Margaret of Anjou (French: Marguerite d'Anjou) (23 March 1430 – 25 August 1482) is the wife of King Henry VI of England.
As such, she is Queen consort of England from 1445 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471.
She also claims to be Queen consort of France from 1445 to 1453.
Born in the Duchy of Lorraine, into the House of Valois-Anjou, Margaret is the second eldest daughter of René I of Naples and Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine.
She is one of the principal figures in the series of dynastic civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses and at times personally leads the Lancastrian faction.
Due to her husband's frequent bouts of insanity, Margaret rules the kingdom in his place.
It is she who calls for a Great Council in May 1455 that excludes the Yorkist faction headed by Richard, Duke of York, and thus provides the spark that ignites a civil conflict which lasts for over thirty years, decimates the old nobility of England, and causes the deaths of thousands of men, including her only son Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471.
Margaret is taken prisoner by the victorious Yorkists after the Lancastrian defeat at Tewkesbury.
In 1475, she is ransomed by her cousin, King Louis XI of France.
She goes to live in France as a poor relation of the French king, and she dies there at the age of 52.
