later she bore to Angus a daughter, Margaret, who afterwards became
countess of Lennox, mother of Lord Darnley and grandmother of James I.
of England.
In the summer of 1516 Margaret went to her brother's court in London,
while Angus, much to his wife's displeasure, returned to Scotland, where
he made his 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 had been in Rome, and 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 himself that he favoured her divorce from Angus, and it
was even suggested that she was Albany's mistress. 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; while Margaret
veered from faction to faction without any settled policy, unless it
were the "erection" of her son, i.e. his proclamation as a reigning
sovereign, which she successfully brought about in July 1524. The
queen-mother had at this time fallen in love with Henry Stewart, second
son of Lord Avondale, whom she married immediately after obtaining 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 opposition of 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. In 1537 she was anxious
to obtain a divorce from Methven, and her desire was on the point of
being realized when it was defeated by the intervention of James. Two
years later she was reconciled to her husband, by whom she had no
children; and, continuing to the end to intrigue both in Scotland and
England, she died at Methven Castle on the 18th of October 1541.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account