Recently the focus worldwide has been on the modern day Royal family, their marriages and children and the new order evolving better suited to modern requirements. Therefore, it is relatively easy to forget that it is not so many years passed, that life was a very precarious thing for the Royals, as often they were political pawns, sometimes of their own making and others because of circumstance.
Life in the 21st century is so much easier for the Princes William and Harry as they go about their lives, carrying out the often demanding roles of Royals in an ever changing society and world. But spare a thought for the lady who was the older sister of King Henry VIII, and her father’s darling.
Margaret was groomed to be wed at the tender age of 7 years, although this was delayed until she was 10 years and married by proxy, to cement an alliance with the very troublesome Scot, James IV, in the hope of some sort of peace being established between the waring Scots and the reactive British.
Sarah-Beth Watkins has taken the life of a woman who was politically active from a young age, was for a time the Queen of Scotland, fell on hard times after the death of her husband, who was a man beloved of his people, but headstrong and determined in war, bringing her sad but all to common story firmly into modern day history. A disastrous second marriage ended in poverty, exile from the Scottish Courts and toleration in the Court of Henry VIII, who for some reason retained a soft spot for his older sister, frequently rescuing her from penury.
As the years rolled past, Margaret managed to regains some standing through her young son and heir to the Scottish throne, but in a series of poor decision making once again, lost all the credibility she had gained, which as she grew older and fell from grace time and time again, could be considered a trademark of her life.
Throughout all the tumultuous years she remained true to one ideal, that of attempting to bring peace to Scotland and England and to unite the two factions in harmony, a desire of her father, King Henry VII throughout his reign. This was finally achieved by her great grandson James VI
Modern literature can in no way come close to the machinations undertaken by the forbearers of British Royal history. The life and times of Margaret Tudor, her children, husbands, the Court and politics of the day, lead to an uneasy life with alliances shifting in a split second of time, with murder, plots, betrayal and assassinations an everyday occurrence.
History is indeed a detective story with the ending already known, but the twisting and turning down the alleyways of time make for seriously interesting and intriguing reading.
