Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/157

 is printed by Hearne (, Collectanea, iv. 258 sqq.) Her father took an affectionate farewell of her at Collyweston in Northamptonshire, and, escorted northwards in state by the Earl of Surrey, and gathering a great train, she entered Scotland on 1 Aug. and reached Dalkeith on the 3rd. She received daily visits of ceremony from James until her state entry into Edinburgh on Monday, 7 Aug. They were married on 8 Aug. in the chapel of Holyrood, by the Archbishops of Glasgow and York (ib.) Miss Strickland (p. 58) prints a manuscript epithalamium. The court poet, William Dunbar, composed his allegorical poem, 'The Thistle and the Rose,' in which he exalted the lineage of the (English) rose above that of the (French) lily. Dunbar became a constant attendant of Margaret, and dedicated several of his poems to her. After several days' festivities her English escort returned home, carrying a rather petulant and homesick letter to her father (, p. 100). A northern progress occupied the rest of the year, and in March 1504 Margaret was crowned in the Parliament Hall.

The somewhat querulous young queen was childless for several years, and James, who had dismissed his mistress, Jane Kennedy, before his marriage, though not unkind, resumed his irregularities and acknowledged his illegitimate children (ib. pp. 99, 119). But their relations improved with the birth of a son, on 21 Feb. 1507, which brought upon Margaret a most violent disease, her recovery from which was ascribed to a special journey James made to the shrine of St. Ninian at Whithern (ib. pp. 124-5). But the child, who was christened James, died on 27 Feb. 1508. A daughter, born 15 July in that year, died almost immediately, after again nearly costing Margaret her life, and a son born 20 Oct. 1509, and christened Arthur, lived only to 15 July 1510. But a son born on Easter eve, 10 April 1512, survived to be king as James V (ib. p. 148 ; Letters and Papers, i. 3882). A daughter born prematurely, in November of the same year, hardly outlived its birth (ib. 3577, 3631 ; Memorials of Henry VII, p. 123;, p. 154). A son, Alexander, created Duke of Ross, was born on 30 April 1514, after her husband's death.

As early as 1508 James was again leaning towards a French alliance. The relations between England and Scotland grew more and more strained, and when. Henry VIII joined the Holy League against France James entered into an alliance with Louis XII on 22 May 1512 (ib. p. 150). Margaret, who had assured Ferdinand of Aragon in March of her husband's desire for peace (Letters and Papers, i. 3082), supported Angus Bell-the-Cat and the English party, although Henry risked this support and gave a pretext to James for his change of front by withholding a legacy which she claimed. The statements of Buchanan, Lindsay of Pitscottie, and Drummond that this legacy was one of jewels, &c., bequeathed her by Prince Arthur, may perhaps be reconciled with those of Margaret and Dr. West, the English envoy in Scotland, that it was a sum of money left by Henry VII. by supposing that Arthur had left them with the understanding that they were to belong to his father during his life. West's letters seem to imply that the sum was a valuation. It was first formally demanded in 1509. Henry seems to have been afraid that it would be used to supply James's want of money (, pp. 151-2 ; Letters and Papers, i. 3883, 4403).

By 1513 James had made up his mind to join in the war on the side of France, and told West, who was sent in March to promise payment of the legacy if he would keep the treaty of peace, that he would pay his wife himself (, p. 157). It was in vain that Margaret tried to deter him from war with England by dreams and prearranged miraculous warnings (ib.) Yet in his will he appointed Margaret, in the event of his death, sole regent and guardian of the young James, contrary to the custom of the realm by which the minor was left to the guardianship of the next in succession, and besides her dower bequeathed her one-third of his personal revenues for life. He also unwisely empowered her, without the knowledge or consent of his council, to dispose of a subsidy of eighteen thousand crowns lately received from France (ib. p. 163). He had refused to take her with him, and she remained at Linlithgow, sending to ask for Queen Catherine's prayers, until the news of Flodden and her husband's death arrived (Letters and Papers, i. 4424 ; cf. 4549). Retreating to Perth, she wrote to her brother deprecating further hostilities, and, summoning nobles and clergy, performed the 'Mourning Coronation' or James V within twenty days after his father's death (, p. 95;, p. 173). But her position was a most difficult one. In face of the strong French feeling in Scotland, her success in obtaining a truce from Henry only decreased her influence, and she was unable to veto the recall from France of the next heir to the crown after her sons, John Stewart, duke of Albany [q.v.], whom the French party were already plotting to substitute for her as regent (ib. pp. 177-80). The council re-