Historian offers comment on BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time

Dr Katherine Lewis appeared on the programme, hosted by Melvyn Bragg, which explored the life and reputation of Henry VI’s ambitious queen, Margaret of Anjou

SHAKESPEARE depicted Margaret of Anjou – England’s queen during the calamitous reign of Henry VI – as the murderous “She-Wolf of France”.  But a more rounded and sympathetic portrait of one of medieval history’s most formidable women emerged when the University of Huddersfield’s Dr Katherine Lewis made her latest appearance on one of BBC Radio 4’s most prestigious programmes.

It was an edition of Melvyn Bragg’s long-running In Our Time that dealt with the life and reputation of Margaret, daughter of the Duke of Anjou in France.  She was in her early teens when she crossed the Channel in 1445 to become the bride of Henry, a mentally unstable ruler whose weakness and lack of military prowess led to feuding among the nobles and the conflict that came to be known as the Wars of the Roses.

Dr Lewis, a senior lecturer in medieval history at the University of Huddersfield, is the author of Kingship and Masculinity in Late Medieval England, which examines the contrasts between the warrior hero Henry V and his son, who completely failed to live up to the kingly ideals of the period.

She was one of the panel of three experts assembled by Melvyn Bragg to explore the life and times of Margaret of Anjou and her doomed attempts to secure the Lancastrian dynasty, so that her son Prince Edward could ascend to the throne.  Instead, he was slain at the Battle of Tewksbury, and Henry VI too was killed – ending all of Margaret’s hopes.

Dr Lewis was quizzed by Melvyn Bragg on the character of Henry VI and – alongside James Ross of the University of Winchester and Joanna Laynesmith of the University of Reading – she provided narrative and analysis of the Wars of the Roses and Margaret of Anjou’s role.  When her husband had a catastrophic breakdown and was completely uncommunicative for 18 months, Margaret was spurred into action and attempted to secure the right to rule the kingdom.

“People have used this as evidence that she is ambitious to take power into her own hands, but it is about trying to secure the rights of her son,” said Dr Lewis.

The 45-minute broadcast – which has a podcast version that has an additional eight minutes material – concluded with a discussion of Shakespeare’s picture of Margaret in Shakespeare’s Henry VI trilogy of plays, in which she is dubbed the “She-Wolf of France” and depicted as a cruel adulteress who personally murders her rival the Duke of York.

Dr Lewis explained that Shakespeare drew his material – most of it untrue – from later Tudor sources which claimed that Margaret’s actions were an expression of her gender and that she had an evil character and was ambitious and aggressive.

“But the idea that Margaret acted out of vindictiveness and spite is very unfair,” said Dr Lewis.  “She was the Queen and it was her responsibility to protect the dynasty and the interests of her son.  And she made a very good shot at it.  She could have won…”

• Dr Lewis has appeared in an earlier edition of In Our Time, dealing with Margery Kempe and English mysticism.  All episodes of the series are archived and can be downloaded.  More than 500 are available.