Why, under the circumstances, Margaret was sent to be the ward of the uncle of the man whom Henry had refused to allow her to marry is extremely hard to comprehend. It can only be presumed that Henry was afraid of antagonising Norfolk, magnate of the north of England and thus essential to his rule. Since the arrest and trial of Norfolk’s niece was known to be imminent, perhaps Henry sent Margaret into his custody as a means of keeping his good will. Significantly, if Charles Howard escaped disgrace for his temerity in wishing to marry Margaret, Henry, in pardoning him, must have done so for good reason.
Kenninghall, a derivation of King’s Hall, had been given by Henry to Thomas, the second Duke of Norfolk, who had pulled down the old house to build a palace in its place. Margaret was here when she heard that her mother had died at Methven Castle, home of the third husband she had been doing her best to divorce. Margaret, who had only dim memories of the woman from whom her father had taken her when she was only 3 years old, if saddened, can hardly have been surprised. Sir Ralph Sadler, sent to Scotland by Henry to negotiate with James V in the previous year of 1540, had reported on his return that Queen Margaret was both broken in spirit and infirm in health. Finding that her brother had not even written to her, she had told him rather pathetically, ‘Though I be forgotten in England never shall I forget England.’
Yet, despite her despondence, this still formidable woman had continued to connive at politics. Now at odds with her son and his powerful wife Mary of Lorraine, she had written to her ‘dearest brother’ in her own handwriting on 12 May 1541. Telling him to ‘write nothing concerning me, your sister, to the King my son’, without first consulting her and asking her advice. Also she had begged him ‘to keep secret any writings that I send, for otherwise it may do me great hurt’.
Queen Margaret had been struck with palsy [the word then used for a stroke]. At first it had not seemed serious but as she grew worse a message was sent to her son, King James, at his hunting lodge of Falkland Palace. Summoning confessors, she instructed them most urgently ‘to sit on their knees before the King, her son, and beseech that he would be good and gracious to Lord Angus’. Likewise they were to beg him to ‘be good to the Lady Margaret Douglas, her daughter, and that he would give her what goods he had left, thinking it right because her daughter had never had anything of her’. Most emphatically, she insisted before them, that Margaret had been born during her marriage to Angus and therefore was undeniably legitimate. She died on 18 October 1541.
Notes
1 State Papers, Vol.I, p.692
2 Ibid.
15
THE LENNOX EARLDOM RESTORED
On the news of his sister’s death, Henry immediately sent a courier to his Berwick herald, a man named Harry Ray, telling him to go to Scotland to find out if she had left any property in England and to enquire into how and why she had died. Ray returned with the news that Henry must have expected: Margaret had left no property in England. Her cash box, when opened, had proved to hold 1,200 marks, but her jewels, which she had so specifically bequeathed to the daughter whom she had neglected as she had confessed, had been largely seized as Scottish heirlooms by her son and his French wife.
Most importantly, however, the priests, who as confessors had heard Margaret’s last words, told Ray that her daughter was without question legitimate. This sworn testimony now could never be denied.
Margaret herself was forced to realise that under the present circumstances, with war between Scotland and England just about to break out again, asking her brother to return the jewels bequeathed to her could only be a waste of time. She is believed to have been in Norfolk when her father, Archibald Earl of Angus, suggested that she should marry Patrick Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, outlawed from Scotland like himself. Margaret, in this instance, agreed to the idea, but nothing came of it for reasons unexplained.
Shortly, Angus was ordered to command part of Henry’s army, under Sir Robert Bowes, in an attack on the Scots. Margaret, who must have seen him fairly frequently while he and she were both at court, now said ‘goodbye’ to him for what proved to be a very long time.
Once into the Border country, in August 1542, the English army was defeated at Haddon Rig by James’ commander, the Earl of Huntly. After the battle, Angus, while retreating, nearly lost his life as a Scottish soldier, throwing a rope round his neck, all but pulled him from his horse. Gasping against its throttling pressure, he somehow managed to draw his dagger, hack through the suffocating cord and escape. But Henry, furious when told what had happened, gave him no sympathy and merely railed at his defeat.
