Description
This volume presents the surviving holograph correspondence of Margaret Tudor, queen of Scots (1489-1541). Published as a stand-alone edition for the first time, the 111 holograph letters (in Margaret's own hand) and 4 'hybrid' letters (written by a scribe, with a postscript or subsection by Margaret) form an unprecedented epistolary archive, featuring the largest collection of holograph correspondence written in English or Scots of any medieval or early modern queen. The letters chart Margaret's life as a late medieval queen, including the challenges she faced in negotiating her dual identity as queen of Scots and an English princess, and her role in Anglo-Scots politics and diplomacy in the early sixteenth century. A substantial introduction highlights the unique language of Margaret's correspondence and discusses the materiality and delivery of her letters. A detailed biography situates Margaret's letters in the complex political and cultural context in which they were originally written.