Margaret Beaufort

Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443–1509) was an English noblewoman of the Wars of the Roses and mother of Henry VII, founder of the Tudor dynasty. Daughter of John Beaufort, she inherited a claim to the throne, married Edmund Tudor, and in 1457, aged thirteen, bore her only child, the future Henry VII.

She conspired against Richard III, and her husband Thomas Stanley helped win Bosworth Field in 1485. Under her son she wielded great influence and patronised printing and learning.

She founded Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1505, and also began St John's College, completed by her executors in 1511. She died on 29 June 1509.