DARCEY BONNETTE
About This Guide
The suggested questions are included to enhance your group’s reading of Darcey Bonnette’s The Tudor Princess.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Margaret Tudor learned early that she was destined to be Queen of Scots. How did the knowledge of the daunting responsibility before her affect her?
Describe Margaret’s relationship with her family and siblings as children. Whom was she closest to? Why or why not?
Did Margaret love James IV? Did he love her? Was he a good husband, in the context of the times?
How did the deaths of her children affect Margaret?
Margaret loses James IV as a young woman while with child. How did this tragic circumstance affect her? How did it factor into her marriage to the Earl of Angus?
Describe the relationship between Margaret and Angus. Was there any love there?
At one point, Margaret is forced to flee Scotland and leave her children behind. Was this the best option? Did she have any other alternatives?
Was Margaret a capable regent? Why or why not?
Did the Duke of Albany do right by the royal children?
DescribeMargaret’s feelings toward her sister-in-law Catherine of Aragon. Why did Margaret resent her? Is it understandable? Why or why not? Were these feelings ever resolved?
Throughout the novel, we see Margaret go through a series of changes regarding her emotions toward Angus. How did she ultimately feel toward him? Why?
Margaret often finds herself playing both sides while trying to secure James V’s throne, between that of Scotland and that of her brother, Henry VIII. Why did she do this? Whose side was she on ultimately?
Describe Margaret’s relationship with Harry Stewart. Compare and contrast it to her previous relationships with James IV, Angus, and the Duke of Albany. Who was the love of her life?
What was the turning point or points that contributed to the deterioration of Margaret’s marriage to Harry? Was this inevitable?
Compare and contrast Margaret’s relationships with her daughter, Margaret, and son, Jamie (James V). Was she a good mother? Why was it difficult for her to resist meddling in the rule of James V when he came to power, yet (seemingly) easy to let go of her daughter, Margaret Douglas?
Describe Margaret’s relationship with Henry VIII as adults. Did Henry do right by his sister?
Margaret was told by several that to be a queen and to have true love was next to impossible. In the context of her time, was this true? Is it true of people in power now?
Margaret acted often out of impulse, necessity, and at times seemed impervious to the needs of others. In regards to her regency, marriages, and children, did she make the right choices? What could she have done differently? Did she fulfil what she viewed as her purpose in life?
Acknowledgements
As always, I must first thank my wonderful agent, Elizabeth Pomada, who has worked so hard to help keep making my dreams of living as a working writer come true. I must also thank my editor, John Scognamiglio, for his patience, encouragement, and his ability to meet challenges with tireless grace, along with Paula Reedy and the rest of the magnificent team at Kensington Publishing. A big thanks to Vida Engstrand, my publicist, who is such a joy to work with. I also want to thank the team at the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh for their devoted correspondence as I researched this novel. To the authors who became mentors, the bloggers and reviewers who became huge sources of support (you all know who you are!), and the readers who keep me working, my deepest, most heartfelt thanks. I must thank my favourite beta reader, my mother, Cindy Bogdan, who was always up for a late-night phone call as I read her my latest scenes. Not least of all, I must thank my son Quinn for sharing his life and mother with so many historical figures. He knows far more about the Tudors and Stewarts than any twelve-year-old should! To my stepchildren Kristina, Ashley, and Cody (all lucky enough to have grown up and left home, thus avoiding the day-to-day travails of the latest historical obsession), thank you for supporting, respecting, and understanding my work; it means a great deal. And finally, thank you to the love of my life, my best friend, biggest encourager, and shameless promoter: my husband, Kim. I love you, my forever Chief and anchor.
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About the Author
Darcey Bonnette is a history major, singer and keyboard player. She makes her home in Central Wisconsin with her husband, their four children and a menagerie of pets. To learn more about her, check out her blog at www.dlbogdan.blogspot.com.
Copyright
Published by Avon
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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Hammersmith, London W6 8JB
www.harpercollins.co.uk
First published by Kensington Publishing, New York, 2013
This edition published by HarperCollins Publishers, Great Britain, 2014
Copyright © Darcey Bonnette 2013
Cover photograph © Richard Jenkins
Cover design © Debbie Clement 2014
Darcey Bonnette asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780007497782
Ebook Edition © April 2014 ISBN: 9780007497799
Version: 2014-02-18
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