Lady Margaret could never have been Queen

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Women's claims to the throne of England

The arms of Margaret Beaufort, flanked by mythical yales, at St John’s College, Cambridge Photo: Holmes Garden Photos/Alamy

Glenda Cooper (Features, October 10) writes on the queens of England we might have had, if the rules on female succession had not applied. However, Margaret Beaufort, who derived the title Countess of Richmond from her second husband, Edmund Tudor did not have any claim to the throne.

She was descended from the illegitimate son of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford, his mistress. When Gaunt later married Katherine he had their children legitimised by Act of Parliament, but the same Act specifically barred them from ever inheriting the throne.

Margaret's son, Henry Tudor, had an equally derisory claim to the throne of England and always claimed to rule by right of arms, not inheritance. Margaret "Richmond" could never have been Queen