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28th February 1261 - Birth of Margaret of Scotland, Queen of Norway

On the last day of February, in the year 1261, a Scottish princess was born at Windsor Castle. Named Margaret like her mother, who was the daughter of Henry III of England, this infant girl was the firstborn child of Alexander III of Scotland. The young Margaret of Scotland would eventually marry King Eirik II of Norway, and she is perhaps best known as the mother of another Margaret, “the Maid of Norway”, who eventually inherited the Scottish crown.

In 1261, the birth of Margaret of Scotland was a cause for celebration but it also had potentially awkward diplomatic consequences. Both careful domestic preparations and international legal wrangling attended the birth of the king of Scotland’s first heir outwith the realm. These arrangements reveal contemporary anxieties about the status of the Scottish kingdom and its relationship with the neighbouring king of England, despite the close family relationship which existed between the two ruling houses in the 1260s.

(Margaret of England, her siblings, and their father Henry III, as portrayed in an early fourteenth century genealogical roll. Reproduced by permission of the British Library under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.)

Although Alexander III and Margaret of England had been married for nine years by 1260, they were still young- just nineteen and twenty respectively. The child which Margaret discovered she was carrying in the autumn of that year was probably her first. In such circumstances it would have been natural for Margaret to wish for the company of her own family, especially since, despite their other faults, Henry III and Eleanor of Provence had always been attentive parents.

For the queen of Scots, political responsibilities tended to hinder family gatherings, but on this occasion she was in luck. It had been arranged that Margaret and her husband would travel south to her father’s court over the autumn and winter of 1260. This was a friendly visit, although Alexander III probably also intended to settle some diplomatic scores, put his English estates in order, and squeeze the rest of his wife’s dowry out of his father-in-law. Meanwhile Margaret would be reunited with her parents and brothers, and the couple would then spend the festive season residing in style as the English king’s honoured guests.

It is unclear whether Margaret’s pregnancy was common knowledge when this visit was first arranged. In documents dated 17th August 1260, when the king and queen of Scots were initially granted safe conducts through England, no mention was made of the queen’s condition. The pregnancy was first alluded to on 30th September, by which time Alexander and Margaret were expected to arrive at the Scottish border burgh of Berwick-upon-Tweed in just over a week. Even then the record dealt in hypotheticals- “if” the Queen of Scotland became pregnant in England and “if” the child was born there, the king of England promised not to detain them in his realm. Indeed, one chronicler even claimed that Margaret of England was deliberately obscure about how far her pregnancy had advanced, so that she could give birth in her home country. Nevertheless, the queen’s pregnancy does not appear to have been a major cause for concern at first- and in any case, Margaret was not about to let it stop her from accompanying her husband to England...

In early October 1260, the king and queen were supposed to arrive at Berwick and from there the English king had deputed John Mansell, keeper of the see of Durham, to escort them through the palatinate. Although English official documents indicate that the royal couple were expected to travel together, the author of the English chronicle “Flores Historiarum” claimed that Margaret went south a little bit later than her husband, accompanied by the bishop of Whithorn. Though a colourful and intriguing work, “Flores Historiarum” is not always the most reliable source for Scottish affairs. Nonetheless it was written at the abbey of St Albans in Hertfordshire, and coincidentally this is where the chronicler claims that Margaret was met by her older brother Edward- for once the chronicler may have acquired his evidence first-hand. The queen was entertained at the abbey and then completed the last twenty-five miles or so to join her husband in London.

(A portrayal of the City of London in the thirteenth century ‘Historia Anglorum’ of Matthew Paris. Reproduced by permission of the British Library under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.)

A festive air prevailed at the English court throughout the last months of 1260, assisted by the unseasonably mild weather. Jewels and gifts were lavished on the Scottish royals. Alexander not only obtained further payment of Margaret’s dowry, but also successfully demanded the daily 100 marks which he claimed that Scottish monarchs were entitled to receive when summoned to England (though the wasteful expense appalled the author of “Flores Historiarium”). There was some cause for such extravagant celebration- not only were King Henry and Queen Eleanor reunited with their eldest daughter, but the king of England’s brother Richard, who then held the title “King of the Romans”, and his wife, Queen Eleanor’s sister Sanchia, were also in town. Thus London briefly housed three kings and three queens, with all the magnificence this entailed.

