The Thistle and the Rose

Margaret Tudor, eldest daughter of Henry VII and sister of Henry VIII, was sent north at thirteen to marry James IV of Scotland. The marriage was intended to secure peace, but James’s death at Flodden in 1513 left Margaret as regent for the infant James V. Her position depended on balancing Scottish noble factions, pressure from England and France, and the condition in James IV’s will that she remain unmarried.

Porter uses Margaret’s extensive surviving correspondence to reconsider the decisions that cost her the regency and separated her from her children. Her marriages to Archibald Douglas and Henry Stewart brought personal and political conflict, yet she continued to manoeuvre for her son’s independence and for cooperation between England and Scotland. The biography restores Margaret’s role in the dynastic line that eventually united the crowns through James VI and I.