Queen Margaret

Widow of Henry VI and mother of a murdered prince, Margaret lingers unwanted among the victors who killed her family, a living accusation no one can silence or safely expel. Her torrents of prophecy and malediction give the play its conscience and its dread, naming the doom that will find each Yorkist in turn. She matters because she alone refuses the amnesia of the new regime, and her curses set the moral clock ticking under every feast and council.