A review by hollymalone
Uncrowned Queen: The Fateful Life of Margaret Beaufort, Tudor Matriarch by Nicola Tallis

4.0

The title "Uncrowned Queen" says it all. As the mother of Henry VII, it can be argued that Lady Margaret Beaufort was the architect of the short-lived but widely popular Tudor dynasty. Without her discretion, patience and determination, it is easy to image the Tudor faction becoming lost amid the endless violence that raged between the Yorks and the Lancasters off and on for years. Thanks to the Philippa Gregory novels and their television adaptations, Margaret Beaufort has been given a pop culture presence. However, what Tallis expertly does is show how the stereotype of the joyless and perhaps vindictive pseudo-queen is neither a fair nor an accurate representation. What unfolds in "Uncrowned Queen" is the fact that Beaufort was almost a woman of modern day moxie. She had a goal of seeing her son on the crown and she struggled night and day to bring that goal into being. But on the human side she was also a woman who was forced to be practical when it came to marriages, who adored jewels and the latest fashions, and was someone who recognized the necessity of education and charity. While she was very much a God-fearing woman, she was not a religious zealot who sucked the life out of the room, as she has often been unfairly depicted as being. She was a survivor in the truest sense, and to watch her survive is to read a story about what it takes to be true to oneself and to let the more conniving crash and burn on their own accord.