#I mean let's be realistic overall Margaret's attempts at government were a failure
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Certain historical writers, talking about a famous woman from the past: She was power-hungry, conniving, and selfishly desired wealth and influence
Me, internally: Ok and the scheming kings and noblemen we were just talking about... so they weren’t??
#This book about the minority of James V is otherwise quite good and I think overall a fair assessment of why Margaret Tudor failed#But occasionally it will be like 'Her selfishness let her down... she was selfish and ultimately power-hungry'#Meanwhile the earl of Huntly threw a hissy fit two pages earlier and threatened to resign as lieutenant of north unless he got his own way#And the earl of Arran rebelled against the regent Albany possibly for no other reason than he thought he could do better himself#And at another point the supporters of the earls of Arran and Angus have a fight in Edinburgh high street over who got to be provost#Meanwhile Henry VIII is on the other side of the border and can't seem to keep his hands off either Scotland or France for two seconds#And absolutely zilch is said about what that means about their personal characters#the description of the earl of Lennox in 1526 comes closest#But seriously#OF COURSE she wanted power#That's what most political figures of the sixteenth century wanted#Are we to assume from the silence that this is a given for the men? Or do we just need to point it out for the one woman?#This is also slightly aimed at a quote I just saw about Eleanor of Aquitaine about how she was enamoured with power#Because of course that wasn't true for Henry II#All in all I assume both pieces of historical writing are good I just find it funny how we zone in on the motivations for women's activities#Maybe it's because readers are disposed to sympathise with the woman though and the historian needs to remind them they weren't all that#But still if not exactly unfair seems like a bad idea to not mention that the men are just as bad#I mean let's be realistic overall Margaret's attempts at government were a failure#But I didn't see the rest of them doing much better and certainly 80% of them didn't have higher motives#Imagine if the earl of Arran had to face trouble from his wife trying to control his property and being supported by the law to do so#Don't think he'd come out of that too well either
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