King James, delighted, went so far as to offer the hand of his sister Margaret to Huntly, his victorious commander. Margaret, however, refused any such suggestion, furious that her brother had had the audacity to describe her as his base sister, inferring that she was illegitimate. In any case, the idea of marriage to Huntly quickly vanished as James, accusing him of being dilatory in not pursuing the English following their defeat, dismissed him from command of the army. In his place he appointed the Earl of Moray, who promised him that further action would be taken ‘before this moon is out’.1
The king, together with Moray and Cardinal Beaton, then advanced into Dumfriesshire with an army estimated at nearly 20,000 strong; James, with part of his force, remained at Lochmaben, waiting to cross the sands of Solway at low tide. Oliver Sinclair, in command of the rest of the army since the forfeiture of Angus the keeper of Tantallon, then took a more eastern route. Confronted by Thomas Wharton, the English warden of the Borders, near the river Esk Sinclair, the king was totally defeated: his army driven back to destruction on the Solway Moss.
Plunged into one of the fits of depression from which he habitually suffered, the king made his way to Hallshill, Fife; here Lady Kirkaldy of Grange did her best to assuage his misery as he told her he would be dead within fifteen days. Her son William, a boy of 14, was with the king when he died at Falkland Palace on 14 December 1542.
Margaret can hardly have grieved for her half brother: after the three years that he had been her father’s ward when they had both been very young, she had never seen him. She is known to have spent Christmas that year at Hundson near Ware in Hertfordshire, with her cousin Princess Mary, to whom she gave a gown of carnation satin as a New Year’s present. The gown was stitched up in the latest Venetian style by the ever-industrious Peter, who received 20s for his work.
Soon afterwards she must have heard the exciting news from Scotland, where, following the king’s death, a political revolution occurred.
On 29 December some of the Scottish prisoners taken at Solway were released. Henry, however, granted them freedom at a cost. They were forced to pledge their assistance towards the betrothal of the newly born Mary Queen of Scots to his son Prince Edward, now a little boy of 5. In addition to this, no less than ten of them swore under pressure to accept Henry as King of Scotland in the event of the young queen’s death. Likewise, the Earl of Angus, an outlaw since 1528, together with George, his brother, and another exile the Earl of Bothwell, were commissioned to return to Scotland on the orders of the English king.
On 13 March the Scottish Parliament rescinded the forfeiture of Angus and the other former outcasts and restored them to their lands. At the same time the governor, James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, was acknowledged as next in line to the Scottish throne. Commissioners were then appointed to arrange a future marriage between the infant queen and Henry’s son.
Meanwhile the French king, Francis I, was just as eager as Henry to send exiles home to Scotland to advance his own cause. Amongst them was Matthew Earl of Lennox, eldest of the three boys who had been sent to France following the murder of their father, treacherously killed by James Hamilton while attempting to rescue King James V at Linlithgow Bridge in 1526.
Lennox, through his descent, was in fact more French than Scottish. The line of Darnley Stewart had long been naturalised in France, the name being changed to Stuart in accordance with French pronunciation. His
great grandfather, a member of the famous Garde Écossaise, the bodyguard of the kings of France, had been made Lord D’Aubigny by King Charles VII. Defending Joan of Arc, he had died gallantly in 1429. Matthew’s father, John Stuart of Darnley, had returned to Scotland in 1495 to become a great favourite of James IV, who had restored him to much of the ancient Earldom of Lennox; this included Stirlingshire, parts of Perthshire and Renfrewshire and the whole of Dunbartonshire. Subsequently, on John Stuart’s marriage to Lady Jane Hamilton, a sister of the Earl of Arran and granddaughter of James II, King James had confirmed his right to the Earldom of Lennox, which had been recreated for his grandfather in 1488.
Matthew Lennox himself had fought with distinction in the Italian wars of Francis I. An officer in the Garde Écossaise, he cut a dashing figure with his height and striking good looks. Enticed originally to Scotland by Cardinal Beaton, on the suggestion that he marry the widowed Mary of Lorraine, he had left France with the promise of both military support and money by King Francis. Returning in the greatest secrecy, he had come ashore in Scotland at his own castle of Dumbarton, perched on a rock at the mouth of the River Clyde. From there, after riding across Scotland, he is known to have been with the queen mother, Mary of Lorraine, at Linlithgow Palace on 5 April 1543.