But it was not to last. Although he had a safe-conduct until Candlemas, in mid-November King Alexander III unexpectedly cut short his stay at the English court and returned to Scotland on some unknown business. Although his departure may have come as a relief to the officers of the English exchequer, Queen Margaret was in no fit condition to travel with her husband. On 16th November, arrangements were hastily made for the queen of Scots, now certainly pregnant, to remain at Windsor in the care of her mother Queen Eleanor. Alexander then swiftly returned north, dropping in on the clergy of St Albans on his way. Meanwhile Margaret’s aunt Queen Sanchia retired to the castle of Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire, where she would die the following year. In this way the party was broken up, with Henry III and Richard of Cornwall accompanying Margaret and her mother to Windsor for Christmas which, despite a temporary shortage of wine, was celebrated quite comfortably.

Yuletide soon passed by, and then the feast of Candlemas in early February, which ushered in several weeks of hard frost and heavy snowfall. At Windsor, Queen Margaret seems to have spent the final weeks of her pregnancy in restful repose. In the historical record for December and January she mostly appears in the intercessory role commonly undertaken by queens, pleading with her father on behalf of various criminals and petitioners. However she does not seem to have made any recorded intercessions in the six weeks between 31st January and 14th March. Possibly, this period witnessed Margaret’s complete confinement and the birth of her child.

The actual date of the royal baby’s birth is not given in any official documents, though the Scottish chronicle “Gesta Annalia”, which was likely completed around 1285 AD, states that it took place on the last day of February 1261. This date fits the rough time period indicated by contemporary chronicles, and also ties in with the date of Margaret’s churching, which occurred about four weeks later on 26th March. We can at least be certain that the birth took place at Windsor, and that the child born was a girl. It is also evident that the safe delivery of the infant princess was a cause for celebration and Walter Coston, one of Queen Margaret’s yeomen, was liberally rewarded when he brought the news to the baby’s grandfather Henry III.

(Windsor Castle from the air, shared on wikimedia commons by Cmglee who has kindly made the image available under a creative commons license. It’s not clear whether Margaret was born in the castle or the manor of Old Windsor, which was popular with thirteenth century kings)

So far, this story has been something of a cosy family affair, but it had another, more serious side. Alexander III enjoyed a comparatively good relationship with Henry III, but he was also deeply conscious of his own dignity as king of Scots. Even as a father-in-law, the king of England was a figure who could undermine this. At various points during the young Alexander’s minority, Scottish nobles had solicited Henry III’s assistance in removing their political enemies and different factions (including Henry’s allies) had forcibly removed the king and queen of Scotland from the control of their opponents on more than one occasion.

By 1260, King Alexander was now nineteen and approaching the end of his minority. He had begun personally exercising control over his kingdom, but the shadow of these past squabbles still lingered.

There was also the matter of the Scottish kingdom’s status in the eyes of the English Crown. On more than one visit to England during his reign, Alexander was ambushed by demands that he perform homage to the English king for Scotland itself, above and beyond the homage he owed for his English lands. When this was requested at his marriage in 1251, the ten-year-old king had protested that he was unwilling to answer such a question without consulting his nobles. The subject was politely dropped, as it would be again in 1278 after Alexander’s more blunt refusal. Neither party wished to provoke unnecessary conflict, but while the King of Scots was not going to be led to surrender an inch of his prerogative, the English Crown had not relinquished its claims to sovereignty either.

The king’s visit to England in 1260 was therefore preceded by careful negotiations. On 17th August it was agreed that neither Alexander nor his councillors were to be asked about Scottish affairs of state without his consent. Nor was the English king to make any alterations to the ‘state’ of the king of Scots or his attendants while he was in England.

Similar stipulations were made on 30th September, but by then a new development had to be considered. The idea that Queen Margaret might become pregnant in England or that the heir to the Scottish throne might be born outwith the realm, now surfaced as a distinct possibility. Accordingly, a promise was extracted from Henry III that, in such a situation, he would not hinder the return of his daughter or her child to Scotland even (or perhaps especially) if Alexander III died unexpectedly.

Initially, such difficulties may have seemed a remote possibility. However the situation was complicated when King Alexander hurriedly quit the English court in November. Further oaths were called for, and although the king of Scots “granted that his spouse should remain with her mother in England till her lying-in”, the king of England had to promise to return his daughter and grandchild after her churching (specified here as forty days after the birth) or by Easter 1261.

(A fifteenth century depiction of the coronation of Alexander III of Scotland (r.1249-1286). Source: Wikimedia Commons.)

