The eldest daughter of Sir Thomas More, Margaret More Roper was a well-educated, devout, and accomplished woman who defied expectations in Tudor England. This biography offers insight into the tumultuous era of the Reformation and the court of King Henry VIII, while recognizing Margaret’s own significant contributions as a writer, translator, and inspiration to her generation.

This is an interesting and easy-to-read story of the life of Margaret More Roper and the More family. It gives a unique perspective on the Tudor era.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

The Female Tudor Scholar and Writer - The Life and Times of Margaret More Roper
by Aimee Spillman is a biography of the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas More. Sir Thomas More was opposed to Henry VIII converting to the Protestant church so that he could marry Catherine of Aragon and because of this, and despite his position and may achievements, the previously celebrated More was executed.

However, as is common with women of the Tudor era, Margaret More Roper's story has not been at the forefront of the history books under the mighty name of More which is a travesty when you see just how much this incredible woman achieved at a time when the only role that determined a woman's worth was to provide heirs and keep a home.

Margaret More Roper is a true inspiration and the very core of wommen's fight for equality. If you have a passion fo egalitarianism, equality between genders and history, this is the truly inspiring book for you. Outstanding

Thank you to NetGalley, Pen & Sword | Pen & Sword History and Aimee Spillman for this intriguing ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

Margaret More Roper (1505–1544) was an English writer and translator. She was the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas More, and his first wife Joanna "Jane" Colt.Margaret's siblings were Elizabeth, Cecily, John, and, soon after Margaret's birth, the More family adopted Margaret Giggs, the daughter of a recently deceased neighbour.Sadly, Jane Colt died prematurely, and Thomas More rewed widow Alice Middleton.More's second marriage provided a step-sister named Alice for Margaret and her siblings.Margaret spent most of her childhood at the Barge at Bucklersbury.In 1524, everyone moved to Chelsea, Middlesex, to a large and commodious mansion opposite the Thames, built by Sir Thomas More.There, Erasmus, a close friend of More, passed many happy days, and Hans Holbein the Younger painted some of his finest pictures.She and her siblings were educated in the humanist tradition by More as well as their tutor William Gunnell.Thomas More advocated the education of girls, but within certain limits: any work they completed should be private.Margaret is considered to have been one of the most learned women in 16th century England.She is celebrated for her filial piety and scholarly accomplishments.Roper's famous publication is a Latin-to-English translation of Erasmus' Precatio Dominica as A Devout Treatise upon the Paternoster.In addition,she wrote many Latin epistles and English letters, as well as an original treatise entitled The Four Last Things.She also translated the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius from the Greek into the Latin language.Margaret wed William Roper in 1521,and they had 5 children.Roper was the first non-royal woman to be noted for the publication of a translation.Roper visited More often during his imprisonment in the Tower of London.During her visits, Roper smuggled letters and other things to and from More.Roper is credited with putting together a dossier of the letters written by More during his time in the tower.Thomas More was beheaded in 1535 for not supporting King Henry VIII's Acts of Succesion and Supremacy and as Head of the English Church.Margaret managed to save her father's head and took steps to clear his name posthumously.

#TudorNonfictionChallenge hosted by @cha_ye on StoryGraph

I want to thank NetGalley and Pen & Sword Publishing for a copy of this ebook.

Brief Summary: Examining the historical records and legacy of her more famous father, Saint Sir Thomas More, the image of a highly educated woman and faithful daughter emerges.

Thoughts: I was really torn about how to rate this book. Fleming's writing was easy to read and very informative. Overall, I did enjoy the book. That being said, this is not a biography of Margaret More Roper. Rather it is a snapshot of the More family and their close-knit family circle.

I did learn things about Margaret as I have never read a book about her. Fleming's first-hand evidence was fascinating, particularly regarding Margaret's work and how she fought to preserve her father's legacy. However, by Fleming's admission, there are not enough first-hand sources to paint a detailed and vivid picture of Margaret herself, in part due to distance and because she is overshadowed by the works of her father and husband.

Thus, I feel the great strength of this work is the way it paints a portrait of Thomas More and his family circle. It seems that every member of his family is highlighted throughout the book introducing the reader to all of More's children, grandchildren, and in some cases great-grandchildren. The information that Fleming provides and the picture she paints in the narrative is why I've rated this book the way I have.

It was incredibly interesting to see how interwoven the prominent figures during this period were. For instance the connection between More's granddaughter and Queen Mary I. I also found it interesting to learn the amount of scrutiny that the extended More family was under both during Thomas More's trial and after.

