Margaret Tudor has intrigued me for a number of years. I often feel that Henry’s sisters tend to be forgotten about in favour of their far more controversial brother and his multitude of wives. And yet both women were themselves controversial at the time. While they didn’t quite reach the dizzying heights of six spouses, they did both marry several times each. And although Mary, Henry’s youngest sister, died quite young, Margaret lived in to her early fifties and was also the mother of a future King. It was through her that King James VI of Scotland was able to claim the English throne.

Alys of France was never originally intended to be a Queen of England. And she never got to be one either, thanks to all those pesky rumours about what she got up to with her potential father-in-law, King Henry II of England.

On her marriage in 1380 no one could have considered Mary de Bohun a potential future queen. While she was marrying in to the royal family, her husband’s cousin was King and there was no reason to think that he wouldn’t have sons of his own in time.

Matilda of Anjou was one of the first almost Queens of England. The death of her husband, William Aetheling, led to a succession crisis for her father-in-law and a personal crisis for her.

It’s rare that a royal mistress becomes a royal wife. Even rarer when the mistress isn’t from the nobility! By Karin Mansdotter wasn’t married to an ordinary King, and her fate wouldn’t quite be the same as other Queens.

If you’ve ever spent an afternoon walking around a National Trust property (or even worked for them, as I used to do) then you’ll probably hear a volunteer talking about the previous owners. Most country houses have had a famous or infamous occupant, or a relation of a famous individual, at some point in their history. Although the National Trust is doing it’s best to ensure more women are visible in their house histories, it’s a long process to research And that’s just the National Trust! There are still plenty of country houses that are privately owned and are opened to the public by the family, or owned by charitable trusts dedicated to the preservation of a particular property.

“Let not poor Nellie starve”.

This is reported to be one of the last requests that King Charles II made to his brother James shortly before his death. Charles had had multiple mistresses during his life, and Eleanor “Nell” Gwyn was just one of several long-term favourites. But unlike her contemporaries, who had powerful families and connections to protect them after his death, Nell was a commoner who could easily be dropped by her supporters, thus the request that his brother help her after he was gone.

Being a big fan of Royal women’s history (as you’ve probably noticed from the Unlucky Princess and Royal Mistress blog series), I couldn’t wait for Erin Lawless’ new book to come out! I got it off Amazon a few days after it was released and it promptly went to the top of the “To be read” pile.

Many Kings had mistresses, either as brief flings to more long-term commitments. Only the French court turned this in to a semi-official role, with the title “maitress-on-titre” waiting to be bestowed on a favourite with real staying power. In the case of one woman it lasted over a decade, and faced regular condemnation from the Catholic church.

Despite living in a small countryside village between the ages of 3 and 25, I never actually joined the local Women’s Institute. Like many I tend to view the WI as the whole “Jam and Jerusalem” thing, a bunch of middle-aged ladies singing hymns and churning out award-winning cakes. But when I saw “Jambusters” sitting on the shelf of my local library something made me pick it up. Maybe it was the fact that it was about the Second World War, a part of history for which I only know basic dates and bits about the “Home Front” that I remember from Middle School history classes. Perhaps it was because it was quite clearly about woman’s role in the war; something which I think tends to be neglected and therefore is worth reading about.

Either way I took the book home with me and got thoroughly absorbed in it. So much so that when it had to go back to the library I promptly bought it off Amazon, and still reread it every so often.