Editing Margaret of Anjou (section)

=== Childhood ===
Margaret was born on 23 March 1430<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brooke |first1=C.N.L. |last2=Ortenberg |first2=V. |date=June 1988 |title=The Birth of Margaret of Anjou |journal=Historical Research |volume=61 |issue=146 |pages=357–358 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-2281.1988.tb01072.x}}</ref> at [[Pont-à-Mousson]] in [[Lorraine]], a fief of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] east of France ruled by a [[cadet branch]] of the French kings, the [[House of Valois-Anjou]]. Margaret was the second daughter of [[René of Anjou]], and of [[Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine]]. She had five brothers and four sisters, as well as three half-siblings from her father's relationships with mistresses. Her father, popularly known as "Good King René" (Bon Roi René), was [[Counts and dukes of Anjou|duke of Anjou]] and titular [[king of Naples]], [[Sicily]], and [[Jerusalem]]; he has been described as "a man of many crowns but no kingdoms". Margaret was baptised at [[Toul]] in Lorraine and, in the care of her father's old nurse Theophanie la Magine, she spent her early years at the [[castle at Tarascon]] on the river [[Rhône]] in [[Provence]] and in the old royal palace at [[Capua]], near Naples in the [[Kingdom of Sicily]]. Her mother took care of her education and may have arranged for her to have lessons with the scholar [[Antoine de la Sale]], who taught her brothers. In childhood, Margaret was known as ''la petite créature'' (the little creature)<ref name=":0" /> and was interested in French romances and hunting.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Dockray |first=Keith |title=Henry VI, Margaret of Anjou, and the Wars of the Roses from Contemporary Chronicles, Letters, and Records |publisher=Fonthill Media |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-78155-469-2}}</ref>

Her family included several prominent women who exercised power in politics, war, and administration as regents and queen-lieutenants. Her mother, [[Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine|Isabella of Lorraine]], fought wars on behalf of her husband while he was imprisoned in 1431-1432 and 1434-1436 by the duke of Burgundy, [[Philip the Good]], and ruled the [[Duchy of Lorraine]] in her own right. Her paternal grandmother, [[Yolande of Aragon]], ruled the Duchy of Anjou as regent for her son while Margaret was a child, repelling an English military presence and supporting the disinherited [[Charles VII of France]] (Dauphin).<ref name="K19">Kendall, p. 19.</ref><ref name="MaurerH" /> It has been suggested that this family example provided her with precedents for her later actions as regent for her son.<ref name="K19" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Johnson |first=Elizabeth |title=Shadow King: The Life and Death of Henry VI |publisher=Head of Zeus |year=2019 |isbn=9781784979645 |pages=190}}</ref> Attitudes to women's exercise of power were different in [[Western Europe]] than in England at the time, with England more opposed to women exercising authority.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Earenfight |first=Theresa |title=Queenship in Medieval Europe |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2013 |isbn=9780230276468}}</ref>