The Tudor Dynasty left an indelible mark on the history of England and Scotland. Heinrich the Eighth is especially famous, whose endless marriages have become a byword. At the same time, many forget about his older sister, although Margarita Tudor - the Queen of Scotland - lived an equally interesting life. Moreover, for almost a century their children and grandchildren fought with each other for the English throne. These dynastic wars brought many troubles to the population of the British Isles and ended in the victory of the descendants of Margarita, who united the British and Scottish kingdoms under their control.
Parents
Margarita Tudor was the eldest of the 4 daughters of the King of England, Henry the Seventh, the founder of the new dynasty, who 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 the daughter, niece, sister, wife and mother of the King of England. Although the marriage of Henry and Elizabeth was originally dictated by political considerations, it turned out to be successful, and the couple had seven children, of whom only four survived to adulthood.
First marriage
Margarita Tudor was born in 1489. She spent her childhood in games with her brothers Arthur and Henry, but she did not have any common interests with her sister Maria, who was 10 years younger than her and was subsequently the Queen of France for some time.
When the girl was only 11 years old, an Anglo-Scottish peace treaty was concluded. According to one paragraph of this document, Margarita Tudor became engaged to Jacob the Fourth Stuart. A year later, she was solemnly escorted to Scotland, where a magnificent wedding was held at Holyrood Abbey. Young Margarita did not like the country whose queen she became as a result of a marriage made for political reasons. At first she wrote letters of complaint to her father, but later the young woman reconciled, although she could not love her husband.
Anglo-Scottish relations
In 1507, Margarita Tudor gave birth to a son, James, 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. Margarita and Jacob were largely to blame, who did not hide their claims to the Tudor throne. They even named their second son Arthur and declared that this name was given him the honor of the legendary king of England. True, their first two offspring did not live long, but Henry had no heirs, which means that Margarita remained the main contender for his throne.
In the year 1513, Jacob the Fourth, who had another boy by that time, entered the war with his brother-in-law. On September 9, the Battle of Flodden took place, during which he himself commanded the Scottish troops and was killed.
Regency
The death of her husband on the battlefield led to the fact that Margarita Tudor (Henry 8's sister) became regent with her one-year-old son, who ascended the throne under the name of Jacob the Fifth. A year later, she married Archibald Douglas (note, in the famous series, Margarita Tudor and Charles Brandon are shown as spouses by mistake). The latter immediately began to behave like a king, thereby restoring the Scottish nobility against himself. Margarita was also hit, who was removed from the post of regent, appointing in her place the cousin of the late king John Stuart. The hostility in relations between the queen and her newly-made spouse was so great that they even had to leave the country.
Divorce
After some time, Margarita Tudor (sister of Henry the King of England) made peace with the new regent, and she was allowed to return to Scotland, provided that she would not make attempts to meet her son. Meanwhile, due to a sharp deterioration in relations with her second husband, to whom she gave birth to a daughter Margarita in 1515, the widow of Jacob the Fourth filed for divorce. Prior to completing this difficult procedure, she even managed to regain the post of regent for some time, but Douglas succeeded in ousting his mother from his son and for 3 years was the practical ruler of Scotland.
Third marriage
In 1528, the Queen Mother managed to divorce Douglas Earl of Angus, and she immediately married Henry Stewart. Together with her new husband, Margarita organized the escape of her son Jacob the Fifth from Edinburgh, where he was held by Count Angus. After the young king found protection from the arbitrariness of the 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.
Having become a full-fledged ruler of the country, Yakov Fifth soon suspected his mother of a conspiracy and refused to give her permission for a second divorce, which did not affect their relationship in the best way.
The situation improved somewhat after the arrival of Margaret's second daughter-in-law, Maria de Guise, in Scotland. She was married to Jacob the Fifth after the death of his first wife Madeleine de Valois, who died immediately after her 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 daughter of Margarita, the Dowager Queen of Scotland had 4 grandchildren. Of these, Mary Stuart and her cousin Henry Lord Darnley left a bright mark in history. In 1565, they got married and their son Yakov was born, who later became the ancestor of the 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.