In So High a Blood, Morgan Ring gives due, as the book's subtitle explains, to Margaret Douglas, the Tudor time forgot. Her biography of Margaret Douglas is beautifully written and very well researched. While this book will be of great value to scholars, it is also accessible to anyone interested in the Tudor court and Anglo-Scottish relations. There is not only fascinating material about Margaret Douglas herself, but also her parents, Margaret Tudor, widow of James IV, and her father Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus.

As the book progresses, we also learn much about Douglas's life from her tumultuous childhood to her time at English royal court. While moving in and out of the favor of English monarchs she shared poetry and reflections in the Devonshire Manuscript, of which she kept possession, and even many years later allowed her son Henry, Lord Darnley to write a poem in it. Ring presents fascinating material about this manuscript, which has been recently transcribed and published (Elizabeth Heale, ed., The Devonshire Manuscript: A Women's Book of Courtly Poetry, by Lady Margaret Douglas and Others [2012]).

While at court, Douglas fell in love with Thomas Howard. Though he was related to Queen Anne, as a younger son he was an inappropriate match for the niece of the king, and when Henry found out, he had both imprisoned, and Howard was sentenced to death. While Douglas was eventually freed, Thomas Howard died of illness while in the Tower. Ring's analysis of the consequences they faced for their unauthorized relationship aptly demonstrates the importance royal marriages in early modern politics.

Ring suggests that Henry VIII surprisingly promised Douglas some agency over who would be her husband—this after years earlier putting her in the Tower after her relationship Thomas Howard. In 1544 Margaret married Matthew Stuart, Earl of Lennox, who she grew to love dearly and was dearly loved by him.

While the favor of the English monarchs was often transient, Douglas always seemed to regain a place at court. She publicly lost favor with King Henry after her conflict with Thomas Bishop, the secretary to her husband. Her attempt to have Bishop removed from his position resulted, Ring claims, in Henry altering the line of the succession in favor of his younger sister Mary's daughters. Though certainly there was concern over the Scottish claim that would come with Mary Stuart, Ring carefully argues that the quarrel over Thomas Bishop caused Henry to demote the Stuarts in the secession soon before the king's death. Bishop, who had been a loyal servant to the king, wrote to Henry VIII for help. Henry, already angry that Douglas's father, after a long alliance with the English king, had turned against him and reconciled with the Scottish lords, was furious with Douglas, seeing her actions against Bishop being done against the king. Henry also saw it as a woman taking rule over the head of the household, though Lennox supported his wife in the decision. “To Henry, Margaret's distaste for Bishop and her efforts to get rid of him seemed a show of impudence and disloyalty” (98). Though the letters between Margaret Douglas and her husband demonstrate that they considered their marriage a partnership of equals, for Bishop and the king himself, there was the view that Lennox was being commanded by his wife. Ring suggests that had Henry survived longer, perhaps Douglas may have been able to make up the quarrel. Ring also argues that despite the quarrel and her sorrow over its impact on her claim to the throne, Douglas mourned her uncle's death and loved and spoke well of him for the rest of her life.

In addition to an evaluation of Douglas's interactions with her uncle, Ring also details her rearing of her children, including her older surviving son, Henry Stuart. Ring also takes great care to explore the significant role she played in arranging her son's marriage to the Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland.

During Douglas's life in England she had adapted to the incremental changes in religion, which worked during Henry's reign, but as the young king and the archbishop of Canterbury were moving toward a clear Protestant theology, she could not shift any further. Her faith was very important to her, and she saw herself by that point as a Catholic.

There was a great deal of tragedy in Margaret Douglas's life. In addition to the forced separation from Thomas Howard and his death, only two of the eight children she had with Lennox survived to adulthood, and her beloved elder son, Henry, who fulfilled her greatest hopes when he married his cousin Mary Stuart, was murdered, perhaps by his wife's connivance, only two years later. Her younger son, Charles, also died in his early twenties. And Matthew Lennox was assassinated in 1571. As Ring points out, “Margaret was inconsolable” (247). She also had a number of sojourns in the Tower of London. Yet despite these travails, she was a strong and powerful woman who worked to benefit herself and her family. Although her status contributed to her opportunities, her ability to move forward after tragedy and continue to help her family rise demonstrates her resourcefulness.

The positives of this well-researched monograph outweigh the small bibliographic issues, where parts of bibliography and notes are not as complete or accurate at they need to be. Also, occasionally within the text Ring does not give a date when it would have been helpful. Generally, however, Morgan Ring has done a very fine job in this biography.