Margaret Tudor

Margaret Tudor was granddaughter of Mary Beaufort, daughter of Henry VII, Queen of Scotland, grandmother of Mary Queen of Scots and great grandmother of King James I. She played a high-profile political role in the early 16th century, with ramifications into the 17th. She was at the centre of relationships between England and Scotland, making historic journeys the length of the Great North Road.

Those journeys of triumph, turmoil, tears and tragedy began when she was only 13 years old.

In 1502 Henry VII had arranged a marriage between Margaret and the Scottish king, James IV, to secure “Perpetual Peace” between the kingdoms and to avoid the risk of James taking a French queen. A year later, soon after the death of Margaret’s mother, Mary of York, arrangements were put in place for the young teenager to travel north.

In recognition of Henry’s affection for his daughter and the importance of this political project, the procession to Scotland was lavish and highly orchestrated. It was also diligently recorded by John Young, the Somerset Herald of England who accompanied the convoy, apparently remaining with Margaret for some two years in Scotland.

The retinue left Richmond Palace in early July 1503 on a journey to Edinburgh which would take more than a month. People flocked to view the procession as the party first made its way to the Beaufort’s estate at Collyweston, near Stamford, where there was an extended pause at her grandmother’s home.

In honour of her stay at Collyweston, the king commanded that the court of England be held there for five days. After the formalities and celebrations, a royal bear (muzzled and chained) joined the procession to add mirth and fun. Another addition was Margaret’s old nurse to help lessen her grandmother’s reservations.

Baggage wagons led the parade, followed by Margaret’s litter which could be used for grand entrances to towns. For much of the journey, Margaret rode astride a ‘fair palfrey’. Her clothes and those of her attendants were embroidered with the Beaufort portcullis. Minstrels, drummers and trumpeters added music to the visual display.

Margaret’s carriage was decorated with the arms of both Scotland and England whilst emphasising the Tudor colours of green and white.

At Stamford they were met by the alderman and a great gathering of gentry and townsfolk. Then they travelled through Newark and Tuxford, followed by an overnight stop in a country manor owned by the archbishop of York. Next came Doncaster, Pontefract and Tadcaster before being greeted outside York by Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland with 400 of his men.

The Earl was himself dressed to impress:

well horst opon a fayre courser w’ a fowt cloth to the grownde of cramsyn velvet all borded of orfavery, hys armes varey Ryche in many places apon his sadle & harnays, his sterroppes gylt. Hym self arayd of a gowne of thesaid cramsyne the opinynges of the slyves & the coller of grett bordeures of stones, hys bouttes of velvet blak, hys spours gylt in many places & maid gambades plaisantes for to se.

Escorted by the mayor, resplendent in ceremonial dress, it took two hours to travel through the packed streets to the Minster. To enter the abbey precinct, the procession passed through a recently created gate through the abbey wall – now surviving as Queen Margaret’s Arch.

Queen Margaret’s Arch, York. Image Credit – Malcolmxl5 CC BY-SA 4.0

Sunday Mass was followed by a lavish procession of bishops, earls, lords and sergeants at arms. Margaret was dressed in a gold gown with a collar of precious stones.

No effort was spared in York which had been the primary powerbase for Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later King Richard III). Henry Tudor had captured the throne from Richard who was killed at the Battle of Bosworth. It was important to reinforce Tudor authority.

After York, Margaret rested at Newburgh Priory, then on to Northallerton, Darlington and Durham. There she spent three nights in the castle hosted by the bishop.

As Margaret entered Newcastle children sang “cheerful hymns” and she was welcomed by immense crowds. She spent the night at the Augustinian monastery, and the next day the Earl of Northumberland gave a banquet which lasted until midnight and included games, dances, songs and sports. The journey continued to Morpeth, then Alnwick (where she is said to have hunted in the park and killed a buck with her own bow) then Belford.

Richard Grafton describes Margaret’s journey:

“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.”

The procession reached Berwick on 30th July and, after several days of festivities, it is said 1,000 Scots accompanied their new queen as she travelled on to Dalkeith on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Apparently, a stable fire killed some of her favourite horses and valuable riding gear, prompting James to visit to console the 13-year-old.

James had started to build a new palace next to Holyrood Abbey two years earlier and it was here that the formal wedding ceremony took place on the 8th August.

James IV of Scotland Image Credit – National Galleries of Scotland

Margaret was born in November 1489, second child of Henry VII and his queen, Elizabeth of York. From 1491 she shared a nursery at Eltham Palace with her younger brother, Henry. He dominated the nursery and demonstrated a thirst for knowledge. Margaret was less studious but learnt to play the lute and clavichord and became a skilled archer. They were very different characters but there was a strong bond between them.

