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Margaret (March or April 1283 – September 1290), known as the Maid of Norway, was the queen-designate of Scotland from 1286 until her death.

Margaret was the daughter of King Eric II of Norway and Margaret of Scotland, the firstborn child of King Alexander III of Scotland and Margaret of England, Alexander’s first wife. Margaret of England was the second child of King Henry III of England and his wife, Eleanor of Provence, and was born at Windsor Castle.

By the end of the reign of her maternal grandfather, King Alexander III of Scotland, she was his only surviving descendant and recognized heir presumptive. Alexander III died in 1286, his posthumous child was stillborn, and Margaret inherited the crown.

Owing to her young age, she remained in Norway rather than going to Scotland.

There was a dispute in parliament in April involving Robert Bruce, 5th Lord of Annandale, and John Balliol, Lord of Galloway. Bruce may have opposed the Maid’s succession, or the two men may have both claimed to be next in line to the throne after Yolanda’s child and Margaret.

Marriage negotiations

In May 1289, King Eric II sent envoys to King Edward I of England as part of the kings’ unfolding discussion about the future of Margaret, whom they called “lady and queen”. As Margaret was still with her father, the Scots could only observe the negotiations between the two kings.

King Eric II was indebted to Edward, and Edward was determined to make the most of the situation. The guardians, accompanied by Bruce, finally met with English and Norwegian envoys at Salisbury in October. The Treaty of Salisbury was drawn up on November 6, 1289, stating that Eric and Margaret, “queen and heir of the kingdom”, asked Edward to intervene on behalf of his grandniece so “that she could ordain and enjoy therein as other kings do in their kingdoms”.

Margaret was to be sent, by November 1, 1290, to England directly or via Scotland. Once the Scots could assure Edward that Scotland was peaceful and safe, he would send her to them. Edward was allowed to choose her husband, though her father retained the right to veto the choice. At Edward’s request, a papal dispensation permitting Margaret to marry her granduncle’s son, Edward of Caernarfon, was issued on November 16, 1289.

The guardians and other prelates and magnates wrote that they were firmly in favour of the English match for “the lady Margaret queen of Scotland, our lady”. It was strongly implied that Margaret’s husband would be king, and Edward insisted on referring to Margaret as queen in order to speed up the accession of his own son, although the Scots themselves normally described her only as their lady.

Negotiations about Margaret’s marriage, dower, succession, and the nature of the intended personal union between England and Scotland continued into 1290. A lavishly provisioned ship failed to fetch the Maid in May because of diplomatic difficulties. The Treaty of Birgham, agreed on July 18, provided that Scotland was to remain fully independent despite the personal union and that Margaret alone would be inaugurated as monarch at Scone.

Fatal journey

By late August 1290, Margaret was preparing to sail from Bergen to the island of Great Britain or was already at sea. The ship was her father’s but he did not accompany her; the most prominent men in her entourage were Bishop Narve and Baron Tore Håkonsson. She presumably embarked in good health but became ill during her journey. The ship landed in Orkney, a Norwegian archipelago off the coast of Scotland, on about September 23rd.

Having suffered on Orkney for up to a week from either food poisoning or, less likely, motion sickness, Margaret died between September 26 and 29, 1290 in the arms of Bishop Narve. The Scottish magnates, who had assembled at Scone for the child queen’s inauguration, learned about her death in October. Her body was returned to Bergen, where King Eric II of Norway insisted on having the coffin opened to confirm his daughter’s identity. He then had her buried in the north wall of the chancel of Christ Church, now destroyed.

Legacy

Margaret was the last legitimate scion of the line of King William I the Lion of Scotland. Thirteen men laid claim to succession, most notably Robert de Bruce 5th Lord of Annandale, and John Balliol, Lord of Galloway. King Eric half-heartedly claimed the Scottish crown as well, and died in 1299. In 1301 she was impersonated by a German woman, False Margaret, who was burned at the stake.

Historians debate whether Margaret should be considered a queen and included in the list of Scottish monarchs. She was never inaugurated, and her contemporaries in Scotland described her as queen very rarely, referring to her instead as their “lady”. She was called Scotland’s “lady”, “heir”, or “lady and heir” during the deliberations of the Great Cause after her death.

On the other hand, documents issued from late 1286 no longer refer to the “king whosoever he may be”, indicating that the throne may have been regarded as already occupied by Margaret.

Pope Nicholas IV considered Margaret to be the monarch of Scotland and treated her as such, sending to her a bull regarding the episcopal election of Matthew de Crambeth. In modern historiography she is nearly unanimously called “queen”, and reference books give March 19, 1286, the date of Alexander III’s death, as the start of her reign.

I do consider Margaret of Norway as the reigning Queen of Scotland. She was designated heiress presumptive to the Scottish throne. That is all that was needed for her to legally succeed to the throne. Inaugurations and coronations and proclamations of a new monarch are ceremonies that do not confer the legal status.