I am your anointed Queen. I will never be by violence constrained to do anything. I thank God I am endued with such qualities that if I were turned out of the Realm in my petticoat I were able to live in any place in Christendom. --Elizabeth I 1533-1603, Queen of England and Ireland
About the Real Queen Margaret
I really, REALLY had fun riding in the 2004 games. I've been riding horses since I was a little girl and I've never quite gotten over the thrill of the wind in my hair at full gallop. To see more photos of my ride, click here.
A widow is a fascinating being with the flavor of maturity, the spice of experience, the piquancy of novelty, the tang of practiced coquetry, and the halo of one man's approval. --Helen Rowland 1875-1950, American Journalist
Margaret Tudor, second child of Henry VII, King of England and his queen, Elizabeth of York, was born at the Palace of Westminster at 9:00 p.m. on November 29, 1489. From the moment of her birth, she was almost immediately promised to the King of Scotland, James IV as a bride. That promise was fulfilled through the Treaty of Perpetual Peace signed in November of 1502. The union of the Thistle and the Rose, as the marriage became known, was solemnized on August 8, 1503 in a lavish wedding ceremony at the Palace of Holyrood in Edinburgh. Margaret was 13 and the Scottish king was 30.
The English princess, though not an avid student of arts and letters, was accomplished at archery, dance, needlework and apparently courtly intrigue. It was never her plan to stand at the helm of Scotland, but upon the death of James IV at the Battle of Flodden in September 1513, she found herself a 24-year-old single mother, pregnant and holding the reigns of rulership over a nation who had just lost the flower of its nobility in a war against her younger brother, Henry VIII, King of England and Ireland. Thrust into a man's world, the young Scottish queen mother embarked on the remainder of her 38-year reign which weathered two more marriages, two more children, one turbulent divorce, an escape to England for a year, international double dealings both for and against her own brother the English king and the deft handling of a near-civil war in Scotland with the aid of the famous Mons Meg cannon now housed in Edinburgh Castle. Though her son, James V, claimed his "majority" as king of Scotland in 1528, Queen Margaret heavily influenced his decisions for many years afterward.
Queen Margaret died on October 18, 1541 at the age of 51 of a stroke while penning a petition to the Pope to obtain a divorce from her third husband, Henry Stewart, Lord Methven. She was buried at the Carthusian Abbey of Saint John in Perth and rested there in peace until Calvinists broke into the abbey in 1559, turned her remains out of their casket and stomped them into dust.
Sources:
Buchanan, Patricia; Margaret Tudor Queen of Scots, 1985.
Perry, Maria; The Sisters of Henry VIII: The Tumultuous Lives of Margaret of Scotland and Mary of France, 1998
For more on the real Queen Margaret Tudor, visit Lara Eakins' page on Queen Margaret of Scotland & the Isles
A more in-depth site about Queen Margaret.
"Men should think twice about making widowhood a woman's only path to power." --Gloria Steinem
You can catch Queen Margaret at Scarborough Faire at anytime, but most especially at the daily Scottish Court proceedings held in Taylor Lane at 3:30 p.m. in Queen Margaret’s Bower. There you will witness the Council of Lairds in action, knightings, bestowing of titles and lands, revoking of titles and lands, nuptial blessings, instant divorces, presentations and plaints from both Scots and Irish clans, pirates, border reivers and various denizens of the Village of Scarborough. The show is entirely unscripted and no one knows what will happen from day to day. You can also catch her at 10:15 a.m. in the House of Butterflies and at both 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at the Scarborough Faire Joust.
What Happens to the Loot that Queen Margaret gets?
CONTEMPORARY IMAGES OF KING JAMES IV AND QUEEN MARGARET
"I am my father's daughter. I am not afraid of anything." --Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett), 1998
About Janna Casstevens Lewis
In addition to playing Henry VIII's unconventional, wild sister Margaret Tudor Queen of Scotland, I am the Performing Company Director of Scarborough Faire, the Renaissance Festival. My job includes supervising 150 street theatre actors who roam the Village of Scarborough portraying fascinating and engaging characters from the Renaissance Age. I live in Salado, Texas with my daughters, Lisa and Katie. I am an instructor with the Communications Department at Central Texas College in Killeen, Texas. I am also a member of Salado United Methodist Church.
Before She was the Scottish Queen...