Brought up in France, this young man of 26, with much natural charm, had been schooled in the sophistication of the French court. For Mary of Lorraine, it was as a gift from heaven to be able to converse in her own language and to hear so much news from home. Matthew for a time courted her, until it became obvious that, much as she liked him, she did not wish to marry again.
Meanwhile Henry VIII, having heard of his arrival, began to make his own plans. His niece Margaret was 28, and although still so striking in appearance that many called her beautiful, she would soon be beyond marriageable age. Henry now devised a way of making use of her to further his own aims. Forthwith his ambassador to Scotland, Sir Ralph Sadler, was instructed to sound out Lennox on the idea of marriage to Lady Margaret Douglas. Since her father’s pardon by the Scottish Government, she was now heiress to his estates. Lennox, when approached, seemed agreeable to the suggestion. However, Sadler confessed to King Henry that he did not know what to make of him, guessing, quite rightly, that he was waiting for a better offer from the King of France and meanwhile sitting on the fence.
Three months after Matthew Lennox had arrived in Scotland, on 12 July 1543, King Henry VIII had married his sixth wife, the clever and sensible Catherine Parr, under whose calming influence he had decided to be reconciled to his daughter Mary and likewise to Margaret, his niece. Margaret was summoned to Hampton Court to be one of the bridesmaids at her uncle’s wedding.
Almost immediately afterwards Princess Mary became gravely ill. Thin to the point of emaciation as she already was, she had succumbed to a fever which reduced her almost to a wraith. Margaret rushed to join her and the two of them, with Princess Elizabeth, by now a little girl of 5, went to the Palace of Ampthill in Bedfordshire.
This was the castle built in the previous century by Sir John Cornwall, whose wife Elizabeth was the sister of Henry IV. King Henry VIII had acquired it in 1524, and Mary’s mother, Catherine of Aragon, had been held there during her divorce proceedings in 1533. For this reason it had an unhappy ambience for Mary. The companionship of Margaret was, nonetheless, a consolation, and while there, the ever useful Peter embroidered a pair of sleeves for her with which she was so delighted that he was given 7s 6d. Soon afterwards, Mary, in return, gave Margaret £4.
Princess Mary recovered and she, together with Margaret and the little Princess Elizabeth, joined the new Queen Catherine at Westminster Palace that Christmas of 1543. Mary, presumably in gratitude for all they had done to help her during her illness, gave Margaret’s three women three gold sovereigns and her men-servants twenty shillings.2
Meanwhile, in Scotland, the struggle for power between Mary of Lorraine, the Queen Dowager, and the Regent Arran continued with unabated strength. On 9 September 1543 the coronation of the little Queen Mary, then barely a year old, took place in Stirling Castle. Lennox, having taken part in the ceremony, hurried to his stronghold in Dumbarton where French ships were due to arrive. On 5 October, they sailed into the Clyde to anchor by Dumbarton Rock. With them came the promised money, with which Matthew was supposed to raise a force in Scotland to detract Henry’s army from France. Matthew, however, having given the French captain a receipt for it, kept the money in Dumbarton Castle specifically for his own use.
Notes
1 Donaldson, G., The Edinburgh History of Scotland, Vol.3, p.59
2 Privy Purse Expenses of Princess Mary
16
THE PRICE PAID FOR A BRIDE
On 11 December the Scottish parliament denounced the treaties with England and confirmed its allegiance to France. This proved a pivotal reason for Matthew Lennox to align himself to the pro English party, which, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, had assembled a large army at Leith.
