Ascham, Margaret

Margaret Ascham (c. 1520s–before June 1592) was the wife of the renowned Tudor humanist, royal tutor and statesman, Roger Ascham. Although there is little extant documentation about her own background and upbringing, evidence suggests that she was a supportive helpmeet to Roger, but also that they were a well-matched pair: she understood her husband’s literary world and took an active role in it. One of her most important interventions was the posthumous publication of Roger Ascham’s famous work of pedagogy, The Scholemaster (1570), together with a prefatory epistle dedicated to William Cecil. Although mainly defined in terms of her conjugal status, Ascham is an example of an early modern woman who understood the cultural significance of the dissemination of learned ideas, the power of print, and the “ways” of early modern patronage, and could operate independently within these realms.