Reconstruction of Eltham Palace c1604. Image Credit – Historic England (Liam Wales)

Negotiations to arrange a marriage with the Scottish King James IV began in 1495 when Margaret was just 6 and James was 22. Political wrangles dragged on and there was the small matter of a papal dispensation as the two were distant cousins. A marriage treaty was eventually concluded and a proxy marriage took place on 25 January 1503 at a ceremony in the chapel of Richmond Palace in Surrey. In May James IV confirmed her possession of lands and houses in Scotland including Methven Castle, Stirling Castle, Doune Castle, Linlithgow Palace and Newark Castle in Ettrick Forest. Notwithstanding the death of her mother, during childbirth in February, plans for the July procession to Edinburgh were finalised.

On 8 August 1503, the marriage was celebrated in person in Holyrood Abbey, the ceremony led by the archbishops of both York and Glasgow. The royal couple wore matching white gowns flowered with gold and bordered with crimson velvet. The countess of Surrey carried Margaret’s train followed by groups of ladies with two Scottish and two English noblewomen in each. The banquet was impressive: “at the first course, she was served of a wild boars head gilt, within a fair platter, then with a fair piece of brain, and in the third place with a gambon, which were followed by diverse other dishes, to the number of twelve, of many sorts, in fair and rich vessel.” There were jellies moulded with the arms of England and Scotland. Margaret’s first public appointment was to attend mass at St Giles’ two days later.

At the time of her marriage, Margaret was probably not aware that her husband already had seven illegitimate children and was still visiting his mistress, Janet Kennedy.

During her marriage to James IV, Margaret bore six children but infant mortality took its toll. Having lost her first three, a son born in 1512 was to reach adulthood. Named James, he went on to inherit the Scottish crown when his father died the following year at Flodden Field (near Coldstream), having made the rash decision to side with France against England and invade. That decision also impacted the inheritance of Margaret since Henry VIII had made the transfer of properties and valuables subject to a condition that Scotland remain at peace with England.

Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scotland (engraving from original by Holbein)

The infant king James V needed a regent and her husband’s will made it clear that Margaret should act in this capacity, provided she did not remarry. A council of four nobles was established to assist her with government but, less than a year after her husband’s death, Margaret married Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus. The council invited a nephew of James IV (John Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany) to become regent.

6th Earl of Angus. Image Credit – Royal Collection of the UK

A resentful Margaret could not persuade her brother to intervene and in 1514 Margret was forced to flee from Edinburgh to Stirling Castle with her sons, James and Alexander.

Albany besieged them at Stirling arriving with 7000 men and a train of artillery that included the famous six tonne siege gun, Mons Meg. Upon the arrival of troops, the portcullis was dropped and Margaret delivered a rousing speech, justifying her defiance. Eventually, Margaret was taken to Edinburgh where she was forced to sign an agreement declaring that Albany had the “charge and keeping” of both her sons. Then, in 1516, she fled Scotland for England. She gave birth to a daughter whilst in Northumberland, suffered an illness, then learned of the death of her son Alexander.

After a sad journey south Margaret reached London in May for her first meeting with her brother, Henry VIII, in 13 years. She was well looked after, staying at Scotland Yard and at Baynard’s Castle. A year later she was to return to Edinburgh having gained a promise from Albany that all would be well “should she do nothing prejudicial to the king [her son] or the realm”.

Margaret was less than impressed to find her husband living with his mistress and their daughter in one of her properties. It was only after the return of Albany from France that in 1522 Angus was charged with high treason and deported to France. Unfortunately for Margaret, Angus remained a thorn in her flesh for many years. He formed an alliance with Henry VIII, returning to Scotland in 1524, rallying anti-French nobles and marching on Edinburgh.

Margaret finally obtained her divorce from Angus in 1527 but she was soon besieged again at Stirling Castle where she was staying with her new partner, Henry Stewart. Things did not really improve for Margaret: she was perpetually short of money, she aggravated her brother by siding first with England then with the Scots in the Auld Alliance with France, and she fell out with husband number three.

Margaret had a degree of influence over James who was now ruling in his own right. However, her efforts to arrange a grand meeting between James and Henry VIII, and a hope that her son might be named his heir, were in vain. James strongly disagreed with his uncle’s break from Rome and had no interest in such a match.

Margaret died in October 1541, aged 52. James arranged a grand funeral for her at St John’s Carthusian Charterhouse at Perth, the burial place of Scottish royalty.

James V of Scotland, 1512-42
Son of Margaret Tudor
Image Credit – Royal Collection

Mary Queen of Scots, 1542-87
Granddaughter of Margaret Tudor
Image Credit: François Clouet, 1550

King James VI of Scotland and James I of England, 1566-1625
Great grandson of Margaret Tudor (both maternal & paternal lines)
Image Credit – John de Critz, c1605

King James I Website

Collectanea de Rebus Anglicanis, iv, ed. John Leland

Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots, Sarah-Beth Watkins, 2017

Image at top of page:
Margaret Tudor Enters York, York Historic Pageant, 1909. Alamy