Margaret Roper

Margaret Roper was the favorite daughter of the eminent scholar and martyr Thomas More. Educated under his constant guidance, she excelled in all fields of learning and became a gifted scholar. The great humanist Erasmus, a family friend, dedicated to her his Commentary on the Christian Hymn of Prudentius and she, in turn, translated his Precatio domineca (1525). She married the lawyer William Robert in 1521. During her father’s imprisonment in the Tower of London for refusing to support Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn (1534–35), Margaret visited him often, receiving the letters in which he defended his position.