Linda Porter is a British historian and biographer specialising in the Tudor and Stuart periods. She holds a doctorate in history from the University of York, where she studied early-modern English and French history, and the 2004 Biographers’ Club/Daily Mail Prize helped launch her career as an author. Porter contributes to publications including BBC History Magazine and History Today and has worked as a historical consultant on television programmes about the Tudor dynasty.
Her books include Mary Tudor: The First Queen, Katherine the Queen, Crown of Thistles, Royal Renegades and Mistresses, examining royal women, dynastic rivalry and political influence in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Britain. Her later biography The Thistle and the Rose reassesses Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII’s elder sister and queen of Scotland, emphasising her diplomacy, political resilience and efforts to protect the position of her son, James V. Porter’s work combines archival research with accessible narrative history and frequently recovers women whose political importance has been obscured or underestimated.
