Queen Margaret England SCOTLAND

   Ancestral File Number: 8WKN-V4.

   General Notes:

Princess of ENGLAND, Queen of SCOTLAND.

Married First Cousin Alexander III SCOTLAND, same grandparents Henry III ENGLAND & Isabella ANGOULEME, parents siblings Edward I ENGLAND & Joan ENGLAND.

BOOKS
Robert the Bruce King of Scots, Ronald McNair Scott, Carroll & Graf Publishers Inc, New York, 1982.
p3: "On 14 October 1285 Alexander III, King of Scotland, married as his second wife Yolande of Dreux, descended from Count Robert I of Dreux, a son of Louis VI of France. It was a marriage welcomed by his subjects. His first wife Margaret, daughter of Henry III of England, had died in 1275 having bourne for her husband a daughter and two sons, Margaret, Alexander, and David. But within the space of three years all were dead: the younger son in 1281 unmarried, the elder in 1284 without issue and in 1283 the daughter, who was married to Erik II, King of Norway, died in childbirth leaving as heir to the Scottish and Norwegian thrones a sickly infant Margaret, the Maid of Norway. The succession stood in jeaopardy...
"...For over two hundred years, since Birnam Wood came to Dunsinane and the forces of Malcolm III had defeated and slain Macbeth, the House of Canmore had been the rulers of Scotland. During the reigns of eight succeeding kings of that blood, by conquest or by treaty, the realm had been enlarged so that when Alexander wed Yolande she became the queen of a kingdom which differed little in extent from the Scotland of the present day..."

A History of the Plantagenets, Vol III, The Three Edwards, Thomas B Costain, 1958, Doubleday & Co, p59
"The Maid of Norway was the granddaughter of the very pretty Princess Margaret of England, oldest daughter of Henry III, who had been married when eleven years of age to Alexander III of Scotland. This vivacious and dark-eyed child had been taken to Edinburgh by her strait-laced Scottish guardians and confined most strictly in the castle, to prevent her from seeing her husband, who was only ten years old. Whe was given nothing to eat but oaten bannocks and `paritch' and for recreation she could look out into the foggy skies and listen to a piper in the courtyard below. She wasnot released from this dismal lifeuntil an English army appeared at the border to demand her liberty. Later she was very happy with her husband, to whom she presented three children, two sons and one daughter, named Margaret also. The daughterin course of time married Eric II of Norway and died after giving birth to a third Margaret, who was called thereafter the Maid of Norway.
"In the meantime the first Margaret had died and within two years both of her fine sons, Alexanderand David, had passed away, leaving the succession to the infant princess in Norway..."

The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England, Antonia Fraser, 1975, Alfred Knopf, p71: "Margaret Mar Alexander III King of Scots."

