The Lost Tudor Princess
A Life of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox
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4.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
‘Alison Weir's sound scholarship and storyteller's gift for rich, telling detail constantly engages and enthrals the reader’ The Times
The captivating life of Margaret Douglas - a life of scandal, political intrigue and royal romance that spanned five Tudor reigns.
Royal Tudor blood ran in her veins. Some thought Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, should be queen of England.
She ranked high at the court of her uncle, Henry VIII, and was lady of honour to five of his wives. Beautiful and tempestuous, she created scandal - twice - by falling in love with unsuitable men.
Throughout her life her dynastic ties to two crowns proved hazardous. A born political intriguer, she was imprisoned in the Tower of London three times, once under sentence of death. Her husband and son were brutally murdered, she warred with two queens, and proved instrumental in securing the Stuart succession to the throne of England for her grandson.
Alison Weir brings Margaret Douglas's captivating character out of the shadows for the first time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this noteworthy biography, Weir (The Marriage Game), a novelist and popular historian of the Tudor period, shows how Lady Margaret Douglas a now largely forgotten royal claimant frequently ignored her own safety to further her ambition in spite of her more famous relatives. Margaret, Henry VIII's niece, spent much of her life angling for greater status and favors, seemingly oblivious to the delicate political situations of the volatile Reformation-era Tudor courts. Her machinations and shifting alliances with the Scottish and French kept Elizabeth I's extensive spy network busy while endangering Catholic-leaning Margaret's neck. Love caused Margaret great problems, as it did for so many Tudors, and led to her uncle passing a famously troublesome bill of attainder (a declaration of guilt and punishment without a trial) that she repeatedly violated. What's perhaps of greatest interest, readers see from Margaret's perspective the poignant story of her elder son, the infamous Lord Darnley, and his marriage to Mary, Queen of Scots. Through considerable research and with great clarity, Weir reveals how the strong-willed Margaret encapsulated the best and worst of the ambitious Tudor dynasty stubbornness, passion, tragedy, courage while leading a fascinating life of her own, to the detriment of England's well-being.
