Person of the Month

Lady Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, was the niece of Henry VIII and both aunt and mother-in-law of Mary Queen of Scots. Exiled at a young age from her native Scotland, Margaret was a great favourite at the English court, with a wide range of friends, both Catholic and Protestant. Imprisoned in the Tower three times, for ‘matters of love’, as she put it, but at least twice for furthering her ambitions, her life is a microcosm of Tudor intrigue.

Lady Margaret spent her childhood in Scotland and the borders before being housed in the palaces of the English court. During her married life, she spent the majority of her time in the great houses that Henry VIII had granted her – that is, when she was not in the Tower of London!

Lady Margaret’s life encompassed almost every experience a sixteenth century princess could have, with the exception of execution or coronation. She was a lady in waiting to Queens, mistress of great estates, mother of eight children, a prisoner, a wife, and even a poet.

Lady Margaret Douglas has been largely neglected in Tudor historiography. She does, however, play an important part in Leanda de Lisle’s ‘Tudor: The Family Story’ as the link between the Tudors and Stuarts, which we have reviewed here.