If you are interested in learning about a prominent Tudor family and the woman who helped preserve their legacy this is an interesting book and I would recommend it on that alone. If you are specifically wanting to learn only about Margaret More Roper this book is lacking in some detail.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Pregnancy, Grief, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Death of a parent, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic and Toxic friendship
Minor: War, Colonisation, and Child Death

When we think about the great female minds of the 16th century, we often think about those closest to the throne. Women of privilege who were destined to rule or to be a queen consort in a far-off land where their education would be imperative for the success or failure of their respective dynasty. However, some women did not live a life of glitz and glamor and received an equally impressive education. One such woman was the daughter of the great statesman Sir Thomas More, Margaret More Roper. Her remarkable story is told in the debut book by Aimee Fleming, “The Tudor Scholar and Writer: The Life and Times of Margaret More Roper.”

I want to thank Pen and Sword Books and Net Galley for sending me a copy of this book. I have heard the name Margaret More Roper mentioned in several books about Sir Thomas More, but she is more of a footnote. I have always wanted to learn more about her life, especially her childhood, so when I heard about this book, I jumped at the chance to read it.

Margaret More Roper was the eldest child of Sir Thomas More and his first wife Joanna. She had three other siblings, Elizabeth, Cecily, and John, and a household filled with other children under Sir Thomas More’s care, including Margaret’s future husband William Roper. Fleming takes the time to show how Sir Thomas More and his second wife Alice gave his children, especially Margaret, a rather remarkable education that proved significant for Margaret and her path in life. We do see the famous More School grow and scholars such as Erasmus recognize the talent of Margaret and her siblings, especially in the fields of translations and letter writing. For the bulk of the first part of this book, Fleming focuses on the rise and fall of Sir Thomas More with the More family and school in the background, which is understandable, but I do wish we got a tad more about the education of these exceptional children.

Many consider the final meeting between Sir Thomas More and Margaret at his prison cell and his final letter to her as the end of her story, but as Fleming explains, there was so much more to Margaret’s story than this singular moment. Margaret was a wife, and a mother of five children (Alice, Margaret, Mary, Thomas, and Anthony). She also translated and published works in her name, which was unheard of for a woman, especially someone who was not of noble birth. When Margaret Roper More died around Christmas of 1544, she left a legacy that would inspire other women in her family, including her daughter Mary, to fight for an academic life.

Overall, I found this was a well-written debut biography about Margaret More Roper. It was a fascinating read to learn about Margaret’s life and the More family with a heavy focus on the academic life in 16th century England. If you would like to read a book about a strong academic woman from Tudor England, I suggest you read, “The Tudor Scholar and Writer: The Life and Times of Margaret More Roper” by Aimee Fleming.

Aimee Spillman’s book focuses on Margaret More Roper, the daughter of Thomas More, friend and advisor to the infamous Henry VIII. As for most women in history, records of Margaret are scare and a lot of what we know about her is based on the whereabouts and documentation of her father.

For the Tudor times, Margaret was very educated, not surprising considering who her father was. She married well, and raised a family. One of her biggest claims to fame was that she was rumored to have stolen her father’s head back in the dark of night after he was executed and his head left to rot on a pile.

This brief book doesn’t truly bring much new information to light about Margaret, but for those not familiar, it does give a good insight into what a woman of her place in life might have achieved. It is a little dry for my taste, but it is still worth the read.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Pen & Sword for the advanced reader copy!

This was an enjoyable and well-researched biography of Margaret Roper, who was lucky enough to have an enlightened father who believed that girls should receive a good education and gave her a good start. She was so bright, though, that she is still famous for her writings and her learning.

I also found the description of the huge affection that she and her father shared very touching. Margaret Roper always strikes me as being perfectly portrayed by Sussanah York in A Man for All Seasons, a lovely clever young woman who showed great concern for her father in the King’s Great Matter and tried her best to help him. This book made me want to read as much as pissible about this intriguing young woman.

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

A well researched book with Margaret at the center. Margaret has always been a fascinating woman in my opinion, and she deserved a biography of her own. Even though her father did take up large portions of this biography, he was never the central figure. Margaret and her experiences as a woman in Tudor England were given the space she deserves.

Aimee's Fleming's "The Female Tudor Scholar and Writer" looks at the life of Thomas More's daughter, Margaret More Roper. Fleming seeks to explain what a woman like Margaret Roper would experience in the sixteenth century. The biography spends a lot of time creating the social and political context of what was going on in Roper's life. When there is not enough information to provide those details, Spillman suggests what could have happened.

Spillman does an admirable job at creating a verbal portrait of Margaret More Roper. The book can be a bit dry especially as there's a dearth of firsthand information about Roper. The book is meticulously researched and annotated though and the book would be a nice gift for anyone interested in this period in Britain's history.

