Henry VIII's woman problem even included his sister
(. . .whose fertility REALLY annoyed him )

We are so used to the idea of Henry VIII being vile to his wives that it's easy to overlook the fact that he was equally beastly to his sister.

 

Margaret Tudor was born two years before Henry and he never seems to have forgiven her for arriving first. Add in the fact that she became Queen of Scotland at the age of 13 when he was still only Prince of Wales and you have the makings of a sibling rivalry that stretched until her death in 1541.

 

This might be funny were it not for the fact that instead of squabbing over who was better at Latin or had the nicest pony, the royal brother and sister indulged in vicious politicking which descended into their respective kingdoms taking up arms against each other.

 

Henry outlived his sister by just over five years, but it was long enough to enough to ensure that he won the PR war. As a result, Margaret Tudor has gone down in the historical records as a silly woman who spent her time buying clothes she couldn't afford and sleeping with unsuitable men.

 

Nastiest of all, Henry accused his sister of writing him begging letters and whingeing about being short of money. What he didn’t mention was that he had deliberately withheld from her the fortune that she had inherited under the terms of their father's will. In the circumstances, she had every right to complain.

 

In this passionate act of rehabilitation, Linda Porter argues that Margaret Tudor was a lot more than an airhead who didn't know where to stop with the diamonds.

 

From the moment she arrived north, barely into her teens, to marry James W of Scotland, she developed a subtle but powerful sense of what needed to be done to prevent Scotland from fracturing into warring clans. You have only to know that the people around her were called things such as Archibald the Grim, James the Gross and Robert Blackadder to realise that this was a wild and wuthering place.

 

Indeed, the names are a particularly terrific aspect of this entertaining book. 'Hugh the Dull' sounds like the kind of person to avoid at parties, although Margaret's personal messenger, 'Jammy Dogge', was probably a delight.

 

The one saving grace in Margaret's new life north of the border was her husband, King James. While the fact that he was 30 to her 13 rings modern alarm bells, in fact he seems to have been a genuinely loving and attentive husband.

 

He also appreciated the subtle power that came with dressing well, and he showered his young wife with expensive furs, silks and jewels so that she looked as fancy as any French princess (Scotland and France were historically bound together in the Auld Alliance' which, naturally, gave Henry the jitters).

 

Even more significant, from a tactical point of view, was that Margaret produced a string of babies in the first years of her marriage, ensuring the Stuart dynasty's security for the next generation and beyond. One of her grandchildren became Mary Queen of Scots.

 

It was his sister's fertility that made Henry especially furious. Despite having been married to Katherine of Aragon for seven years, he was still childless, which meant that, should anything happen to him, Margaret would inherit the English throne, quite possibly with James ruling alongside her. For such a competitive man, the thought was unbearable.

 

This simmering bad feeling came to a head in 1513 at the Battle of Flodden between the English and Scots, which led to the bloody death of James and most of his nobles. For the rest of her life Margaret found herself in a tenuous position. Her baby son was now crowned James V and she was installed as his Regent. But this arrangement was never going to impress ruthless Scottish clansmen, who now competed to see who could dethrone her.

 

At this point Henry could have stepped in to help his sister. Instead he took perverse pleasure in making things tricky.

 

When she announced her intention to divorce her next husband, a rotter called Archibald Douglas who had siphoned off what remained of her money, Henry delivered a condescending lecture on her low nmoral standards. This was particularly rich given the way that he was going through wives like a hot knife through butter.

 

Ironically, in the long term it was Margaret who won this deadly sibling feud. Despite his multiple marriages, Henry failed to establish a secure Tudor bloodline – none of  his children produced an heir.

 

Margaret's great-grandson, by contrast, ruled Scotland as James VI and in 1603, on Queen Elizabeth I’s death, was invited south to become James I of England.

 

Within a year he decreed that would be known as the King of Great Britain. From now on Scotland and  England would walk together, despite many subsequent attempts to divide them.

 

Linda Porter has drawn on the latest scholarship to light up a shadowy and fascinating corner of Tudor history.

                                                                HISTORY

                                              THE THISTLE AND THE ROSE

                                                                 By Linda Porter

                                                     (Head of Zeus £27.99, 400 pp)