Margaret Stewart (born c. 1455/1456 - c. 1480/1500?) was the younger daughter of James II of Scotland and Mary of Guelders. Once engaged to the LancastrianPrince of Wales, Margaret instead became the mistress of William Crichton, 3rd Lord Crichton (an enemy of her brother, James III), and the mother of his illegitimate daughter, Margaret Crichton, later Countess of Rothes, and possibly his son, Sir James Crichton, progenitor of the Viscounts of Frendraught.[1] Margaret and Lord Crichton may have been married later, after the death of Crichton's wife.
Margaret was born between 1453 and 1460,[2][3] the daughter of James II of Scotland and Mary of Guelders. She had five siblings, including James III, who ascended the Scottish throne in 1460 upon their father's accidental death by an exploding cannon.
Margaret's nurse was Marion Darrauch, who was paid £5 in 1462. In 1462 Margaret lived at Falkland Palace, and in 1463 joined her brother, the Earl of Mar, and sister Mary at Stirling Castle. In 1464 she was sent to be educated at the Cistercian Priory at Haddington, where Alison Maitland was her governess until she left in 1477. During these years, she came to the opening of Parliament and the betrothal of her nephew, Prince James. Clothes were made for her, including gowns edged with velvet and red satin kirtles.[4]
Margaret's mother died in 1463, leaving her an orphan at probably less than ten years old.
William Crichton, 3rd Lord Crichton of Auchingoul (grandson of Lord Chancellor Crichton) is said to have "deliberately debauched Margaret" (James III's youngest and favourite sister), after discovering that his wife had been seduced by the king.[6] Regardless of the truth of this story, Margaret did become Lord Crichton's mistress, which led to her disgrace and reputation for immorality and corruption. Their illegitimate daughter, also named Margaret, was born between 1478 and 1485 and raised in the royal court.[7] A dress was bought for "Lady Margaret's daughter" in 1496, and she married William Todrick, an Edinburgh merchant, and after his death in 1507, an Edinburgh merchant George Halkerston, and thirdly, George Leslie, 4th Earl of Rothes.[8]
Margaret may have had a son also, James Crichton, who married Catherine Borthwick, the eldest daughter of William, Lord Borthwick; however, James might have been the son of Lord Crichton's wife.
According to historian George Buchanan (who was "always hostile"[9] to the Stewarts), Margaret had an incestuous relationship with her brother the king. However, James III's most recent biographer, Norman MacDougall, has firmly rejected this on the grounds that the rumour seems only to have come about as a direct result of the political tensions of James' reign and of his descendant Mary, Queen of Scots, in an attempt to blacken the reputation of both James III and the Stewart dynasty (for comparison, see the rumours that James had poisoned his wife, Margaret of Denmark). Though there are few contemporary references to her, later writers were unsympathetic in their descriptions of the princess, in particular peerage writers of the nineteenth century. John Riddell called her "a person, although young and beautiful, of depraved character, being even charged with too much familiarity with her own brother."[5] Balfour-Paul agreed, stating that Margaret was "a Princess of great beauty, but of a reputation that was more than loose."[6]
[After garrisoning his castle and fleeing to England,] William, the hereditary Lord of Crichton, pined in exile, from which he is said to have been recalled under the following circumstances: The Lady of Crichton, says Buchanan, died soon after her husband's flight to England; and the king, desirous to hide the disgrace of his favourite sister, who was almost frantic for the loss of her paramour, recalled Crichton from banishment, on condition of his marrying the Princess Margaret. They were wedded accordingly, and Crichton seems to have obtained restitution of that part of his fortune which descended to him by his mother, the Barony of Frendraught, namely, in the North, which from this time became his residence, and that of his successors. Crichton was reconciled to the king, and admitted to his presence at Inverness, during an expedition which James made towards the North near the conclusion of his reign. He therefore entertained hopes of obtaining a full pardon, but neither of the brothers-in-law long survived the interview. Crichton died at Inverness, where, according to Buchanan, his monument was extant in the time of the historian. It seems uncertain whether the son who survived William Lord Crichton was the child of the Princess Margaret; but he left a daughter, their undoubted issue, who became Countess of Rothes.
If Scott's account is accurate, Margaret, then Lady Crichton, may have spent the rest of her life at Crichton's residence "in the North", at the Barony of Frendraught. However, it is known that Margaret became a resident of Elcho Priory near Perth in 1489 and remained there for some years during the reign of her nephew, James IV (r. 1488–1513), whose account books show frequent disbursements for "supplies for the Lady Margaret," one, in particular, for "a new dress for the ladye in Elquo."[10]
Margaret's daughter, Margaret Crichton, had four daughters by her third husband, George Leslie, 4th Earl of Rothes, Ambassador to Denmark (whom she married twice), including Agnes Leslie, Countess of Morton, and two sons, William Rothes and Norman Leslie, Master of Rothes, whose rights of inheritance were forfeited as a result of both having been implicated in the murder of Cardinal Beaton in 1546. Their father, the 4th Earl of Rothes, was tried and acquitted of the same crime. However, the mother of these children might have been a different wife of Rothes. The son of their second marriage, Robert Leslie of Ardersier, received the estate of Findrassie. He married Janet, daughter of the 2nd. Lord Elphinstone founded the line of Findrassie, of which daughters of both the second and third lairds, both also named Robert, married Gordon of Embo baronets.[11]
Margaret's possible granddaughter Lady Margaret Leslie married Archibald Douglas, 8th Earl of Angus, in 1575 and divorced him in 1587, probably because of her "infertility". (He remarried two weeks later.)[12] Another granddaughter, Lady Helen Leslie, had several children with Mark Kerr, the abbot of Newbattle, including Mark Kerr, 1st Earl of Lothian.[13]
William Sinclair (1410–1480), 1st Earl of Caithness (1455–1476), last Earl (Jarl) of Orkney, 2nd Lord Sinclair and 11th Baron of Roslin was a Norwegian and Scottish nobleman and the builder of Rosslyn Chapel, in Midlothian.
