On many occasions I have commented on the blog that the role that the women of the European royal families have historically played makes them characters worthy of study:first of all because of the absolute disregard for their feelings and their destinies, which meant turning them into mere coins of change for the search of political alliances; and secondly, because precisely this game of alliances allows us to intermingle in the biography of one of these women the history of the different countries affected by such agreements. Thus, in the blog we have talked about women like Emma of Normandy, Catherine of Lancaster, Elizabeth of York, Joanna Plantagenet or Catherine of Valois.
Our protagonist today is another clear example of the crossroads of countries:she was the daughter of a Scottish king and an English princess, she was queen of Norway and her offspring played a crucial role in a famous confrontation between Scotland and England.
Margaret was the daughter of Alexander III, King of Scotland, and Margaret Plantagenet, daughter of King Henry III of England and sister of King Edward I Longshanks of England. The marriage of her parents was arranged to consolidate the always difficult relations between the two great kingdoms of the British Isles.
In 1281, when she was twenty years old, she arranged her marriage to the Norwegian king Erik Magnusson, who had ascended to the throne of her country just a year before. In recent years, the discrepancies between Scotland and Norway over the control of the Hebrides Islands and the Isle of Man had erupted into an open conflict that resulted in an invasion of Scotland led by King Hakon of Norway; His troops clashed with the Scots of Alexander III at the Battle of Largs (1263), the result of which did not translate into a clear victory for either of the two armies, but ended with the withdrawal of the Norwegians.
In 1266 Scotland and Norway signed the Treaty of Perth ending the conflict. Norway recognized Scottish sovereignty over the Hebrides Islands and the Isle of Man, as well as over the rest of the continental territories, in exchange for the payment of a sum of money. For its part, Scotland recognized Norwegian sovereignty over Shetland and Orkney.
As one more element of this new climate of understanding between the two kingdoms, the marriage that we have commented on above was arranged between our protagonist, Princess Margaret of Scotland, and the young King of Norway, Erik Magnusson. Margarita was the only surviving daughter of her parents' marriage, since the other two offspring of Alexander III had died by then. It was for this reason that one of the most important pacts of the marriage contract was established between the Scottish princess and the Norwegian king:that her descendants would inherit the crown of Scotland.
However, on April 9, 1283, Queen Margaret of Norway died in Tonsberg giving birth to the first and only daughter of the marriage, who was baptized with the same name as her mother and who was known by the name of Margarita the maiden of Norway. This fact greatly complicated the situation in Scotland. King Alexander III was a widower, all three of his children had died, and his only descendant was a Norwegian girl.
The King of Scotland then decided to remarry to try to produce an heir to ensure his succession and married the French Princess Yolande de Drieux in 1285. But in 1286, before his second marriage was fruitful, the King of Scotland He died in a dark accident caused by a strange night ride that he decided to undertake in the middle of a heavy downpour. His horse slipped over some cliffs and the king fell from his mount and broke his neck.
The following years were really difficult for Scotland. A council of six Guardians of the kingdom was appointed to exercise the government during the minority of the heir to the throne, the girl Margaret of Norway, and a marriage was arranged for her to ensure the stability of the country. The chosen one was the son of the King of England Edward I, but not without first holding arduous negotiations to make clear the maintenance of Scottish independence and sovereignty. Once the details were resolved, in 1290 it was agreed that Margaret of Norway would travel to Scotland to be formally crowned and seal her marriage commitment, with such bad luck that the ship she was traveling on to Scotland was shipwrecked and the daughter of the protagonist of this post died.
Scotland was in a very tricky situation, without a king or direct heirs to the throne and with the two main families of the country, the Balliols and the Bruces, in open dispute over who should inherit the crown. All this while the King of England Edward I awaited events to take over the headless neighboring kingdom and William Wallace and Robert the Bruce still did not know what fate had in store for them … but that is another story (told by the way in the dedicated blog post to the consequences of the death of Alexander III of Scotland).