Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/119

 young, she was married to Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, by whom she had a son named Henry, who was afterwards king of England, by the title of Henry the Seventh. On the 3rd. of November, 1456, the Earl of Richmond died, leaving Margaret a very young widow, and his son and heir, Henry, not above fifteen weeks old. Her second husband was Sir Henry Stafford, knight, second son to the Duke of Buckingham, by whom she had no issue. And soon after the death of Sir Henry Stafford, which happened about 1482, she married Thomas, Lord Stanley, afterwards Earl of Derby, who died in 1504. After spending a life in successive acts of beneficence, she paid the great debt of nature on the 29th. of June, 1509, in the first year of the reign of her grandson, Henry the Eighth. She was buried in Westminster Abbey, where a monument was erected to her memory. It is of black marble, with her effigy in gilt copper; and the head is encircled with a coronet. She founded and endowed the colleges of Christ and St. John's, at Cambridge.

BEAUHARNAIS, FANNY, COUNTESS DE, aunt of Josephine's first husband, was born at Paris, in 1738. Her father was receiver-general of finances, and he gave her a brilliant education. From her earliest youth, she showed a great taste for poetry. At the age of seventeen, she was married to Count de Beauharnais, whom she did not love, and she soon separated from him by taking up her residence in the convent of the Visitation. Here she assembled around her the most distinguished literary and scientific men; but she was criticised as well as flattered; and though Buffon called her his daughter, Le Brun wrote epigrams against her.

In 1773, Madame de Beauharnais published a little work entitled "A Tous les penseurs Salut," in which she undertook the defence of female authorship. But this was considered a strange instance of audacity, though the women of France then ruled everything from state affairs down to fashionable trifles. Le Brun, a bitter and satirical poet answered Madame de Beauharnais in a strain of keen invective. "Ink," said he "ill becomes rosy fingers." Madame de Beauharnais published a volume of fugitive poems; also "Lettres de Stephanie," an historical romance, several other romances, and a comedy entitled "La Fausse inconstance ou le triomphe de l'honnéteté. She died in 1813.

BEAUMONT, MADAME LE PRINCE DE, able and lively French writer, whose works, in the form of romances, letters, memoirs, etc., were written for the improvement of youth in morals and religion. She was born at Rouen, April 26th., 1711, and died at Anneci, 1780.

BECTOR, CLAUDE DE, from an illustrious house in Dauphiny, abbess of St Honore de Tarascon, was eminent for her knowledge of Latin, and her fine style of writing. She was honoured by her admirers with the name of Scholastica, She gave early such indications of genius, that a monk, Denis Fanchier, undertook the care of her education. In a little time she made so great a progress, that she equalled the