Margrete Aleksandersdotter

Margrete Aleksandersdotter (born February 28, 1261 in Windsor Castle , † April 9, 1283 in Bergen ) was a Norwegian queen.

Margaret was the eldest child of the Scottish King Alexander III. and from his first wife Margaret of England . She was born in Windsor Castle when her mother gave birth to her parents, King Henry III of England . and Queen Eleanor of Provence visited.

On July 25, 1281 a marriage contract between Margrete and King Erik Magnusson was concluded in Roxburgh . The following year, at the age of 20, she came to Norway and married the 13-year-old king in Bergen and was simultaneously crowned queen by Archbishop Jon Raude . But she died soon after. It was a purely politically motivated marriage. It was intended to remove the tension between Norway and Scotland that had existed since the 1260s, when Norway ceded the Hebrides and the Isle of Man to Scotland in the Peace of Perth in 1266 . On the Norwegian side there was an interest in securing the property of Orkney and the Shetland Islands .

The marriage contract provided for a dowry of 14,000  marks sterling , payable in four dates between 1281 and 1284 in Bergen. Half of this was to be paid through the income from the property in Scotland. These revenues later became the subject of dispute between Norway and Scotland, as payments ceased after 1289. In Norway, Margaret received the income of 1400 Markebol as a morning  gift . The contract also contained detailed rules on the succession of children from this marriage to the Scottish throne in the event that King Alexander should die without a privileged heir. This situation, believed to be purely hypothetical in 1281, occurred when King Alexander III. Died in 1286. This led to the fact that King Erik's daughter and his wife Margrete, named Margarete , inherited the Kingdom of Scotland. She was recognized as Queen of Scotland in 1289.

Their marriage wasn't easy. She was married to a boy, and her mother-in-law Ingeborg Eriksdatter dominated the royal court. According to a Scottish chronicle, she was against Margrete's coronation. Another Scottish Chronicle tells of how she strove to cultivate her husband, teaching him English and French and table manners. She apparently died of an epidemic that was rampant in Norway at the time and claimed many lives.

Together with Erik, she was immortalized in Norwegian folk poetry by the romantic poem "Kong Eirik og Hugaljod" with 38 stanzas. It probably dates from the 13th century.

See also

• Family tree of the Kings of Scotland

Individual evidence

This article is essentially taken from the Norsk biografisk leksikon . Any other information is marked separately.

1. ↑ ^{a b} Regesta Norvegica Vol. 2 No. 275.
2. ↑ ^{a b} These were the estates of Rostimay in the diocese of Moray and in the district of Banff , Balhelvie in the vicecomitatus of Aberdeen and Bathgate og Rathin in the vicecounty of Edinburgh . The income was estimated at 700 marks sterling annually. If this is not enough, Minnemorth's income should still be used. Regesta Norvegica Vol. 2 No. 677.
3. ↑ Rudolpf Keyser: Den norske Kirkes Historie under Katholicismen Vol. 2. Christiania 1858. S. 48.

literature

• Alan Orr Anderson : Early Sources of Scottish History . Vol. 2. Edinburgh 1922/1990.
• Narve Bjørgo: Article Margrete Aleksandersdotter in: Norsk biografisk leksikon , accessed on April 20, 2011.
• H. Maxwell (ed.): Chronicle of Lanercost 1272-1346 , Glasgow 1913.
• WF Skene (Ed.): Fordun Cronica Gentis Scotorum . Edinburgh 1871–1872.

predecessor	Office	Successor
Ingeborg Eriksdatter	Queen of Norway 1281–1283	Isabella Bruce