[MR] Wikipedia: Life of Margaret Tudor

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends, Especially Fellow Scots,

On this date in 1489, Margaret Tudor was born. She was the second child and
eldest daughter of English King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.

Margaret was promised to King of Scots James IV as part of the 1502 Treaty
of Perpetual Peace. Her marriage to James was concluded by proxy 25 January
1503. Margaret was just 13 years old. She did not actually arrive in
Scotland until 1 August 1503, and was crowned Queen Consort of Scots on 8
August.

Margaret and James produced six children, but only one survived to
adulthood, later King of Scots James V.

When her younger brother Henry became Henry VIII of England, out of respect
for Margaret he followed a "velvet glove" military policy with Scotland.
That didn't mean he did not use pressure and deception to get his way
against his northern neighbor. Scotland was still bound by a mutual defence
treaty with France, Henry's mortal enemy. For her part, Margaret spent much
of her life trying to keep peace between the two kingdoms.

After James IV's tragic death at the 1513 Battle of Flodden, Margaret
became regent for James V. Her second marriage in August 1534 to Archibald
Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus, cost her the regency. Once her son was in the
hands of the pro-French Duke of Albany in 1515, Margaret escaped back to
England. Here she gave birth to a daughter, also named Margaret. The child
was later Countess of Lennox, and mother of Lord Darnley, husband (of
sorts) to Mary Queen of Scots. Thus Margaret Tudor, through two lines,
became the progenitor of the Stewart line of English monarchs (from James
VI of Scotland/James I of England, all the way to King Charles III, today's
monarch).

Margaret returned to Scotland in 1521. In 1524 she engineered a coup while
Albany was in France, and was able to retake the regency. She was granted a
papal divorce in 1527, allowing her to shed the philandering Earl of Angus,
who openly lived with another woman at Margaret's expense. The next year
her son was old enough to rule in his own right as James V. Margaret then
married a third husband, Henry Stewart, later created Lord Methven. He
proved to be an even worse husband than Angus. Poor Margaret!

Margaret Tudor died in 1541, aged 51 at Methven Castle near Perth. She was
described as having palsy, possibly the result of a stroke. Once Margaret
was gone, Henry VIII renewed open hostility toward Scotland with the "Rough
Wooing", a scorched earth military campaign to force a marriage between his
son Edward and the infant Mary, Queen of Scots.

More about this remarkable woman is at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Tudor .

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge 🦆