After eight years of marriage, on the 13th October 1453, Margaret of Anjou finally gave birth to an heir to the throne of England. Her child was a boy who she named Edward after Edward the Confessor on whose feast day her baby was born, a joyous occasion for the whole of the country you would think, alas it was not to be.
At the time of Edward's birth his father, Henry VI, was ill, his fragile mental state meant that over the previous four months he had been completely unaware of all that was going on around him, he was unable to stand, walk or move without help and when he was presented with his new born son all he managed was to raise and lower his eyes. By the end of December 1454 the king had regained his scenes and he was finally able to acknowledge his fifteen month old son. However, in a letter from the Milanese Ambassador to the Duke of Milan it states that when Henry talked of his son he said that he must be the son of the Holy Spirit - did Henry consider himself incapable of fathering a child or was he just praising god for this his most wonderful gift?
Margaret of Anjou was described as beautiful and "already a woman: passionate, proud and strong willed" and Henry was seen as an innocent - there are stories that he was shocked and disgusted at the sight of bare chested dancing girls and naked men bathing when he visited the City of Bath. With descriptions such as these it's not unreasonable that history has suggested that the sudden arrival of a child after eight years of marriage was down to Margaret's adultery, for there were rumours in court that Edward was illegitimate.
A women not conceiving in the first years of a marriage isn't uncommon and the cause could be any number of things, one being Henry himself with his pious and saintly ways, after all he was no Henry I ! However, in the first few weeks of January 1453 Margaret and Henry were at Greenwich, they were there to confer knighthoods on Henry's half brothers Edmund and Jasper Tudor and at the same time create them Earls of Richmond and Pembroke. If they were together it was highly likely that Edward was conceived at the time.
A women not conceiving in the first years of a marriage isn't uncommon and the cause could be any number of things, one being Henry himself with his pious and saintly ways, after all he was no Henry I ! However, in the first few weeks of January 1453 Margaret and Henry were at Greenwich, they were there to confer knighthoods on Henry's half brothers Edmund and Jasper Tudor and at the same time create them Earls of Richmond and Pembroke. If they were together it was highly likely that Edward was conceived at the time.
Nine months later Edward was born into a country that was in the midst of a power struggle that his father's weak rule had brought about. The bouts of insanity, the escalating squabble between Edmund Beaufort and Richard Duke of York and his mother's fierce determination to keep control of Henry's throne, so Edward could inherit, would add to the England's troubles.
Ironically, Margaret's resoluteness to see Edward wear the crown would eventually lead to his early death.
Ironically, Margaret's resoluteness to see Edward wear the crown would eventually lead to his early death.
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