Margaret of Anjou has had a bad press. As queen of England she was on the losing side in the first phase of the Wars of the Roses, the struggle between the Houses of Lancaster and York. Yorkist propaganda vilifying Margaret was consolidated by Shakespeare: his portrait of her as a warlike and vengeful queen - "a tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" - has been accepted ever since. But Margaret's letters tell a different story. They reveal a woman who lived according to the noble standards of her time. She enjoyed the hunt, she practised her faith, and she tried to help or protect...