Beverley Adams, The Forgotten Tudor Royal Margaret Douglas, Grandmother to King James VI & I, Pen & Sword, Pen & Sword History, 2023.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

I was impressed with Beverley Adams’ ability to assemble a plausible story and character development from a small amount of material in The Rebel Suffragette The Life of Edith Rigby (Pen & Sword History 2021) and Ada Lovelace The World’s First Computer Programmer (Pen & Sword, Pen & Sword History 2023). Unfortunately, The Forgotten Tudor Royal Margaret Douglas does not meet the standard of Adams’ previous work. There is repetition, some awkward phrasing and, more importantly, Margaret Douglas does not shine from the pages as do Edith Rigby, in particular, and Ada Lovelace. Nevertheless, for those interested in Tudor history, this book makes a solid contribution to evoking the period, the ramifications of religious, geographic and personal interests that permeated the finery and theatre of the royal courts of Henry V11, Henry V111, Mary 1, Elizabeth 1 and Mary Queen of Scots. From her birth in 1515 to her death at sixty-two, Margaret Douglas had an important role in the Tudor hierarchy as she matured, grasping opportunities for herself and her children. She achieved her aim, her grandson, James became James V1 of Scotland and James 1 of England.

Adams tells this story well, and Margaret becomes known as more than an aside as Lord Darnley’s mother or Henry V111’s niece. This is a major achievement, highlighting the behaviour of a woman of the period who played an instrumental role in mounting a successful intercession in the royal hierarchy. Portrayal of Margaret’s ambition, foolishness, determination and fall in and out of favour sometimes relies on speculation. However, Adams always make a case for her findings that can meet scrutiny. After all, interpretation is an important part of writing any history, and where a case can be made for an opinion it is worth consideration.

Adams links Margaret’s flight in the late stage of pregnancy with that of her mother, Margaret Tudor’s flight from Scotland when she is also bearing a child – the Margaret who is the main protagonist in this work. However, her mother also is given the place she deserves as more than Henry V111’s older sister and wife of James V. Writing of the strength both women demonstrated in this most unenviable position is an inspired touch – the femaleness of the courage of both women is without doubt established. What wouldn’t each of them stop at to achieve their aims? Together with the acknowledgement that their hearts often ruled their heads, to a foolish and dangerous degree, portraying the way women were instrumental in events of state could not be more graphically depicted.

Beverley Adams has provided a well-researched account of the fortitude of two Tudor women – Margaret Tudor and her daughter Margaret Douglas. She has written an excellent explanation of her reasons for opinions that cannot be supported by documentation. Here Adams demonstrates her understanding of women’s place in the Tudor world, but more than that, the way in which women of this calibre met those challenges. There is a useful bibliography of secondary sources and inline resources. At the end of the book the photos make yet another contribution to making less well-known actors in the period recognisable amongst those that are so familiar.

The Forgotten Tudor Royal about Margaret Douglas was an interesting look at an underwritten figure from history. Margaret Douglas and her mother Margaret Tudor were never far from the throne - both the Scottish and English throne. They both had daring feats for survival, love, and to further their family's dynastic power. There was definitely a lot of intriguing moments to Margaret's life. Henry VIII's family can often be ignored with the intrigue of his six wives and children to write about, so I was excited to read about his sister and niece. I like that the book spanned all of Margaret's life and all of its ups and downs.

I do think that this book could've benefited from a few things. First, as there are many Marys, Margarets, Catherines, Elizabeths, etc. I think the book could've used a family tree for reference. While, I think the timeline is a good addition, a family tree would have been helpful to keep everyone straight. Also, a consistent naming and title convention can help. I think Catherine/Katherine Parr's name was spelt differently throughout the book.

Next, I would expect a book of this history to have a longer bibliography. While it can be difficult to find sources on women and it appears Margaret slips from the record at different points, I think the book could've benefitted from acknowledging more about where the sources came from and what is the author's opinion verse in the historical record. The only source really cited is from the Westminster Abbey website in the book itself, and I think discussing more of the sources would have added a richness and depth to this book and really made it feel complete.

There were a few formatting issues, but I expect that will be fixed before publication. Some of the sentences could have been more succinct.

Overall, you can tell the author really got to know Margaret Douglas and her family. The author is clearly passionate about the subject and has a good background on Margaret. I think it is important to get more scholarship on women in history which will hopefully increase the conversations about women as active figures in history.

