Margaret Tudor was born November 28, 1489 at Westminster Palace, and was the oldest surviving daughter of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.
Elizabeth’s powerful and brilliant mother-in-law Margaret Beaufort wrote the “Ordinance as to What is to be Made Preparation Against the Deliverance of the Queen, as Also for the Christening of the Child of Whom She Shall Be Delivered” which was obsessively followed by all of the Tudor queens. Margaret was so detailed in this work that she even decreed what kind of fringe should be on the pillows in the lying-in chamber where the queen was to give birth.
It was likely Margaret’s attempt to make sure Elizabeth’s queenly status and comfort was respected in all aspects of the birthing process, down to the tiniest thread. Elizabeth’s first daughter was probably named after this formidable and powerful lady.
Lady Margaret and Elizabeth supervised the education of the royal children, who were raised in a sort of royal nursery that rotated between the palaces of Eltham, Windsor, and Westminster.
Unlike her namesake, young Margaret was never of a studious or particularly pious nature. She was fun-loving and exuberant, and she adored the pomp and pageantry of the court, fashion, dancing, and cards. Like the other Tudors, Margaret was musical, and apparently skilled at playing the lute. She was also a skilled archer.
She was pretty and plump, with the Tudor red hair and clear complexion, though she was never renowned for her beauty as her sister Mary was. She seems to have had a pleasant demeanor, though she spoke out at times when she felt she wasn’t being respected properly — and speaking out wasn’t a quality admired in a woman of her era.
Margaret was only six when her father began negotiations for her marriage. James IV of Scotland was the prime choice, and his marriage to Margaret was intended to end his support of Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the throne.
Some English lords expressed concern that if both of Henry VII’s sons should die, Margaret would become the heiress of England, and Scotland would absorb it, but Henry VII was unconcerned. He felt that England would naturally take precedence, even in a union of the crowns, just as England had once absorbed Normandy into its fold.
The marriage of the “thistle and the rose” was agreed upon and it came with a treaty known as the “Perpetual Peace.” Margaret was given a dowry of thirty thousand pounds – which was actually a rather stingy sum – to be paid in three installments. If James should die before Margaret had children, the remaining balance would be cancelled. In addition to the lands and revenues she was entitled to as queen, James would give Margaret an income of a thousand pounds per year for her own personal use, and pay for a retinue of twenty-four English servants.
Though the proxy marriage took place January 25, 1503 when she was twelve, Margaret would remain in England until she was fourteen. Her grandmother, Margaret Beaufort, may have had a hand in this decision. Lady Margaret’s body had been permanently damaged at age twelve in bearing her only son, Henry VII, and they were concerned young Margaret could be similarly injured if the marriage was consummated immediately.
The first recorded act of the boy who would one day become King Henry VIII is that he threw a tantrum after he realized his sister – now a queen – outranked him and would walk in front of him as they headed into a feast.
At the celebrations of her proxy marriage, Margaret and her mother, Elizabeth of York, sat side by side on the dais, equals in rank. But in the midst of the celebrations came the terrible news that Arthur, Prince of Wales, and his bride Katharine of Aragon, had both fallen ill of the Sweat. Arthur died, but Katharine survived. Henry was now the heir to the throne.
It wasn’t until June, 1503 that Margaret started out on her journey to Scotland. After her arrival, she had an in-person marriage ceremony with her new husband on August 8, 1503.
Margaret Beaufort’s worries about her granddaughter’s youth might have been unnecessary. It appears James held off consummating their union for another few years. Their first child was born in 1507, though the infant only lived for a year. Several more would follow in quick succession.
The treaty of “Perpetual Peace” didn’t last long after the death of Margaret’s father, Henry VII in 1509. Her impetuous brother, Henry VIII, went to war with France, Scotland’s closest ally, not long after assuming the throne. Scotland took up arms in defense of the “Auld Alliance” in 1513 and James was struck down at the Battle of Flodden, leaving Margaret a widow with several young children, among them the new King James V.
Margaret would be swept off her feet by a scoundrel. Her remarriage to the Earl of Angus cost her custody of her children and her position as dowager queen. Her struggle to retain custody of her children and her power at court would consume the next couple of decades of her life.
Angus was unfaithful and reckless with her money. Margaret asked the Pope for an annulment. Her brother, Henry VIII, was shocked at the “shameless sentence” that freed Margaret from her marriage in 1527. He was currently seeking his own annulment from his marriage to Katharine of Aragon, but he sent his sister piles of letters lecturing her about the sanctity of marriage.
She married her third and final husband, Henry Stewart, on March 3, 1528. This marriage, too, would prove to be tumultuous. Margaret wanted a divorce, but believed her son was interfering with her goal.
She died in 1541 of palsy, and was buried at the Carthusian Charterhouse in Perth. Her son, King James V, reportedly gave her a magnificent funeral. As Agnes Strickland wrote, “He attended himself to lay her head in the grave,” leading a grand procession of the court’s great nobles. Her coffin was placed in the vault of James I.
But Margaret’s eternal rest did not last for long. On May 11, 1559, a Protestant mob inflamed by that morning’s sermon on idolatry, sacked Perth’s monasteries. John Knox wrote of it in his History of the Reformation, calling it “The Kirk-Breaking at Perth.”
Margaret’s remains were pulled from the tomb and burned, the ashes “contemptuously scattered” writes Linda Porter.
Agnes Strickland, however, wrote in the Victorian era that the remains had survived the mob, being “transferred to the east end of St John’s Church. Queen Margaret’s resting-place, with the other royal remains, is supposed to be under a large blue marble slab, carved in two compartments, with a royal crown of Scotland over each, adorned with fleur-de-lis.” But that stone, if it ever existed, has long vanished. Today, nothing remains of the Charterhouse, only a memorial obelisk marking the spot where it once stood.
There’s currently archaeological work intended at the site, which is now under a car park. If any traces of the tomb remains, hopefully they will locate it.
