How a 7-year-old girl almost became a medieval queen, and why her death caused a lot of speculation

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In 1300, a woman appeared in the Norwegian city of Bergen. She claimed that her real name and title was Margaret, Queen of Scots. The story of the death of the little ruler by that time was still fresh in the memory of the Norwegians, it was only embarrassing that if she managed to survive, she would be a young seventeen-year-old girl, the same lady had gray hair through her blonde hair. Whether she was an impostor or not, there were those who believed her.

How a girl from the Middle Ages got the title of queen

The connection between the two kingdoms - Norway and Scotland - was then quite strong. The Scottish king Alexander III, seeking to strengthen relations with his northern neighbor, married his eldest daughter Margaret to the Norwegian king Eirik II. The groom at that time was thirteen, the bride - twenty years old, unheard of for a medieval wedding. Two years later, a princess was born, also named Margaret, but her mother did not survive her birth, having died either during childbirth or soon after.

Meanwhile, overseas, King Alexander was beginning to worry about the fate of the throne. When the last of his offspring died in 1284, the question arose of who would inherit the crown of Scotland. The king hastily organized a new marriage for himself, but until a male heir appears, he announced his granddaughter Margaret, who at that time was only one year old, as his successor. And in 1286, Alexander III died, as it is believed, having gone to the castle at night to his new queen, Yolanda. In any case, the king was found the next morning with a broken neck, as after falling from a horse.

The Scottish queen at that time was in a position - they began to wait for the birth of a possible heir. Alas - either he was born dead, or the pregnancy was completely false, but there were no direct heirs of Alexander left in the country. We turned to the document on the recognition of the Norwegian princess Margaret as Queen of Scots, although not all the court parties were satisfied with her candidacy. Conflicts arose, intrigues lingered, the English king Edward I joined in the fate of the Scottish throne. Eirik II decided to wait and not send his daughter to the homeland of his deceased wife.

The situation cleared up by 1290. The status of seven-year-old Margaret became clear, she received the crown of Scotland, until she came of age, she would rule the country through six regents, and was also betrothed to the son of the English king. The little queen had only to arrive at her domain. King Eirik did not accompany his daughter on this journey, she went by ship in the company of the bishop and the maid of honor with her husband.

Doom on the way?

However, the Scots did not wait for the arrival of the Norwegian Virgin Margaret - instead of the Queen herself, the news of her death came. Ill on the way, she died on one of the islands of the Orkney archipelago, and her body was sent back to Norway, where the father-king identified his daughter and buried her in the same place as his wife - in the Church of Christ.

The following years were not easy for Scotland - the "Great Litigation" began, a litigation over the dispute over the crown, it was claimed by a dozen heirs of varying degrees of closeness to the last king. The interregnum years began, culminating in the coronation of John Balliol, nicknamed "The Empty Jacket". Eirik II also made, apparently, an attempt to inherit the right to the kingdom after the death of his daughter, but it was not crowned with success. He himself died in 1299.

False Margaret discovered herself in the next year, 1300. She arrived in Norway from Germany with her husband. The woman explained that as a result of palace intrigues, she was planted on German soil along with a lady-in-waiting during a trip in 1290 - it was a conspiracy to prevent her from gaining the throne. Ten years later, she, nevertheless, did not look at all the young girl she should have been, the unknown was no less than forty.

Impostor

The new king Hakon, the uncle of the deceased Margaret, ordered the arrest of the impostor and her husband for the duration of the investigation; they spent more than a year in prison. False Margaret shared her memories of her departure from Norway, describing in some detail the places and events; she received the support of some nobles and clergy. But the verdict of the royal court was: the newcomer is an impostor and must be executed. Together with the impostor, her husband was sentenced to death, as well as the royal lawyer Audun Hooglixon, allegedly the head of a conspiracy to overthrow the reigning king.

And yet, False Margaret was remembered by the Norwegians - after her execution a whole cult arose, people mourned the queen who died a second time, collected ash and dust where she was set on fire. A few decades later, the church of the Holy Martyr Margaret was built, which existed for several centuries, becoming richer, since donations from the parishioners did not stop. The church building was probably destroyed during the Reformation.

Medieval women, not protected either from disease or from the danger of death during childbirth, resorted, as they say, to the help of a special "maternity belt". Pregnant women and women in labor wore special accessories made of parchment.