by Alison Weir
Sir William Paget, later 1st Lord Paget (1506–63): Privy Councilor, Secretary of State and Lord Privy Seal.
William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester (ca.1483–1572): Privy Councilor, Lord Chamberlain, Lord High Treasurer of England.
Thomas Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex (ca.1525–83): Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Chamberlain and President of the Council of the North under Elizabeth I.
Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford: Governor of Berwick.
Sir Ralph Sadler (1507–87): Privy Councilor and Secretary of State.
Sir Francis Walsingham (1532–90): Principal Secretary of State to Elizabeth I, and her “spymaster.”
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Catholic Archbishop of York (1473–1530): Lord Chancellor under Henry VIII.
English Ambassadors
Sir Thomas Challoner (1521–65), ambassador to Spain.
Sir Henry Killigrew (ca.1528–1603), ambassador to Scotland.
Thomas Magnus (ca.1453–1550), ambassador to Scotland.
Sir Henry Norris (1525–1601), ambassador to France.
Thomas Randolph (1523–90), ambassador to Scotland.
Sir Thomas Smith (1513–77), ambassador to France.
John Tamworth (or Thornworth) (ca.1524–69), ambassador to Mary, Queen of Scots.
Sir Nicholas Throckmorton (ca.1515–71), ambassador to France and Scotland.
Sir Francis Walsingham (1532–90), ambassador to France.
Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503–42), poet; ambassador to France and Italy.
Royal Household
Thomas Alsopp, physician to Henry VIII.
Thomas Aske, apothecary to Henry VIII.
Walter Cromer, physician to Henry VIII.
Alice Davy, former nurse to Margaret Tudor, possibly nurse to Margaret Douglas.
Robert Huicke (d.1581?), physician to Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
John Kaye, Clerk of the Greencloth, Margaret’s executor.
Margaret’s Household
John Baily, Margaret’s servant.
Thomas Bishop (b. ca.1518; d. by 1611): Lennox’s secretary. Married Janet Stirling and had three sons, Francis (d. by 1611), Thomas (d.1570) and Richard.
Thomas Blackmore, Lennox’s servant.
Elizabeth Chamberlain, Margaret’s servant.
Charles, Margaret’s chaplain at the court of Henry VIII.
Christian, waiting woman to Margaret.
Captain Robert Cunningham, Lennox’s servant.
Sir John Dixon, priest, secretary to Margaret Douglas.
Robert Dolman, steward to the Lennoxes.
Thomas Dolman, steward to the Lennoxes.
John Elder, tutor to Lord Darnley.
Mabel Fortescue, Margaret’s servant.
Thomas Fowler (d.1590), clerk of the kitchen, secretary, treasurer and executor of Margaret Douglas.
Harvey, Margaret’s servant at the court of Henry VIII.
Thomas Helforth, Margaret’s servant.
John Hume, Lennox’s servant.
Elizabeth Hussey, Margaret’s servant.
William Knockes, Lennox’s falconer.
Ralph Lacy, Margaret’s servant.
Arthur Lallard, tutor to Lord Darnley.
Peter, groom of the wardrobe to Margaret at the court of Henry VIII.
Peter Malliet, tutor to Lord Charles Stuart.
Margaret Maxton, Margaret’s serving woman.
William Mompesson, Lennox’s servant.
John Moon, Lennox’s servant.
Wat Nepe, Margaret’s falconer.
Laurence Nesbit, Lennox’s servant.
Richard Norton, steward to the Lennoxes.
William Paterson, Lennox’s servant.
Robert Portinger, Margaret’s servant.
Rigg, Margaret’s footman.
William Robinson, Margaret’s servant.
Mary Silles, Margaret’s servant.
Robert Thwaites, Lennox’s servant.
Edward Vane, Margaret’s servant.
Henry Whitreason, receiver to the Lennoxes.
Margaret Wilton, Margaret’s gentlewoman.
John Wood, Lennox’s servant.
Priests Receiving Stipends from Margaret
Sir John Cancefeld
Sir John Dixon
Sir Peter Glentham
Sir John Kay
Sir Thomas Middelton
Sir Thomas Swadale
Sir Richard Waddell
Sir Martin Wardman
Sir John Wilde
Sir William of Malton
Adherents and Agents of Margaret Douglas and Matthew Stuart, Earl of Lennox
Hugh Allen
Mr. Brinklow
George Chamberlain
Sir Richard Chamberlain, Keeper of Scarborough Castle.
Sir Richard Cholmeley (ca.1516–83), Keeper of Scarborough Castle.