Margaret Roper was an educated woman with her own talents and achievements, not just her father's daughter.
The rich and descriptive narrative takes you back to sixteenth century England in this well woven book, full of information and atmosphere. I found it a compelling and extremely interesting to read.

Wow!! This was a really interesting book, I had never heard of her and found her life and times a very interesting and entertaining read!

The Female Tudor Scholar and Writer is a layman accessible historical biography of the Margaret More Roper, the daughter of Sir Thomas More written by Aimee Fleming. Due out in the UK 31st July 2024 from Pen & Sword (worldwide release 30th Sept), it's 224 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This is a layman accessible and interesting monograph on the life and works of Margaret More Roper. As a women of the period, she is nearly always considered a footnote in her father's biographies, but here the author has written a balanced and well reasoned consideration of her in historical context in her own right as a primary subject and not just an aside.

The book is written with chapters in more or less chronological order: early life, the More household, education & adolescence, marriage & writing, motherhood, Humanism & reputation, reputation, loyalty, mortality (the imprisonment & death of her father), and their/her legacy. The book is meticulously annotated throughout and the chapter notes and bibliography will provide readers with many (many!) hours of further reading.

Five stars. It's both a well written and researched study of the More family and allies (and enemies), but also a well rounded study of Humanism, intellectualism, and the possibilities afforded women from the highest classes of the period.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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In this fascinating biography, Spillman brings Margaret More Roper to life. Daughter of renowned scholar Sir Thomas More, Margaret is the entire focus of this book as a scholar, writer, and translator from the Tudor period and the English Reformation. Following her life from her childhood and education under her father to her married life as a great mind in her own right, Spillman’s book provides insight into women’s lives and education in sixteenth-century England. Readers also witness the split from the Catholic Church from the English Catholic’s side of things and understand how Tudor society functioned for women with educations. As one of many educated women from the period, Margaret More Roper’s life highlights the role that religion played in daily life and in academics. This book and its insights into her life allows readers to place her in conversation with her academic contemporaries and with contemporary women to create a more complete picture of women’s lives as individuals, aristocrats, and scholars. A must-read for Tudor fans and Tudor, English, and women’s historians alike, this book is approachable, comprehensive, and incredibly engaging, and readers are sure to enjoy these insights into Margaret More Roper’s relatively forgotten life as a luminary of the Tudor period.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pen And Sword Publishing for providing me with a copy of the eARC of this book!

This book, by Aimee Fleming, is a lens into the life of Sir Thomas More's eldest daughter, Margaret. It is clear that More regarded his daughter quite highly, as Fleming frequently points out the closeness of their familial relationship, even to the detriment of Margaret's marriage at times. Though a slight book, it does well to bring to life the times that the Mores lived in, and the depth of feelings that the family had for each other. The way in which Fleming describes Margaret pushing through the crowd to give her father one last embrace before he's locked up until his execution was so evocative that it brought tears to my eyes.

I enjoyed every minute reading this book, but if I had one wish, it would be that it was a bit longer. I know that there's not much out there about Roper's life, since besides the queens of the Tudor time period, there's not much information available, but there's still so much that I wish we knew about her and her family.

Margaret Roper is perhaps best remembered by the majority of people who recognize the name as the daughter of Sir Thomas More, the daughter that understood him better than his second wife. A most faithful daughter. (Funny, how that phrase doesn’t get applied to Mary who was faithful to mother if not her father). To be honest, this was how I saw her, with the intelligent but never fully acknowledged because of her gender and the time period she lived.
Thankfully, we have works like Aimee Fleming’s to add more to Roper’s story.
I can’t speak how this book compares John Guy’s work on More and Margaret. I haven’t read Guy’s book yet. Fleming’s book does reference Guy though, so if you have read Guy’s book I’m not sure if Fleming’s book aids more to it.
Fleming does quite a bit to place Margaret Roper as a scholar and humanist. This is somewhat difficult because of what has been lost to time. What is also important is that Fleming shows the reaction to Roper’s output, how men outside of her father viewed her work.
It should be noted, however, like many books dealing with famous women of some past time periods, the book has to define her in part though the men in her life. In Roper’s case, it is her father, so much of this book recounts More’s rise and fall, though Fleming perhaps focuses a bit more on the impact to More’s wife and favored daughter.
Yet Fleming not only details as much as Margaret Roper’s physical life as she can, but also her intellectual life. That she does so in a readable manner and not a dull one is a plus as well. The last part of the book raises the possibility and question of more Margaret Roper’s and ties in the book into larger Tudor histories.