A Tudor Rebel

by Carol McGrath

First published 2027

Amazon

2.5(5)

Margaret Douglas, niece of Henry VIII and a possible figure in the Tudor succession, grows up close to the centre of royal power. At Anne Boleyn’s court she joins the literary circle associated with the Devonshire Manuscript and falls in love with Lord Thomas Howard. Their secret betrothal in the mid-1530s turns a private attachment into a dynastic offence.

Henry VIII reacts with the severity reserved for threats to the succession, separating the couple and imprisoning Howard while Margaret is confined. Against the background of Anne Boleyn’s fall and Princess Mary’s precarious position, McGrath follows Margaret as poetry, love and royal blood become politically dangerous. The novel presents the young Countess of Lennox before the later marriages and dynastic manoeuvres for which she is better known.