Margaret TUDOR
(Queen of Scotland)
Born: 28 Nov 1489, Westminster Palace, London, England
Died: 18 Oct 1541, Methven Castle
Father: HENRY VII TUDOR (King of England)
Mother: Elizabeth PLANTAGENET (Queen of England)
Married 1: JAMES IV STUART (King of Scotland) 8 Aug 1503, Holyrood Abbey
Children:
2. JAMES V STUART (King of Scotland)
3. Dau. STUART (b. 15 Jul 1508)
4. Arthur STUART (D. Rothesay)
5. Dau. STUART (b. Nov 1512)
Married 2: Archibald DOUGLAS (6º E. Angus) 4 Aug 1514, Kinnoul Church - Divorce 1528
Children:
7. Margaret DOUGLAS (C. Lennox)
Married 3: Henry STEWART (1º B. Methven) 3 Mar 1528
Children:
Margaret Tudor was the first daughter born to Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. She was married to James IV of Scotland on 8 Aug, 1503 at Holyrood House.
Richard Grafton describes Margaret's departure for Scotland for her wedding:
"Thus this fair lady was conveyed with a great company of lords, ladies, knights, esquires and gentlemen until she came to Berwick and from there to a village called Lambton Kirk in Scotland where the King with the flower of Scotland was ready to receive her, to whom the Earl of Northumberland according to his commission delivered her."
And later he says:
"Then this lady was taken to the town of Edinburgh, and there the day after King James IV in the presence of all his nobility married the said princess, and feasted the English lords, and showed them jousts and other pastimes, very honourably, after the fashion of this rude country. When all things were done and finished according to their commission the Earl of Surrey with all the English lords and ladies returned to their country, giving more praise to the manhood than to the good manner and nature of Scotland."
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A sketch of Margaret from the Recueil d'Arras |
Margaret was apparently not happy in her early days in Scotland, as is
evident in a letter she wrote to her father, Henry
VII. The two different
handwritings in the letter are because the top part was written by a secretary,
while the last section was in Margaret's own hand.
James died at Flodden Field 9 Sep 1513. When James IV died, Margaret's infant son became James V. It was because of this union that England and Scotland would be united under one crown 100 years later at the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. John Stuart, Duke of Albany, used the Scottish Lord's distrust of Margaret to make himself regent and sent the Queen to flee to England in 1516 with her second husband, the Earl of Angus. Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus, lived in England from 1528 to 1532 after the forfeiture of his Earldom. In 1514 he is married to Margaret Tudor, and subsequently becomes regent. He granted Alasdair Crotach MacLeod lands in North Uist and Sleat thus strarting a long period of Strife between the MacLeods and the MacDonalds of Sleat. On 25th Aug 1532 he swears to follow King Henry VIII of England as absolute ruler of Scotland in case of war even though his own sovereign James V is thereby afflicted. In return Henry promised the payment of £ 1000 per year as long as the earldom of Angus was forfeited. In Nov 3000 Scots raid through Northumberland. On Dec 12th Lord Dacre leads an English army of 2000 men to Scotland for revenge. They burnt Douglas and twelve other villages and captured 2000 cows and even more sheep. Sir Andrew Darcy wrote to Cromwell that the Douglas brothers had planned this largest robbery since 200 years. |
Due to Archibald's and his brother George's policy they were called "the English Lords".
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Margaret of Scotland visited England that summer, bringing her
six-month-old daughter, Lady Margaret Douglas. She had been in Scotland for
thirteen years but her visit was pleasant enough. Henry
VIII had never tired of
lecturing Margaret on morality (she had married the Earl of Angus after
James of Scotland's death at Flodden); this, of course, is laughable when one considers
his own matrimonial career. But Margaret's visit was some ten years before
Anne
Boleyn entered Henry's life. In 1516, the
King was just seven years into his
reign, still handsome and bluff. Still, Margaret had little in common with her
siblings after her years away; also, her first husband had been killed by the
English at Flodden Field. |
Margaret Tudor and her second husband
by an unknown artist. |
Quotes about Margaret from primary sources:
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Polydore Virgil writes:
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Margaret Tudor by Daniel Mytens Royal Collection © Her Majesty the Queen At the Palace of Holyroodhouse |
Lady Margaret Douglas, daughter of Archibald and Margaret Tudor was thrown into the Tower of London when Henry VIII came to know that she was engaged to Sir Thomas Howard, brother of the Duke of Norfolk. She married to the Earl of Lennox and through their son, Henry Lord Darnley, husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, James VI became heir to the throne of England.
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