Margaret of Denmark, Queen of Scotland

Margaret of Denmark became queen of Scots through her marriage to James III in 1469. Her father’s inability to pay the full dowry led to the pledging of Orkney and Shetland, which were then absorbed into Scotland. Margaret was respected for piety and prudent household management and bore three sons, including the future James IV. She died in 1486 before the rebellion that overthrew her husband.

Margaret appears in Scottish historical fiction about James III and the late medieval Stewart court, though she has not inspired a major English-language novel of her own. Writers often portray her as a stabilising and conciliatory influence beside an increasingly isolated king. The islands attached to her dowry give her marriage an unusually lasting territorial consequence.

In Dorothy Dunnett’s The Unicorn Hunt, in 1468, Nicholas enters Scotland under the cover of expanding his banking and trading interests while pursuing answers about his wife Gelis, their child and his own disputed parentage. In Dorothy Dunnett’s To Lie with Lions, in 1471, Nicholas tries to repair his marriage to Gelis while using the House of Niccolo’s network to influence courts from Scotland and Burgundy to Iceland. Other novels featuring Margaret of Denmark, Queen of Scotland include Dorothy Dunnett’s Gemini.