Sir Marmaduke Constable
John Elder, former tutor to Lord Darnley.
Sir John Foster (1520–1602), Warden of the Middle Marches.
Henry Gwyn
Thomas Kelly
Ralph Lacy, Margaret’s servant.
Arthur Lallard (d.1565), tutor to Lord Darnley.
Sir William Livingston, Laird of Kilsyth (d. ca.1596).
John Lockhart, Laird of Barr.
Wat Nepe, Margaret’s falconer.
Laurence Nesbit, Lennox’s servant.
Rigg, Margaret’s footman.
Anthony Standen
Thomas Stewart, Laird of Galston, cousin of Lennox.
Dr. Turner
Peter Vavasour, solicitor to the Lennoxes.
Francis Yaxley (d.1565).
Agents of the English Government
Thomas Bishop
John Case
William Forbes
John Moon, Lennox’s servant.
Alexander Pringle, formerly an adherent of the Douglases William Rogers.
Agents of Mary, Queen of Scots
Abercrombie
Antonio Fogaza, Portuguese spy.
Clergy
William Barlow, Protestant Bishop of Chichester (d.1568).
Thomas Cranmer, Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury (1489–1556).
Gabriel Goodman, Protestant Dean of Westminster (1528–1601).
John Jewel, Protestant Bishop of Salisbury (1522–71).
John Knox (ca.1514–72), Protestant founding father of the Scottish Reformation.
John Leslie, Catholic Bishop of Ross (1527–96), supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Matthew Parker, Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury (1504–75).
Cardinal Reginald Pole, Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury (1500–58).
Thomas Robertson, Catholic Dean of Durham (d. after 1559).
Cuthbert Tunstall, Catholic Bishop of Durham (1474–1559).
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Catholic Archbishop of York (1473–1530).
Thomas Young, Protestant Archbishop of York (1507–68).
Government Commissioners for the Management of the Lennox Estates
Sir Thomas Gargrave (1495–1579).
Henry Gates (ca.1515–89).
John Vaughan (d.1577), Justice of the Peace. Married to Anne Pickering, Lady Knyvett.
Other
Scotland
Sir John Borthwick (d.1566): Scottish reformer who defected to Elizabeth I but then changed sides.
Captain James Calder (d.1571), adherent of the Hamiltons.
England
Sir Francis Bigod (1507–37), a Protestant who led a revolt against Henry VIII at the time of the Pilgrimage of Grace. Builder of Settrington House.
Sir Christopher Garnish, gentleman usher to Henry VIII, envoy to Margaret Tudor.
Sebastian Giustinian, Venetian ambassador to the court of Henry VIII.
Roger Lascellesy, steward of Norham Castle.
Sir Thomas Strangeways, comptroller of the household of Cardinal Wolsey; Captain of Berwick.
Sir Edward Warner (1511–65), Lieutenant of the Tower of London.
> Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger (1521–54), son of the poet and ambassador Sir Thomas Wyatt. Led a rebellion against Mary I.
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Unknown woman by Hans Holbein, once thought to be Katherine Howard.
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The intriguing Somerley Portrait.
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Unknown woman by William Scrots, ca.1544–55.
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The only authenticated portrait of Margaret; detail from the Darnley Memorial painting of 1568.
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Margaret’s warring parents, Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, and Margaret Tudor.
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The ruins of Harbottle Castle, Northumberland, where Margaret was born in 1515.
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The spectacular remains of Tantallon Castle, East Lothian, where Margaret lived with her father during her childhood.
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Norham Castle, where Angus sent Margaret to safety in 1529. It had “not one chamber fit to shelter anyone.”
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Henry VIII was fond of his niece “Margett,” and generous, but did not hesitate to condemn her to death when he found out about her secret betrothal.
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“The Queen mine aunt”: Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk (above), with whom Margaret lived when she first came to England in 1530 before joining the household of Henry VIII’s daughter, the Princess Mary, later Mary I (below), who became a lifelong friend.
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(Above) Mary Shelton. (Below) Mary Howard, Duchess of Richmond. These ladies collaborated with Margaret in transcribing the poems in the Devonshire Manuscript.
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Queen Anne Boleyn, in whose household Margaret first served at the English court.
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Verses copied by Margaret into the Devonshire Manuscript. Many relate to her doomed love for Lord Thomas Howard. “For whereas I love faithfully, I know he will not slack his love, nor never change his fantasy.”
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“The Tower of London. Alas! That ever prison strong should such two lovers separate…”
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Syon Abbey. Ill and in grief, Margaret stayed here for five months in 1537–38.