Cardinal Beaton, who held the office of chancellor, foremost amongst the Francophiles, is believed to have put forward an over ingenious scheme by which the ongoing feud between the Hamiltons and the Lennoxes might be brought to an end. Arran would be divorced and would then marry Mary of Lorraine, while Matthew Lennox, although twenty-five years her senior, would be wedded to the little queen and thereafter become lieutenant-governor. Subsequently, on 13 January 1544 Margaret’s father, Archibald, Earl of Angus, and Matthew Lennox, enemies as they had once been now pledged themselves to loyalty both to the queen and to Arran, still the nominal regent, in defence of the Church and the realm.1
However, the enmity between Matthew Lennox and James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, was still far from subdued. Lennox, using the money, arms and ammunition which had been sent from France, took control of Glasgow and Paisley, which lay within his own domains. Joined by the Earl of Glencairn, and supported by the MacFarlanes, his vassals on Loch Lomond, he was narrowly defeated by the regent’s army in a battle on Glasgow Muir. Besieged then by Arran in Glasgow, he eventually had to surrender but retired to the safety of Dumbarton Castle with its escape route to the sea.
He sailed from Dumbarton in the spring of 1544, but once off the shore of north-west England, he landed at Chester, from where he made his way overland to Carlisle. There, by arrangement, he met Henry’s delegate, Lord Wharton, deputy-warden of the English marches, who dictated King Henry’s terms. Assembled with Matthew were his brother, Robert, now the Bishop of Caithness, and Thomas Bishop, the secretary whose sinister presence ever dogged his steps. Also present were two Cunninghams: Hugh and William, the latter the Earl of Glencairn, who, in return for his promise to deliver Dumbarton Castle to the king, was given 1,000 crowns.
Matthew Lennox pledged himself to surrender, not only Dumbarton but also Rothesay Castle; of much greater significance, he also promised to do all in his power to prevent the young Queen Mary from being sent to France. Instead he would carry her over the border to the English king. Upon this being accomplished, Henry guaranteed to make him Lord Governor of Scotland while, in the meantime, repeating the offer of the hand of his niece, the Lady Margaret Douglas, together with the promise of a yearly pension of 500 English marks.
Lennox, thus tempted, finally made the decision to throw in his lot with England rather than the King of France. Leaving his brother as hostage for his commitment, he once more went aboard at Chester and made full sail for the Thames.
Meanwhile, in London, the old palace of St James, newly redecorated by the king, was alive with noise and excitement as preparations for Margaret’s wedding began. Most active of all, in getting the servants to scurry about, cleaning and polishing and arranging tables and chairs, was the Princess Mary, who herself remaining unmarried, rejoiced at what she prayed would be the future happiness of her cousin and dearest friend.
But how did Margaret herself feel about being used as a bargaining chip by her uncle to achieve his political ends? Henry appeared to be obliv
ious to the fact that since Matthew’s father had been murdered by James Hamilton at Linlithgow on the order of Margaret’s father, Angus, the families involved had been irreparably estranged. Many people pitied her for being forced to marry the son of her father’s victim who, despite her own innocence, must surely bear her ill will.
Margaret herself must have been apprehensive if not actually terrified of the life that lay before her with a man who was not only her father’s enemy but, having left Scotland as a boy, reputedly entirely French. It must also have been extremely hurtful to know that her prospective bridegroom had wooed her sister-in-law, Mary of Lorraine, before, on her rejection, submitting to her uncle’s bribery.
Matthew Lennox had reached London by the 26 June as is evident from the marriage contract, drawn up on that date. It detailed Margaret’s future husband’s lands in Scotland, which were to be her dower. Matthew himself dictated the Gaelic names to the English clerk, whose spelling leaves much to be desired. First in the lands of the Lennox itself were Glenrinne, Balloch and Arthinturless. Then, even more difficult to decipher, in the Lordship of Darnley in Renfrewshire, the baronies of Chukispe, Ynchchilune and Craig of Nielstown. Lastly, in Perthshire, all the lands of Erere (Earn?) of the annual value of 5,000 marks. Matthew, in appending his signature to the above, signed himself ‘Matthew, Orle of Levinax …’
Most magnificent of Margaret’s wedding presents were those given by Princess Mary, who, in her jewel inventory, kept by a lady called Mary Finch, described the details of her gifts.
Margaret Douglas Page 8