The Society is very pleased to announce publication of its latest Camden series volume: The Holograph Letters of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots (1489-1541), edited by Helen Newsome-Chandler.
This volume presents the surviving holograph correspondence of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots as a stand-alone edition for the first time. The 111 holograph letters (written in Margaret’s own hand) and 4 ‘hybrid’ letters (written by a scribe, with a postscript or subsection by Margaret herself) form an unprecedented epistolary archive, featuring the largest collection of holograph correspondence written in English or Scots of any medieval or early modern queen.
The letters chart Margaret’s life as a late medieval queen, including the challenges she faced in negotiating her dual identity as queen of Scots and an English princess, and her important role in Anglo-Scots politics and diplomacy in the early sixteenth century.
To mark publication of this important volume, the full text of The Holograph Letters of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots (1489-1541) is now available, free to read, via Cambridge University Press, until 30 September 2025.
The edition also provides a substantial Introduction which explores the archive of Margaret Tudor’s correspondence and a detailed biography, to enable readers to better understand the political and cultural context in which Margaret’s letters were originally written.
This new Camden edition also provides a handlist of Margaret’s remaining extant correspondence, which includes scribal letters, copies of original letters, and foreign language letters — the first time such a handlist has been published.
To accompany publication, the volume’s editor, Helen Newsome-Chandler, has also written for the Society’s blog, providing an introduction and guide to Margaret Tudor’s life and the collection.
The online edition of The Holograph Letters of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots (1489-1541) is now available from Cambridge University Press. The print edition will be released later in August.
Full online access to all Camden Series titles is available to Fellows and Members of the Royal Historical Society as part of the Society’s member benefits.
This includes purchase of the print edition of the Holograph Letters (347pp) for the reduced price of £16. Fellows and Members of the Society who wish to purchase a print copy at this reduced rate should email: administration@royalhistsoc.org, providing their name and postal address, marking the email ‘Camden’.
Camden volumes in 2025
The Holograph Letters of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots (1489-1541) is the second of three volumes in the Camden series to be published in 2025.
Other titles this year are The Papers of Admiral George Grey, edited by Michael Taylor (June 2025 and now available Open Access) and A Collector Collected: The Journals of William Upcott, 1803-1823, edited by Mark Philp, Aysuda Aykan and Curtis Leung — which is published in November.
Recent volumes in the Camden series
Other recent volumes in the series include:
- The Household Accounts of Robert and Katherine Greville, Lord and Lady Brooke, at Holborn and Warwick, 1640-1649, edited by Stewart Beale, Andrew Hopper and Ann Hughes (November 2024).
- Allen Leeper’s Letters Home, 1908–1912. An Irish-Australian at Edwardian Oxford, edited by David Hayton (July 2024).
- The Last Days of English Tangier. The Out-Letter Book of Governor Percy Kirke, 1681–1683, edited by John Childs (November 2023).
- La Prinse et mort du roy Richart d’Angleterre, and Other Works by Jehan Creton, edited and translated by Lorna A. Finlay (June 2023).
Introductions to these and other recent Camden volumes are available from their editors via the Society’s blog.
About the Camden series
The Royal Historical Society’s Camden Series is one of the most prestigious and important collections of primary source material relating to British History, including the British empire and Britons’ influence overseas.
The Society (and its predecessor, the Camden Society) has since 1838 published scholarly editions of sources—making important, previously unpublished, texts available to researchers. Each volume is edited by specialist historians who provide an expert introduction and commentary.
The complete Camden Series now comprises over 385 volumes of primary source material, ranging from the early medieval to late-twentieth century Britain. The full series is available via Cambridge Journals Online, providing an extraordinarily rich conspectus of source material for British history as well as insights into the development of historical scholarship in the English speaking world.
Full online access to all Camden Series titles is available to all Fellows and Members of the Royal Historical Society as part of the Society’s Member Benefits.
The Camden Series is edited by Dr Richard Gaunt (University of Nottingham) and Professor Siobhan Talbott (Keele University). Richard and Siobhan welcome submissions for future Camden volumes. If you have a proposal for a Camden Society volume, please complete and submit the Camden Series Proposal Form and send your completed proposal to the Editors: camden.editors@royalhistsoc.org.
HEADER IMAGE: An Engagement Portrait, traditionally identified as of Margaret Tudor, the Regent Albany and a man in royal livery. Oil on canvas. 84cm x 117 cm. Courtesy of the Bute Collection at Mount Stuart, detail.