MARGARET, Queen of James IV. of Scotland, was the eldest daughter of Henry VII. of England, and was born in 1490. She was married to King James in June, 1503. She was left a widow by the death of her husband in the fatal battle of Flodden in September, 1513, and in April following, shortly after the birth of her second son by the king, she hastily married the earl of Angus, who was several years her junior. This precipitate and imprudent marriage was highly unpopular in the country. In terms of her late husband's will, it at once put an end to her regency, and thus disappointed the ambitious hopes of Angus, who soon made it evident that on his side the match was one of interest, not of affection. Margaret took an active part in the intrigues and political schemes which agitated Scotland during her son's minority, and was at one time forced to take refuge in England, where, in 1516, she was delivered of a daughter, afterwards the mother of the unfortunate Darnley. On her return to Scotland she intermeddled as eagerly as ever in court intrigues, and exercised a most injurious influence on the mind of her youthful son. She had long been estranged from her husband, and now formed an illicit connection with the duke of Albany the regent. Then she became enamoured of young Henry Stewart, afterwards earl of Methven, and obtained a divorce from Angus, on the plea that before their marriage he had been "precontracted to a gentlewoman." Becoming tired of Stewart in his turn, she was endeavouring to obtain a divorce from him that she might be free to marry a fourth time, when she died in 1542, in the fifty-second year of her age. Her character bore a considerable resemblance to that of her brother, Henry VIII. She possessed excellent talents and great mental energy; but her passions were strong, and her temper violent and capricious.—J. T.
MARGARET, Queen-consort of Louis IX. of France, was a daughter of Raymond Berenger III., count of Provence. She was born in 1219, and married at an early age to Louis, whom she accompanied to Egypt in his first crusade. His capture and cruel treatment by the Saracens, his release on condition of paying a costly ransom and surrendering the city of Damietta which he had taken, his ineffectual attempt to retrieve the honour of his arms in Syria, and his hasty return home on account of the death of his mother Blanch, gave a sombre tone to that period of Margaret's history. In 1270 she saw her husband set out on a new expedition against the Infidels. He died of the plague in Africa on his way to the Holy Land, and Margaret spent the remainder of her days in the seclusion of a convent.—W. B.
MARGARET, daughter of James I. of Scotland, was born in 1424, and at the age of three years was betrothed to the infant dauphin, who afterwards occupied the throne of France as Louis XI. The English government attempted to break that agreement by proposing that the Scottish princess should be affianced to their young sovereign, Henry VI., but James, with the concurrence of his parliament, adhered to the French alliance. Margaret was sent to the court of Charles VII. in 1435, and the nuptials were celebrated without delay. Her beauty, accomplishments, and literary tastes should have saved her from the neglect with which her husband treated her. She died at the age of twenty, having sickened under the calumny which was cast upon her honour by one of the French courtiers.—W. B.
MARGARET, daughter of Henri II. of France and Catherine De Medicis, was born in 1552. Her brother Charles IX. was upon the throne when the peace of St. Germains—by suspending hostilities between the catholics and protestants—opened the way to a proposal of marriage betwixt her and Henry of Navarre, the energetic and able leader of the Huguenot cause. The union was solemnized in 1572, a few days before the massacre of St. Bartholomew. When Henry escaped to his own dominions, she carried to the court from which the devout Jeanne D'Albret had recently passed away, a levity and profligacy of character which would have acquired notoriety even in a more licentious age. In 1589 she became queen of France by the accession of her husband under the title of Henri IV., and ten years later her disgraceful career was checked by a divorce. The remainder of her life, which lasted till 1613, was spent in habits of devotion and literary pursuits.—W. B.
