Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou: A Marriage of Unequals > Status Update

‘The king’s physical presence was significant: bodily, he was the personification of his kingship, standing under the banner bearing his arms, in the thick of the fighting. For all York’s protestations that he was defending the king, in legal terms anyone engaging in combat with any army fighting under the royal standard was committing an act of treason. Equally, Henry could very easily have been killed.’

‘She may have been ill-equipped to try to step into the shoes of government, but she had the advice of her husband’s leading councillors, and she understood that Henry’s recent efforts to stabilise the crown needed to be re-enforced. That this period of turmoil happened to coincide with her pregnancy and delivery, followed by her post-partum recovery, is indicative of the inner reserves of strength‘

‘Although Henry was a deeply devout king, there is no reason to suspect the marriage was not consummated successfully, on that occasion, or soon afterwards. It is not possible to assert, as Paul Murray Kendall does, that Margaret was ‘already a woman; passionate, proud and strong-willed’ or, as he continues, that she was humiliated by her discovery that she was ‘married to a monk’’

‘This shows just how far the Lancastrian dynasty had secured its position in the space of three generations, since Henry IV had usurped his cousin, Richard II. Just twenty-three years after that event, the baby Lancastrian grandson was considered the legitimate heir in spite of the existence of Edmund Mortimer, a fully-grown man of 31, whose line had been nominated by the childless Richard II as his heirs.’