Queen Mags

On 18 November, 1541, Margaret Tudor died. Um, possibly. Some of the sources I've read suggest she died on 18 November and some suggest 18 October, but as I'd like to write about her today and not a battle or the second congress of the Senegalese Socialist Party, we'll say that she died on 18 November. 

Maybe we can ignore the specifics and just congratulate her on living to the ripe old age of 51 which is pretty impressive in a time when the average life expectancy was only 35. (This would mean that I, at 18, would have passed the halfway mark in my life, which is a terrifying thing, as so far I have only achieved a bunch of GCSEs and the ability to do circular breathing for 10 seconds at a time. I should have children by now, if I was a sixteenth century girl. What a horrible thought.) 
 

Anyway, I don't want to end her life before I begin it, so to speak, because Margaret actually had quite an interesting one. She was born on 29 November, 1489 to Henry VII and his wife Elizabeth, their second child and first daughter, and grew up in the royal childrens' household (which also included Prince Arthur, who was supposed to take the throne until he died at the age of 18 and the future king Henry VIII) at Eltham. She and her siblings would have had their every whim catered to, though this did not prevent two of her younger siblings dying as infants, or her older brother dying of what some believe to be consumption, others diabetes. 

Despite this tragedy, Margaret's upbringing would have been mostly enjoyable. In order to make her a suitable royal consort, she was taught French, Latin, the clavichord, the lute and archery (so she could shoot prospective husbands who behaved inappropriately? I don't know...) Clearly, she was seen as a quick learner, though, as her husband had been picked out for her by the time she was six years old. She was to marry James VI of Scotland - 16 years her senior - in an attempt to end reunite the Scottish and English royal houses and end the 170 years of warfare between the two countries. In order for the two to marry however, a papal dispensation was required as Margaret and James were fourth cousins, and therefore too closely related to be marrying each other without special permission. However, after several years of negotiations, treaties and proxy weddings, the couple were married in Edinburgh on 8 August 1503, when Margaret was 13 and James 30. Though it was hardly the most romantic of matches, by all accounts the two came to, if not love each other, at least hold each other in great affection.

The first years of her marriage were not happy ones for Margaret. The year before she traveled to Scotland, both her mother and oldest brother died. Between 1506 and 1509, she fell pregnant 3 times, but all of the babies died in infancy. A letter to her father survives: 

 

The different writing at the bottom is Margaret's own - she wrote of her homesickness and unhappiness in Scotland, and her feelings can only have be exacerbated in 1509 when she learned of her father's death. A few years later, however, in 1512, things took a turn for the better when she gave birth to a healthy baby, whom she christened James, after his father. (James was the father of Mary, Queen of Scots and grandfather of another James, who became James I of England in 1603.) 

Things weren't so good for long. Tensions had been mounting between James and Henry, newly crowned King of England and they reached a peak in 1513, when the English Army marched northwards to meet the Scottish. The met at Flodden Field on 9th September and fought, with heavy losses - including Margaret's husband, leaving her pregnant and regent until their baby son was old enough to rule by himself.

This marked the start of an even more troubled period of Margaret's life. Though James IV's will stated that she may only remain regent as long as she also remained unmarried, she ignored this and remarried the powerful and fabulously named Archibald Douglass, Earl of Angus. He had many equally powerful enemies amongst the Scottish lords, however, and they decided to remove Margaret from the regency, deny her access to her children (the baby she was carrying at the time of the King's death survived, and was christened Alexander) and not pay her the income she was entitled to. 

She and her husband fled to England in September 1515, where they remained in her brother James' (yeah yeah, I know, they just weren't very imaginative back then, okay?) castle over the winter as Margaret fell very ill. Come the summer, she traveled further down south to London to see her brother Henry, the King, whilst Angus went back to Scotland.

There, he took a mistress, leaving Margaret with no money, no power, almost no contact with her son, and a terrible marriage. In March 1527, after nearly 10 years, the Pope granted her an annulment and her son James, aged 16, sent his regents away and began ruling the country in his own right. The last few years of Margaret's life were relatively peaceful and happy, though they did have their ups and downs. Despite having a fairly good relationship with her son, they disagreed on who he should marry, with James ignoring his mother's pleas for an English match, preferring to marry a French Princess, who bore him a daughter and heir, Mary, Queen of Scots. James could be forgiven, however, for taking his mother's romantic advice with a pinch of salt - she married a third time to one Henry Stewart, who took a mistress and her money, exactly like her second husband had done.

Eventually, she died (probably of a stroke) at a castle in Edinburgh, on 18 November 1541. Or maybe 18 October... But she was definitely buried in St John's Abbey in Perth, so if you're ever there and want to rant about your ex-husband, I'm sure her ghost would be very sympathetic.