3649 x 4614 px | 30,9 x 39,1 cm | 12,2 x 15,4 inches | 300dpi
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Margaret of Anjou (Marguerite d'Anjou, 23 March 1430 – 25 August 1482) was the Queen consort of Henry VI of England from 1445 to 1471 and led the Lancastrian contingent in the Wars of the Roses. Due to the king's frequent bouts of insanity, Margaret virtually ruled the kingdom in lieu of her husband. It was she who in May 1455 called for a Great Council which excluded the Yorkist faction, and thus provided the spark which ignited the civil conflict that lasted for over thirty years, decimated the old nobility, and caused the deaths of thousands of men. Margaret was born on 23 March 1430, in Pont-à-Mousson in the Duchy of Lorraine, an Imperial fief east of France that was ruled by the cadet branch of the French kings, the House of Valois-Anjou. Margaret was the second eldest daughter of René I of Naples, Duke of Anjou, King of Naples and Sicily and Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine in her own right. Margaret married King Henry VI, who was eight years her senior, on 23 April 1445, at Titchfield in Hampshire. She was fifteen years old but already a woman, beautiful, passionate and proud, and knew her duty which was to zealously guard the interests of the Crown. This indomitability, she inherited from her mother Isabella, who struggled to establish her husband's claim to the Kingdom of Naples, and her paternal grandmother Yolande of Aragon, who actually governed Anjou "with a man's hand", putting the province in order and keeping out the English. Thus by family example and her own strong-willed personality, she was fully capable of becoming the champion of the Crown. Henry, who had more interest in religion and learning than in military matters, was not a successful king. He had reigned since he was a few months old and his actions had been controlled by regents. When he married Margaret, his mental condition was already unstable and by the time their only son, Edward of Lancaster, was born on 13 October 1453, he had suffered a complete mental breakdown.
