UNCROWNED QUEEN

THE FATEFUL LIFE OF MARGARET BEAUFORT, TUDOR MATRIARCH

NICOLA TALLIS

Michael O’mara, 362pp, £20

When her son Henry Tudor became King in 1485, Margaret Beaufort took the ‘momentous and unprecedented step’ of having herself declared by parliament to be a ‘femme sole’, giving her full control of her property independent of her husband. ‘She was now able to step out from the “supporting role” of wife and mother and take control of both her life and her identity,’ Katherine J Lewis wrote in the TLS.

Tallis is one of the rising stars of a new generation of historians and her ‘analysis of Margaret forms part of an important and growing area of scholarship on the significant involvement of women in 15thcentury politics’, Lewis continued. ‘Margaret emerges from this compelling study as admirable and relatable, accommodating astutely to the volatile political climate and emerging from it as “a woman of extraordinary determination and self-possession”.’

But what of the suspicion that Margaret arranged the murder of the Princes in the Tower? Tallis declares that ‘The suggestion that Margaret was in any way involved ... is frankly ludicrous.’

‘Tallis is a zealous destroyer of myths,’ Gareth Russell agreed in the

Times, although he thought it ‘hopeful and unlikely’ that that particular conspiracy theory would be put to bed. However, he noted that ‘Margaret’s subsequent intrigues with the princes’ widowed mother, Elizabeth Woodville, are thrillingly told...tallis deploys an extraordinary eye for detail in telling this story. She explains throughout her use of the sources, while maintaining an elegant prose,’ Russell concluded. ‘Through this superb revisionist biography, Margaret Beaufort emerges as a fascinating and often surprisingly sympathetic matriarch.’