Charles City County native John Tyler is often remembered as one of the worst presidents in American history.
His presidency was filled with political conflict; he was even pushed out of his own Whig Party. A new biography looks at America's 10th president through someone close to him, his second wife, Julia Gardiner Tyler.
"Presidentess: The Life of First Lady Julia Gardiner Tyler" is written by husband-and-wife historians Christopher Leahy and Sharon Williams Leahy.
The authors will have a book signing at Turn the Page in Williamsburg on Friday.
Before she became first lady, Julia Gardiner was accustomed to life in the public eye. She was born into a wealthy New York family and was part of Washington society in the early 1840s.
Tyler assumed the presidency in 1841; he had been vice president to William Henry Harrison, who died shortly after taking office. Tyler's first wife died in 1842, the same year he met Gardiner at a White House event. Tyler and Gardiner married in 1844. The unusual circumstances surrounding the relationship — Gardiner was about 30 years younger than her husband — made their marriage a national sensation.
But, according to Sharon Leahy, Gardiner used her experience with the press to weather the attention. Gardiner became active in shaping how the public viewed her and her family.
“She was a very important First Lady because she really understood how to handle the press,” Leahy said.
Gardiner also got into some of the political workings of her husband's administration.
The authors' research shows that she became involved in government appointments, access that was rarely open to women. Tyler was politically isolated from his party, and government positions were one way to reward political allies and gain the support of influential members of Congress.
She also became an unofficial lobbyist for Tyler's efforts to annex Texas, one of the most controversial issues of his presidency. Texas allowed slavery, and adding it to the United States could shift the balance of power between free and slave states. It also risked a war with Mexico, which still claimed the territory.
Political cartoonists portrayed Gardiner as a symbol of Texas and used her image to criticize Tyler's policies. She ignored the cartoons but, as she got older, started to defend her husband and family, Leahy said.
Tyler did not seek a second term in 1844, and he and his wife returned to his plantation house called Sherwood Forest along the James River. It is now a historic site and tourist destination. They had a summer home in Hampton called Villa Margaret, in what is present-day Phoebus area.
For Hampton Roads and Williamsburg readers, the historians say, the book offers a different way to look at a familiar Virginia political figure.
The event is at 6 p.m. Friday at Turn the Page Bookshop in Williamsburg.
