Margaret Stewart

Margaret Stewart or Stuart may refer to:

Margaret Stewart, Dauphine of France

Margaret of Scotland (French: Marguerite d'Écosse) (25 December 1424 – 16 August 1445) was a Princess of Scotland and the Dauphine of France. She was the firstborn child of King James I of Scotland and Queen Joan Beaufort.

She married the eldest son of the king of France, Louis, Dauphin Of France, at eleven years old. Their marriage was unhappy, and she died childless at age 20, apparently of a fever.

Early life

She was born in Perth, Scotland to James I of Scotland and Joan Beaufort, a cousin of Henry VI of England. Margaret was the first of six daughters and twin sons born to her parents (her surviving brother, James, would become James II of Scotland at six years old).

Marriage

Margaret was Charles VII of France's diplomatic choice for daughter-in-law. The marriage was forced upon Charles's thirteen-year-old son, Louis, which did not help their relationship. However, royal marriages in the 15th century were always political. There are no direct accounts from Louis or Margaret of their first impressions of each other, and it is mere speculation to say whether or not they actually had negative feelings for each other. Several historians think that Louis had a predetermined attitude to hate his wife. But it is universally agreed that Louis entered the ceremony and the marriage itself dutifully, as evidenced by his formal embrace of Margaret upon their first meeting on 24 June 1436, the day before their wedding.

Margaret Stewart (born c. 1455)

Margaret Stewart (born c. 1455, date of death unknown) was the younger daughter of James II of Scotland and Mary of Guelders. Once engaged to the Lancastrian Prince 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. Margaret and Lord Crichton may have been married later, after the death of Crichton's wife.

Family

Margaret was born between 1453 and 1460 in Scotland, 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 mother died in 1463, leaving her an orphan at probably less than ten years old.

Marriage proposals

During the Wars of the Roses, Margaret was briefly engaged to Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, the only son of Henry VI of England and Margaret of Anjou. However, the engagement was called off by her mother due to political pressure from Edward IV of England and Philip III, Duke of Burgundy. In 1476, she was proposed by James III to George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, and she was afterward to have been married to Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers, brother-in-law of Edward IV; but neither of these alliances took place.