Margaret Roper

Margaret Roper (née More; 1505–1544) was an English writer and translator. Roper, the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas More, is considered to have been one of the most learned women in sixteenth-century England. She is celebrated for her filial piety and scholarly accomplishments. Roper's most known publication is a Latin-to-English translation of Erasmus' Precatio Dominica as A Devout Treatise upon the Paternoster. 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 determined 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. Margaret 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. 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.

More and his relatives were branded traitors following his execution. Margaret 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. 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.