Like Mary Boleyn, Margaret Douglas was a medieval woman adjacent to power so the first hand accounts of her life are somewhat sketchy. She was the daughter of Henry VIII's sister Margaret Tudor and the mother-in-law of Mary, Queen of Scots (who was also Margaret Tudor's granddaughter, by Margaret Tudor's first marriage). She spent most of her young years as a political pawn (as most princesses of the era did), married into Scottish nobility, and maneuvered to put her immature and pleasure-seeking son on the Scottish throne. There aren't a lot of 'big events' in Margaret Douglas's life, but Weir's biography of her (like that of Mary Boleyn) outlines the machinations of the Tudor court.
Sunday, December 10, 2023
The Chancellor's Secret
The 25th and final installment in Susannah Gregory's Matthew Bartholomew mysteries is a decent mystery but more importantly gives the characters a happy ending. Matthew marries Matilde, he's given a source of income so he can continue to treat the poor while still supporting himself, his sister Edith has remarried to a wealthy and good man, Brother Michael has installed a figurehead into the Chancellor's position so he can run the university from behind the scenes, and the town will no longer have to worry about Sheriff Tuylet's disturbed and violent teenage son.
In the meantime, Matt and Michael have to solve the mysterious deaths of two Chancellor candidates and deal with a collapsed bridge while Matt handles an atypical outbreak of the flux and two about-to-graduate students who've already set up shop as physicians. Matt's also frustrated by the local woman who's helping Matilde and Edith plan the wedding, worried about whether his sister's new marriage of convenience (her late husband had left a financial mess and her new husband is wealthy), and contemplating life once he gives up his teaching position. Add in a drought which turns into a flood and Gregory provides a fitting sendoff for her characters. I'll miss them, but I've got 25 books to reread.
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