Margaret of Anjou

Born in 1430 into the House of Valois-Anjou, Margaret became Queen of England at fifteen through marriage to Henry VI. When her husband's recurring insanity left the throne vulnerable, she stepped into the vacuum - ruling in his place and in May 1455 convening a Great Council that pointedly excluded the Yorkist faction under Richard of York. That exclusion sparked the Wars of the Roses. For more than thirty years she personally commanded the Lancastrian side, earning praise for her "valiant courage and undaunted spirit" even as the conflict devoured England's old nobility and killed thousands. The final blow came at Tewkesbury in 1471, where her son Edward of Westminster died in battle and she was captured by the Yorkists. Ransomed four years later by her cousin Louis XI, she returned to France and lived out her remaining years as a poor relation, dying in 1482 at fifty-two.