I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. This is a must read for Tudor fans, very well written.

This was a very good, readable history of Margaret Tudor, one of the lesser talked about Tudors. Margaret was an interesting woman, surrounded and involved in many historical events. Ms. Watkins does a good job of telling of Margaret’s life in an interesting and engaging way. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more of her books!

I would view this as an entry level biography, which gives us a glimpse into her early life as a Tudor princess; her struggles as Queen of Scotland and then as regent for her young son, James V; her failed marriages; constant political struggles between England & Scotland; and ultimately, her fight to ensure her son gained his inheritance.

These were turbulent times and would be even more so for an inexperienced young woman thrust upon the political scene, viewed with suspicion by both her new country and the land she left behind.

Watkins concludes with a wrap of the fate of her children and her legacy - which resulted in the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to her cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, thus uniting the two lines of descent from her.

It is a small tome - which no doubt could have been bulked out with descriptions of people and places, her wardrobe and a history of the times, but we would still not get anything of Margaret herself - so I am glad this was not done. In the end, Margaret's life is spent in the shadows of the men in her life: father, husband, brother, son.

Sarah-Beth Watkins paints a fascinating picture of this fiery Tudor queen, who loved fine clothes, dancing and special occasions. She uses letters and excellent historical research to bring Queen Margaret to life. I was sorry to finish the book!

Queen Margaret led a rather tragic life. When very young, she married the much older, handsome and charismatic King James IV of Scotland who treated her well, but she must not have been too happy to discover that he was determined to keep his mistresses. She had many children but only one survived - a son, luckily. King James's terrible death in a battle against her own brother, King Henry VIII was terrible for Margaret.

She was forever caught between Scotland, England and France and trying to please her dominating brother and keep the Scottish nobles on side proved incredibly difficult. Queen Margaret even had a terrifying struggle to keep custody of her son - she was fiercely protective of him and proudly attempted to gain custody against all odds. Unfortunately, she chose two adulterous and thieving husbands after James died, which almost destroyed her credibility. Her brother kept criticising her morals, rather hypocritically!

Luckily, her old age was somewhat more relaxing. She enjoyed spending time with her daughter-in-law and grandchildren. It sounds much more peaceful than the rest of her turbulent life!

This is a must-read for anyone interested in the Tudors or British Royal history.

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review..

At last, a book worthy of this strong and often overlooked woman. I was transported back in time to the harsh realities of the period and taken on a captivating journey. Beautifully written and one I will go back to time & time again

Margaret Tudor is brought to life in this book. We are given a fascinating insight into the complex world of royal families and their strategic political planning. Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII, is married to James IV at a very young age in order to foster good links with Scotland. The book appears to be extremely well researched. There is a lot of detail and many quotes from original letters and papers of the time. I found some of the detail made quite heavy reading occasionally, but on the whole I really enjoyed it.
Margaret is often put in a very precarious position and this book explains how she negotiates her way through each problem she is faced with. She leans quite heavily on her brother for support and you get an idea of their relationship.

Very historical in it twists and turns that played out in history. The pitfalls of Mary Queen of Scots did in her life was unreal. You could think to yourself, man did this really happen. The details the author went through to tell the story of this somewhat famous Queen who later in life losed her head. Why? Maybe for the power of the English throne and feeling she has a right to sit upon it at the time. I felt that the author pulled me along for the ride in a time when being a Queen was dangerous.

Margaret Tudor was one of the few Tudors I didn't know a lot about before reading this novel, simply because her brother and nieces are much more famous than her.

I really liked learning more about her life and the role she played in Scottish politics and history, but unfortunately, I didn't think that this was a particularly interesting read.

I am a massive Tutor nerd and have read everything by Hillary Mantel and Philippa Gregory but found information on Margaret Tudor was sparse at best. I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be exploring the author's back catalogue.

Margaret Tudor is one of those forgotten royal, surrounded by much more famous royalty such as her brother King Henry VIII (it's even in the title of this book). But this book was a short and concise guide to Margaret Tudor and her tumultuous life, showing that her primary goal in life, besides self preservation, was peace between her home nation, England, and her marital home, Scotland. History itself shows that this isn't a popular notion, and Margaret had her work cut out for her.
Sarah-Beth Watkins has really breathed life into this topic because this book was easy to read and really engaging and informative. I really enjoyed it, and I learnt a lot because I'd only vaguely heard of Margaret Tudor before reading.

However, I really didn't like the sheer amount of letters that were used in the book. They felt really cumbersome and out of place. It became quite difficult to follow the narrative with the letters being so often.

So this book really disappointed me. I expected a good, somewhat detailed book about King Henry's sister and her tumultuous time as Queen of Scots. And I really didn't get that. I felt like I got a super abbreviated version of her life. And a reminder that I suck at reading letters from the 14th century.

The pacing was really fast for being about someone's life and didn't have a lot of detail about her. I was looking forward to reading about her childhood, details about her life at court, etc. I understand that there might not be a lot on Margaret but I expected more than what I got. I mean she was a Tudor princess and Queen of Scotland, even if she was only a regent.

I never got a true sense of who Margaret was. As far as I can tell, she liked being rich and married for love while making some dumb decisions in order to achieve her goals. I didn't know her personality or anything like that. I didn't bond with her like I wanted too and that was upsetting.

As for the book itself, I think it needs some more editing. It seemed to bounce from third person to second. An example: one sentence starts with "Today was the day..." and then the next sentence was "She began her journey..." It made the book read really weird. There was also whole pages of straight letters from Margaret to whoever she was writing too. I appreciated that ,because not a lot of books will keep the entire letter, but it made the book incredibly dense and hard to read at times.

Overall, this book was alright. It needs some editing and I think it could be better. It certainly has potential. But right now there is probably better books out there about Margaret Tudor. Really just a shame.

