HISTORICAL CHARACTERS

House of York

• Richard Duke of York and his wife Cecily, Duchess of York, ‘the Rose of Raby’.
• Parents of:
• Edward (later King Edward IV),
• George of Clarence,
• Richard Duke of Gloucester (later King Richard III).

House of Lancaster

• Henry VI,
• Henry’s wife Margaret of Anjou and their son Prince Edward.

House of Tudor

• Edmund Tudor, first husband of Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond, and half-brother to Henry VI of England. Edmund’s father Owain had married Katherine of Valois, French princess and widow of King Henry V, father of Henry VI.
• Jasper Tudor, Edmund’s brother, kinsman to Henry Tudor (later Henry VII).

House of Margaret Beaufort

• Margaret Countess of Richmond, married first to Edmund Tudor, then Sir Henry Stafford and finally Lord Thomas Stanley.
• Reginald Bray, Margaret’s principal steward and controller of her household.
• Christopher Urswicke, Margaret Beaufort’s personal clerk and leading henchman.
• The verses quoted before each part are from the poem ‘Dies Irae’ (The Day of Death), written by the Franciscan Thomas di Celano.