The subject of this volume, Mary Tudor, was Henry VIII's twice-married younger sister. Her first, short marriage to Louis XII of France was arranged as part of a peace treaty and alliance between the two countries. She made the second, to Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk and Henry's closest friend, herself, eloping with him in France before the terms of her return to England were settled. The book is divided into two unequal parts: a long introduction and an appendix containing all thirty-eight of Mary's letters, an unusually large number for an early Tudor aristocratic woman. Sadlack indicates the source of each letter, whether it was written in Mary's hand or not, its condition, and any other pertinent information. She translates the few letters that were originally written in French.

The introduction draws on the disciplines of history and literary criticism to analyze and contextualize the letters. For a historian such as myself, the most illuminating facet of the introduction was Sadlack's discussion of the rhetorical strategies Mary used to secure a positive reponse to her letters from her brother and Cardinal Wolsey, particularly during the crisis that followed her secret marriage to Brandon. Sadlack's careful presentation of the historical situation — both in England and on the larger European stage — makes the circumstances in which Mary wrote each of her letters abundantly clear.

In addition, the introduction has a clear interpretative argument that makes three closely related points: that Mary was a person of political importance, that she was an effective agent in shaping her own life, and that she had political influence. The first assertion is certainly true: as Henry VII's daughter and Henry VIII's sister, her marriage to the much older Louis XII was a matter of enormous international significance as the key element in creating an alliance between England and her husband's realm. Mary also proved to be remarkably effective in taking advantage of her importance. Although she had little choice about the marriage, she managed to extract a promise from her brother that she could choose her second husband herself. That Henry agreed was a sign of his affection for his sister and, perhaps, the unlikelihood that he would keep the promise should it prove to be inconvenient. In the event, Mary took a huge risk by eloping with Charles Brandon, and forcing Henry's hand. The result of three-way negotiations between Mary, Charles, and Wolsey was that Henry did accept the fait accompli, but at the price of the couple's promise to give him a huge part of Mary's dower and the jewels Louis had given her. In fact, and this is probably a measure of Henry's concern with appearance rather than substance, very little of the money was paid and Mary still had jewels to lend Anne Boleyn almost two decades later. Both of Mary's marriages had international significance: the first sealed an alliance between France and England, the second eliminated the possibility, of concern to Francis I, that Mary would be matched with a Hapsburg.

Apart from her marriages, Sadlack probably overemphasizes Mary's political influence on both the domestic and international levels. Mary frequently asked Henry and Wolsey for favors for herself or her servants. But it is impossible to determine how successful she was in securing what she wanted in comparison to other noblewomen. In one instance of great importance to her, her brother made no effort to pressure Louis to allow her to retain her English servants when her husband dismissed them soon after their marriage.

After her return to England and second marriage, Mary continued to be known as the French queen. In this capacity she wrote to Francis I at various junctures on behalf of peace. In these cases, she was almost certainly acting on directions from Henry or his advisors. There is no evidence that her letters had any effect on the outcome of the negotiations.

Despite my disagreement with Sadlack's emphasis, I recommend her volume to both historians and literary scholars of the early modern period. Her edition of Mary's letters is an invaluable resource and they have much to learn from her introduction.