For Scottish queens consort called Margaret see Margaret, Queen Consort of Scotland.

Margaret (1283–1290) is widely considered to have been Queen regnant of Scotland from 1286 until her death. She is usually known as the Maid of Norway

She was the daughter of Eirik Magnusson, King of Norway and Margaret, daughter of Alexander III, King of Scots. Margaret was born in 1283, most likely in early April. Her mother probably died in childbirth.Duncan, p. 166. The most probable date for her mother's death is 9 April, 1283 as given in the Gesta Annalia, but the Chronicle of Lanercost gives 27-28 February.

Background

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When the treaty arranging the marriage of Margaret and Eirik was signed at Roxburgh on 25 July, 1281, Alexander III's younger son David had already died in June of 1281. With only one son of the King, also named Alexander, then living, the treaty included a provision for the children of Margaret and Eirik to succeed to the kingdom of the Scots:

If it happens that the king of Scotland dies without a lawful son, and any of his sons does not leave lawful issue sons and Margaret has children sons by the king of Norway, she and her children shall succeed to the king of Scotland ... or she, even if she is without children, according to Scottish law and custom.Duncan, p. 166, citing Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, volume I, 422b.

Alexander III made similar provisions when arranging the marriage of Alexander to Margaret, daughter of Guy de Dampierre, Count of Flanders, probably also in 1281. The treaty arranging the marriage, signed in December 1281, included a lengthy and complex document setting out the customs and usages which determined the succession. As well as general statement of principles, the annex includes specific examples of the rights of "A and M" and their children in particular cases. The document, while confusing in places, appears to favour primogeniture for male heirs, or their descendants, and proximity of blood for female heirs and their descendants.Duncan, pp.166–169.

When Alexander the king's son died in 28 January, 1284, leaving only granddaughter Margaret living of his descendants, Alexander III summoned all thirteen Earls of Scotland, twenty-four barons and the heads of the three main Gaelic kindreds of the West, Alexander MacDougall of Argyll, Angus Mór MacDonald of Islay and Alan MacRuari of Garmoran. Done at Scone on 5 February, 1284, the signatories agreed to recognise Margaret as "domina and right heir" if neither Alexander had left no posthumous child and the king had left no children at the time of his death. However, it is unlikely that this was intended to allow Margaret to rule alone as Queen regnant, but rather jointly with her future spouse, whoever he might be.Macdougall, pp. 12–13; Duncan, pp 169–171. While unexceptional in the circumstances, this would appear to show that Alexander III had decided on remarriage. He did remarry, to Yolande de Dreux, but died on 19 March, 1286.

Lady and Right Heir of Scotland

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After King Alexander was buried at Dunfermline Abbey on 29 March, 1286, the magnates and clerics of the realm assembled at Scone in parliament to select the Guardians of Scotland, who would keep the kingdom for the right heir. At this time it was thought that Queen Yolande was pregnant, so that Margaret was not yet the obvious successor. As it turned out, Yolande child was still-born at Clackmannan on Saint Catherine's day (25 November, 1286) with the Guardians in attendance to witness the event.Duncan, p. 178.

This, according to the oaths taken, made Margaret the heir, but within weeks Robert Bruce, 5th Lord of Annandale and his son Robert, Earl of Carrick — the grandfather and father of the future King Robert Bruce — had raised a rebellion in the south-west, seizing royal castles. This rebellion was soon suppressed, and a Norwegian ambassador came to Scotland in the winter of 1286-1287 to argue Margaret's cause. Nothing came of this, and until 1289 the Guardians maintained the peace in Scotland between the competing claims of Margaret, Robert Bruce and John Balliol.

Far from the Scots displaying any desire to bring Margaret to Scotland, it was again Margaret's father Eric who raised the question again. Eric sent official ambassadors to Edward I of England, then in Gascony, in May of 1289, with papers referring to Margaret as "Queen". Negotiations from this time onwards were between Edward, who returned to England later in the year, and Eric, and excluded the Scots until Edward met with Robert Bruce and some of the Guardians at Salisbury in October of 1289. The Scots were in a weak position since Edward and Eric could arrange Margaret's marriage to the future Edward II of England, or some other if they chose, without reference to the Guardians. Accordingly the Guardians signed the Treaty of Salisbury, which agreed that Margaret would be sent to Scotland before 1 November, 1290, and that any agreement on her future marriage would be deferred until she was in Scotland.Oram, Canmore Kings, p. 109; Duncan, pp 179–183.

That marriage of Edward, Prince of Wales, was in King Edward's mind is clear from the fact that a papal dispensation was received from Pope Nicholas IV ten days after the treaty was signed. Sometimes thought to show bad faith on Edward's part, the Papal Bull did not contract a marriage, only permit one should the Scots later agree to it. Edward, like Eric, was now writing of Queen Margaret, anticipating her inauguration and the subsequent marriage to his son.Duncan, pp. 182–183.

Edward and the Guardians continued their negotiations, based on the collective assumption that Margaret would be Queen and Edward of Wales King, but all these plans, and those of King Alexander, were brought to nothing by the death of Margaret in the Orkney Islands in late September or early October of 1290 while voyaging to Scotland. Her remains were taken to Bergen and buried beside her mother in the stone wall, on the north side of the choir, in Christ's Kirk at Bergen.

Although derived from a text written more than a century later, it is thought by some historians that the earliest Middle English verse written in Scotland dates from this time:

Quhen Alexander our kynge was dede,
That Scotland lede in lauche and le,
Away was sons of alle and brede,
Of wyne and wax, of gamyn and gle.
Our gold was changit into lede.
Christ, born in virgynyte,
Succoure Scotland, and ramede,
That stade is in perplexite.Duncan, p. 175; Crawford & Imlah, p. 42.

The ballad Sir Patrick Spens has sometimes been supposed to be connected to Margaret's ill-fated voyage. Some years later a woman appeared claiming to be her, the False Margaret, who was executed by King Eric in 1301.

Was she queen?

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As she was never crowned or otherwise inaugurated, and never set foot on what was then Scottish soil during her lifetime, there is some doubt about whether she should be regarded as a Queen of Scots. This could ultimately be a matter of interpretation. Most lists of the monarchs of Scotland do include her, but a few do not. Some contemporary documents, including the Treaty of Salisbury (see above) did describe her as "queen", but it has been argued that she should not properly be considered a ruler of Scotland.Duncan, pp.182–182; Oram, Canmore Kings, p. 107.

Notes

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References

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Margaret in Popular Culture

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• Hendry, Frances Mary, Quest for a Maid. Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1988. ISBN 0-374-46155-4

1283 births | 1290 deaths | House of Dunkeld | Norwegian royals | Medieval women

Margaret af Skotland | Margarete (Schottland) | マーガレット (スコットランド女王) | Margrete av Skottland | Małgorzata Kenneth | Маргарет Норвежская Дева | Margareta av Skottland