UNCROWNED QUEEN

A fresh biography of the woman who ushered in the Tudor dynasty.

In this intricate and intimate work, Tallis manages to cut through the dizzying ties of royal ancestry to get at the steely personality of Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443-1509), a beleaguered mother whose single-minded purpose was to redeem the status of her son—and herself in the bargain. The author, who has previously written about Queen Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey, presents a fully fleshed portrait of a justly celebrated woman who weathered several marriages and royal wars to prevail with the accession of her son, Henry VII, to the throne of England as the first Tudor. One of Margaret’s ancestors was the founder of the house of Lancaster, whose ties would come to define all of her dealings. Wealthy and well-connected, she was a prime pawn in the marriage market, betrothed twice as a child and married to Edmund Tudor at age 12. The author clearly renders this early marriage as a traumatic experience; Margaret got pregnant immediately, and Edmund died in battle less than two years later. Nonetheless, she was a devoted mother, and, through two more advantageous marriages, to Henry Stafford and Thomas Stanley, she skillfully positioned herself during the War of the Roses between the supporters of the Lancasters and Yorks. With Richard III’s usurpation of power in 1483, Margaret actively plotted to render her exiled son to the throne and arrange his marriage to Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of Edward IV, in order to claim legitimacy. Despite a perilous period of being branded “mother of the king’s great rebel and traitor,” it actually came to pass. In 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth, Henry defeated Richard to become king. For fans of British royal history, Tallis is a reliable guide, and the timeline and dramatis personae are highly useful.

A deeply researched work that allows this historic personage to live and breathe.