Customer Reviews

The Thistle and the Rose: The Tudor Princesses

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Jean Plaidy, also known as Victoria Holt to her legion of devoted fans, is a gifted and prolific writer of historical fiction. A masterful storyteller, Ms. Plaidy is known for seamlessly interweaving historical facts into a rich tapestry of fiction that is often spellbinding. Here, she writes about the beautiful Margaret Tudor, a princess of England, daughter of the parsimonious King Henry VII, and sister to the Tudor despot who would reign as King Henry VIII.

At the tender age of twelve, Princess Margaret was betrothed to the handsome and chivalrous King James IV of Scotland, who was sixteen years her senior. Her betrothal arose out of the Treaty of Perpetual Peace and was designed to bring about an end to the age old border wars between Scotland and England. Initially, Margaret viewed her forthcoming marriage with trepidation, only to find herself falling in love with her betrothed upon their first meeting. Theirs would be a love match, despite his philandering and siring of children outside their marriage. Unfortunately, their marriage did not have the intended effect upon the peace between Scotland and England, as King James IV courted the friendship of France, England's avowed enemy.

This put Margaret, now Queen of Scotland, in an awkward position. Her brother Henry VIII, now King of England, looked to Margaret to bring her husband back into the fold, but James IV had his own ideas and paid little heed to the advice of his wife. Consequently, Scotland waged war on England, only to be defeated at the battle of Flodden Field, by the army of King Henry VIII. There, King James IV was slain, and Margaret found herself widowed at a young age. Her baby son was crowned King James V of Scotland, and she was named Regent in accordance with her late husband's wishes.

Margaret, imbued with the same Tudor passion and tempestuousness as her brother, remained in Scotland, where she engaged in a lifelong battle for power and for control over her beloved young son. Ousted as Regent after a scandalous second marriage to the very handsome Archibald Douglas, head of the powerful Douglas clan and Earl of Angus, she eventually found herself battling not only her brother, but her craven second husband, as well. She ultimately sought to divorce him, much to the horror of her brother, King Henry VIII, who, unbeknownst to Margaret, was secretly mulling over the same marital resolution for himself.

Margaret would later fall in love with one of her son's courtiers, his Master Carver, Henry Stuart. This infatuation would ultimately lead to yet a third marriage for Margaret. Again, this marriage was, as were all her marriages, an initially happy one, but would, ultimately, end in infidelity by her husband, causing Margaret to despair of ever finding true love and happiness.

Throughout her life, Margaret's behavior would scandalize many, including her brother, King Henry VIII who, given his own behavior, should have been more tolerant, but it was definitely a man's world in those days. Still, notwithstanding her many disappointments, it would ultimately be Margaret's descendants who would, for a time, rule a united Scotland and England.

This book is a tribute to a woman who has been largely eclipsed by her brother, King Henry VIII, and her granddaughter, Mary, Queen of Scots. In the hands of an acclaimed writer of historical fiction, such as Jean Plaidy, her story comes vividly to life. Filled with larger than life historical personages and well known historical events, this book cannot help but capture the imagination of the reader. Those who like well-written historical fiction will especially enjoy it, as will those who simply enjoy a tale well told.

Prior to reading this book, Henry VIII's sister Margaret Tudor was an individual that I knew nothing about. It is easy to see why she has been overshadowed by the engaging history of her younger brother - but unjustly so. Married at 12 to a MUCH older man and sent away from her sheltered life to a strange country would frighten the best of young girls - not Margaret. She relished the idea of the adventure and the passion of a marriage she imagined would be perfect. The story also gives a wonderful depiction of James IV of Scotland - a likeable yet philandering man who I believed loved Margaret and his country...and just about any other pretty woman he ran across.

True to Tudor history, Margaret suffers the deaths of several children only to be widowed at a tender age and left as a foreign queen desperately seeking to keep her 17 month old son safe to one day become James V. Like her more famous brother, she, too,is ruled by nearly uncontrollable passion - though unlike her brother she longs for true love and the fidelity that her first husband was unable to provide.

Political turmoil, religious beliefs and the ever present recollection of her two uncles' mysterious disappearances from the Tower of London only add to her strife.

The author does an admirable job of bringing to life a woman who deserves a place in history along side her younger brother - only I believe a more honorable place.

