Back in the Day: Lady Margaret Douglas is vital to Scottish history

Margaret and Marie knew and had extensive dealings with each other and I’ll detail that next week, but this week I want to finish the story of the life of Margaret Douglas who in anybody’s terms was vital to the course of Scottish and UK history – that she was the 16 times great-grandmother of the current monarch is one small reason why we should look at her life. And what a life she lived. When I left her story last week she had already been in the Tower of London for defying the wishes of her uncle, King Henry VIII of England, by having an affair with Thomas Howard, uncle of the ill-fated Queen Anne Boleyn.

READ MORE: Back in the day: The day the Luftwaffe came Forth

As we saw, Howard died in the Tower but Henry was fond of Margaret and wanted her back at court, not least because she was friends with his daughter Princess Mary. Margaret then had another affair, this time with Charles Howard, brother of the ill-fated Queen Catherine Howard, and Henry was again furious and made her break it off.

This time he decided to do something about his beautiful wayward niece who was now 28. Matthew Stewart, 13th Earl of Lennox, had spent most of his life in exile in France after the murder of his father. He was an able soldier and had been a member of the King of France’s Garde Ecossaise. With the infant Mary on the throne he returned to Scotland and became embroiled in the usual plotting and skulduggery by the Scottish nobility during the Queen’s minority – I’ll show next week how Marie de Guise dealt with them.

Lennox allied himself with Henry VIII after the Scottish Parliament rejected the Treaty of Greenwich – which was to see young Mary, Queen of Scots married to Henry’s son, the future Edward VI – in 1543 after which Lennox also took part in the Rough Wooing that I wrote about recently.

Henry suggested Lennox should marry Margaret Douglas, and while it was a dynastic arrangement first and foremost, there’s no doubt it was also a love match as they had eight or nine children in all though only two made it briefly into adulthood. Henry attended their wedding in St James’s Palace in July 1544, after which Lennox returned to the Rough Wooing campaigns in Scotland safe in the knowledge that Henry had granted him a castle and estate in Yorkshire in gratitude for his military and marital services.

This led to the extraordinary situation later in the Rough Wooing period where Margaret had to watch on as her husband fought for the English while her father, the Earl of Angus, who had gone back to Scotland and sided with the anti-English party at the Scottish Court, fought with the Scottish army at the disastrous defeat at Pinkie Cleugh.

At one point in her life, Margaret had been third in line to the throne of England as Henry had delegitimised his daughters, though he changed his mind later. When Henry died in January 1547, Margaret was none too happy with the way Edward VI, who had been raised a Protestant, encouraged the spectacular growth of the English Reformation.

By this time Margaret had already suffered the loss in infancy of her first son, Henry, before she gave birth to her second son, confusingly also called Henry in honour of the English king, in 1545.

In late 1547 she took her son Henry, Lord Darnley, to the North of England where the family had several homes, and began the intriguing and politics that would mark the rest of her life. Whether she was actively involved in Roman Catholic plots to seize the throne and restore their religion is argued about by historians to this day, but there’s no doubt she remained a Catholic and raised Darnley in her faith.

In July 1553, the always sickly Edward VI died at the age of 15 and Margaret was immediately called into the service of Queen Mary, her first cousin and dear friend from childhood, and a fellow Roman Catholic. Mary made Margaret her chief lady-in-waiting and put her ahead of Henry’s other daughter Elizabeth in order of precedence at court and even considered naming her as her heir – Elizabeth would not forget that slight. Their closeness to Queen Mary was shown by their decision to name their third son Philip after Mary’s husband, but sadly the child died in infancy.

Lennox had been agitating for the return of his estates in Scotland which had been confiscated when he joined Henry’s armies against Scotland, and with Margaret intervening on his behalf he now asked England’s Queen Mary to intercede on his behalf. He had earlier promised Marie de Guise, the Regent of Scotland, at the time of the betrothal of the young Mary Queen of Scots to the Dauphin of France, that he would preserve Catholicism in Scotland and renew the Auld Alliance, but the Regent would not restore his lands.

Margaret had her own plans, but she suffered a huge blow when Queen Mary died in 1558 and Elizabeth came to the throne. The new queen had not forgotten the insult done to her by her sister, and Margaret had to leave the court and go home to Yorkshire and their estate at Temple Newsam.

NOW the formidable Lady Douglas came into her own as a plotter. Mary, Queen of Scots, had been rendered a widow in December, 1560, and at the age of just 18 she went back to Scotland to begin her personal reign.

Elizabeth’s formidable spy network led by Sir Francis Walsingham turned up a rumour, and possibly more than that, about Lennox and his wife planning for their son to marry the widowed Queen of Scots. That angered Elizabeth the Virgin Queen who realised that any child of such a marriage would have a strong claim to her throne.

