Margaret Beaufort

1443-1509. Married 4 times, first aged 12 to Edmund Tudor, she was the tiny, charitable and devoted mother of Henry Tudor (Henry VII), to whom she gave birth aged 13. They were separated for many years of his youth and young adulthood as he had to flee to France from Yorkist rule. After his victory at Bosworth in 1485, aided by her husband Henry Stanley's intervention in the battle, she became a powerful royal matriarchal figure.