MARGARET ( queen of Scotland, eldest daugh ter of Henry VII., king of England, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., was born at Westminster on Nov. 29, 1489. She married James IV. of Scotland on Aug. 8, 1503, but the scanty dowry given by her avaricious father embittered the relations between the two kingdoms, which the marriage, although accompanied by a treaty of perpetual peace, did nothing to heal. The whole of Margaret's life after her marriage was an unending series of intrigues, first with one political faction then with an other; her conduct being mainly influenced by considerations affecting her pocket.
Margaret was crowned at Edinburgh in March 1504. Between 2507 and 1510 two sons and a daughter were born, all of whom died in infancy; in 1512 she gave birth to a son who succeeded his father as James V. ; in 1514 she bore a posthumous son, Alex ander, created duke of Ross, who died in the following year. A dispute with her brother Henry VIII. over a legacy was a con tributory cause of the war which ended at Flodden, where James IV. was killed in Sept. 1513, having by his will appointed Mar garet sole guardian of her infant son, now James V. Scotland was divided mainly into two parties, one in favour of alliance with England, and the other with France. The leader of the latter was John Stewart, duke of Albany, next heir to the crown of Scotland after Margaret's sons ; Margaret herself for the most part inclined to the English faction; and when Albany returned to Scotland from France on the invitation of the Scottish parliament in the spring of 1514, the conflict grew almost to civil war. Her mar riage to Archibald Douglas, earl of Angus, on Aug. 6, 1514 alien ated many of the nobility, especially the earls of Arran and Home, and made her entirely dependent on the house of Douglas. It also furnished the council with a pretext for removing her from the regency and guardianship of the king in favour of Albany in July 1515. She fled to England in September, where a month later she bore to Angus a daughter, Margaret, who afterwards became countess of Lennox, mother of Lord Darnley and grand mother of James I. of England.
In 1516 Margaret went to her brother's court in London, while Angus, much to his wife's displeasure, returned to Scotland, where he made peace with Albany and was restored to his estates. The
rivalry between the French and English factions in Scotland was complicated by private feuds of the Hamiltons and Douglases, the respective heads of which houses, Arran and Angus, were contending for the supreme power in the absence of Albany in France, where at the instance of Henry VIII. he was detained by Francis I. Margaret, quarrelling with her husband over money matters, sided at first with Arran and began to agitate for a divorce from Angus. In this she was probably aided by Albany, who found an unexpected ally in the queen-mother, Margaret being temporarily alienated from the English party by her brother Henry's opposition to her divorce. When Albany returned to Scotland in 1521 his association with Margaret gave rise to the accusation that it was with the intention of marrying her that he favoured her divorce from Angus. As Albany was strongly supported by the Scottish parliament, Angus found it necessary to withdraw to France till 1524. During these years there was constant warfare between the English and the Scots on the border, but in May 1524 Albany was obliged to retire to France. Henry VIII. continually aimed at securing the person of his nephew, the king of Scots, but he was proclaimed a reigning sovereign in July 1524. The queen-mother married Henry Stewart, second son of Lord Avondale, immediately after her divorce from Angus in 1527. Margaret and her new husband, who was created Lord Methven, now became for a time the ruling influence in the counsels of James V. But when her desire to arrange a meeting between James and Henry VIII. in 1534 was frustrated by the clergy and the council, Margaret in her disappointment revealed certain secrets to Henry which led to her being accused by her son of betraying him for money and of acting as an English spy. She died at Methven Castle on Oct. 18, 1541.