Margaret Tudor

1489–1541

Margaret Tudor was the eldest daughter of Henry VII and became queen of Scots by marrying James IV. Widowed after Flodden, she served as regent for the young James V but lost authority after marrying Archibald Douglas. Her efforts to escape that marriage and regain influence drew her between English, French and Scottish factions. Through her descendants, including Mary, Queen of Scots, Margaret’s line inherited the English throne in 1603.

Jean Plaidy’s The Thistle and the Rose centres on Margaret’s turbulent life, while Philippa Gregory’s Three Sisters, Three Queens places her alongside Catherine of Aragon and Mary Tudor. Fiction often stresses romantic impulsiveness and rivalry, but her choices were also attempts to preserve status and access to her children within a hostile noble political system.

In non-fiction, Margaret Tudor is discussed in Linda Porter’s Crown of Thistles. In Linda Porter’s Crown of Thistles, Linda Porter traces the dynastic contest between the Tudor and Stewart royal houses from the victories that placed Henry VII on the English throne and James IV on the Scottish throne.

Series

Series featuring Margaret Tudor (4 series)

The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels in Order

by Philippa Gregory 16 books 4.4

The Plantagenet and Tudor novels form a chronological sequence of connected but independently readable stories about women near the English throne. They move from the Lancastrian court and the Wars of the Roses through the rise of the Tudors, Henry VIII’s marriages, the mid-Tudor religious crisis and the…

All books in this series

4.2

Sir Roger Shallot Tudor Mysteries in Order

by Paul Doherty 6 books 4.3

The Sir Roger Shallot Tudor Mysteries are presented as the recollections of an elderly rogue who once served Benjamin Daunbey, nephew of Cardinal Wolsey. During the early reign of Henry VIII, Roger and Benjamin are sent to investigate murders, stolen relics, espionage and threats to the Tudor dynasty.…

4.4

Six Tudor Queens in Order

In This New Sepulchre

3.8

Tudor Saga in Order

by Jean Plaidy 11 books 4.0

The Tudor Saga follows the dynasty from Henry VII’s insecure victory through the marriages of Henry VIII and the reigns of his children. The novels place queens, courtiers and claimants at the centre of religious change, diplomatic marriage and the succession crises that transformed sixteenth-century England.

All books in this series