Customer Reviews

Tudor Cousins: Rivals for the Throne

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Fascinating book for anyone interested in the Tudor period. Dulice Ashdown does a nice job of shedding some light on some of the more obscure members and branches fo the Tudor family, especially Lady Margaret Douglas who was Mary Queen of Scots mother-in-law and had near as wild of a life as her daughter-in-law,for not only was her first husband imprisoned by Henry VIII for daring to marry her and dying there, she also may have had a brief flirtation with Charles Howard, the brother of Katheryn Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife executed for adultery. It is an excellent read not only for historians and students of the period but for anyone. While the book did shed light on people like Margaret Douglas and had interesting tidbits on Eleanor Brandon (Lady Jane Grey's aunt), there were a few people mentioned but it was unclear exactly who they really were in terms of familial relations, i.e. an Arthur and Edmund Pole, presumably relations in some way to Margaret Plantagenet-Pole, Countess of Salisbury and Reginald Pole, Archbishop-Cardinal of Canterbury, are briefly mentioned among others. It would have been nice to know a bit clearer who some people were and what relationships they bore to previous mentioned people. But a definite must-read. I can't wait to see how Dulcie Ashdown's planned biography of Margaret Douglas turns out.

This book highlights the danger of being close to the throne in Tudor times. It concentrates not on the Tudor monarchs but on their various cousins from the first generation of those related to Henry VIII though to those who were still around at the time of Elizabeth 1st death.

This book is well researched and written and is particularly good in covering Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox and Margaret, Lady Strange - both people who only get short mentions in many books. It discusses things like the annulment of various marriages and the impact of legitimacy in relation to the throne - and how both Mary and Elizabeth were not in a situation to comment too much on it or they risked their own claims to the throne by the terms on Henry VIII will. The author has also taken the time to point out gaps in documentation on the lives of these various cousins and has reproduced some letters not seen in other books on the same people.

I suspect at times readers may become slightly confused by the cousins as their stories weave in and out of each other and as some people change their names with various marriages and the acquisitions of titles. However, if you have any interest in the minor Tudor royals this book is defiantly worth picking up, as I've certainly read worse accounts of these people's lives.

I found this book to be very good, but at times it could be sort of confusing. Ms. Ashdown gives the reader the information on who exactly the clements were to the throne of Henry VIII. Ms. Ashdown discusses almost every one of them in detail. Even thought I like and know a lot about the British Royal Family it was hard for me sometimes to know whom I was reading about and had to check with the genealogical chart at the beginning of the book to see who that person was and how they fit in with the family.

Ms. Ashdown spends the most talking about Henry VII's daughters Margaret and Mary whose descendents were the strongest contenders to the throne after Henry VIII died. Some other people Ms. Ashdown talks about are Mary's daughter Frances and her daughters Jane, Kathrine, and Mary as well as Margaret's children Margaret and James whose children Mary and Henry married each other and whose son James became king of Scotland and England. Some of the other people they talk about are another son and granddaughter of the younger Margaret.

All in all, I would say that this is an informative book and I would recommend it to anybody who is interested in the lives of the Tudor-Stuart family.