Margaret Roper

Margaret More was the eldest child of Sir Thomas More and Joanna "Jane" Colt. Colt was the daughter of an Essex gentleman and died of unknown causes in 1511. Margaret was most likely baptised at St. Stephen's Church, across the street from the Mores' family home. Besides Margaret, Joanna had four other children: Elizabeth, Cecily, John and, soon after Margaret's birth, the More family adopted Margaret Giggs, the daughter of a recently deceased neighbour. After the death of Colt, More married Alice Middleton, a widow. More's marriage to Middleton provided a step-sister named Alice (after her mother) for Margaret and her siblings. The senior Alice Middleton bore no children with More. == Personal life ==

Margaret married William Roper in 1521 in Eltham, Kent, and they made their home at Well Hall in Eltham. She, like the rest of her family, was a sincere adherent to the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church; having married William, a Lutheran, she is said to have converted him back to the religion of his fathers. William was the son of John Roper, Esq. prothonotary of the King's Bench, and possessor of an estate at Eltham in Kent. Roper and her husband had five children: Elizabeth (1523–60), Margaret (1526–88), Thomas (1533–98), Mary (d. 1572), and Anthony (1544–1597). Roper's third daughter, Mary, is also known for her translation work. William Roper ("son Roper," as he is referred to by Thomas More) produced the first biography of the statesman, but his homage to his father-in-law is not remembered as well as his wife's efforts. William Roper's biography of More is given weight owing to his role as a witness in Henry VIII and More's famous disagreement. == Career ==

Roper was the first non-royal woman to be noted for the publication of a translation. This was her translation of the Latin work, Precatio Dominica by Erasmus, as A Devout Treatise upon the Paternoster. Erasmus was sufficiently impressed with her skills to dedicate his Commentary on the Christian hymn of Prudentius (1523) to her. In a letter, Roper mentions her poems, but none are extant. Lost work of Roper's also include her Latin and Greek verses, Latin speeches, her imitation of Quintilian, and her treatise, The Four Laste Thynges. == Significance of work ==

Roper's translations can be seen as a contribution to a contemporary debate between the Catholics and the Protestants. Jaime Goodrich, author of Faithful Translators: Authorship, Gender, and Religion in Early Modern England, explores this relationship with Roper's translation work. In the midst of the discourse on Erasmus over whether he supported or refuted the spread of Lutheranism, Roper's translation of Erasmus's A Devout Treatise upon the Paternoster was viewed with scrutiny and used as evidence that English authorities supported Erasmus. ==Relationship with Thomas More==

Roper's relationship with her father, Thomas More, is renowned and often cited as an examplar of familial loyalty. More often referred to Roper as "My dearest Meg". More and his relatives were branded traitors following his execution. Roper took steps to clear her father's name posthumously by hiring More's old secretary John Harris to collect and recreate his writings to prove that there was no evidence of treason found within them. == Death ==

Roper died in 1544 and was buried in Chelsea Parish Church, with her father's head being taken by William Roper who survived her by thirty-three years. He never remarried, and honoured her memory by living a life devoted to learning, beneficence, and piety. Following her husband's death, Roper was reinterred in the vault belonging to the family of Roper, in St. Dunstan's, Canterbury. == In popular culture ==

In Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Dream of Fair Women, he invokes Margaret Roper ("who clasped in her last trance / Her murdered father's head") as a paragon of loyalty and familial love. In Robert Bolt's famous play A Man for All Seasons, Margaret and William Roper were major characters. Bolt characterises Roper as a brilliant and strong unmarried woman in her twenties. In the original Broadway play, she was portrayed by Olga Bellin, and later in the play's run by Faye Dunaway, in her Broadway debut. In the 2007 TV show The Tudors which focuses on the reign of Henry VIII, Margaret Roper is portrayed by actress Gemma Reeves. The show focuses some on More's conflict with Henry VIII. In the 2015 miniseries Wolf Hall, she is portrayed by Emma Hiddleston as working with her father on translations and assisting him with his correspondence, and participating along with More in dangerous, but expertly guarded verbal exchanges with Thomas Cromwell. ==References==