MARGARET, who has been called the Semiramis of the North, was the daughter of Waldemar III., king of Denmark. She was born in 1353, and gave early evidence of the force of character by which she afterwards maintained her rule over the three Scandinavian nations. She was married to Haco, king of Norway; and after the demise of her father assumed the regency of Denmark in the name of her son, Olaus. The death of the latter in 1387 gave her the sovereignty of that kingdom in addition to that of Norway, in which she had succeeded her husband a few years earlier. Albert, duke of Mecklenburg, then held the throne of Sweden, having been elected in opposition to Haco's hereditary claim; she took the field against him, defeated his troops, threw him into prison, and compelled the Swedes to acknowledge her as their queen. The union of the three kingdoms was formally completed in 1396 by the league of Calmar, which stipulated that, while each should be governed in accordance with its own constitution, the supreme power was to be permanently vested in a single sovereign. Many sources of jealousy and discord remained; no feeble hand was required to prevent the disruption of a bond which could not obliterate the memory of national feuds, and the influence of conflicting interests. The masculine energy of Margaret, however, maintained her ascendancy; and at her death in 1411 her sceptre passed into the hands of her nephew, Eric, whom she had designated to the succession.—W. B.
MARGARET of Anjou. See Henry VI. of England.
MARGARET of Austria, born in 1480, was the daughter of Maximilian I., and had not passed her second year when the treaty of Arras betrothed her to the dauphin, afterwards Charles VIII. That engagement, however, was broken up, and she became the wife of the Prince-royal of Spain, after whose death she was married in 1501 to Philibert, duke of Savoy, and in a few years was again a widow at the age of twenty-four. On the death of her brother Philip in 1506, Maximilian intrusted her with the government of the Netherlands, and two years later she acted as his plenipotentiary in concluding the league of Cambray with Cardinal D'Amboise. The peace of Cambray in 1529 was also negotiated by her in the name of her nephew Charles V , and as the plenipotentiary on the other side was the Duchess D'Angoulême, the mother of Francis I., the treaty was called "La Paix des Dames." Margaret died in 1530.—W. B.
MARGARET of Parma, a natural daughter of the Emperor Charles V., was first married to Alexander De Medicis, and afterwards became duchess of Parma and Piacenza by her union with Ottavio Farnese in 1540. Nearly twenty years later she was intrusted by Philip II. with the government of the Netherlands, with special instructions to enforce the decrees of the council of Trent and extirpate heresy. Cardinal Granvella, bishop of Arras, was associated with her as her chief councillor, and his haughty temper gave her administration a tone of severity which her own energetic but prudent disposition would not have adopted. To the complaints of her subjects she returned soothing answers, and was not averse to the convention of states proposed in 1565 by the prince of Orange; but on the retirement of the cardinal from office, Viglius the president of the council, and Count Barlaimont, two zealous catholics, urged the continuance of rigorous measures, which Margaret knew to be in accordance with Philip's policy. The discontent which they provoked became more and more serious, notwithstanding the favours which the king lavished on Count Egmont in his mission to Spain; a bond of mutual defence was extensively signed throughout the country; and a numerous body of the subscribers, headed by Count Brederode, entered Brussels in 1566 with a petition and remonstrance for transmission to Madrid. Philip's answer was an order to the regent to levy troops and put down the reformers. This she effected; Valenciennes and other towns were occupied in force, Brederode was driven to seek refuge in Germany, and the prince of Orange retired to Nassau. These successes, however, did not prevent the mission of the duke of Alva at the head of a large army; and Margaret, seeing her authority virtually taken out of her hands, resigned her regency in 1568. The remainder of her life was spent in Italy. Her son, Alexander Farnese, duke of Parma, became famous in the subsequent history of the Low Countries.—(See Farnese.)—W. B.
MARGARET of Valois, Queen of Navarre, born in 1492, was the daughter of the Duc d'Angoulême and the sister of Francis I. Educated at the court of Louis XII., she was first married to Charles, Duc d'Alençon—he died in 1525—and two years later she became the wife of Jean D'Albret, king of Navarre. Although her character had been formed amid the licentious manners of the French palace, she zealously aided her husband's plans for the advancement of his subjects in knowledge, refinement, and the industrial arts. The principles of
