Spotlight – Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scotland

Name: Margaret Tudor

Title/s: Queen of Scotland / Dowager Queen of Scotland / Princess of England / Lady Methven / Countess of Angus

Birth / Death: 28 November 1489 at Westminster Palace – 18 October 1541 at Methven Castle, buried in Perth Charterhouse

Spouse: James IV of Scotland 1473-1513 (m.1503) / Archibald Douglas 6^th Earl of Angus 1489-1557 (m.1514, div.1527) / Henry Stewart 1^st Lord Methven 1495-1552 (m.1528)

Children: James Stuart, Duke of Rothesay 1507-1508 / Arthur Stuart, Duke of Rothesay 1509-1510 / James V of Scotland 1512-1542 / Alexander Stuart, Duke of Ross 1514-1515 / Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox 1515-1578

Parents: Henry VII 1457-1509 & Elizabeth of York 1466-1503

Siblings: Prince Arthur 1486-1502 / Henry VIII 1491-1547 / Elizabeth 1492-1495 / Mary Duchess of Suffolk 1496-1533 / Edward 1498 / Edmund 1499-1500 / Katherine 1503

Noble Connections: Margaret was the daughter of Henry VII of England and the sister of the Dowager Queen of France, later Duchess of Suffolk. She was named after her grandmother, Margaret Beaufort Countess of Richmond and Derby. Her grandson, Lord Darnley, would marry her granddaughter, Mary Queen of Scots. Her brother Henry VIII became King of England. Her great-grandson became James I of England and VI of Scotland and united the crowns.

Events of their Lifetime: Death of Henry VII and accession of Henry VIII 1509 / death of Margaret Beaufort 1509 / Battle of Flodden Field 1513 / birth of Mary I 1516 / Field of the Cloth of Gold 1520 / birth of Elizabeth I 1533 / death of Katherine of Aragon and execution of Anne Boleyn 1536 / birth of Edward VI and death of Jane Seymour 1537

Controversy: Was Margaret’s marriage to Archibald Douglas the turning point in Scotland’s relationship with England? Why did Margaret remarry and give up the regency of her son, James V? Did Margaret’s divorce set a bad example to her brother, Henry VIII?

Works of Fiction:

D.L. Bogdan, The Forgotten Queen (2013)
Jean Plaidy, The Thistle and the Rose (1963)

Portrayals on Screen:

None

Further Reading:

Buchanan, Patricia, H., Margaret Tudor Queen of Scots (1985)
Chapman, Hester W., The Thistle and the Rose: the Sisters of Henry VIII (1969)
Glenne, Michael, King Harry’s Sister: Margaret Tudor Queen of Scotland (1952)
Jansen, Sharon L., The Monstrous Regiment of Women: Female Rulers in Early Modern Europe (2002)
Lenz, Harvey Nancy, The Rose and the Thorn: the Lives of Mary and Margaret Tudor (1975)
Perry, Maria, The Sisters of Henry VIII: the Tumultuous Lives of Margaret of Scotland and Mary of France (2000)
Plowden, Alison, Tudor Women: Queens and Commoners (2002)
Strickland, Agnes, Lives of the Tudor Princesses (1868)