To what extent was Margaret Beaufort responsible for the downfall of Richard III?
Margaret Beaufort had a reasonable part to play in the downfall of Richard, where her actions were for the
benefit of her son, Henry Tudor, creating the path to the throne for him. Through her influence over her
husband, Lord Stanley, at Bosworth 1485 and her alliance with Elizabeth Woodville, she was able to weaken
Richard’s position which eventually led to Henry usurping the throne. However, there are other factors
which proved vital in Richard’s downfall that were unrelated to Margaret, for example, Richard’s own
failure at foreign policy, planting northerners in the south and alienating his supporters.
It was not Margaret who was responsible for Richard’s downfall but Richard himself, who alienated his own
support as well as having the damaged reputation of killing the princes in the tower. Richard was deemed
as untrustworthy and deeply suspicious by many who believed he had his nephews murdered, perhaps due
to the manner of his usurpation where he arguably acted against the true line of succession. People were
ready to believe the worst of him given he had killed the figureheads for rebels, acting outside the bounds
of acceptable political behaviour. Richard alienated his supporters from the beginning of his reign, including
men from Edward IV’s former household including Lord Hastings – this was significant given that these
actions of Richard’s would only alienate him away from his brother’s supporters, and cause a rift between
the two. Those loyal to their favoured King Edward were being mercilessly killed by his brother, and for this
Richard would only lose support and make it exceedingly difficult to smoothly gain the throne. Richard also
alienated the support of the loyal Earl of Northumberland who had served under Edward IV in the north,
and with Richard under his second reign. Both worked well together, and Richard had called on
Northumberland for support when facing the Woodville plot in June 1483, yet Richard chose to not allow
Percy to continue serving in the north, promoting his nephew and heir, the Earl of Lincoln instead. This
shows how Richard’s own actions weren’t carefully thought out, and had he continued having loyal men in
charge arguably he would’ve maintained support throughout his reign, as this only resulted in Percy not
engaging in Bosworth 1485. Richard’s own mistakes from the start meant that he lacked sufficient support
which meant that when it was needed most at Bosworth, nowhere near enough men turned out for him.
However, arguably Margaret was responsible for Richard’s downfall given that she had influence over her
husband, Lord Stanley, who eventually defected in favour of Tudor at Bosworth. Despite Richard holding
one of his son’s hostage, many of Stanley’s men favoured Henry over Richard, which may have added
weighting to Margaret’s calls for Stanley to defect. Margaret was desperate to elevate her and Henry’s
position and she did this through her marriage to Stanley, who had great influence around Edward IV and
was well respected. Despite Richard’s own mistakes in alienating his support it cant be argued that
Margaret was important in potentially influencing her husband’s decision to defect at Bosworth, proving
fatal to Richard’s position.
Margaret was responsible for Richard’s downfall given her alliance with Elizabeth Woodville which would
seek to undermine Richard’s position. Lord Stanley was close with the Woodvilles so Margaret was able to
use this to seek an allegiance with Elizabeth, Edward IV’s wife in which they agreed for Henry to marry
Elizabeth of York. This was important as Margaret’s actions had meant previous Yorkist supporters of
Edward IV were now drawn to Henry Tudor, given he would marry the former king’s daughter. This
therefore cemented their alliance, providing hope for Lancastrian and Yorkist peace whilst at the same
time alienating the troublesome and suspicious Richard who lacked the support of his people. Margaret
was smart here given that Richard had planned to marry Elizabeth himself, therefore ruining his plan,
leaving him a widower and therefore isolated from getting closer to the Woodvilles. Richard had no true
heir, except his nephew Lincoln but this left him in an increasingly unstable position thanks to Margaret.
However, perhaps it was more of the distrust surrounding these rumours and the image of Richard
poisoning Anne that led to his downfall, not Margaret’s alliance with Elizabeth. People were untrustworthy
of the king who apparently killed his wife so he could remarry a younger woman to gain an heir, and feared
what he would do next. Arguably Margaret only sped up his downfall and provided obstacles in his way.
