Lady Margaret Erskine was a Scottish landowner and potential royal bride of King James V of Scotland. She was also the mother of James Stewart, who later served as Regent of Scotland.
She was a daughter of John Erskine, 5th Lord Erskine and Lady Margaret Campbell, daughter of Archibald Campbell, 2nd Earl of Argyll.
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Marriage to Robert Douglas
In 1522, Margaret Erskine was contracted to marry Robert Douglas of Lochleven, who was killed at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh. A reversion to this contract was signed in 1527. The date of the marriage is not known. She was referred to as "the Lord Arskynne's (Erskine) daughter by William Howard in April 1536 but Pope Paul III referred to her as "Lady Douglas" in 30 June 1536. The papal minute concerned a proposed matrimonial dispensation between James and "Margaret Erskyyn" was prepared; Margaret's surname was later removed from the minute. The surviving correspondence does not establish that Margaret's marriage to Robert Douglas was dissolved or that a lawful marriage between Margaret and James V took place.
Relationship with James V
Margaret had one son with James V after being contracted to Robert Douglas, likely in 1531 or 1532. A papal dispensation dated 30 August 1534 names four of the natural sons of James V. Margaret Erskine's son, James Stewart, is named and is described as "junior" and in his third year. James Stewart is named as Margaret's son on 28 October 1534. On 1 March 1537/38, James Stewart was referenced by James V in a letter to Paul III as "now in his seventh year." James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, served as Regent during the minority of James VI. A later account claimed that while pregnant, Margaret Erskine had a prophetic dream of a lion and dragon, heraldic beasts, fighting in her womb.
James V had not married by 1536, while he spent a great deal of energy on negotiating with various nations to procure a bride. Shortly before James V finalized his marriage contract with Madeleine of Valois in November 1536, Charles, Bishop of Macon and French ambassador at the Vatican, wrote discussing his audience with Pope Paul III. The Bishop had told the Pope that James never intended to marry Margaret and the petition was an imposture. The Pope replied that he had not taken the petition seriously, thinking that the proposal was made without the King's knowledge.
Chronicle accounts and English letters also mention this scheme and the involvement of James Hamilton of Finnart. The English ambassador Sir William Howard reported information supplied by Margaret Tudor and other to Henry VIII; "Sire, I hear, both by the Queen's Grace your sister and diverse others that the marriage is broken between the King's Grace your nephew and the Monsieur de Vendôme, and he will marry a gentlewoman in Scotland, the Lord of Erskine's daughter, who was with your Grace the last summer at Thornbury; by whom he has had a child, having a husband, and his Grace has found means to divorce them. And there is great lamentation made for it in this country as far as men dare. Sire, there was no man made privy to this matter but Sir James Hamilton." (25 April 1536) The Imperial ambassador in London, Eustace Chapuys, and Spanish diplomats at the Vatican believed the marriage had already taken place by June 1536.
Later years
During the war with England known as the Rough Wooing, at the time of the siege of St Andrews Castle and Langholm, Regent Arran sent some valuables to be stored at Lochleven Castle. They were kept by Margaret Erskine and her son after her husband's death. A receipt describes the three chests of valuable silks and relics which they returned safely to St Andrews Cathedral.
In 1558, Margaret Erskine bound herself to indemnify James MacGill of Nether Rankelour and Edinburgh merchants, James Adamson and James Barroun, to borrow guarantee letters of credit from the Italian banker Timothy Cagnioli. The loan was to finance the journey of her "derrest" son James Stewart during his embassy to Paris, to finalize the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to the Dauphin, Francis II of France.
Her son Robert Douglas was sent to England and Cambridge University in 1560 as a hostage for the Treaty of Berwick.
In July 1564 she resigned the lands of Nether Friarton in Fife so her son the Earl of Moray could give them to William Kirkcaldy of Grange and his wife Margaret Learmonth, replacing a charter of 1560.
Margaret Erskine resided at Lochleven Castle during the captivity of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1567 - 1568. Agnes Leslie, who was married to Margaret's eldest son, William Douglas, later Earl of Morton, was also a member of the household and slept in the Queen's room.
In the 1570s Margaret Erskine looked after her granddaughters at the New House of Lochleven and kept up a correspondence with their mother, Agnes Keith, Countess of Moray. Agnes Keith sent her gifts of "aqua vitae", a form of whisky. In January 1570, she wrote that Lochleven Loch was frozen, and her son was in the "Loich", the old castle on the lake island, because he was keeping the Earl of Northumberland, who was a fugitive from the Northern Rebellion. In June 1571, she wrote of her health and complained that Agnes, her daughter-in-law had not visited;"Ye sall onderstand that I have beyne wery extreme seik baith in my bodye and stomak, and with ane sair leg, quhairoff (I) am nocht throichlie conwelleseit as yett ... I wald skarslie have belevit ye would have bene neir (at) hand and veseit me nocht, and frindis heir."
Family
Margaret Erskine's children with Sir Robert Douglas included:
William Douglas, 6th Earl of Morton
Robert Douglas b. 1543, who married Christina Stewart, 4th Countess of Buchan and was the father of James Douglas, 5th Earl of Buchan.
George Douglas of Helenhill, b. 1535
Euphemia Douglas b. 1533, who married Patrick Lindsay, 6th Lord Lindsay.
Janet Douglas b. 1534, who married Sir James Colville of Easter Wemyss (d. 1562).
Catherine Douglas b. 1538, who married David Durie.