The oath covered various hypothetical situations, including the death of the mother, father, or child itself, and in the absence of Alexander himself, certain prelates and nobles were to have custody of the child- namely, the bishops of St Andrews, Aberdeen, Dunblane, and Whithorn, the earls of Fife, Buchan, Strathearn, Dunbar, and Mar, and powerful barons like John Comyn of Badenoch, Alexander the High Steward, Alan Durward, and Hugh de Abernethy. This arrangement was to be honoured regardless of the political situation in either Scotland or England, and oaths to this effect were not only sworn by Henry III but also his brother Richard of Cornwall and important English nobles like Queen Eleanor’s uncle Peter of Savoy, the earls of Gloucester and Hereford, the former justiciar Hugh Bigod, and John Maunsell. The king of England further promised to obtain the oaths of his eldest son the Lord Edward, the earls of Norfolk and Winchester, John Balliol, and the new justiciar Hugh Despenser. Clearly then, for all the friendly feeling between the kings of Scotland and England, when it came to such an important matter as the birth and upbringing of the heir to Scotland, Alexander III and his counsellors were not prepared to leave anything to chance.

It is unclear what the Scots were prepared to do if the English refused to honour these oaths- perhaps, indeed, they hoped it would never come to that since Alexander was young and healthy, and Henry III had his own problems in the early 1260s. On this occasion, at least, the king of Scots did not meet an untimely end and there was to be no unseemly wrangling with the king of England over the subject of the succession. Margaret of England and her child did not return home immediately after her purification feast, which took place around Easter 1261, but by late May arrangements were being made for their return to Scotland. Thus in late spring or early summer, the Queen of Scots bid farewell to her mother and departed Windsor with her baby, carrying the new princess of Scotland on the long journey north to her father’s kingdom.

The young Margaret of Scotland survived the perils of infancy. The following year Alexander III wrote to his father-in-law from Traquair, noting that “by divine favour” he, his wife, and daughter were all healthy. Little Margaret was later joined by two younger brothers, Alexander and David, which seemingly secured the Scottish succession, and she herself married Eirik Magnusson, king of Norway, in 1281, when she was around twenty. Despite the youth of the bridegroom, Margaret soon became pregnant and, in late March or early April 1283, she gave birth to a daughter in Tønsberg. This royal baby- again named Margaret but perhaps better known as “the Maid of Norway”- would eventually fall heir to Scotland in turn, when first her mother, then her uncle, and finally her grandfather Alexander III died in the years immediately following her birth.

The Maid of Norway was herself short-lived and destined never to set foot in her inherited kingdom. However during her brief time as acknowledged “Lady of Scotland”, there was again much detailed negotiation over the arrangements for her safe-keeping, upbringing, and marriage, and about the status of her realm. This exceeded even the arrangements made at the time of her mother’s birth, but in both cases the status of the two princess Margarets as potential heirs to Scotland had important implications for the constitutional position of the Scottish realm. The lives of both princesses sheds light on the hopes and anxieties of the Scottish political community regarding the prospect of female succession, custody of the heir to the throne, and, most importantly, the status of the realm and its relation to the English Crown. In the following century this last concern would become central to Scottish political life, but even in the comparatively peaceful reign of Alexander III, it seems to have been extremely important- so much so that it had to be taken into account even on a happy occasion like the birth of a royal baby.

(The coat of arms of Alexander II of Scotland, as portrayed in the thirteenth century ‘Historia Anglorum’ of Matthew Paris. Reproduced by permission of the British Library under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Alexander II was father of Alexander III and grandfather of Margaret of Scotland. This coat of arms is one of the earliest portrayals of the lion rampant, the royal arms of Scotland, and it is inverted here to symbolise Alexander’s death)

Selected Bibliography:

- Calendar of Scottish Documents, vol. 1, edited Joseph Bain

- “Early Sources of Scottish History”, vol. 2, edited A.O.Anderson

- “The Flowers of History: Especially such as relate to the affairs of Britain ; from the beginning of the world to the year 1307 / Collected by Matthew of Westminster”, translated by C.D. Yonge

- “Annales Monastici”, vol. 3, ed. Henry Richards Luard (specifically the Chronicle of Dunstable)

- “Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers”, ed. A.O. Anderson

- “Royal and other historical letters illustrative of the reign of Henry III: From the originals in the Public Record Office”, ed. Walter Waddington Shirley

- “Calendar of the patent rolls, preserved in the Public Record Office”, vol. 5

- “John of Fordun’s Chronicle of the Scottish Nation”, ed. W.F. Skene

- “The Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland” by Andrew Wyntoun, vol. 2, ed. David Laing

- “The Wars of Scotland, 1214-1371″, by Michael Brown

As ever if you have any queries or want a source for a specific statement I have made, please let me know- the bibliography above is only a rough guide.

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