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'the English Chronicle, written less than fifteen years after the battle and which recalled how Somerset 'had herde a fantastyk prophecy that he shuld dy undre a castelle'. While he had feared the royal fortress of Windsor as a result, of which he remained constable up until his death, it was in St Albans, where there was 'an hostry having the sygne of a castelle', that Somerset ultimately fell.'

'York had grown accustomed to authority during his nine months in charge, as had the supporters who had risen with him, and the duke did not easily accept his sudden dismissal. He had taster power and had little desire to let it go. Edmund Beaufort, on the other hand, had been freed from the Tower on 7 February and not only sought to regain his former pre-eminence, but to wreak vengeance on York.'

'The much-celebrated gains of Henry V between 1415 and 1420 were undone in just over a year, and unfortunately for the reputation of Edmund Beaufort, who again avoided England by heading for Calais, it happened on his watch. No amount of excuses or reasoning could eradicate that fact, and it would have dire consequences for the houses of Beaufort and Lancaster.'

'Margaret Beaufort did not forget about her father, even though he passed away before she was old enough to remember him. Able to take advantage of her exalted status as the king's mother, Margaret secured a licence on 1 March 1496 to found a chantry chapel of one chaplain in the 'collegiate church of Wymburne', to be named the chantry of the Blessed Jesus and St Mary the Virgin.'

'The 1430s had been a tumultuous decade for the Beauforts, beginning with the demise of Thomas, taking in the personal strife of the two Joans, and ending with John's release, Edmund's heroics and Margaret's death. Now the elderly cardinal of England was showing signs of growing fatigue after a lifetime of intense service to the crown'

'a band of assassins, dispatched by the king's estranged uncle Walter Stewart, earl of Atholl, invaded the Dominican Friary in Perth just after midnight and cornered the terrified royal couple in their lodgings. James attempted to flee but was quickly apprehended, subdued and 'most barbarously assassinated'. Though 'villainously wounded in two places', Joan survived'

'After his humiliation in 1427, this was unquestionably a victory for the cardinal over the duke, with Gloucester unable to cultivate enough support to destroy his nemesis. Henry Beaufort had been present on the political stage for more than thirty years and with England about to enter a crucial period in the war with French, it was unwise to lose his Europe-wife connections and diplomatic expertise.'

'Fortunately Elizabeth recovered fairly quickly and the council never had to make the distasteful decision to promote Robert Dudley to Protector. Unfortunately for Lady Sidney, her devotion to Elizabeth was rewarded with her own contraction of the dreaded pox, which had sped its way through London and laid waste to the rich and poor alike. Elizabeth emerged from her sickbed almost completely unscathed.'

"If your mother was here, right now, and we asked her if she would do it all over again. If she knew that the outcome was her death, would she still have aspired to be the king's wife? I know her answer would be yes, because seeing you on the throne would have been worth it. The fact that you now rule England has made every sacrifice worth her blood."

'It's likely Cardinal Beaufort had had every intention of travelling to central Europe on crusade before the Council intervened... That being said, once faced with the choice between serving his king or his pope, there was only going to be one outcome for the cardinal. Henry could not serve two masters, and his loyalty to the House of Lancaster far outweighed any devotion he had to anyone else'

'The demise of Thomas Beaufort had come at an inopportune moment for Henry Beaufort, who must have cursed the loss of his brother's presence just when he most needed the duke's invaluable support, both publicly and privately. Disregarding any personal grief, Exeter's death was a political catastrophe for the bishop, depriving him of a widely respected ally in his escalating conflict with the duke of Gloucester.'

'The royal child was only nine months old when he became king, and England faced two decades of conciliar governance, ample time for various counsellors to compete for authority in the power vacuum created by the absence of an adult king. It was a vacuum in which the Beauforts were determined to impose themselves, having been instrumental in English politics since the start of the century.'

'Although the Beauforts had revelled in the triumphant feats of their nephew - partly the result of their own assiduous exertions over the previous decade - Henry Beaufort remained somewhat out of favour with the king. The king had quashed his uncle's hopes of donning the scarlet cardinal's hat, and the bishop had soberly returned to England to keep a low profile in his diocese'

'Henry's victory was not his alone. Men like Thomas Beaufort had fought courageously alongside their warrior king, and some had died for the cause, like the younger Henry Beaufort. Other Englishmen, meanwhile, such as the elder Henry Beaufort, had tirelessly canvassed for financial aid, risking their own reputations to accumulate the funding the king desperately needed.'

