"The Forgotten Queen" by D.L. Bogdan Review

"No one is as proud as a Tudor." D.L Bogdan introduces, what could possibly be, one of the most extreme feminists from the 16th century, Margaret Tudor Queen of Scots, in her new book The Forgotten Queen. In this fictionalized history novel, Margaret struggles through the life of a Royal and the limitations she has as a female in a traditional man's world. Being married at the early age of twelve and moved to the "barbaric" country of Scotland, she strives to accomplish the goal of bringing peace between England and Scotland set by her father, and her personnel goal of living out a pampered, satisfied existence. But when continuous tragedies plague her, and she is taken advantage of by those who claim to love her, Margaret discovers that she can bring the peace and she can live a happy life, but can she accomplish them together?   

In many historical fiction novels, if the author intends to write about the entire life of the character it can become tedious, like an extremely long and detailed history lesson proving that the author did not just make up the events, but that they actually did research on this time in history. While occasionally some of the details are unneccessary, Bogdan does an excellent job of not making this book into an elaborate, speculative research paper. And considering that she has written three other books on the Tudors, and has studied history in college, it is safe to assume that this book is pretty accurate concerning what occured in the life of Margaret Tudor.

If this was a traditional novel, the character would be seen as a static character; never changing, not experiencing that epiphany before the climax that if she changes her ways, then maybe things will end up differently. Instead, Margaret is consistently shown as being selfish, materialistic, and blonde throughout the whole of her life. Even when she has moments of resolve to change her ways, she never does. Normally, this kind of main character would make the story uninteresting, however since it is based off of a real person and real events, it can only be suspected to be how Margaret Tudor actually was in real life. Still, at times it can be quite annoying reading from her egotistic point of view.

Bogdan's book does a remarkable job of bringing the story of a true forgotten queen (due to the infamy of her brother Henry VIII) to light, and showing the trials of Regal women from the past in a way that can be enjoyed by modern audiences.