#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

[the-busy-ghost]

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