'Having received news of his uncle's promotion to the cardinalate, King Henry turned over the news in his head and deliberated on the best course of action. If Pope Martin published the Papal Bull confirming Bishop Beaufort's elevation, the king faced the prospect that one of his subjects was outside his jurisdiction, operating in the interests of Rome rather than England.'

'Thomas Beaufort received public recognition for his efforts when, due to 'his service to the king and the realm on both sides of the seas', he was elevated to the dukedom of Exeter for the remainder of his natural life, to be supplemented with an annuity of £1,000. If he harboured any resentment over his treatment by king and council while stranded in Harfleur, then a dukedom was surely an ample appeasement.'

'This proximity to his various residences, such as Raby Castle in County Durham or Sheriff Hutton in Yorkshire, probably accounts for the regularity of Joan's pregnancies throughout this phase of their marriage. The countess spent much of the first two decades of her second marriage with child, and in total bore Neville fourteen children, an astounding strain on her body'

'I looked back in sadness and wondered where the Princess Mary I had known had gone. She had been replaced with a ruthless queen I didn't quite recognise. Mary had not always been this way. Though she often carried a dour face and judgement upon every one, before my half-sister ascended the throne she had treated every soul she met with kindness.'

'The coronation would take place in two weeks. I had not considered attending, but this royal invitation required me to go. I also realised that, although Mary never knew and certainly would never recognise that I was her half-sister by blood, it was my duty to support her. I cared not what her religion was or even if England did rejoin the Catholic church. I only cared that my husband was spared punishment'

'altering the Latin text to read that the Beauforts could be 'raised, promoted,
elected, assume, and be admitted to all honours, dignities, except to the royal dignity, pre-eminences, estates, degrees and offices public and private whatsoever'. The inference was clear; the family were entitled to inherit or obtain any office in the kingdom, with the specific exception of one: the throne itself.'

'she had exhibited a dignity and poise at odds with her supposed scandalous reputation. Froissart considered her to have 'a perfect knowledge of court etiquette' and to have 'loved the duke of Lancaster and the children she had with him', and it's a testament to her influence that the various family clans around her, namely the Beauforts, Chaucers, Swynfords and Lancasters, remained on cordial terms'

'It was a shame that for all the women King Henry had taken in marriage after Anne's death, not a single one of them has taught Elizabeth to avoid the plots and intrigues at Court. I feared this was just the beginning. Edward was still young and he had no heirs to follow should something happen to him. As long as Elizabeth was in line for the throne, she would always be a magnet for men and their ambition.'

'If these grants were not ample demonstration of John Beaufort's standing with the king by the end of 1401, then any doubts were dispelled on 26 November when Henry stood godfather to Somerset's firstborn son, 'whom the king has this day raised from the font'. The newborn, christened Henry after the king, even received a hereditary annual grant of 1,000 marks'

'The prosperity of the Beauforts continued into the second year of their half-brother's reign and was partly due to the relative inexperience and young age of others among the nobility. In 1401, the disinherited sons of those who had participated in the Epiphany Rising were young and posed little threat to the Beauforts' ascendancy... It was a depleted nobility that allowed the Beauforts to flourish'

'a promising future beckoned for the foursome. Provided they retained the good grace of their half-brother, they had reasonable expectations of widespread patronage that included money, manors and titles... Not for the first time in English history, keeping a crown proved more difficult than winning one, and for the Beauforts, their very existence depended on their half-brother keeping his.'

'After Henry's enthronement in Lincoln, Katherine Swynford could proudly claim to be the mother of a marquis, a countess and a bishop, a scenario that must have seemed unfathomable in the bleak period following the Peasants' Revolt. In stark contrast to Norfolk's claim that the Beauforts were about to be undone by the king, evidence suggests they were very much in the ascendancy'

'I had served three of his wives, danced at his masques, walked through his gardens and in all that time, we had barely exchanged words. Why did I grieve so? After a while, I realised it was because when I saw the king I knew that I belonged. He looked like my father. We had the same nose and squinty eyes. My golden red locks matched his. I had none of the Boleyn traits and I looked nothing like the Careys.'