Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/148

 Tower, and assured him of her continued favour (, Chroniques, 1447–71, pp. 264–5).

Margaret was now beginning to take an active part, not only in general policy, but in the details of administration. She became an active administrator of her own estates, a good friend to her servants and dependents, but a hearty foe to those whom she disliked. Her private correspondence shows her eager for favours, greedy and importunate in her requests, unscrupulous in pushing her friends' interests, and an unblushing ‘maintainer,’ constantly interfering with the course of private justice. She was an indefatigable match-maker, and seldom ceased meddling with the private affairs of the gentry (Letters of Margaret of Anjou, Camden Soc.;, ii. 128, 141; Paston Letters, i. 134, 254, 305, ed. Gairdner). Poor and greedy, she early obtained an unlimited power of evading the customs duties and the staple regulations by a license to export wool and tin whithersoever she pleased (, ii. 90).

A more pleasing sign of Margaret's activity at this time was her foundation of Queens' College, Cambridge. The real founder of this house was Andrew Doket [q. v.], rector of St. Botolph's, Cambridge, who had obtained in 1446 a charter for the establishment of a small college, called St. Bernard's College, of which he himself was to be president. But he afterwards enlarged his site and his plans, and in 1447 persuaded the queen, who was probably anxious to imitate her husband's greater foundation of King's College, to interest herself in the work. She petitioned her husband to grant a new charter, and, as no college in Cambridge had been founded by any queen, she begged that it might be called Queen's College, of St. Mary and St. Bernard. The prayer was granted, and in 1448 a new charter of foundation was issued. The whole of the endowment, however, seems to have been contributed by Doket. On 15 April 1448 her chamberlain, Sir J. Wenlock, laid the first stone of the chapel, which was opened for worship in 1464 (, History of Queens' College, Cambridge, Cambridge Antiquarian Soc. 8vo ser. No. ix.; and, Architectural History of Cambridge). After Margaret's fall the college fell into great difficulties, but Doket finally persuaded Elizabeth Wydville, the queen of Edward IV, to refound the house. The course of events gave Margaret a new importance. In August 1453 Henry VI fell into a condition of complete prostration and insanity. On 13 Oct. Margaret gave birth to her only son, after more than eight years of barrenness. The king's illness put an end to the old state of confusion, during which Margaret and Somerset had tried to rule through his name. A regency was now necessary. For this position Margaret herself was a claimant. In January 1454 it was known that ‘the queen hath made a bill of five articles, whereof the first is that she desireth to have the whole rule of this land’ (ib. i. 265). But public feeling was strongly against her. Moreover, it is right a great abusion A woman of a land to be a regent. (Pol. Poems, ii. 268, Rolls Ser.) On 27 March parliament appointed York protector of the realm, and the personal rivalry between York and Margaret was intensified. The birth of her son had deprived him of any hopes of a peaceful succession to the throne on Henry's death, while it inspired her with a new and fiercer zeal on behalf of her family interests. Henceforth she stood forward as the great champion of her husband's cause. The Yorkists did not hesitate to impute to her the foulest vices. At home and abroad it was believed that the young Prince Edward was no son of King Henry's (Chron. Davies, pp. 79, 92;, i. 299; , v. 464).

The recovery of Henry VI in January 1455 put an end to York's protectorate. Somerset was released from the Tower, and Margaret again made a great effort to crush her rival. York accordingly took arms. His victory at St. Albans was marked by the death of Somerset, and soon followed by a return of the king's malady. York was now again protector, but early in 1456 Henry was again restored to health, and, anxious for peace and reconciliation, proposed to continue York as his chief councillor. But Margaret strongly opposed this weakness. ‘The queen,’ wrote one of the Paston correspondents, ‘is a great and strong laboured woman, for she spareth no pain to sue her things to an intent and conclusion to her power’ (Paston Letters, i. 378). She obtained her way in putting an end to the protectorship, but she did not succeed in driving York and his friends from the administration. Profoundly disgusted at her husband's compliance, she withdrew from London, leaving Henry in York's hands. She kept herself with her son at a distance from her husband, spending part of April and May, for example, at Tutbury (ib. i. 386–7). At the end of May she visited her son Edward's earldom of Chester (ib. i. 392). She no doubt busied herself with preparations for a new attack on York. In August she was joined by Henry in the midlands, and both spent most of October at Coventry, where a great