Princess Margaret Tudor was one of those pivotal figures of English history who most of us haven't read about. She was overshadowed by her brother, Henry VIII and her granddaughter, Mary, Queen of Scots, but Margaret's life is definitely worthy of a novel, or two.

Margaret was lucky--she married for love. At least, she fell in love with the handsome James IV of Scotland when she met him. He was older than her, but not too much older, and although he was a constant womanizer, their marriage was happy. Still, James was constantly at war with England, and Margaret was torn between her husband and her brother. The marriage never brought the peace it should have, and James died young, leaving Margaret with a baby son, the heir to the Scottish throne. Margaret went on to live a life that scandalized many--she married, and divorced, and married again, not unlike her famous older brother.

Jean Plaidy has been a favorite author of mine for many years because she tells the story of famous and not-so-famous women of history. Her novels about the Tudor family are among her best, and I'm glad to see that they've been brought back into print. I hope there will be more of them.

I also recommend Mary, Queen of France, which is about Margaret's younger sister, Mary Rose Tudor. It's another great read about the Tudor's.

I found this book to be slow-moving and sometimes quite dull. Still, the historical information Plaidy has gathered in this novel makes it worth reading despite the plodding pace of the plot. Very little has been written about Henry VIII's sister Margaret, and I found the historical details of how a young noblewoman lived day-by-day and how she had to scheme and plot just to keep her children quite interesting.

Not on my Top 10 list, but educational. I'd recommend checking it out of your local library before I'd recommend buying it.

This novel, told in the third person, picks up with Margaret in her early girlhood at Henry VII's court and ends with her death in Scotland after having given birth to two surviving children and married three husbands.

As I knew little about Margaret before reading this novel, I found it quite interesting. Margaret's first marriage ended when she was still quite young, leaving the widowed Margaret to choose first one unsuitable husband of lower rank, than another. I can't say that I found Margaret a particularly likable character, but Plaidy did do a good job of portraying the difficulties she faced from warring factions in Scotland, pressures from England and France, and her own stubborn nature. In some ways, Margaret reminded me of Mary, Queen of Scots, with the difference being that Margaret ultimately died in her bed.

One thing I did wish had been included in here was a genealogical table, not so much for the English characters but the Scottish ones. That aside, I found this to be an interesting introduction to Margaret, one that will have me on the outlook for nonfiction about her as well.

I loved this book! I must admit that this was my first Jean Plaidy novel and I immediately ordered more. I knew about Henry's wives (I recommend Alison Weir's Six Wives of King Henry VIII) but not his sisters. This book was riveting. It was fascinating to learn of Margaret's marriage struggles when her brother is notorious for his six wives. I loved getting inside her head. I do not know how accurate this book is but I knew it was fiction when I bought it!! I recommend it for anyone looking for an interesting story about a woman they might not know much about.

Erasmus warned the royals about trying to create peace or empires through marriage. Certainly marrying the English princess to the Scottish king did not work that way in young Margaret's lifetime. Perhaps, as tutor to one of the illegitimate sons of James IV, it was Margaret whom Erasmus had in mind.

This novel humanizes history as we see the events through the eyes of the 12 year old princess. She is clearly a pawn of her father and then of her brother, both of whom prey on her tender years with calls on her patriotism and piety. We never learn if Henry returns her jewels. I suspect he did not.

In the same light, Margaret's son is her main concern, her daughter is not much mentioned until the end when it seems she had been in England most of the time.

While it's a fast read there's a lot of excess verbiage. The book could be improved by editing it down by 1/3 or more.

Any work spent researching the historical figures and events in this work of fiction were wasted. Historical fiction varies from really good to really bad, and to put it quite simply, this book is definitely bad. The writing, specifically the character dialogue, is so poor that the reader cannot even begin to enjoy the plot. The dialogue is childish to the point that I personally was only able to read to page 89 before I simply had to stop. This author has no ability to write dialogue between persons that sounds as if it could actually have been spoken. This book is like reading a play written by a young child who thinks that "grown-ups" speak a certain way (but in fact has the characters saying things that no adult or child would ever actually speak out loud). I have read many works of historical fiction of varying degrees of historical accuracy and levels of character and plot development, none written quite so badly as this one. One expects historical fiction to be just that, a fictional story using some historical events and/or characters. The author had a fascinating chunk of Tudor heritage to work with, numerous colorful characters, and even a great title, but this book is just terrible.

