca and Menorca, which had been occupied for centuries by the Crown of Aragon.

The predicted turnout for her arrival and procession was so large that on 8 May, an inspection of roofs and balconies was ordered due to the expectation that spectators would use them as vantage points for her progress.

[3] Those that anticipated the future return of English claims to French territory believed that she already understood her duty to protect the interests of the Crown fervently.

The loss of Maine, regarded as a betrayal, was deeply unpopular with the English public,[6] who were already inclined to mistrust Margaret due to her French origins.

When he married Margaret, his mental condition was already unstable, and by the time of the birth of their only son, Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales (born 13 October 1453), he had suffered a complete breakdown.

The duke was a credible claimant to the English throne, and by the end of his protectorship, there were many powerful nobles and relatives prepared to back his claim.

She suggests the mutual antagonism came about two years later in 1455 in the wake of the First Battle of St Albans, when Margaret perceived him as a challenge to the king's authority.

Maurer also claims that Margaret appeared to accept York's protectorship and asserts there is no substantial evidence to back up the long-standing belief that she was responsible for the Yorkists' exclusion from the Great Council following Henry's recovery (see below).

It also might have made an ultimate battle to the death between Margaret and the House of York inevitable by making manifest Richard's dangerous popularity with the Commons.

[21] Within a few months, however, Margaret had regained control of Henry, Parliament was dissolved, the incautious Speaker thrown in prison, and Richard of York retired to Wales for the time being.

[22] In 1457, the kingdom was again outraged when it was discovered that Pierre de Brézé, a powerful French general and an adherent of Margaret, had landed on the English coast and burnt the town of Sandwich.

Public indignation was so high that Margaret, with great reluctance, was forced to give the Duke of York's kinsman Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, a commission to keep the sea for three years.

[11] Edmund Beaufort, the Earl of Northumberland and Lord Clifford were killed, Wiltshire fled the battlefield, and King Henry was taken prisoner by the victorious Duke of York.

[26] In 1459, hostilities resumed at the Battle of Blore Heath, where James Tuchet, 5th Baron Audley, was defeated and killed[27] by the Yorkist army under the command of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury.

By the time Margaret, her son and daughter-in-law Anne were ready to follow Warwick back to England, the tables had again turned in favour of the Yorkists, and the Earl was defeated and killed by the returning King Edward IV in the Battle of Barnet on 14 April 1471.

Over the previous ten years, Margaret had gained a reputation for aggression and ruthlessness, but following her defeat at Tewkesbury and the death of her only son, she was completely broken in spirit.

Henry VI was also imprisoned in the Tower in the wake of Tewkesbury and he died there on the night of 21 May; the cause of his death is unknown, though regicide was suspected, specifically smothering in his sleep.

One was written to the Corporation of London regarding injuries inflicted on her tenants at the manor of Enfield, which comprised part of her dower lands.

[37][38] Margaret's letters, which typically began with the words "By the Quene",[39] are compiled in a book edited by Cecil Munro published for the Camden Society in 1863.

However, the evidence is too scanty to permit historians to establish this with absolute certainty; several women at Margaret's court bore the name Elizabeth or Isabella Grey.

[42] Shakespeare portrays Margaret as an intelligent, ruthless woman who easily dominates her husband and fiercely vies for power with her enemies.

In Henry VI, Part 3 Richard Plantagenet Duke of York famously calls her "She-wolf of France/ but worse than wolves of France/ Whose tongue more poisons than the adder's tooth!"

Although in reality, Margaret spent the rest of her life outside England after the death of her husband and son, Shakespeare has her return to the court in Richard III.

Margaret serves as a Cassandra-like prophetess; in her first appearance she dramatically curses the majority of the nobles for their roles in the downfall of the House of Lancaster.

An adaptation called Margaret of Anjou by Elizabeth Schafer and Philippa Kelly was performed in 2016 in London by By Jove Theatre Company[44] and an adaptation of the three Henry VI plays and Richard III entitled War of the Roses by Eric Ting and Philippa Kelly at California Shakespeare Theatre in 2018 gave Margaret great prominence.