Margaret Douglas - Marriage and Diplomacy

Marriage and Diplomacy

In 1544 Lady Margaret married a Scottish exile, Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, (1516–1571), who later became regent of Scotland in 1570-1571. In June 1548, during the war of the Rough Wooing, Margaret's father, the Earl of Angus, wrote to her with the news that her half-brother George Douglas and others of the family had been captured at Dalkeith Palace. Angus hoped that she and Lennox could arrange that they were well treated as prisoners. Lennox forwarded the letter to Protector Somerset writing that Angus would have done better to ask others for help. Margaret wrote to her father from Wressle Castle in March 1549, complaining that he had avoided meeting Lennox. She asked him to seek an honourable peace through her marriage, "what a memorial it should be to you!"

During Queen Mary's reign, the Countess had rooms in Westminster Palace. In November 1553, Queen Mary told the ambassador Simon Renard that Margaret was best suited to succeed her to the throne. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, the Countess moved to Yorkshire, where her home at Temple Newsam became a centre for Roman Catholic intrigue. She succeeded in marrying her son, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, to his cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, thus uniting their claims to the English throne.

In 1566 she was sent to the Tower, but after the murder of Darnley in 1567 she was released. She denounced Mary, Queen of Scots, but was eventually reconciled with her daughter-in-law. Her husband assumed the government of Scotland as Regent, but was assassinated in 1571. In 1574 she again aroused Queen Elizabeth's anger by marrying her younger son, Charles Stuart, 1st Earl of Lennox, to Elizabeth Cavendish, the stepdaughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury. She was sent to the Tower, unlike Lady Shrewsbury, but was pardoned after her son's death in 1576.

Margaret's diplomacy largely contributed to the future succession of her grandson, James VI of Scotland, to the English throne. After the death of her son, Charles, she helped care for his daughter, Arbella Stuart. However, she did not outlive him by very long. A few days before her death, she dined with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and this led to rumours that she had been poisoned. There is no historical evidence for this.

Although she died in debt, she was given a grand funeral in Westminster Abbey, at the expense of Queen Elizabeth I. She was buried in the same grave as her son Charles in the south aisle of Henry VII's chapel in the Abbey. Her grandson James VI of Scotland (who later became James I of England) is said to have erected the fine monument. Her recumbent effigy, made of alabaster, wears a French cap and ruff with a red fur-lined cloak, over a dress of blue and gold. On either side of the tomb chest are weepers of her four sons and four daughters.

The Lennox Jewel, was most likely made for Lady Lennox. Theories vary as to when the jewel was made and for what occasion. In 1842, the jewel was bought by Queen Victoria.