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All that remains of Norfolk’s great house at Kenninghall, Norfolk. In her seventeen-month stay Margaret may have found peace after suffering abandonment, loss, and fear.
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Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk. Angus was grateful for his goodness to Margaret.
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“He was very pleasant in the sight of gentlewomen.” The mysterious “Man in Red.” Is this a portrait of the young Matthew Stuart, Earl of Lennox?
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Marie de Guise, Queen Dowager of Scotland. Lennox had sought her as a bride. Even as he was declaring his devotion to Margaret, he was still pressing his suit to Marie.
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St. James’s Palace, London, showing Henry VIII’s gatehouse, with the window of the Chapel Royal to the right.
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The Chapel Royal at St. James’s Palace, where Margaret and Matthew were married in 1544. The ceiling was installed for Anne of Cleves, but the rest of the Chapel has been much remodeled.
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Stepney Palace, or King John’s Court, where Margaret lived in the early years of her marriage.
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Wressle Castle, where Margaret often stayed when Lennox was campaigning in Scotland.
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Temple Newsam in 1707.
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The west wing of Temple Newsam, all that remains aboveground of the Lennoxes’ great house.
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A view over Settrington, Yorkshire. Nothing survives of the Lennoxes’ house, the scene of so many intrigues.
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Jervaulx Abbey. The Lennoxes built a large house and extensive gardens within its precincts.
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Queen Katherine Parr, Henry VIII’s sixth wife. Margaret attended their wedding in 1543.
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Miniature of an unknown woman, possibly Margaret Douglas.
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Anne Stanhope, Countess of Hertford and Duchess of Somerset.
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Katherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk.
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Elizabeth I. Margaret praised her as “a Princess of Peace who excelled the Muses and the Graces,” but she posed a dangerous dynastic threat to the Queen, and relations between the two cousins were turbulent.
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William Cecil, later Lord Burghley, Margaret’s “assured loving friend,” who for many years saw her as an enemy.
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Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who interceded for Margaret when he could, and remained a good friend to her.
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The former Charterhouse at Sheen, where Margaret was imprisoned for a year 1562–63. “I assure you I am weary of this life, for, as methink, we have had punishment enough for a great offence.”
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Margaret’s sons had strong claims to the crowns of England and Scotland. These double portraits of Henry, Lord Darnley, and Charles Stuart were painted as baits for Mary, Queen of Scots.
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Margaret’s unnamed daughters, all of whom had died young by 1565. “Six of our children away from us bent, in tender youth.”
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The Lennoxes’ house at Whorlton. Tradition has it that Margaret was here when she first proposed to Queen Mary a marriage with Darnley.
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The Lennox Jewel, obverse and reverse. “What we resolve, only death shall dissolve.”
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Mary, Queen of Scots, Margaret’s daughter-in-law. Mary was to incur Margaret’s virulent hatred.
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Henry, Lord Darnley, King of Scots. “It was not possible to see a more beautiful prince.”
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The Lieutenant’s Lodging (now the Queen’s House) in the Tower of London, where Margaret was imprisoned for two years from 1565–67, and again, briefly, in 1574–75.
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Cecil’s spy’s drawing of the murder scene at Kirk O’Field, Edinburgh, February 10, 1567. “The case is a very strange one.”
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The decaying Coldharbour, London, where the Lennoxes lived in 1567. Here “my lady wept bitterly, my lord sighed deeply.”
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Somerset Place, Strand, London. Elizabeth I allowed Margaret to lodge in the magnificent mansion built by Protector Somerset.
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“Arise, Lord, and avenge the innocent blood of the King my father!”
The Darnley Memorial: the famous “vendetta picture.”
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The Darnley Memorial: the undefaced copy at Goodwood House.
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Lennox was regent of Scotland 1570–71.
“The burden which is laid on my shoulders is weighty and dangerous.”
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John Erskine, Earl of Mar, who was a good friend to the Lennoxes.
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Margaret’s cousin, James Douglas, Earl of Morton, “the wicked Regent,” who was to be executed for Darnley’s murder.
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Stirling Castle, where Lennox was carried bleeding after being rescued from his enemies. “Remember my love to my wife, Meg,” he enjoined Mar.
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Barber’s Barn, Hackney, where Margaret lived during her ear
ly widowhood. Her grief was “poignant and perpetual.”
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Brooke House in 1642. When Margaret leased the property in the 1570s it was known as the King’s Place, having once been owned by Henry VIII.