Margarita Tudor: biography and descendants

The Tudor dynasty left an indelible mark on the history of England and Scotland. Heinrich the Eighth, whose endless marriages became the talk of the town, is especially famous . However, many forget about his older sister, although Margarita Tudor - Queen of Scotland - lived an equally interesting life. Moreover, for almost a century their children and grandchildren fought each other for the English throne. These dynastic wars brought a lot of harm to the population of the British Isles and resulted in the victory of the descendants of Margarita, who united under their management the English and Scottish kingdoms.

Parents

Margarita Tudor was the eldest of 4 daughters of the King of England Henry the Seventh, the founder of the new dynasty, which ruled from 1485 to 1603. Her mother - Elizabeth - was the last surviving descendant of the York dynasty. She went down in history as the only woman who was simultaneously a daughter, niece, sister, wife and mother of the King of England. Although the marriage of Henry and Elizabeth was initially dictated by political considerations, it turned out to be successful, and the spouses had seven children, of whom only four survived until they reached the age of majority.

First marriage

Margarita Tudor was born in 1489. She spent her childhood in games with the brothers Arthur and Henry, but she had no common interests with her sister Maria, who was younger than her for 10 years and subsequently for some time was the queen of France.

When the girl was only 11 years old, an Anglo-Scottish peace treaty was concluded. According to one of the paragraphs of this document Margarita Tudor got engaged to Jacob Fourth Stewart. A year later, she was solemnly escorted to Scotland, where a magnificent wedding was held in Holyroodsky Abbey. Young Marguerite did not like the country, whose queen she became as a result of marriage, imprisoned for political reasons. At first she wrote plaintive letters to her father, but later the young woman resigned, although she could not fall in love with her husband.

Anglo-Scottish relations

In 1507, Marguerite Tudor gave birth to James's son, and two years after the death of their father in London, her brother Henry was crowned. His accession to the throne immediately led to an aggravation of relations between Scotland and England. Much was to blame for Margarita and Jacob, who did not hide their claims to the throne of the Tudors. They even called their second son Arthur and claimed that this name was given to him by the legendary King of England. True, their first two offsprings did not last long, but Henry did not have any heirs, which means that Margarita remained the main contender for his throne.

In 1513, Jacob the Fourth, who by that time had another boy born, entered the war with the brother-in-law. September 9, the Battle of Flodden took place, during which he himself commanded the Scottish troops and was killed.

Regency

The death of the spouse on the battlefield led to Margarita Tudor (Henry's sister 8) becoming the regent of the one-year-old son, who ascended the throne under the name of Yakov Fifth. A year later, she married Archibald Douglas (note, in a well-known TV series, by mistake, Margarita Tudor and Charles Brandon are shown as spouses). The latter immediately began to behave like a king, than the Scottish nobility restored against himself. Under the impact, and fell Margarita, who was removed from the post of regent, appointing her cousin to the late King John Stewart. The hostility in the relationship of the queen and her new husband was so great that they even had to leave the country.

Divorce

After a while, Marguerite Tudor (Henry's sister - the King of England) reconciled with the new regent, and she was allowed to return to Scotland, provided that she did not attempt to meet with her son. Meanwhile, due to a sharp deterioration in relations with the second husband, whom she gave birth to her daughter in 1515, Margarita, the widow of Jacob the Fourth filed for divorce. Before the end of this difficult procedure, she even managed to regain her regent's position for some time, but Douglas succeeded in ousting the mother from her son and 3 years was the practical ruler of Scotland.

Third marriage

In 1528, the Queen Mother managed to divorce Douglas Count Angus, and she immediately married Henry Stewart. Together with her new husband, Margarita organized the escape of her son Jacob Fifth from Edinburgh, where he was held by Count Angus. After the young king found protection from the arbitrariness of his former stepfather in the castle of his mother Sterling, representatives of the English nobility began to arrive there. They gathered an army that managed to expel Angus from Scotland.

Becoming a full-fledged ruler of the country, Yakov Fifth soon suspected his mother of conspiracy and refused to give her permission for a second divorce, which did not have the best effect on their relationship.

The situation improved somewhat after Margaret's second daughter-in-law, Marie de Guise, arrived in Scotland. She was married to Yakov Fifth after the death of his first wife, Madeleine de Valois, who died immediately after the honeymoon. Maria immediately liked her mother-in-law, and the women were quite friendly until the death of Margarita Tudor in 1541.

Descendants

From the only son of Jacob and Marguerite's daughter, the Dowager Queen of Scotland had four grandchildren. Of these, Mary Stewart and her cousin Henry Lord Darnley have left a bright mark in history. In 1565 they were married and they had a son, Jacob, who later became the ancestor of a new dynasty.

Now you know who Margarita Tudor was. The biography of this queen is full of interesting events, and her descendants managed to unite Scotland and England into a single state.