Margaret Beaufort (1443). Lady Margaret Beaufort was the mother of King Henry VII and paternal grandmother of King Henry VIII of England. Several portraits of Lady Margaret Beaufort survive from the Tudor period. One of the most famous is the Beaufort Portrait, which shows her wearing a black gown and a white veil, with a book in her hands. This portrait is believed to have been painted around 1500, when Lady Margaret was in her late sixties. Another portrait, known as the "Muniment Room Portrait," shows her in a similar pose, but with a more elaborate headdress. She was a patron of architecture, and she commissioned several buildings during her lifetime. One of the most famous is St John's College, Cambridge, which she founded in 1511. The college's chapel features a large stained-glass window that depicts Lady Margaret kneeling in prayer before the Virgin Mary and Child. Several sculptures of Lady Margaret Beaufort were created after her death. One of the most famous is the tomb effigy in Westminster Abbey, which shows her lying on a funeral bier, with her hands clasped in prayer. The effigy is made of alabaster and is decorated with intricate carvings and gilding. She was a key figure in the Wars of the Roses and an influential matriarch of the House of Tudor. She is credited with the establishment of two prominent Cambridge colleges, founding Christ's College in 1505 and beginning the development of St John's College, which was completed posthumously by her executors in 1511. Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, the first Oxford college to admit women, is named after her and has a statue of her in the college chapel. She was the daughter and sole heiress of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, a legitimised grandson of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster by his mistress Katherine Swynford. Margaret was born at Bletsoe Castle, Bedfordshire, on either 31 May 1441 or, more likely, on 31 May 1443. The day and month are not disputed, as she required Westminster Abbey to celebrate her birthday on 31 May. The year of her birth is more uncertain. William Dugdale, the 17th-century antiquary, suggested that she may have been born in 1441, based on evidence of inquisitions post mortem taken after the death of her father. Dugdale has been followed by a number of Margaret's biographers; however, it is more likely that she was born in 1443, as in May 1443 her father had negotiated with the king concerning the wardship of his unborn child should he die on campaign. At the moment of her birth, Margaret's father was preparing to go to France and lead an important military expedition for King Henry VI. Somerset negotiated with the king to ensure that in case of his death the rights to Margaret's wardship and marriage would be granted only to his wife. As a tenant-in-chief of the crown the wardship of his heir fell to the crown under the feudal system. Somerset fell out with the king after coming back from France and was banished from the royal court pending a charge of treason against him. He died shortly afterwards. According to Thomas Basin, Somerset died of illness, but the Crowland Chronicle reported that his death was suicide. Margaret, as his only child, was heiress to his fortune. Upon her first birthday, the king broke the arrangement with Margaret's father and granted the wardship of her extensive lands to William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, although Margaret herself remained in the custody of her mother. Margaret's mother was pregnant at the time of Somerset's death, but the child did not survive and Margaret remained the sole heir. Although she was her father's only legitimate child, Margaret had two maternal half-brothers and three maternal half-sisters from her mother's first marriage whom she supported after her son's accession to the throne. Margaret was married to Suffolk's son, John de la Pole.