Biography of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox (1515-1578) Niece of Henry VIII and Mother-In-Law of Mary Queen of Scots
| Author: | Schutte, Kimberly | |
| Year: | 2002 | |
| Pages: | 352 | |
| ISBN: | 0-7734-7199-5 978-0-7734-7199-3 | |
| Price: | $239.95 + shipping | |
| (Click the PayPal button to buy) | ||
Despite heavy academic interest in the Tudor period, many of the important secondary figures have been neglected, including Margaret Douglas, whose life and actions had a significant impact on the period. She was in the center of events during much of the reigns of Henry VIII, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. Niece to Henry VIII, wife to Matthew Stewart, the Early of Lennox and a close claimant of throne of Scotland, she was the mother of Henry, Lord Darnley, the husband of Mary Queen of Scots. It was due to her matrimonial schemes, for example, that a law was passed under Henry VIII reserving to the sovereign the right to regulate the marriages of members of the royal family.
Reviews
"Strong-willed, outspoken, lovingwife and mother, ambitious for her fam- ily, the Countess of Lennox was a powerful force in Elizabethan power politics. She and her relatives had strong claims to the thrones of both Scotland and En- gland. Her grandson was James VI of Scotland who would become James I of England. She was not a favorite of Queen Elizabeth, but she held her own in the dangerous swirl of Elizabethan politics. In this first book-length biography of the Countess of Lennox, Kimberly Schutte, adjunct professor at Missouri Western State College, describes a woman not easy to like but impossible to ignore. Despite her overweening ambition for her family and propensity for marital scheming, she commanded respect by her powerful personality as well as by her position in the nobility ... Schutte's straightforward biography describes the complex relations among the powerful aristocrats of the time, their shifting loyalties and the countess's role in it all. She cites primary sources extensively, and her 12-page bibliography might well prove useful for Oxfordians who want to do further research into the life of this extraordinary woman and her connections with the earl of Oxford." - Shakespeare Matters
Table of Contents
Table of contents:
Introduction
1. Beginnings
2. The English Court, 1529-1536
3. Disgrace, 1536-1537
4. Return to Favor, 1537-1544
5. Lennox
6. The Quiet Years, 1544-1553
7. Years of Ascendancy, 1553-1557
8. Years of Trouble: The Early Elizabethan Period, 1558-1565
9. The Return to Scotland
10. The Final Years
Epilogue, Appendix – The Devonshire Manuscript; Cast; Bibliography, Index
Introduction
1. Beginnings
2. The English Court, 1529-1536
3. Disgrace, 1536-1537
4. Return to Favor, 1537-1544
5. Lennox
6. The Quiet Years, 1544-1553
7. Years of Ascendancy, 1553-1557
8. Years of Trouble: The Early Elizabethan Period, 1558-1565
9. The Return to Scotland
10. The Final Years
Epilogue, Appendix – The Devonshire Manuscript; Cast; Bibliography, Index