Earl of Rothes is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1458 for George Leslie, 1st Lord Leslie. He had already been created Lord Leslie in 1445, also in the Peerage of Scotland. His grandson, the third Earl, having only succeeded his elder brother in March 1513, was killed at the Battle of Flodden on 9 September of the same year. His son, the fourth Earl, served as an Extraordinary Lord of Session. Lord Rothes was also tried for the murder of Cardinal Beaton but was acquitted.
William Douglas, 6th Earl of Morton was the son of Robert Douglas of Lochleven and Margaret Erskine, a former mistress of James V of Scotland.
George Leslie, 4th Earl of Rothes was a Scottish nobleman and diplomat.
Thomas Boyd, Earl of Arran was a Scottish nobleman.
Andrew Leslie, 5th Earl of Rothes was a Scottish nobleman.
Mary of Guelders was Queen of Scotland by marriage to King James II of Scotland. She ruled as regent of Scotland from 1460 to 1463.
Janet Stewart, Lady Fleming, called la Belle Écossaise, was a Scottish courtier. She was an illegitimate daughter of King James IV of Scotland who served as governess to her half-niece Mary, Queen of Scots. Janet was briefly a mistress of King Henry II of France, by whom she had a legitimated son: Henri d'Angoulême. Her daughter, Mary Fleming, was one of the young queen's "Four Marys".
Clan Crichton is a Lowland Scottish clan that historically ruled Dumfries.
Jean Gordon, Countess of Bothwell was a wealthy Scottish noblewoman and the second wife of James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell. He became, after his divorce from Lady Jean, the third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. Lady Jean herself had a total of three husbands. Upon her second marriage, she became the Countess of Sutherland.
Agnes Keith, Countess of Moray was a Scottish noblewoman. She was the wife of James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, regent of Scotland and the illegitimate half-brother of Mary, Queen of Scots, making her a sister-in-law of the Scottish queen. As the wife of the regent, Agnes was the most powerful woman in Scotland from 1567 until her husband's assassination in 1570.
Agnes Leslie, Countess of Morton was a Scottish noblewoman, being the daughter of George Leslie, 4th Earl of Rothes as well as a great-granddaughter of King James II. She was the wife of William Douglas, 6th Earl of Morton, who as Laird of Lochleven Castle was the custodian of Mary, Queen of Scots during her captivity from June 1567 until her escape on 2 May 1568. Agnes was Queen Mary's chief female companion throughout her imprisonment; thus it was while Lady Agnes was recovering from childbirth that the queen successfully escaped from Lochleven.
Agnes Douglas, Countess of Argyll was a Scottish noblewoman and the first wife of Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl of Argyll. She was the mother of three of his children, including his heir, Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll, the de facto head of the government in Scotland throughout most of the conflict known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Lady Agnes was considered so beautiful that she was described as a "pearl of Lochleven".
Jean Hepburn, Lady Darnley, Mistress of Caithness, Lady Morham was a Scottish noblewoman and a member of the Border clan of Hepburn. Her brother was James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, the third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. Jean's first husband was John Stewart, 1st Lord Darnley, an illegitimate half-brother of Queen Mary, which made Jean a double sister-in-law of the queen. Jean married three times. She was also Lady of Morham, having received in 1573 the barony of Morham and lands which had belonged to her mother, Lady Agnes Sinclair and was forfeited to the Crown subsequent to her brother, the Earl of Bothwell's attainder for treason.
William Keith, 4th Earl Marischal was a Scottish nobleman and politician.
Lord Methven was a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created on 17 July 1528 by King James V of Scotland for his stepfather Henry Stewart. The title became extinct on the death of the grantee's grandson in the 1580s. The title takes its name from Methven in Perthshire.
James Lindsay, 7th Lord Lindsay PC, Scottish landowner who was a gentleman of King James's bedchamber.
Robert Beaton of Creich was a Scottish landowner and courtier. He served as a Master of Household to Mary, Queen of Scots.
Alexander Abernethy, 6th Lord Saltoun was a Scottish landowner and courtier.
Helen Leslie, Lady Newbattle (1520-1594) was a Scottish aristocrat and supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots.
↑ The Peerage gives her birth between the years 1449 and 1463, but 1453 and 1460 is probably closer. 1453 is the year of her sister Mary's birth, and Margaret was younger than Mary; 1460 is the year of her father's death.
Burke, Bernard (1866), A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire: Harrison.
Lang, Andrew (1903), A History of Scotland from the Roman Occupation, Volume 1: Dodd, Mead and Co.
Paul, James Balfour (1906), The Scots Peerage: Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; Containing an Historical and Genealogical Account of the Nobility of that Kingdom: D. Douglas.
Riddell, John (1833), Remarks upon Scotch peerage law...: T. Clark.
Scott, Walter. "Crichton Castle." Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott. Vol. 2. Edinburgh: R. Cadell, 1834. 87–88. Google Books. Web. 2 May 2010.
Alison Weir: Lancaster and York: War of the Roses, London (1995) ISBN978-0-09-954017-5
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