Margaret Tudor is often overshadowed in history by her well-known brother (and king) Henry VIII. A woman's life was not easy in these times, and a woman in Margaret's position became a pawn more than anything. Throughout her life, though, she struggled to maintain dignity through much trouble and tension.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sarah-Beth Watkins, and John Hunt Publishing Ltd for an ARC of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots. I chose the perfect time to read this book: I was concurrently reading 3 Sisters, 3 Queens by Phillipa Gregory and the books worked so well together. I get on kicks where I obsess a bit over a topic, so this was the perfect book for me! Well done and very interesting.

I am obsessed with Tudor history so was excited to read Margaret Tudor Queen of Scots by Sarah-Beth Watkins as i hadn't really read much about her before. I enjoyed the book and would recommend this to history lovers. 4 stars, thank you to the author Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book

Rating: 3.5/5.0

I love history books especially about Tudors and other kingdoms. This book is about the King Henry VIII's older sister (and less famous) Margaret Tudor. It focuses on her life and how she became the Queen of Scotland while struggling to make a balance between Scotland and England. The book shows us how strong Margaret was in achieving her goals even though sometimes she seemed to be torn on what decision to take next where her husband and brother were concerned. The author also sheds some light on Margaret's daughter who had similar problems as her mother. Although the writing is mainly informative in style it was never boring like other books talking about historical figures.
What I really found to be very interesting is the inclusion of the letters exchanged between Margaret and the other figures. That helped me to have a better understanding of the situation back then.

If you like historical books then I think you should read this one because it makes an interesting reading. I was lucky to grab it from the read now section on Netgalley.

I was looking forward to reading the story of Margaret Tudor as so much is known of her Brother so it was good to know more about her.

Sarah-Beth Watkins has certainly done her research and this showed in very little known facts about the life of Margaret. Indeed it was very interesting and I am looking forward to reading more from this author.

Margaret Tudor was the oldest sister of Henry VIII and the wife of James IV of Scotland.  For someone who is more than a bit fascinated by the Tudors, I realised on seeing this book up for review, I knew nothing about her – something I immediately felt the need to rectify.
What I found was a woman who seemed to be passionate, determined, and unable to not make the wrong choices (so when her husband died, his will said that she would be regent for their baby son as long as she didn’t remarry – which is what she went and did pretty much straight away, spending the next decade then fighting for her right to rule and to see her son).
It all sounds fascinating, and it was.  It was also over too quickly.  At 168 pages, this is a short book.  It presents a woman that I wanted to know more about but feel like I have just scratched the surface of.  Key events were over before they had begun and the world in which Margaret lived, the life she was expected to live, were covered so briefly that unless you already had an understanding of it you may well have been left in the dark.
As a taster, then, this was a good start.  For someone used to read more detailed historical works, this was an easy read.  It was well written in a conversational style but felt like a long essay rather than a fully formed book.  I, for one, wanted more.  So, not bad, but – for me – not great either.

I already knew a fair bit about Henry VIII, but I knew next to nothing about his older sister Margaret, who became Queen of Scots. This is a thoroughly researched, well-presented account of her life, which was surprisingly eventful and interesting.

I found the writing style informative, but fairly easy to read, apart from the original correspondence texts. Having said that, those fragments of letters were fascinating in their own way, seeing how people communicated in the past.

I would thoroughly recommend this biography to anyone interested in British history or ‘kings and queens’.

This is the biographical story of King Henry VIII's lesser known older sister, Margaret Tudor, her rise to power as the Queen of Scotland and her continued struggles with being torn between England and Scotland. Ms. Watkins does a wonderful job of telling this woman's story. I was impressed at her ability to overcome tragedy, which entered her life in a number of instances from losing her children to early deaths to being betrayed by those closest to her. She is definitely one of those women who is strong willed and not afraid to go after what she wants. She was devoted to her son. I liked that the book wasn't overly bogged down with historical detail tangents that had little or nothing to do from Margaret, which you can sometimes find in these historical biographies. The author includes excerpts from letters written by the main character which helps portray her voice. I also enjoyed how the author ended the book by reminding the reader of Margaret's ultimate dream of uniting England and Scotland which was eventually achieved through her future family members after her death. If you're interested in the Tudor family, I recommend picking up this book.

An intelligent, well written and researched story of a forgotten Tudor Princess and a Scottish Queen. You think of Tudor England and that means Henry v111, and his six wives. Maybe you know about his brother Arthur,perhaps Mary, who married the French King, but poor Margaret, went to Scotland and became a lost Tudor.
Although the book details many feminine details about her life,her love of court life,fine dresses and jewellery ,fine food and travels around the kingdom,which are delightful to read, Margaret quickly learnt the skills of diplomacy in her new role. Coming from a Protestant court to a Catholic country,she had to learn how to keep good relations with the English and her domineering brother Henry, and his letters of advice,her disloyal courtiers and following the death of her husband James 1v and her remarriage to Archibald Douglas,6th Earl of Arran,she had to keep the Scottish crown for her only son,James V. This was all against the threat of border raids from the English,the threat of invasion from France and the knowledge that her husband was unfaithful to her and plotted against her regency and his desire to take over that role for himself . She must have used all her feminine wiles to keep the peace for so long!
I love Tudor history and take many long holidays in Scotland and mainly visit places connected with Mary,Queen of Scots. I know most of these places described in this book, but didn't know the connections between them and Margaret Tudor ,but did know that she was the grandmother of Mary,Queen of Scots. I think I will do a lot more exploring next year on my annual visits as she seemed such a strong and determined person,ready to sacrifice her health and reputation to see her son on the throne of Scotland. A most enjoyable read,it has really brought this forgotten Queen back to life. I have posted this review to Goodreads today.