This is a really fascinating account of Margaret's life. Unfortunately I felt it was a little let down by some of the writing which I felt wasn't always well structured. An enjoyable read nonetheless.

The Forgotten Tudor Royal by Beverley Adams is a detailed account of the life of Margaret Douglas, grandmother of King James VI/I.

Despite playing a major role in Tudor events, her story is less well-known than that of other key players of the period. This book fills a gap in Tudor history.

The book is very well-written and reads like a novel. The Tudor Timeline of events at the beginning of the book is a useful guide to the period and the bibliography and list of online resources at the end of the book give suggestions for further reading.

Highly recommended for readers who have an interest in Tudor history.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pen and Sword History for an e-arc. All opinions are my own.

The political is always personal!

Many historians and historical fiction writers forget that, while all the drama of Henry VIII and his six wives was taking place center stage, just off to the side was Margaret Tudor and her daughter Margaret Douglas, both of whom had their own huge drama in their lives, just as worthy of weighty history tomes and BBC six part dramas.

Margaret Tudor was sent off to Scotland by her father, Henry VII, to marry the king of Scotland and - hopefully - help keep the peace between Scotland and England. She gave the king a son - James V -but seeing as James IV died in battle against her brother, Henry VIII's forces, the peace was not so much a success.

Margaret Tudor went on to marry again and have her daughter, Margaret Douglas. While Margaret Tudor then went on to have her own martial drama of divorce and remarriage, refusing to accept being cheated by a husband - which her brother Henry laughably made a show of being shocked at her exploits - Margaret Douglas was somewhere in the background, dragged around as a child by different parents or left with nurses - the record isn't always clear.

However, as a teenager she is firmly <i>in</i> the record as living at her uncle Henry VIII's court, making friends with other young women such as her cousin Mary, Henry VIII's daughter, and given the deference, support and attention as a granddaughter of Henry VII and hence a potential heir to the English throne.

There is much drama early on as Margaret attempted to seek love on her own terms, twice being in a relationship with members of the Howard family, both times it being squashed by Henry VIII as she was a valuable pawn in the marriage market.

Henry VIII eventually married her to the pro-English Scottish noble Matthew Stewart to further the Anglo-Scottish agenda, and the marriage was surprisingly happy, but it is interesting to speculate how much of the young romances she had were just teenage hormones and how much it was an early indicator of her strong will and ability to make independent choice.

Margaret's importance went up and down rapidly during these years depending on who was king, who queen, the dominant religion of court, larger English-Fenech-Scottish politics, as well as her choices.

After doing very well during Mary I's reign, Elizabeth becomes queen, and Margaret is given less importance at court - but that didn't stop her from continuing to raise her children as royals, giving them a princely education, and reminding them constantly they had royal blood in their veins, with a claim to the English throne through her and a claim on the Scottish throne through her husband.

When she realizes she will never be heir to the English throne, she spends the rest of her life weaving machinations to get her oldest son married to the Queen of Scotland, with a long term goal of having a grandson sit on the thrones of England and Scotland.

After a LOT of drama, tears, time int eh Tower, and other ups and downs, this is EXACTLY what happens, as she is grandmother to James I of England. It really is unfair she doesn't get more credit for how much work and sacrifice she put in to making the unification of the two countries happen. She deserved to be more than a brief footnote in history, and am so glad Adams wrote this book as a way to help get the word out how amazing Margaret Douglas was.

The intrigue and high drama of the lives of the Tudors definitely makes for incredible television series'! I cannot get enough of the history of the Tudors! Beverley Adams has followed the path of Margaret Douglas to a T...It's all quite confusing, following the bloodline, but oh so well worth it! She was one of the heroes, strong and ambitious. This is a powerful and well written book. The research alone must has been overwhelming! Pen and Sword publish the most interesting and amazing books, and this is certainly one of them! Thank you to NetGalley and Pen and Sword Publishing for the ARC in exchange for this very honest review! MORE PLEASE!!!!!

Of all the series I have watched regarding the Tudors, Margaret Douglas always comes off as a power hungry unlikeable woman. This book does a wonderful job of researching Margaret's life from her very beginning to her sad ending. Yes, she was ambitious and her infamous son Lord Darnley was, I believe, a product of her upbringing - but having 8-9 children with only two surviving certainly had to have an impact on her child rearing. You will come to better understand Margaret and maybe, just maybe, appreciate her and her struggles. Comes with pictures - which is always a huge plus for me! Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.