I don't think she was able to have any more children but it wasn't common knowledge. Her comment to her mother about sending a child to do a woman's job was true. She gave birth to her son when she was 12 years old and very nearly died herself, so it would not be at all surprising if she was left unable to have more. Her second husband was not a fool and knew Margaret had no desire to marry him but was forced by her mother. I felt very bad for him; he tried very hard to make her happy and he was good to her, especially by the standards of the time, but she blamed him as well. I wondered more than once if he agreed to marry her anyway because he knew how awful her mother was and thought if he married Margaret it would prevent her from being given to someone as cruel as her mother was. I think he saw that her mother was pleased by her daughter's pain and unhappiness. Her not having children with him may have been blamed on his age. In any case, he was a decent man and would not have set her aside for not giving him an heir. He eventually laid town heavy terms for her to avoid what would amount to house arrest but she brought that on herself and could have gotten much worse.
She did not hate Stanley that way because he was her choice, not her mother's. I think the marriage was just as strategical for him as for her. She wanted and got a position at court, and he was married to essentially the wealthiest woman in the country. She dressed as if she were relatively poor in simple clothing without jewels or ornamentation, but her personal wealth was likely comparable to any member of the royal family. Since her half-brother was dead everything her mother had went to her, and as Stafford had no heirs his money went to her as his wife. If things went the way she wanted Stanley would be stepfather to the King. He ensured if she was found a traitor he would not be, so he would get everything she owned because her son would remain in exile. He wasn't cruel but he had no more love for her than she had for him and no desire to share her bed. He seemed decent for the time in the way he treated women so he probably preferred a much more willing sex partner, but Margaret did not really know enough about men in general to realize that.
She is not a likable person, but knowing her history makes her more understandable. When Anne said she was ancient she wasn't really that old. The combination of Anne's youth, Margaret's attitude, history, and relative uncaring as to her appearance made her seem much older than she really was.
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Murphed87
7 years ago
Her second husband was not a fool and knew Margaret had no desire to marry him but was forced by her mother. I felt very bad for him; he tried very hard to make her happy and he was good to her, especially by the standards of the time, but she blamed him as well. I wondered more than once if he agreed to marry her anyway because he knew how awful her mother was and thought if he married Margaret it would prevent her from being given to someone as cruel as her mother was. I think he saw that her mother was pleased by her daughter's pain and unhappiness. Her not having children with him may have been blamed on his age. In any case, he was a decent man and would not have set her aside for not giving him an heir. He eventually laid town heavy terms for her to avoid what would amount to house arrest but she brought that on herself and could have gotten much worse.
I was always under the impression that he realized that she didn't want to marry him over time. She barely hides her desire for Jasper and there are times her has caught them in an inappropriate positions. I always thought she liked him and thought he was a good man, but his refusal to support a goal that he didn't want or believe was her main source of resentment. I am not sure he knew how cruel Lady Beauchamp was to Margaret, but that Margaret didn't like her. One thing that threw me off was her reaction to his death. When he died she seemed to involuntarily break down as if she tried to hold it in. But was she crying for him or her loss and his request to make peace with the Yorks. I never thought she hated him, after-all she insisted to retrieve him herself from the battlefield despite telling him he was dead to her for not fighting for Lancaster. She was a very hard read character. Like when Stanly was asking her what outcome she wanted when they break the Princes out of the Tower, she initially refused to entertain the notion of killing them until Stanly grills her for an answer. But before that she gleefully talked about Richard killing them to unknowingly get rid of them for her. She was all over the place with her wants and attitude towards people.
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