The Maid of the North

Alexander III of Scotland was a man in a hurry. He became king as a minor and couldn’t wait to become a sole ruler (fair enough). Then he couldn’t wait to rid Scotland of the scourge of Scandinavian incursions (which were still going on in the 13th Century) leading him to create a treaty with Norway, sealed with his granddaughter being sent to Norway to be married into the Norwegian royal family. However, he was also in a hurry to have a male heir, which was to be his undoing.  His first wife Margaret was the daughter of Henry III King of England, but she had drowned in a river when a practical joke (hers) went badly wrong- I am not making this up, she tried to push a courtier into a river but instead drowned in the strong current herself.

Margaret had borne Alexander children but over the next decade, they all perished while he was still king making the topic of an heir a pressing one, time of the middle-aged king to get a new wife. Which he promptly did in the form of Yolande of Dreux and in the winter of 1284 married her. However, in March of 1285, he was so keen to get to the Queen on her birthday that he rushed out into the night with barely any retainers into the teeth of good old Scottish storm. The next day he was found dead, his horse had taken a fall and he had died in the storm and dynastic disaster struck Scotland. The king was dead, the queen had been in the country for only a few months so had no real support, and the throne now potentially was in the hands of a child, Margaret, Alexander’s granddaughter. Already the wolves were circling their prey. John Balliol made a claim for the throne and the Bruces, a powerful family, backed Margaret’s claim. It was a civil war. The group of guardians appointed to rule for Margaret (also known as the Maid of the North as she was raised in Norway…long story) until she arrived from Norway and was old enough to rule did their best to keep the peace but tensions were high.

However, Scotland had a potential savior. Edward Longshanks King of England. He was seen as a great diplomat as well as a warrior. He had been involved in a number of continental disputes, both as an antagonist and as a conciliator, and he was viewed as a wise ruler, one who could work through the different grievances and come up with an independent solution. Why not ask him for some help?

Edward’s solution, readily agreed by the Scottish nobles, was that his firstborn son (who was about the same age as Margaret) would marry her, and together they would be the rightful rulers of both nations, uniting the two crowns of Britain. It was a simple and elegant solution that gave Scotland the footing as a partner, not subject, to the English throne. Edward had pulled off a diplomatic triumph.

So Margaret, aged just seven was sent from Norway in 1290. True, there would be a long period of stewardship under the guardians, but in the long term, both nations would benefit from this union. However the North Sea, even in summer, is a rough place to be and this little seven-year-old girl fell ill on the journey, it’s physical demands taking its toll on such a young body. At the Orkney Islands, things got worse, and she died. The fate of two nations had rested on Margaret and her sad demise was to lead to centuries of further warfare between the two nations. It was one of the great missed opportunities of British history…