Lady Margaret Beaufort was born in 1443 into a England already sliding toward civil war. From the beginning, her life was marked by danger disguised as duty. Married at twelve, pregnant by thirteen, she gave birth to Henry VII at fourteen—an ordeal that nearly killed her and ensured she would never bear another child. That child became her life’s purpose. Margaret was descended from John of Gaunt, giving her son a fragile Lancastrian claim to the throne. Fragile claims were lethal in the Wars of