#and the move by some to blame henry and margaret for failing to save suffolk is... | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

une-sanz-pluis · 11 months ago

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I remember you saying that Margaret of Anjou only gained sympathy from historians in the 20th century, and even during the Tudor dynasty, they were still smearing her.

I have definitely said that, borrowing from a comment made by Katherine J. Lewis on this podcast where she talked about how efforts to canonise Henry VI and cast him as the Tudors' saintly ancestor and benefactor resulted in Margaret needing to be absorb the sins of his regime. Stories like Margaret's involvement in the plot against "Good Duke Humphrey" and her affair with the Duke of Suffolk only emerged in the Tudor era and culminated in Shakespeare's depiction of her in his Wars of the Roses plays (Henry VI, Parts 1, 2 and 3 and Richard III). Shakespeare's version has long shaped the "standard" view of Margaret but the moves to discount his take on the Wars of the Roses have never resulted in a reassessment of Margaret's character. His plays remains the most obvious sources for many of Margaret's "evil deeds" despite no historical precedent for them? For example, Margaret was never at the Battle of Wakefield but she's usually depicted as jubilantly ordering the heaping of indignities on Richard, Duke of York's corpse.

In brief: Margaret has served and still serves as the sin-eater for Henry VI and the Lancastrians (and, by extensions, the Beauforts and Tudors).

#i've seen recent revisionist takes on suffolk and alice chaucer now blame margaret for their downfall and unpopularity #there could be a debate about whether their unpopularity was due to taking on the blame for henry vi's policy failures #(which is part and parcel of medieval discourses - blame the favourite not the king who is presented as a neutral figure)#but the reality was probably not that they were perfect baby angels who did nothing wrong but serve as scapegoats for henry #and the move by some to blame henry and margaret for failing to save suffolk is...#weird.#we know henry intervened to spare suffolk from the death penalty we know parliament was baying for suffolk's blood #we know henry wanted to save him and tried very hard to and would have succeeded had suffolk not been murdered!#it's basically the equivalent of blaming edward ii for piers gaveston's death or richard ii for simon burley's #the tudors weren't especially interested in redeeming the lancastrians #they framed the wars of the roses as divine punishment for henry iv's usurption of richard ii #(shredsandpatches says this much better than i do)#margaret of anjou #propaganda #reputation and representation #ask #anon

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