They denied the plot but the marriage came to pass anyway. Lennox gained entry to Mary’s court and brought along his son. The Queen of Scots was smitten by the height and good looks – attributes she shared with him – of Henry Darnley and though warned about his disreputable character, Mary was determined to wed him. Mary and Darnley were married on July 29, 1565, and prior to the marriage, Lennox at last had his estates, mainly around Glasgow, fully restored to him.

His wife paid a hefty price for the success of their marriage project. Lady Margaret was sent to the Tower of London by Elizabeth even though there was no suggestion of treason. This may also have been something of a masque by Elizabeth who was said to be secretly pleased that Mary had married an English lord rather than a continental prince.

Her incarceration ended tragically when her son Darnley was assassinated at Kirk o’ Field in Edinburgh in the early hours of February 10, 1567. Elizabeth immediately released Margaret from the Tower – she was not that much of an ogre. Utterly grief-stricken, Margaret nevertheless immediately encouraged her husband to go after the murderers of their son. The chief suspect was the Earl of Bothwell, and Lennox duly accused him of the crime.

The trial was a farce, not least because Bothwell had his army stationed all around Edinburgh, and ended in his acquittal. The strange thing is that having first of all condemned her daughter-in-law as part of the plot to kill Darnley, Margaret did a volte-face later and emphasised that she thought Queen Mary was innocent.

The reason why is easy to see. Darnley and Mary had a son, the baby James VI, and now Margaret Douglas could see the way ahead for her family – if James survived and Elizabeth remained childless, he would have the strongest claim to succeed the Virgin Queen. Margaret devoted the rest of her life to ensuring that succession happened.

Lennox, meanwhile, was in Scotland where, after Mary’s abdication, he became a powerful figure at court as the grandfather of the young king. In 1570, Lennox became Regent at the instigation of Elizabeth who kept Margaret and her surviving son Charles under a form of house arrest as hostages for Lennox’s good behaviour.

Lennox was now the leader of the “King’s party” against the “Queen’s party” who were still loyal to the detained Mary and who were led by the Earl of Huntly.

After several indecisive clashes in the so-called Marian Civil War, Lennox was shot in the back and killed in a skirmish outside Stirling Castle on September 4, 1571 – the identity of his killer is still the subject of speculation. Queen Elizabeth in London took it upon herself to inform Margaret of her husband’s death.

Margaret was devastated but was back to her old tricks by 1573 when she and Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury, known to posterity as Bess of Hardwick, plotted to marry the Countess’s daughter Elizabeth Cavendish to Margaret’s son Charles who by then was the nearest English-born relative to the Queen.

Gloriana was enraged and sent Margaret to the Tower again, though this time she relented after a few months because Margaret was able to prove there was no plot against her involving Mary, Queen of Scots.

Charles did manage to have a daughter Lady Arbella before died at the age of 21 in 1577. Having outlived her husband and all her children, Margaret herself died on March 7, 1578, at the age of 62 and was buried in Henry VII’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey at the expense of Queen Elizabeth. Her magnificent tomb has two inscriptions:

Heer lyeth the noble lady Margaret, countesse of levenox, daughter and sole heire of Archibald Earle of Anguise, by Margaret Q of Scottes his wife that was eldest daughter to King Henry the 7, whoe bare unto Mathew Earle of Levenox her husband 4 sonnes and 4 daughters. This lady had to her great grandfather K Edward the 4, to her grandfather K Henry the 7, to her uncle K Henry the 8, to her cousin germane K Edward the 6, to her brother K James of Scotland the V, to her sonne King Henry the first to her grandchild K James the 6. Havinge to her greate grandmother and grandmother 2 queenes both named Elizabeth, to her mother Margaret Q of Scotts, to her aunt Marye the Frenche Q, to her cousyns germanes Mary and Elizabeth Queenes of England, to her neece and daughter in law Mary Q of Scotts. Henry second sonne to this lady was K.of Scotts and father to James the 6 now king. This Henry was murthered at the age of 21 yeares. Charles her youngest sonne was Earle of Levenox father to the Ladie Arbell. He dyed at the age of 21 yeares and is here intombed.

A second inscription in Latin gives more a flavour of the character of Margaret. It translates as:

Sacred to the memory of Margaret Douglas, wife of Matthew Stuart, Earl of Lennox, granddaughter to Henry VII, King of England, by his daughter: joined by the closest ties of kinship to most puissant kings, grandmother to James VI of Scotland, a lady of most pious character, invincible spirit. Margaret, mighty in virtue, mightier yet in lineage: ennobled and matchless steadfastness. By kings and by her forebears; descended from Scottish and English princes, she was also a progenitor of princes. Those things that belong unto death, she released to death most joyfully, and sought God, for she belonged to God before.

Next week is all about Marie de Guise.