Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/156

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Margaret Beaufort
150
Margaret Tudor

eyes, and arched eyebrows; but her hair is entirely concealed under one of the close-fitting high headdresses of the period. The artist, Mr. Scharf thinks, was probably Hugo Vander Goes, who is recorded to have been employed on the decorations for Margaret's wedding. The picture was engraved in vol. v. of the first edition of the 'Paston Letters' (1804), and more recently in Blades's 'Life and Typography of William Caxton' (1861).

[Wilhelmi Worcester Annales; Excerpta Historica, pp. 223-39; Memoires d'Olivier de la Marche, iii. 101-201 (Soc. de 1'Hist. de France); Memoires de Haynin (Soc. des Bibliophiles de Mons), i. 106 sq.; Waurin's Recueil des Chroniques, vol. v. (Rolls ed.); Compte Kendu des Seances de la Commission Royale d'Histoire, Brussels, 1842, pp. 168-74, ib. 4th ser. ii. 9-22; Fragment relating to King Edward IV, at end of Sprott's Chronicle (Hearne), p. 296; Archæologia, xxxi. 327-38; Memorials of Henry VII, and Letters and Papers of Richard III and Henry VII (Rolls Ser.); Calendars of State Papers (Venetian and Spanish); Hall's Chron.; Sandford's Geneal. Hist.]

J. G.

MARGARET BEAUFORT, Countess of Richmond and Derby (1441–1509). [See Beaufort.]

MARGARET TUDOR (1489–1541), queen of Scotland, the eldest daughter of Henry VII, king of England, and Elizabeth of York, was born at Westminster on 29 Nov. 1489, and baptised in the abbey on the 30th, St. Andrew's day (Leland, Collectanea, iv. 252 sq.; cf. Hamilton Papers, i. 51). Her sponsors were Margaret, countess of Richmond, her grandmother, the Duchess of Norfolk, and Archbishop Morton (Green, Princesses, iv. 50-2). She probably passed her infancy with her brother Arthur at Farnham in Surrey. Her education was early broken off, but she could write, though she confessed it an 'evil hand,' and she played upon the lute and clavicord (ib. pp. 53, 69). On 23 June 1495 Henry VII commissioned Richard Foxe [q.v.], bishop of Durham, and others, to negotiate a marriage between Margaret and James IV of Scotland in the hope of averting his reception of Perkin Warbeck, the pretended Duke of York (Fœdera, xii. 572; Spanish Calendar, i. 85; Pinkerton, History of Scotland, 1797, ii. 26). The offer failed to prevent James from espousing the cause of Warbeck, but was renewed the next year with the support of Spain. The commissioners of 1495 received fresh powers to arrange the marriage on 5 May, and again on 2 Sept. 1496 (Bain, Cal. of Documents relating to Scotland, iv. No. 1622; Fœdera, xii. 635). James was not at this time willing to give up Warbeck and it was not until after the departure of the pretender, and the truce of 30 Sept. 1497 with England, that the marriage was again suggested. The Tudor historians make James himself renew the proposal to Foxe when sent to arrange a border quarrel at Norham in 1498, which threatened to terminate the truce (Green, p. 57). Henry is said to have quieted some fears in his council by the assurance that, even if Margaret came to the English crown, 'the smaller would ever follow the larger kingdom' (Polydore Vergil, xxvi. 607). Peace until one year after the death of the survivor was concluded between Henry and James on 12 July 1499, and Scottish commissioners were appointed to negotiate the marriage (Cal. of Documents, iv. No. 1653). On 11 Sept., three days after his ratification of the peace, Henry commissioned Foxe to conduct the negotiations (Fœdera, xii. 729). They were some- what protracted. It was not until 28 July 1500 that the pope granted a dispensation for the marriage, James and Margaret being related in the fourth degree, through the marriage of James I with Joan Beaufort, and there was a further delay of nearly eighteen months before James, on 8 Oct. 1501, finally empowered his commissioners to conclude the marriage (Cal. of Documents, iv. No. 1678; Fœdera, xii. 765). At length the marriage treaty was agreed to at Richmond Palace on 24 Jan. 1502. Margaret was secured the customary dower lands, including Stirling and Linlithgow, to the amount of 2,000l. a year, but the revenues were to be paid to her through James. A pension of five hundred marks was, however, to be at her own disposal. Henry undertook to give her a marriage portion of thirty thousand gold 'angel' nobles (ib. xii. 787; Green, pp. 62, 109). A treaty of perpetual peace between England and Scotland was concluded on the same day (Fœdera, xii. 793). The ratifications were exchanged in December (ib. xiii. 43, 46, 48-52), and the espousals were celebrated at Richmond on 25 Jan. 1503. The Earl of Bothwell acted as proxy for James. The union was proclaimed at Paul's Cross, and welcomed with popular rejoicings (Green, pp. 63-6). The death of Queen Elizabeth, however, on 11 Feb. threw a cloud over the festivities.

In May Margaret's attorneys received seisin of her dower lands (Fœdera, xiii. 62, 64-71, 73). Henry had stipulated that he should not send his daughter to Scotland before 1 Sept. 1503. But on the request of James she left Richmond on 27 June. In her suite was John Young, Somerset herald, whose very full and quaint account of the journey