Margaret of Denmark

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Margaret of Denmark

Margaret of Denmark (born June 23, 1456 in Copenhagen , † July 14, 1486 at Stirling Castle in Stirling ) was a Danish princess by birth and Queen of Scotland by marriage since 1469 .

Life

Jacob III of Scotland and Margaret of Denmark

Margarethe was the only daughter of the Danish-Norwegian King Christian I (1426–1481) and Queen Dorothea of ​​Brandenburg (1430–1495). Her father was the first king from the House of Oldenburg .

In 1460 Margaret was with the Scottish King James III. (1451–1488), the eldest son of Jacob II from the house of Stuart and Marias von Geldern , engaged. The planned marriage was agreed at the suggestion of the French King Charles VII in order to end the conflict between Denmark and Scotland that had raged since 1426. This dispute had been triggered by the fact that the Scots had no longer paid the Danes the 100 marks due annually due to the peace of Perth (1266) for the property of the Hebrides .

Margaret's marriage contract was signed on September 8, 1468. Her father gave her a dowry of 60,000 Rhenish florins , 10,000 of which were to be paid before Margaret left Copenhagen. For the remaining amount, Christian I pledged the Orkney Islands , which then belonged to Denmark, to Scotland , as he could not raise this amount . Jacob III undertook in the same contract to grant his wife a third of the royal possessions and income as a Wittum, for which u. a. Linlithgow Palace , Stirling Castle and Doune Castle included; this promise was confirmed in 1478. Since the Danish king was only able to pay the agreed 10,000 florins in 2000 before his daughter left Copenhagen, he also had to pledge the Shetland Islands ; and since he was unable to pay any further moneys of the outstanding dowry either, the Orkney and Shetland Islands finally fell to Scotland.

Brought to Scotland, Margaret, then only 13, married King James III. on July 13, 1469 at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh . The following spring the Scottish monarch gave her the income of the Kilmarnock estate for life so that she could meet the cost of her clothes and headdress. In the summer of 1470 she went on a trip north with her husband and spent a month in Inverness . She often stayed at Stirling Castle.

From Margaret's marriage with Jakob III. three sons were born:

According to some later historians, Margarethe is supposed to be much better at the exercise of government than Jacob III. have understood. During her husband's imprisonment at Edinburgh Castle (July to October 1482) she had shown more interest in the welfare of her children than in that of her husband, which apparently led to the estrangement of the couple; possibly after 1482 they did not see each other at all. According to the Italian humanist and writer Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti , Margarethe and her brother-in-law, Alexander Stewart, 1st Duke of Albany , even had the imprisonment of Jacob III. for the good of Scotland. Margarethe died at the age of 30 on July 14, 1486 and was buried in Cambuskenneth Abbey that same month . After her death, rumors arose that she had been poisoned by a confidante of the king, John Ramsay, 1st Lord Bothwell . At the instigation of Jacob III. In 1487 , Pope Innocent VIII appointed a commission to examine Margaret's virtues and the miracles she supposedly performed in order to set in motion a process for her canonization , which however did not come about.

See also

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ On thepeerage.com Margaret's date of birth is given as June 23, 1456; according to Norman MacDougall (ODNB, vol. 36, p. 647), on the other hand, it is not exactly known, but can be estimated at around 1456/57.
predecessor Office Successor
Maria von Geldern Queen Consort of Scotland
1469–1486 		Margaret Tudor
personal data
SURNAME Denmark, Margarethe von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish Princess, Queen of Scotland
DATE OF BIRTH June 23, 1456
PLACE OF BIRTH Copenhagen , Denmark
DATE OF DEATH July 14, 1486
Place of death Stirling , Scotland