Hello and welcome to Life of the Week, where leading historians delve into the lives of some of history's most intriguing and significant figures.

From ancient Egyptian pharaohs and medieval warriors to daring 20th century spies.

Margaret Tudor was the daughter of a king, the sister of a king and the wife of a king.

But she was a political power player in her own right to, carefully balancing family

loyalties to both the Crown of England and the Crown of Scotland.

She also left us an extraordinary legacy of correspondence detailing her life as a princess,

queen, regent and mother. I spoke to historical linguist Dr Helen Newsom Chandler to find out

more about Margaret's life from start to end.

We're going to be delving into the life of Margaret Tudor.

Could you introduce us to her?

So Margaret Tudor was the eldest daughter of Henry the 7th and Elizabeth York,

King and Queen of England.

She was born on the 28th of November, 1489, at Westminster Palace.

And when she was 13 years old, she married James the 4th King of Scots to become Queen of Scotland.

And what's interested about it is we have an unusually large collection of correspondence

that charts Margaret's life from her shortly after her arrival in Scotland

until just before her death in 1541.

And this correspondence offers such an interesting insight into the challenges she faced as

Queen of Scots, especially after her husband James VIII, was killed at the Battle of Floodden in 1513.

And it charts her marital difficulties through her

subsequent marriages to Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, and Henry Stuart, the First Lord

of Methan. And she's just a fascinating and tenacious character. And she's been very much

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