Regina by Emily Murdoch Perkins

Author:Emily Murdoch Perkins
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781803995618
Publisher: The History Press

And if she had been queen?

Margaret was a trailblazer. Like Marie 400 years before, Margaret was unwilling to suffer a lifetime of unpleasantness with a husband she did not respect. Though her brother Henry VIII warned his sister her ‘shifts of affection’ were harming her reputation (the hypocrisy!), Margaret held her head high in the Scottish court, prioritising what she had wanted to do from the start: advising, supporting, and counselling her son James V.

But what if it had been her, not Henry VIII, who had been heir to the throne of England?

Her elder brother had been sent to Wales with his bride at the age of 15, so it’s likely Margaret would have done the same. She would have spent years there, learning the craft of statesmanship, receiving fealty and hosting a regal court resplendent with laughter, music, hunting, dances and jousting. She would have been sought eagerly as a prized marriage option by all the second-born – and some of the firstborn – princes of Europe. And when her father died in 1509, when Margaret was almost 20, she would have become Queen of England.

We know that even by the age of 24, Margaret had gained the trust and admiration of her husband. James IV essentially left the country of Scotland in her care in his will, making her regent for his country and their eldest son. His confidence in her was absolute – to the death. Much like her brother, it was Margaret’s marriages that precipitated her downfall, not her innate skills.

Clever, quick-witted, a lover of pageantry and initially beloved by the Scottish people, Margaret would have swiftly won English hearts. Happy to lie and dissemble when it benefited her kingdom, she was also rash and quick-tempered, and picked favourites much like her brother. Also like her brother, Margaret could have ripped England apart to secure a divorce when she wanted one. Perhaps the fate of England would not have been so different with a woman on the throne in the 1520s than a man.

Margaret did not suffer fools and was not easily won over by people she distrusted. When James IV’s cousin, brought in by the Scottish nobles to end her regency, attempted to befriend her years later, she said, ‘Considering how many false promises I have had from you before, I will thank you when your words and deeds are one.’ But Margaret wasn’t to be trusted. In her desperation to keep control of her own life, she was quite happy to say one thing and do another – in fact, she became famous for it. ‘She is right fickle,’ said the Prioress of Coldstream. The Archdeacon Magnus found her ‘entirely perverse’.

Margaret was the first Tudor sibling to be desperate for a divorce, and unlike her more famous brother, she had fewer resources at her disposal to gain one. Yet she did. Unlike her brother, Margaret did not spend the rest of her life defending it. She moved on, quite certain she was justified in doing so, and went on to live – for the time – a relatively long and happy life.

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