Margaret of Anjou: Queen and Mother at the Loveday of 1458
Abstract:
In 1458 during the beginning stages of the Wars of the Roses there was an attempt made by the king, Henry VI, to reconcile the parties and halt any future conflicts. He organized for the staging of a Loveday ceremony, which was a medieval ceremony designed to bring two feuding parties together celebrated by the church. The Loveday involved a process of arbitration and then a procession to publicize the reconciliation. Henry’s queen, Margaret of Anjou, used the Loveday to promote her son’s right to the throne, and to cement her place as a political force. During the Loveday she played a prominent role and through strict order of precedence was elevated higher then Henry, she used this as a demonstration of her power, and of the Lancastrian future symbolized by her son. Henry suffered a mental collapse in 1453 and never completely recovered, leaving him in a weakened mental state that created a power vacuum in the country that Margaret and other nobles competed to fill.