Maragret as seen by her contemporaries

http://www.susanhigginbotham.com/


"The Quene is a grete and strong labourid woman, for she spareth noo peyne to sue hire thinges to an intent and conclusion to hir power."

— John Boking to Sir John Fastolf in The Paston Letters, February 9, 1456

"Look how proudly she writes."

— Louis XI of France, quoted in a dispatch dated February 2, 1465

"Our most dear and well-beloved companion the queen."

— Henry VI to Charles VII of France, in a letter dated December 22, 1445

"I am writing to report what an Englishman told me about the magnificence of the Queen of England and how she was brought to England. . . . When the queen landed in England the king dressed himself as a squire, the Duke of Suffolk doing the same, and took her a letter which he said the King of England had written. When the queen read the letter the king took stock (amirò) of her, saying that a woman may be seen over well when she reads a letter, and the queen never found out that it was the king because she was so engrossed in reading the letter, and she never looked at the king in his squire's dress, who remained on his knees all the time. After the king had gone the Duke of Suffolk said: Most serene queen, what do you think of the squire who brought the letter? The queen replied: I did not notice him, as I was occupied in reading the letter he brought. The duke remarked: Most serene queen, the person dressed as a squire was the most serene King of England, and the queen was vexed at not having known it, because she had kept him on his knees. . . .

    "The Englishman told me that the queen is a most handsome woman, though somewhat dark and not so beautiful as your Serenity. He told me that his mistress is wise and charitable, and your Serenity has the reputation of being equally wise and more charitable. He said that his queen had an income of 80,000 gold crowns. She has a most handsome boy, six years old. . . . The wives [of the English nobles] are at Court also, and when the wife of the Duke of Petro a Baylito, the king's son and all the duchesses speak to the queen, they always go on their knees before her."

— Raffaelo De Negra to Bianca Maria Visconti, Duchess of Milan, October 24, 1458

"At the kyngys departynge fro Covyntre towarde the fylde of Northehampton, he kyste hyr and blessyd the prynce, and commaundyd hyr that she shulde not com unto hym tylle that [he] sende a specyalle tokyn unto hyr that no man knewe but the kynge and she. For the lordys wolde fayne hadde hyr unto Lundon, for they knewe welle that alle the workyngys that were done growe by hyr, for she was more wyttyer then the kynge . . ."

— Gregory's Chronicle

"[Margaret] arrived there poor and alone, destitute of goods and all desolate; [she] had neither credence, nor money, nor goods, nor jewels to pledge. . . . Her body was clad in one single robe, with no change of clothing."

— Georges Chastellain, describing Margaret's arrival as a refugee at Sluys in 1463.
From The Wars of the Roses by J. R. Lander