Portrayed by Shakespeare as cruel and bloodthirsty, Margaret played a significant role in the Wars of the Roses as warrior queen to the hapless Henry VI.
Margaret barely knew her father, Count René of Anjou, and was brought up by two forceful, literate women: her mother Isabelle of Lorraine and her grandmother Yolande of Aragon. Her marriage to Henry in 1445, part of an unsuccessful deal to end the Hundred Years War with France, produced only one child, Prince Edward, in 1453.
In the same year, Margaret attempted to take control as regent after Henry temporarily took leave of his senses in the wake of defeat by the French at the battle of Castillon. But the job went to Richard of York, the king's closest male relative and greatest rival.
During the Wars of the Roses – a monumental squabble between two noble factions – Margaret oversaw the Lancastrian campaign as Henry's mental health swung between relapse and recovery. She missed her chance to retain the throne after defeating the Yorkists at St Albans in 1461. Having freed the captured Henry, she held back from continuing on to London, fearful of her unpopularity. This left the Yorkist claimant Edward IV free to seize power.
Margaret and Henry fled to Scotland. In 1463, she returned to Lorraine, with her son, setting up her own court in exile. Shortly after, Henry had to go into hiding, but was discovered in 1465 and imprisoned in the Tower by Edward IV.
Five years later, Margaret struck a deal with the earl of Warwick – known as the 'Kingmaker' – to restore Henry to the throne, but on the day that she returned to England (14 April 1471), Warwick was killed at Barnet. On 4 May, her forces were defeated by Edward IV at the battle of Tewkesbury, her son was killed and Henry murdered shortly afterwards.
Margaret herself was held prisoner until handed over to France for a ransom of £12,500 in August 1475. She then returned to Anjou but was left virtually destitute after her father's death in 1480.
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 The Baldwin Project: Margaret of Anjou by Jacob Abbott
www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=abbott
&book=margaret&story=_contents
Facsimile of a children's biography written in 1861.
Margaret of Anjou
www.r3.org/fiction/roses/anjou.html
Brief annotated biography on the American branch of the Richard III Society's website.
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Margaret of Anjou: Queenship and power in late medieval England by Helen E Maurer (Boydell Press, 2003)
Biography that looks at what it meant to be queen of England in the Middle Ages, and how Margaret worked within and around the roles of woman and queen.
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