le jeu en vaut la chandelle

The prayer book in front of her lies unclasped on a pillow, the carefully written Latin text opening with a red circle ‘O’, perhaps: Obsecro te (I beseech thee) or O Intemerata (O undefiled one). She, too, is conspicuously undefiled, her hair bound up in a white headdress, her body swathed in black fabric that merges into the shadows on the floor. Her only visible features are a benign face, gazing into the next world, and a pair of pale hands studded with gold rings, lightly pressed together in supplication.

—Margaret Beaufort: Survivor, Rebel, Kingmaker (2025)