A History of the Plantagents, Vol II, The Magnificent Century, Thomas B Costain, 1951, Popular Library
p20: "Margaret, Born 1240, Died 1275, Married Alexander III of Scotland..."
p170: "The other children were equally loyal to their parents and to one another. Margaret, the oldest daughter, who married Alexander III of Scotland, was passionately devoted to her husband but at every stage of her brief married life longed for her childhood home; for the beautiful mother, the smiling, talkative father, the handsome brothers and sisters, for the woods about Windsor, the park at Woodstock around which many of her fondest memories clustered. She made repeated visits to England, taking Alexander with her, and by doing so lost for her husband much of the loyalty of his Scottish subjects...
"...The other children seem to have been lodged in the family quarters already described, where each of them had servants of his own. They arrived with great regularity. Of those who survivedinfancy, Margaret was born on September 29, 1240, and named after the French Queen..."
p171: "...The birth of Margaret had left the Queen in a weakened condition, and this depressed his spirits so much that he paid small attention to the child. When he was told, however, that she gave great promise of beauty, he became quite exuberant and rushed to her cradle to give her the one kind of present he seems to have considered worth while, twelve ounces of gold..."
p175: "Princess Margaret's early days were spent at Windsor. Soon after her birth Edward was given the royal castle of Eltham as his residence, and her companions at first were Edmund and a daughter of the Earl of Lincoln who lived as a ward with the royalfamily. Later there were more brothers and sisters and more wards, and so Margaret's childhood was a pleasant one.
"Whe more than fulfilled the promise of beauty which had sent Henry so eagerly to her cradle with his hands full of gold; adark and lively child, full of the joy of life, a little impulsive, a little hasty of temper. When she was still a small girl the King of Scotland died, leaving a son named Alexander as his heir. The boy was a year younger than the English princess, but in order to assure a continuance of peace between the two countries a marriage was arranged between them. There was much sadness at Windsor when it was known that little Margaret was to be taken away. The princess herself seemed welldisposed to the idea of being a queen and having a crown of her own, but she dreaded the separation it involved. The Scottish prince was Crowned Alexander III when he was eight years old, and the marriage was solemnized at York two years later. It was an imposing ceremony and, of course, involved the bride's father in unnecessary mountains of debt as well as practically ruining the Archbishop of York, who had to entertain hundreds of visitors. The departure of the darkly lovely bridefor her new home was not as keenly felt when it was seen that the youthful couple had conceived a romantic liking for each other.
"But the reports which came back from Scotland soon thereafter were most disturbing. The stern regents of Scotland, John Baliol and Robert de Ros, had decided that their King and his bride must be kept in rigid separation until they were old enough for matrimony. Margaret was placed in Edinburgh Castle under conditions which amounted almost to imprisonment. Finally a letter from the little Queen herself was smuggled out of the castle and reached her parents. It painted an even more alarming picture. She was a prisoner, she was suffering from ill-health, her appeals to the stern Scottish lords had no effect. She begged her father to lead an army into Scotland and set her free.
"The consternation of the royal parents was so great that they would gladly have done as she wished. First, however, a physician of high standing, Master Reginald of Bath, was sent to Scotland to see about the health of the young Queen. He found Margaret pale and far from well and in a state of intense unhappiness. Master Reginald, unfortunately for himself, complained publicly about the treatment of the English princess. He took ill and died with suspicious suddenness, and it was believed in England that he had been poisoned to prevent an unfavorable report from being made.
"The matter had now reached a stage where officialaction was necessary. Two crown commissioners were sent to Scotland, The Earl of Gloucester and John Mansel, with a large train...
"They found that great pile of masonry which frowns down on the Scottish capital and which is sometimes called the Castle of Damsels to be as Margaret had said in her letters, `a sad and solitary place.' She existed in a few cheerless rooms with a small group of stern and disapproving servants...All she could see from her chamber window in the towerwas a patch of sky above the castle walls and, across the enclosure, the little chapel called St. Margaret's after that fine queen who had been the mother of Good Queen Mold, Henry I's Saxon bride..."
"The commissioners found the unhappy little Queen very pale and thin and, obviously, in poor health. Her spirit had not been touched, however, and she talked to them eagerly and vehemently. She begged them to return to England as fast as their horses would carry them and to convince her father that he must use force if necessary to get her out of the clutches of these grim guardians...
"The result of the report they took to Henry was that he moved north with a large enough force to leave no doubts as to the belligerency of his intent. The regents, startled at this development, came to a conference to discuss more suitable living conditions for the young Queen. It was agreed to allow her fuller freedom of movement, some opportunities to enjoy the company of her youthful husband, and to put in charge of her household two noblemen who were friendly to the young couple..."
p178: "Things went much more smoothly after this, and in the ocurse of time Alexander and Margaret were judged old enoughto live together. It proved a happy marriage. There was only one drawback, the suspicion and disfavor with which the Scottish nobility regarded Margaret's desire to go on visits to her royal father and mother. The first visit was to her parentsat Woodstock Castle. Margaret was sixteen then and had become a beautiful woman, with lustrous dark hair and proud brown eyes. When Henry learned that the party was drawing near he got to horse and rode out to meet his daughter. As soon as the visitors have in sight he set his horse to the gallop in his great impatience. Margaret, certain that the solitary horseman approaching was her father, put spurs to her own horse and left her escort far behind. Henry leaned over from his saddle to embrace her, and Margaret laughed happily and said she had been longing for this moment for years.
"Her first child, a daughter, arrived at Windsor on her next visit, and there was furious resentment in Scotland over the birth of their princess on foreign soil. Nothing could keep Margaret from returning to England, however. She was never popular with her subjects as a result, and her husband suffered from their belief that he was being influenced to favor the English connection. He wept bitterly when she died at Cupar Castle after a long visit in England, but the flinty eyes of his nobility were dry. They were glad to be rid of the Sassenach woman."

ANCESTRAL FILE
TMC Born 29Sep 1240 Died 1275, Ancestral File Ver 4.10 8WKN-V4 and 8XJ7-DV Died 1274.

   Marriage Information:

Margaret married King Alexander SCOTLAND, III, son of King Alexander SCOTLAND, II and Queen Marie De Coucy SCOTLAND, on 26 Dec 1251 in York, Yorkshire, England. (King Alexander SCOTLAND, III died in Mar 1286 in Coast, Kinghorne, Fife, Scotland and was buried on 29 Mar 1286.)