10. Lady Margaret Beaufort and Torrington Manor

Lady Margaret Beaufort was born in c.1441/1443, the daughter of the Duke of Beaufort, a descendant of the Duke of Lancaster John of Gaunt and Edward III. She married Edmund Tudor, the half-brother of King Henry VI, in 1455 and gave birth to a single child, a son Henry in 1457, six months after her husband’s death in captivity.

Margaret became an accomplished political player in the Wars of the Roses, born into the House of Lancaster but related to both sides, Margaret later married twice more, lastly a Yorkist supporter, Thomas Stanley. Margaret’s son Henry Tudor was the primary Lancastrian heir and fled with her brother-in-law Jasper Tudor to France in 1471; Margaret didn’t see Henry again for fourteen years. A key figure behind the Buckingham Rebellion of 1483, an uprising against Richard III, which led to the trial held by Lord Scrope in Torrington Market Square in 1483, Margaret continued to work behind the scenes for her son’s claim to the throne.

In 1485 Henry Tudor, the Duke of Richmond returned to the UK and raised a rebellion against Richard III. Henry won the Battle of Bosworth Field, King Richard dying in the fighting. Henry was crowned Henry VII.

Shortly after his coronation Henry granted his beloved mother many manors and holdings making her one of the richest people in England. Many of the manors granted to Margaret had been loyal to Henry, like Torrington.

Margret was very powerful in the Tudor court, given control of her own lands and estate, as ‘if single’ even though she was married. When her daughter in law Elizabeth, the Queen died in 1503, she steered the futures of her grandchildren. A special royal position of ‘Kings Mother’ was created at court and Henry consulted her on many topics. The Spanish envoy Pedro d Ayala in 1498 wrote (Henry) ‘was much influenced by his mother’.

Margaret, like other magnates of the day with vast holdings moved between her manors. In the later 1300s the seat of the Lord of Torrington had been moved to a new site north of the town, adjacent to the town’s church. Here a large moated manor house complex was constructed. We know once Margaret became Lord of the Manor she further extended and improved the manor house and spent considerable time visiting the town having moved down her library of books, preferring to live alone, despite still being married.

During her time being Lord of the Manor of Torrington Margaret bonded with the Rector of the time, being a very religious woman and was impressed with the education and ambition of the people of the town. In 1499 Margaret took a vow of chastity and to dedicate herself to Christ. Margaret retreated largely to her estate at Collyweston, Northamptonshire.

At this time she gifted the manor house to the Rector, so the clergy of Torrington would not have to travel in from Priestacott about 2km; unusually Margaret also gifted her library to the town’s people, via the church.

A new library building was built onto the chancel of the church to house Margaret’s books. You can find the building today, south of the chancel, indicated by the large crenellations of Tudor roses along the top and having large windows for light for reading. Sadly, many of these books were lost in the later civil war fire at the church and the rest, moved to the guildhall/town hall for safety were lost in a later fire of 1724.