The sentences are choppy; topics and scenes are poorly described (if at all) and lack any depth whatsoever. I had to look back at previous paragraphs repeatedly, because the author changes back and forth between characters and topics at a bizarre and rapid pace. I don't mean that the book is fast paced; on the contrary, the author seems to simply stop in the middle of an event and just switch to something else right when you start to get interested in the scene you were just reading. Here's an example: you are told that one of the characters is pregnant (a big event for royal families), and whoops, two sentences later she has already had the child. This is repeated several times over the course of maybe 4 pages. You think you're reading about the birth of the first child, and actually the author is already on the next one.

The writing and dialogue are what one might expect from a grocery store romance novel, but surprise, there is no romance in this book, none at all. Despite the repetitive and annoying usage of the words "sensual" and "sensuality," the author chooses to skip over describing anything interesting between the characters in favor of just describing the personalities of one of the main character's various mistresses. I mean that the author tells you that there is a strong relationship between certain characters, but fails to describe any interactions between them. The author tries to describe plutonic interactions, but does not even attempt anything romantic. I cringe to imagine how that would read. Clearly this author has no skill at writing conversations and events between characters, be they male, female, adult, or child. This book basically makes a very interesting time period, setting, and romance between historical figures extremely boring. The author just skips over describing any major events that would have been interesting and moves right along before you even notice. If you like historical fiction or historical romances, you will not enjoy this book. I would not recommend this book to anyone; read something else. (Please note that I truly could not finish reading this book as the first 89 pages were so bad. I cannot say whether the book improves past that point, but I would be very surprised.)

I have read many-a-book about the Tudors, but surprisingly, this is my first novel by Ms. Plaidy. I knew NOTHING about Margaret Tudor before reading this, other than she was Henry's older sister, and daughter of Elizabeth of York. Her story is an interesting, albeit irritating one.

Married to the Scottish King James IV at the still tender age of 14 (while he was 30), Margaret was forced to grow into her Queenly duties very quickly. While she appears to have loved her husband very much in the beginning, she was tormented by his many infidelities. I could understand her being hurt and angry while she was still young, but this was a trend throughout the entire book. Margaret being continually surprised and enraged by her husbands (all three of them) betraying her. Adultery in this period of time was VERY common among husbands, so why Margaret expected herself to be exempt from it was beyond me. Especially when she carried on an affair with Albany, who was married at the time, maker her the dreaded 'Other' woman!

Overall, Margaret seems to have lead a very hard and melancholy life. I don't know that the woman ever had an extended moment of happiness. She started out angry at James IV for cheating on her, then heartbroken when he was killed in battle. She recklessly married the Earl of Angus, whom she was happy with VERY briefly, only to spend the better part of 10 years trying to divorce him...all the while fighting to see her son, King James V, who, while King, was still a child under a Regent. Margaret fought for years to be in control of her son, but she never seemed to get very far for all the plotting and planning she did.

I won't go into the entire book, but just know that while Margaret herself may not be the most likable of women (or Queens), the book is very well written. I did think the last couple chapters felt a bit rushed though. It seemed years would fly buy in the space of a few paragraphs, but this aside, it's a very good book about the reign of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots. I can't vouch for it's historical accuracy since this is the only book I've read about Margaret, but I enjoyed it, and absolutely recommend it to anyone interested in reading it.

This is the not often told story of Margaret Tudor, the older sister of Henry VIII. I've only really come across her mentioned in other books as being married off to James IV of Scotland and that's about all you need to know. Jean Plaidy has taken the forgotten princess and made her the subject of her own novel, and it was done with the usual attention to detail that she always gives to her subjects.

Margaret is headstrong, willfull, stubborn, in essence, a Tudor. She's just like her brother Henry and this is mentioned a few times in the book. Why she's not more talked about is beyond me because her exploits are really just as interesting as anything her brother did. Plaidy told them to you in her usual fashion and sometimes you can't help but be annoyed with her for her lack of foresight and this plays right with the views held of her right at the time. I like that this book didn't feel rushed, but full of detail. I felt like I got to know Margaret better than before. I wish there was another book to compare it to, but I haven't found one.

If you've not read about her then this is a book to read.