margaret's biographer helen maurer, however, disagrees with earlier historians having dated the much-vaunted enmity between the queen and york to the time he obtained the office of the protectorship. she suggests the mutual antagonism came about two years later in 1455 in the wake of the first battle of st albans, when margaret perceived him as a challenge to the king's authority. maurer bases this conclusion on a judicious study of margaret's pattern of presenting gifts; this revealed that margaret took a great deal of care to demonstrate that she favoured both york and edmund beaufort (somerset) equally in the early 1450s. maurer also claims that margaret appeared to accept york's protectorship and asserts there is no substantial evidence to back up the long-standing belief that she was responsible for the yorkists' exclusion from the great council following henry's recovery (see below).